It’s Not Entrapment If It’s Terrorism…

In the post 9/11 world, there is no question that civil liberty has taken a back seat to national security on multiple occasions at an unprecedented rate.  As America has worked to regain it’s coveted position as the undisputed, untouchable world power, counterterrorism and pro-democracy efforts have become a primary concern for American foreign and domestic policy.  Never will the United States be caught lethargically or inattentively protecting it’s citizens or it’s ideals from enemies, domestic and abroad, who seek to destroy what America stands for, regardless of the measures the government must take for security.

This point of view, although not entirely without validity, is a dangerous position that the government has adopted to defend the controversial and downright illegal actions that have been implemented in the wake of 9/11.  From depriving the basic due-process rights of foreign prisoners to most recently creating terrorists plots with the intention of stringing along participants to ultimately arrest them, the United States is creating a chilling precedent in regards to civil liberties and their importance when levied against national security.  

Recently, the FBI has been facilitating and orchestrating false terrorists plots by identifying possible extremists and using undercover officers and informants to communicate and assist them in developing an attack.  As David Shipler comments, in his article regarding the FBI terrorists plots, “… All these dramas were facilitated by the F.B.I., whose undercover agents and informers posed as terrorists offering a dummy missile, fake C-4 explosives, a disarmed suicide vest and rudimentary training. Suspects naïvely played their parts until they were arrested.”  One would assume such intimate involvement, with seemingly every detail of the planning process constructed by the FBI, would clearly foster a legitimate claim of entrapment.  However, case after case has been deemed constitutional because the shear mens rea to commit such an atrocity has been viewed as warranting punishment.

Though I do not disagree that those who plan to attack the United States or murder innocent people should be punished to the highest extent, I do not believe that this fact alone trumps any constitutional or basic human right that every person is privileged too.  Entrapment was created for the exact purpose of flushing out corruption and solidifying the legitimacy of the American legal system.  What the United States is doing now with these fictitious terrorist plots is threatening that very legitimacy.

The United States cannot continue to coerce or facilitate non-existent terrorist plots in order to “prevent” possible attacks on US soil.  Considering the current foreign threat potential within the world right now, it would be unrealistic and negligent to decrease security.  Yet, as the war on terrorism continues, a serious look at civil right infringement must be taken in order to prevent a tyrannical and obtrusive government from committing further human rights violations and further alienating America from the global community.