"The arrest of petty crooks over a plan to 'target Jews' has put the use of sting operations under fire.

On the steps of New York city hall on Friday, Michael Bloomberg, the mayor [and Jewish billionaire], praised the police officers and federal agents who helped disrupt an apparent terrorist plot to blow up a synagogue...The mayor was flanked by more than 100 homeland security and counter-terrorist specialists, all of whom had a hand in an elaborate sting that netted four alleged Muslim extremists.

'This whole operation was a foolish waste of time and money,' claimed Terence Kindlon, a defence lawyer [and Marine sargeant] who represented the last terror suspect to be tried in New York state. 'It is almost [sic] as if the FBI cooked up the plot and found four idiots to install as defendants.' Kindlon's complaints were echoed by other legal experts who have repeatedly questioned the FBI's reliance on undercover informants...who lure gullible radicals into far-fetched plots that are then foiled by the agents monitoring them.

The other question that US security experts were debating was how much had been achieved by assigning more than 100 agents to a year-long investigation of three petty criminals and a mentally ill Haitian immigrant, none of whom had any connection with any known terrorist group. 'They were all unsophisticated dimwits,' said Kindlon" -- London Times

"By the now, it's maddeningly familiar. A scary terrorist plot is announced. Then it's revealed that the suspects are a hapless bunch of ne'er-do-wells or run-of-the-mill thugs without the slightest connection to any terrorists at all, never mind to Al Qaeda. Finally, the last piece of the puzzle: the entire plot is revealed to have been cooked up by a scummy government agent-provocateur. I've seen this movie before." -- Robert Dreyfuss

" A slick FBI informant roped four Muslim converts into a horrific terror plot to blow up synagogues and military jets by handing them piles of cash and gifts and even bags of weed, relatives of the suspects said today. "Brother whatever you need, I will get it for you," said the man, who the four petty thieves knew as Maqsood." -- New York Post