No problem S&W45colt. As I said earlier I dont have enough info to have a fast opinion, just going by first impressions where I thought snowden had just reported that the gov had developed the tools that enabled them to spy on us if they wanted. I didnt know they already had been caught, warned and still are doing it?
One question though: "Now, inducing/entrapping someone to commit a crime is unconstitutional." Am I to really belive that there hasnt been major uncountable stings on prositution and drug stings that " inducing/entrapping someone to commit a crime " isnt done daily all over? Isnt that the very basic discription of how a sting works?
I guess I watch too much tv and read the papers too much.
Yes, they put the programs in place without court clearance, based on the emergency need statue. Normally the court has to approve anything they do. When the court reviewed it down they road, they said it was unconstitutional and issued an injunction, which the NSA and the administration ignored. They also ignored the Senate Intelligence committees edict to cease until Congress could meet to discuss it and the court's findings.
Entrapment is such a fine line and complex I don't know if there is an exact answer to your question. I will say it depends on what level of L.E. you are talking about. A basic answer would be, all you can legally do on the local level is offer them the opportunity to break the law. You can put UC's on the corners etc and wait for them to drive up/offer etc. What you can't do is have someone knock on random doors and offer drugs at random houses. Is the line ever crossed? Without a doubt, yes, but thanks to the checks and balances we have, if their lawyer is smart enough to ask the right questions they skate at trial. A lot of them claim entrapment by the way, it's a common ploy, but the judge decides whether it was or wasn't and no judge likes to have rulings overturned for their mistake.
Now if you are the F.B.I under the new everything goes rules, you can overhear or discover a few idiots talking down the Government, say we ought to do something about it and get them acting on it. It doesn't matter that they are too stupid too to come up with the plan, you can give them the plan, tell them you can get the weapons for them, get the weapons, show them to them and then arrest them when they pay for them and take possession. The next step is then call a big press conference a tell everyone "We discovered a large domestic terror threat through our new resources and powers. This shows the Patriot Act and NDAA are good for you, don't you feel safer?"
By the way, the FBI story is not an example, it's an actual occurrence in my area of the world. The people they arrested couldn't plan a trip to the bathroom, were well known big talkers and would be lucky to find an open 24 hour Wal-mart on their own.
Hope that helps some.
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