{"id":209613,"date":"2022-04-18T12:00:47","date_gmt":"2022-04-18T11:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=209613"},"modified":"2022-04-18T05:26:15","modified_gmt":"2022-04-18T04:26:15","slug":"michigan-bomb-plot-fbi-scheme-to-create-false-domestic-terror-cabal-exposed-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/04\/michigan-bomb-plot-fbi-scheme-to-create-false-domestic-terror-cabal-exposed-in-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan Bomb Plot: FBI Scheme to Create False \u2018Domestic Terror\u2019 Cabal Exposed in Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jury throws out government\u2019s case\u2014finds FBI agents fabricated a kidnapping threat against Michigan governor so they could pretend to be heroes by foiling a \u201ccrime\u201d of their own creation.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

FBI director\u2019s use of entrapment is part of a strategy designed to sow public fear and render support for draconian anti-terrorist legislation.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

17 Apr 2022 – <\/em>For 95 years\u2014from J Edgar Hoover to Christopher Wray\u2014the FBI has lied, cheated, threatened, and even murdered Americans. Is it beyond reform?<\/p>\n

Should we replace it with a national police force that protects instead of persecutes those it is supposed to serve?<\/p>\n

The Michigan bombing case is just the latest, but it is surely not the first example, of the FBI overstepping legal and ethical boundaries to burnish its public image by creating Bad Guys to scare the public and blackmail Congress into passing ever larger budgets to fight domestic terrorism.<\/p>\n

Like the Pentagon and the CIA, the FBI needs Bad Guys to justify its existence\u2014and it\u2019s trampling on civil rights. So if villains do not exist, they will be created. In the case of the Governors bombing plot, the FBI cynically created \u201cdangerous terrorists\u201d out of \u201ccredulous weekend warriors, often stoned on marijuana and prone to big, wild talk<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
FBI Directors J. Edgar Hoover (Left) [Source: theguardian.com<\/a>] and Christopher Wray (Right) [Source: nbcnews.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But the members of the jury didn\u2019t buy it<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The jury in the bombing case\u2014six men and six women\u2014believed the defense\u2019s evidence, which showed that \u201cFBI agents and informants had tricked and cajoled the men into targeting the governor<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Top,
Defendants in Michigan bomb plot case: top from left, Adam Fox and Barry Croft; bottom, from left, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta. [Source: freep.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two of the defendants, Daniel Harris and Brendan Caserta, were acquitted in court and a hung jury probably ended the case for the other two, Adam Fox and Barry Croft.<\/p>\n

\"Courtroom
[Source: freep.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kaleb Franks and Tyler Garbin earlier struck plea deals<\/a>, pleading guilty and testifying against the four other defendants.<\/p>\n

During the trial, one of the defense attorneys said that the FBI\u2019s plan was \u201cutter nonsense,\u201d and pleaded with jurors to be the \u201cfirewall\u201d against the government. \u201cI think what the FBI did is unconscionable,\u201d another defense attorney said outside court. \u201cAnd I think the jury just sent them a message loud and clear that these tactics\u2014we\u2019re not going to condone what they\u2019ve done here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bomb Plot <\/strong><\/h2>\n

On October 7, 2020, one month before the presidential election, six men associated with a militia known as the Michigan Wolverines were arrested in a sting outside a warehouse in Ypsilanti, Michigan, a city east of Ann Arbor.<\/p>\n

An undercover FBI informant had driven the men to the warehouse, tricking them into thinking they were going to make a down payment on explosives, pick up some military gear, and then head to Buffalo Wild Wings for beer and chicken.<\/p>\n

The next day, The<\/em> New York Times<\/em>, CNN, The Guardian,<\/em> and other media published stories detailing a \u201cfailed domestic terrorism plot to overthrow the Michigan state government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CNN article characteristically claimed that the alleged scheme included plans to overthrow several state governments \u201cthat the suspects believe are violating the U.S. constitution\u201d<\/a> through advancement of COVID lockdowns, and warned about the \u201cincreasing threat of extremist and far right groups.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

In truth, no bomb plot was ever consummated even in Michigan and the alleged plotters had been manipulated by the FBI.<\/p>\n

Big Dan Hosts a Government Party<\/strong><\/h2>\n

At least a dozen confidential informants infiltrated the Wolverine Watchmen<\/a>, including an undercover bomb maker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Court testimony shows that the main leader and instigator of the phony plot was an FBI informant named Dan Chapel\u2014an Iraq War veteran and postal worker who went by the nickname \u201cBig Dan.\u201d<\/a> The former army sergeant and firearms instructor made hundreds of hours of clandestine recordings of the defendants, accompanying them on trips to meetings and training exercises, and often paying for their travel expenses.<\/p>\n

Dan told jurors that he was a former Wolverine Watchman who quit the group after hearing the men talk about killing the police. He then became an FBI informant who was paid $54,000 for seven months of work, during which time he carried a secret recording device for the FBI.<\/p>\n

\"Whitmer
Big Dan testifying in court. [Source: wwmt.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On one outing, Big Dan had the others videotape themselves jumping out of Kaleb Franks\u2019 blue PT Cruiser and taking cover behind its doors while they fired rifles.<\/p>\n

Big Dan said that his FBI handlers told him to develop a plan whereby teams of men wearing body armor and equipped with explosives kidnap Governor Whitmer and take her on a boat to Wisconsin where they were to hold a kangaroo court and then execute her.<\/p>\n

A date for the kidnapping, however, was never actually set.<\/p>\n

R. Michael Bullotta, a defense lawyer who worked as Assistant U.S. Attorney in Detroit, said that the premature arrests hampered the government\u2019s case. He also said that the use of too many government informants \u201calmost made it look like it was a government party as opposed to having just one informant reporting to the FBI.\u201d<\/p>\n

FBI Rogues <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Big Dan worked under FBI Agent Jayson Chambers who wrote 227 reports on his contacts with Big Dan. In one text message in September 2020, Chambers told Big Dan: \u201cMission is to kill. The Governor specifically.\u201d<\/p>\n

In August 2021, Buzzfeed News<\/em> broke the story that Chambers operated a private intelligence business called Exeintel<\/a> specializing in cyber-security which was linked to an internet troll who tweeted about the Michigan bomb plot case before it became public<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n
\"A
FBI Agent Jayson Chambers [Source: buzzfeednews.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

This points to a clear conflict of interest in that Chambers was aiming to personally profit from the manufacture of a public security threat.<\/p>\n

Another of Big Dan\u2019s FBI handlers\u2014Henrik Impola\u2014sent text messages asking Big Dan to destroy his text messages and to lie to Pete Musico, the founder of the Wolverine Watchmen, and accuse another person named Trent of being an undercover agent rather than him.<\/p>\n

Impola\u2014who made hundreds of hours of secret recordings during the probe\u2014had been accused of perjury in a prior case and \u201chad trouble telling the truth under oath.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet another FBI agent involved with the case, Richard Trask, was charged with felony assault in state court for beating his wife after visiting a swingers party together<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A
Richard Trask [Source: buzzfeednews.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Michael Hills, Brendan Caserta\u2019s lawyer, said that Jayson Chambers\u2019 side business sent the strongest \u201csignal\u201d to jurors that something had gone wrong.<\/p>\n

Here was a \u201crogue FBI agent trying to line his own pockets with his own cybersecurity company, pushing a conspiracy that just never was, never was going to be. Our Governor was never in any danger. And I think the jury\u2014they didn\u2019t get all of it\u2014<\/a>but they smelled enough of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Attorney
Michael Hills, right, outside Gerald R. Ford Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in April, just before the verdict was read. [Source: usatoday.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Manipulation<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n
\"Brandon
Brendan Caserta [Source: freep.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The defendants in the case, to be sure, were not choir boys. Prosecutors said they had cased Governor Whitmer\u2019s vacation house twice, drew maps of the area, built a model of her cottage and practiced using explosives. Brendan Caserta once said that he \u201cwanted to drink the blood from the skulls of Zionist bankers.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is disturbing, however, is the clear effort by the FBI to provoke, mobilize and then entrap a group of anti-government zealots for the purpose of manipulating public opinion.<\/p>\n

The vulnerability of members of the group was evident in the fact that Adam Fox had been on the brink of homelessness after his girlfriend kicked him out of her house and was living temporarily in the basement of a friend\u2019s vacuum cleaner store.<\/p>\n

\"A
Federal prosecutors said Adam Fox was seen trying to scope out the Governor\u2019s Elk Rapids home on August 29, 2020. [Source: wwmt.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

COINTELPRO Redux<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Unfortunately, the Michigan bomb plot fits a wider pattern of FBI black flags that goes all the way back to the era of COINTELPRO in the 1950s and 1960s. At that time, the FBI planted provocateurs in mostly left-wing groups with the goal of creating internecine conflict and discrediting them.<\/p>\n

The FBI also infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan, though it offered its leaders the kid-gloves treatment because longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover considered the Klan to be patriotic.<\/p>\n

\"Image\"
[Source: twitter.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the 1990s, FBI provocateurs began to infiltrate right-wing militia groups which emerged in response to a botched police raid in Ruby Ridge in rural Idaho and siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.<\/p>\n

Following the 9\/11 terrorist attacks, FBI provocateurs coerced often poor, broken-down Muslims into committing terrorist acts that sustained public fear about Islamic terrorism<\/a> lying at the root of the USA PATRIOT Act, which trampled on traditional constitutional liberties.<\/p>\n

With the threat of Islamic terrorism receding, it is not a great surprise that the FBI and other national security agencies would seek to re-engineer public alarm about right-wing domestic extremism\u2014particularly in light of the very real growth of white supremacist movements during the presidency of Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

The Michigan bomb plot should be understood in this context, and as part of a much larger and disturbing pattern.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Jeremy Kuzmarov is Managing Editor of <\/em>CovertAction Magazine and author of four books on U.S. foreign policy, including <\/em>Obama\u2019s Unending Wars (Clarity Press, 2019) and T<\/em>he Russians Are Coming, Again, with John Marciano (Monthly Review Press, 2018). He can be reached at: jkuzmarov2@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 covertactionmagazine.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

17 Apr 2022 – Jury finds FBI agents fabricated a kidnapping threat against Michigan governor so they could be heroes by foiling a \u201ccrime\u201d of their own creation. FBI director\u2019s use of entrapment is part of a strategy designed to sow public fear and render support for draconian anti-terrorist legislation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":209614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[867,1924,550,2574,1113,651,2571,2059,70],"class_list":["post-209613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anglo-america","tag-anglo-america","tag-authoritarianism","tag-corruption","tag-fbi","tag-hoax","tag-justice","tag-official-lies-and-narratives","tag-organized-crime","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}