FBI plotted attack on Fort Dix

He declared that he wanted to kill “Americans.” He came up with a plan to attack Fort Dix, and found an arms dealer willing to sell the necessary munitions.

One attorney said, “Everyone in the community knew him, and he was bad news.” (International Herald Tribune, May 11)

He pressured six others in their informal group to go along with his plot. He was pressing so forcefully that one of the six, Serdar Tetar, “called a Philadelphia police officer in November, saying he had been approached by someone who was pressuring him to obtain a map of Fort Dix and that he feared it was terrorist-related, according to court documents.” (AP, May 11)

And who is this plotter? His name is secret, but he works for the FBI. The six others, who were all arrested and have already been convicted by the big business-controlled news media, were victims of entrapment by the federal police. At least, that’s the only inference to be gleaned from the reports of what has been said in court so far.

The legal definition of entrapment is when law enforcement officials entice others to commit a crime they otherwise would not have committed.

All the other fluff thrown up around this case in the media reports—about who the six defendants may or may not be—are like smoke in the eyes. The only one to plot an attack on Fort Dix and arrange to buy weapons for it, according to published reports, is the FBI guy.

It is almost six years since the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. This attack has been used as an excuse for a long-planned war on Iraq and also for the invasion of Afghanistan. It has also been used to curtail civil rights here and build up internal police forces.

There is growing anger and opposition over not just the wars abroad but the repression at home. Homeland Security’s anti-immigrant raids against workers at Smithfield and other workplaces across the country helped spark the May Day demonstrations that drew out millions last year and this.

Local politicians have been forced to protest the vicious Homeland Security raids for fear that the local population will dethrone them. Even one or two local police forces have complained. The governor and state legislature in Montana have gone on record that they will not go along with the requirement for a national identity card—really a national passport on a piece of plastic.

While the Bush regime appears to have record-low popularity, it has not surrendered. The Democrats too have given no serious opposition to the curtailment of civil liberties and have in fact encouraged the expansion of the federal police forces. But the rumbles of working class opposition to the crackdown on civil liberties can be heard in Washington.

What better time than now for a new “terrorist plot” to emerge—now, when Congress wants to vote for more money for Homeland Security, which is second only to the Pentagon in federal funding. Maybe Bush and the Democrats both hope this new plot scare will save them and their expanding police force.