Can't We Even Apprehend People Properly?

The questionable Fort Dix plot (six paintball 'jihadists' were going to even make it past the gate of an army base?) just added another familiar aspect of these investigations... overreach by those investigating it-

He railed against the United States, helped scout out military installations for attack, offered to introduce his comrades to an arms dealer and gave them a list of weapons he could procure, including machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

These were not the actions of a terrorist but of a paid FBI informant who helped bring down an alleged plot by six Muslim men to massacre U.S. soldiers at New Jersey’s Fort Dix.

And those actions have raised questions of whether the government crossed the line and pushed the six men down a path they would not have otherwise followed...

...The same documents that prosecutors used to build a case against the suspects also depict them as somewhat disorganized, lackluster plotters. And clumsy and amateurish, too: The FBI learned of the alleged plot when the men went to a Circuit City store and asked a clerk to transfer a jihad training video of themselves onto a DVD. Also, they mistakenly thought an AK-47 costs $500, instead of $1,500 to $3,000.

Also, one of the men, Tatar, called a Philadelphia police officer in November, saying that he had been approached by someone who was pressuring him to obtain a map of Fort Dix, and that he feared the incident was terrorist-related, according to court documents.

But the article adds that-

“In the post-9/11 era, the entrapment defense is basically useless,” Klingeman said. “For a defendant, merely saying he wishes he could do harm to America, the jury has heard enough.”

Let me say that if you really suspect someone is plotting terrorism, then your case should stand on its merits. You shouldn't need to entrap them into something grander just to give your case some headline-worthy pizazz. Still, even so, it's not quite as ridiculous as the 'plot' we busted up in Miami last summer.

And I suppose these guys should be glad they were processed legally, instead of getting the Jose Padilla treatment.