An FBI informant named Shahed Hussain, posing as a wealthy Pakistani businessman, lured four men from Newburgh, New York, into a plot to bomb two synagogues. Hussain was responsible for creating the plot, for overseeing the surveillance of the synagogues, and for providing fake weapons to the men. All four men were African Americans from impoverished backgrounds. One had a mental illness. Another had a brother in desperate need of a liver transplant. Hussain preyed on their vulnerabilities and used financial incentives to convince the four to join his plot.

QUESTION: This raises serious questions about entrapment and the ethics of FBI counterterrorism operations targeting vulnerable individuals.

Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Intro…, loc. 569