You know how a typical FBI terrorism sting goes.
- FBI gets a "paid informant".
- Paid informant and FBI find a bunch of really stupid sad sacks.
- Paid informant and FBI encourage said really stupid sad sacks to go all Jihadi.
- Paid informant and FBI deliver non working bomb to said really stupid sad sacks.
- FBI arrests said really stupid sad sacks.
- FBI trumpets another act of terrorism averted.
- Paid informant gets paid.
Rinse, lather, repeat.
For the FBI, it's great. They hit their numbers.
For the informant, he gets his money.
There is a small problem though: What happens if the really stupid sad sacks decide to look up how to make a bomb on the internet, and plant bombs that actually work.
Which brings us to the Boston bombing.
Well, now we have the FBI shooting an associate of Tamerlan Tsarnaev:
A Chechen man who was friends with one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects was shot and killed in Orlando by an FBI agent early Wednesday when an interview with law enforcement officers erupted into a violent confrontation, the FBI said.
The victim was identified as Ibragim Todashev, 27, who knew Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev through the world of martial arts.
The FBI said in a statement that Todashev was being questioned about the bombings by an FBI agent, two Massachusetts State Police officers and other law enforcement personnel when the witness turned violent. The FBI said that the agent, who was not identified, was injured and that Todashev was shot and killed.
Two federal law enforcement officials said that, during the questioning, Todashev had implicated himself and Tsarnaev in a triple homicide in Waltham, Mass., two years ago. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said Todashev brandished a knife and threatened the officers during the interview in his apartment.
.......
When the FBI agent and others arrived at his apartment early Wednesday, the law enforcement officials said Todashev initially was cooperative. They said he appeared on the verge of signing a confession to the killings of three people in Waltham in September 2011. They said he had implicated Tsarnaev in the homicides.
But the interview turned violent, the officials said, and Todashev went for a knife. He injured the FBI agent and was shot and killed.
So, now I'm wondering: Did the FBI employ Todashev as a paid informant, and after the bombing, were they trying to tie up loose ends after their sting resulted in a real bombing?
Am I just being too paranoid?