The ‘Herald Square Bomber’ Who Wasn’t (Published 2021)
After 9/11, U.S. authorities used informants to secure hundreds of terror convictions. But did they help create plots where none existed?
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/15/magazine/fbi-international-terrorism-informants.html
In its rush to find informants to search for terrorists, the government had unwittingly created an incentive system. Many had committed crimes and agreed to work with the authorities in return for leniency; others were promised immigration assistance. (In November 2004, an informant who was afraid that his family would be targeted for his work with the F.B.I. set himself on fire in front of the White House.)