These actions are definitely expedient. But to who's benefit? Why would you intentionally coerce people into doing things they otherwise wouldn't have the ability to do? Is it necessary?

Hussain's actions became notorious among civil rights groups due to the incentives he deployed on his targets, who were local black Muslims in the impoverished town of Newburgh. They included offering one suspect $250,000, a car and a free holiday. Al-Akili said he also found a picture of Shahed Hussain on the internet and realised it was the same man as "Mohammed".

Originally posted by smyleegrl
Interesting story, and if its accurate.....then who do we trust anymore?

I do have one question, perhaps I missed the information somehow. What caused this man to suspect the men were involved with the FBI?

S&F because this needs attention.

he detailed meeting two men he believed were FBI informants because of the way they talked about radical Islam and appeared to want to get him to make jihadist statements. According to his account, one of them, who called himself Saeed Torres, asked him to buy a gun. Al-Aikili said he refused. The other, who was called Mohammed, offered to help him go to Pakistan for possible Islamic radical training. Al-Akili also refused. In the email al-Akili recounted that he obtained a phone number from Mohammed and put it into Google. The search returned a reference to the case of the Newburgh Four, where an FBI confidential informant called Shahed Hussain helped secure the convictions of four men for attempting to blow up Jewish targets in the Bronx.

Originally posted by smyleegrl
This is going to get me flamed, but nevertheless,

Why does this event have to be a "false flag?" To me, the term false flag implies an intention to cause a crisis on purpose. Perhaps I misunderstand the term, if so please help me understand it better.

Can this not be a case of a couple overzealous agents (if indeed they are FBI) with a personal agenda? We are in the same type of atmosphere as the Communist Witch Hunts. Perhaps these agents were so eager to capture the "extreme Islamic terrorist" that they set this individual up....

The other problem is that a good portion of U.S. citizens don't trust anything they hear from official sources. Maybe those officials should examine what they're doing to cause so much distrust. Or maybe they just don't really care.

It's good to keep an open mind. Not everything happens for nefarious reasons. I think that the lines have been blurred so much we can't tell what's good or bad, so you have to question everything.