The FBI 'is manufacturing terrorism cases' on a greater scale than ever before
> "These people are five steps away from being a danger to the United States."<p>I'd say they are one step away. They have the motive and opportunity but they lack the means.<p>It seems to me there's a element of 'scale' in an entrapment defense. The cop tail-gated me so I sped up and then got ticketed for speeding -- perhaps I was entrapped to speed. It's not so hard to push someone over the edge to commit relatively minor offenses. But can you really entrap someone into launching a surface-to-surface missile at a air base? You can certainly <i>coerce</i> someone into that by threatening their life or their family, but that's not entrapment.<p>I don't see how providing any amount of weapons or money or fake explosives could entrap someone into being a jihadist.<p>Now, TFA raises the question of mental illness. I think if they are so mentally ill that they went along with the plot without understanding what they were doing, then they are either not competent to stand trial, or insane enough to try it as a defense.<p>I think it's a very low ROI approach for the FBI and mostly they are wasting their time providing the means for "nobody-wannabe-terrorists" to become actual terrorists, but my understanding is they record these guys actually pushing the detonator on their fake-bombs and they are ready to die to kill civilians, so I can't say I'm sympathetic.