wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

When in college upstate, many years ago, I spent a great deal of time in prisons studying the growth of Islam in these institutions, as well as in the small upstate communities (like Newburgh) where those released from prison often settle. Initially I was impressed with the movement. Over time, that changed. In Poughkeepsie the Imam was an ex-offender himself, and as I found out through my research, ignorant as well as anti-semitic. A congregant, (who converted to Islam in prison) when asked about voting in U.S. elections, said there was no point, and asked "had I not read The Protocols of The Elders of Zion"? When I asked the local Imam his thoughts on this outrageous comment, he punted, saying he neither affirm of condemn such a comment. These guys involved in the Bronx event down the street from where, ironically, I currently live, are not educated, they have long criminal histories and they are searching for salvation. However, NONE of that excuses any of their actions or hatred.

hjs

of course no one has the civil right to kill. (except the state). what i meant was that civil rights must be given to all citizens equally, even those who seem suspect and these civil rights must be upheld until they break the law. that is why we have entrapment laws. you cannot single out people who you think might be dangerous then entice them to commit a criminal act. a society like that is not a free society. a society like that threatens the civil liberties of everyone in it. we pay for our freedom with our lives. anyone unwilling to do that should buy a time machine and go live in 1940's Berlin where crime was nill.

dan
are u looking for the phrase "innocent until proven guilty"

The undertone of the program was seemingly bias towards the enemy. Why must the theme be that we (USA) did something to entrap, coerce or be at fault for being the target?

I sincerely hope that the "alleged" terrorists get a life sentence for even thinking about a synagogue bombing, as well as a life sentence for the simole pirate.

Kamal
do u worry about lighting strikes and earthquakes (in Queens) also??
live your life like the sky isn't falling.

Yawn.

Anti-Israel/anti-Semitic and anti-American apologists will cry entrapment and "root causes" and talk about the "peaceful" Imam in Newburg.

The rest of us will now have to worry about out personal safety.

Eddie
'a maniac' never has a 'civil right' 'to kill' not even if he's the vice president

truth
PS
are u planning for the next 7 years to give BHO a free pass just because he is black?

According to the news this morning, the FBI said they did not entrap or encourage these suspects. They infiltrated the group and allowed them to do whatever they were going to do -- until the moment they were arrested. Surely law enforcement has learned that entrapping people or groups leads to dismissal of charges or mistrials. But what actually happened in this case remains to be seen.

i agree with Leo from Queens, the report screamed of set up, are we going to be told more about the informant? this seems more like an episode of Law and Order than reality, the information is way too thin and the plot outline too dramatic.......

i don't want to be safe. i want to be free. you can run a fine line between the two to keep them balanced. but if i had to choose i would rather die free than live in a police state.

Wow Brian, that last caller was a rare voice. Angry at Israel and openly respectful of Israel. I would have liked to have heard more of his views.

Hi, Great conversation. As someone with family in Newburgh and who spends a lot of time there, I wanted to mention that the mosque i believe these men attended is in no way militant, radical or anything else of the sort. The immam has spearheaded efforts locally to create dialogue between all faiths and has a very solid reputation in the community.

I don't think this was entrapment, but how far would these people have gotten without the help of the FBI? I would think that real, trained terrorists would have been able to check if the explosives and missiles were genuine.

Geez, I'm angry about the civilian deaths in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Will the FBI be targeting me next?

Ou must pay for your freedom with your life. That is the cost of freedom. To live in a true free society is to say that is okay for a maniac to kill me because civil rights and the right to freedom applies to all and must apply to all. The alternative is to live in a society that is closed where the police can do what they want to keep us safe. The soviet union and fascist germany were perfect examples of these.

liberty or death!!

Regarding prosecuting torturers:

The president said he does not want to "relitigate" Bush administration people.

I was not aware that anything had been litigated to begin with.

Peter #1 - you have a persecution problem. The UN does not blame Jews for all the problems. It holds the State of Israel responsible for the human rights abuses and humanitarian situation of the 3-4 million Palestinians (Muslim and Christian) under its control.

The local plot setup sounds to me like a college psychology experiment where unwitting participants make choices in a staged environment. We do not prosecute those participants when they lie or steal in the course of the experiment.

This exercise by law enforcement sounds more to me like a training simulation.

you either do it properly or you go with dictator...make up your mind Nathan!

Give law enforcement some credit for sweeping four real bad guys off the street. Why are liberals always predisposed to sympathize with would-be murderers and charge our defenders with the false motive of entrapment? Some of us are actually extremely grateful for the protection law enforcement affords.

Bravo caller (Michael?).

I live down the block from one of the synagogues. I am NOT Jewish, but I will say that we must look at what we are doing throughout the world and the responses. The US under President Obama is getting better, but the world has not changed and we must all work hard to make things better.

I'm conflicted about this... but maybe actions like this will serve as a bit of deterrence for terrorists, since they never know if the person they are collaborating with is actually an undercover CIA agent.

I agree that there are people in this country who would commit violent attacks, be it Arabs, muslims or Christians, I think that the media is making this into a very big deal in that these were people who did not have the mean to carry it out and the only reason they got this far its because the FBI facilitated the means for them. This is weeding out people who are not happy with this country.

Will NBC run "To Catch A Terrorist" next?

So next plot the guys will try out the bombs somewhere to see if they are real!

Entrapment. Entrapment. Entrapment.

So sad. Jews continue to be blamed for the world’s problems. I am sure that the United Nations will continue demonizing the Jewish religion by spending about 70-75% of their time focused on Jews and Israel. It is so much easier to blame Jews for everyone’s problems then to deal with oppressive regimes around the world.