I wonder if this murder/assassination plot was real.

[Mariana]

Considering all the imaginary "terrorist plots" that we've heard about since 9/11, I have to wonder if this isn't yet another case of some informant making up a real good story to earn his pay or a federal agent provocateur doing likewise.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad arrests were made early rather than late; any threat to Obama (or anyone!) should be taken extremely seriously. However, given the absolutely shitty record these federal agencies have when it comes to busts like this, we shouldn't assume everything they're telling us now is gospel.

[SoonerPride]

1. If Homeland Security caught them I'd have my doubts.

ATF?

Yeah, they're more credibe

[valerief]

2. Yeah, sometimes I think they're spread by the RW just to plant the thought in some nutcase's mind.

Or when some covert govt agent performs an assasination, there can be a "history" of such attempts.

[AllieB]

3. ATF is a far more credible agency than DHS.

In the back of my mind, I thought this was meant to distract from another Republican being convicted (Stevens) but maybe not.

[fed_up_mother]

4. They're too stupid to figure out how to assassinate a president

It's not easily done, you know?

But imagine the damage they could have done if they really started shooting students.

shudder

[doc03]

5. Just kind of thing the Sarah Palin rallies

were designed to incite IMHO.

[TornadoTN]

6. I'm not dismissing this one.

The ATF has come a long way since their Waco and Ruby Ridge debacles. They know that everything their acronym is attached to is going to get immediate scrutiny, so they work harder and more efficiently to make sure it doesn't happen again.

I'm not dismissing them for anything - it's just that they've been caught with their pants down so much, they have cleaned house.

[InternalDialogue]

7. Let's do what this country seems to have forgotten about in the last eight years.

Give them a Constitutional trial and let the system decide.

[uppityperson]

8. Murder plot seems real from what I've read, but they expected to not kill Obama, but go out in a bla

blaze of something. Shooting up a school and killing people due to the melanin in their skin, getting the means to do so, that all sounds real. Domestic terrorism is terrorism.