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Fire the beam weapons! A man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison over his dream of a novel "weapon of mass destruction":
A 52-year-old industrial mechanic who was the first person in the U.S. convicted of trying to produce a weapon of mass destruction under a 2004 law intended to stop terrorists from using radiation-dispersing "dirty bombs" was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release.
Glendon Scott Crawford, of Galway in upstate New York, planned to kill Muslims because of their religion as well as other people whose political and social beliefs he disagreed with, U.S. Attorney Richard Hartunian said. "This is a classic case of domestic terrorism," Hartunian said after Crawford's sentencing by U.S. District Judge Gary L. Sharpe.
Investigators began tracking Crawford in 2012 after he approached two local Jewish groups with his idea for how they could defeat their enemies using a mobile X-ray weapon. Prosecutors said Crawford also sought support for the device in 2013 from a Ku Klux Klan grand wizard in North Carolina who was an FBI informant.
Also at NBC New York. Here's a story about Glendon Crawford and his friend Eric Feight being charged back in 2013.
The moral of this story? Trust no one and do it yourself.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Wednesday January 18 2017, @10:33PM
Yeah, Agreed, don't you actually have to make a real weapon of mass destruction before being convicted of a crime?
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 5, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday January 18 2017, @10:38PM
In the new era of FBI entrapment, they will hand you, a mentally ill male, gray Play-Doh, tell you it's an explosive, and convict you for wiring it to a potato and an off-brand smartwatch.
Hmm, maybe they will splurge for a Misfit smartwatch just to write a funnier report.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday January 19 2017, @01:04AM
^^ that ^^
If law enforcement can entrap some misfit without a clue, it makes their numbers look better. 3 convictions of cranks this year, sounds a lot better than no terrorist activity noted. But, the FBI isn't going to use the words crank, misfit, or clueless fool in their descriptions of the victims. There has been more than one story of people indicted, who didn't understand the most basic of electrical circuits, much less the intricacies or wiring a bomb.
Meanwhile, the Boston Marathon bombers had their shit together, and despite warnings from Russia, they were permitted to carry out their plans.
Security theater sure can be entertaining.
(Score: 3, Informative) by dry on Thursday January 19 2017, @06:15AM
The question is why aren't the courts throwing these cases out? Here we had the RCMP do similar. Being Canada they picked a couple (equal rights) of junkies and gave them pressure cookers, tickets to the island and lots of other support including grey play-doh. While found guilty by a jury, the Judge stayed the proceedings, saying amongst other things,
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/nuttall-and-korody-free-after-b-c-judge-overturns-terror-convictions-1.3700599 [www.cbc.ca]
(Score: 2) by pendorbound on Thursday January 19 2017, @02:47PM