Fake Bomb Plot That Spiraled Out of Control?

Remember when the FBI contacted that guy to blow up Sluggers, in Wrigleyville?

No? Sami Samir Hassoun was caught putting a backpack of what he thought was full of explosives into a trash can next to and outside a bar near Wrigley Field in Chicago. It was a set up, and it was the FBI that gave him the fake explosives. Here's the full story.

And there was the Cal's Liquor's bomb plot. And the guy with mental illness in Oakland, Matt Llaneza - that they talked into starting a "new Civil War." Prior to that, the FBI gave fake bombs to a Jordanian national to put outside a skyscraper in Dallas, Texas. Another guy got a dummy bomb to put outside a federal courthouse in Springfield, Illinois.

There were four dudes who were given fake bombs to take out two synagogues in NYC. And there were those homeless guys in Florida who got nabbed for talking about bombing the Willis Tower (Sears Tower for the purists) - even though it was the FBI that made them talk about it.

An awful lot of "sting" operations.... The New York Times even mentioned it in an old blog op-ed, in 2012.

But then there's Fast and Furious, the gunwalking scandal that the ATF completely botched and lost track of all the guns they were supposed to be tracking.... so not all of these operations go as planned. Funny, the Times didn't mention that at all.

So, where am I going with this? Well, what if it's not too far of a stretch to ask if the FBI or Homeland Security were working with the Moron Brothers, er, the Tsarnaevs, all along -- and kind of "oops" we kind of lost track of them?

I mean, is it too out of line to ask since it's come to light that Homeland Security had put a hold on Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev's U.S. citizenship application because of 2011 FBI interrogation?

There's already a loud drumbeat of accusations from lawmakers saying that the FBI's handling of Tsarnaev case claiming the agency should have done more.

We found out that Russia had tipped FBI off to potential terrorist links, but he was found to be clear of 'terrorism activity'.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said the agency 'dropped the ball' on several fronts. How many? He wasn't exactly clear.

The Department of Homeland Security was dragging its feet on processing Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev's U.S. citizenship after a routine background check revealed he had been questioned by the FBI in 2011.


Tamerlan, 26, filed an application for citizenship six months ago but immigration officials had not yet made a decision on his case at the time of the Boston Marathon bombings. I hope that one is still stuck in the back of their in-box.


Authorities knew the alleged bomber had a domestic violence charge on his record but the fact he had been grilled by federal agents is reportedly what threw up red flags, halting the progress of his application.

On Sunday, House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul wrote to the FBI and other officials asking why Tamerlan Tsarnaev did not raise suspicions after Russia asked the bureau to investigate him two years ago.

'Because if he was on the radar and they let him go, he's on the Russians' radar, why wasn't a flag put on him, some sort of customs flag?,' McCaul, a Texas Republican, said on CNN's 'State of the Union.’

The 26-year-old 'appears to be the fifth person since September 11, 2001, to participate in terror attacks despite being under investigation by the FBI,' the pair said in a joint letter.

They named the others as Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric and leader of al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen who was killed in a U.S. drone strike; David Headley, an American who admitted scouting targets for a 2008 Islamic militant raid on Mumbai; Carlos Bledsoe, who killed an Army private outside a military recruiting office in Arkansas in 2009; and Nidal Hasan, who is accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009.

In addition, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to bring down a U.S. jetliner over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009, had been identified to the CIA as a potential terrorist, the letter said, adding the cases 'raise the most serious questions about the efficacy of federal counterterrorism efforts.'

The McCaul-King letter asked for all information the U.S. government had on Tamerlan Tsarnaev before April 15. It was also addressed to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

My point? At the very least, Clapper and Napolitano needs to lose their jobs. No pension. 

Second best would be that the FBI gets figured-out that they were trying to entrap these two young turks, who then did a disappearing act, and then acted on their own, outside of FBI supervision. Then when it all fell apart, and they actually did the thing they were getting coached on doing - the FBI went nuts, called in all the troops and every favor they had - and even went so far as to call for an illegal Marshal Law on the City of Boston. I'm sure they're hoping, very much, that any scrutiny of their policies or this operation don't go any further than a couple mean letters and the few mentions on Meet the Press while everyone is sleeping.

I hope that clearer heads will prevail, and sweep out the boneheads that carried and dropped this operation. Otherwise, we the people will have to announce that we need a better government and better oversight of those people we employ. And I'm talking all the way to where the buck stops.