FBI Arrests Five in Fake Cleveland ‘Terror Plot’

Occupy Cleveland Protesters Trapped in 'Undercover' FBI Op

The US Justice Department has today announced the results of the latest in a long line of FBI agent–fueled “terror plots” involving fake explosives, arresting five members of the Occupy Cleveland movement as terrorists.

The report said that none of the five were involved with any actual terror groups, but had been under FBI monitoring for months as suspected dissidents. An undercover FBI agent eventually convinced them to plant a phony bomb under a bridge in a Cleveland suburb, providing the justification for the arrests.

Officials say that the five were “angry with corporate America” and that one of them was secretly recorded as saying that if the bridge was downed it would “cost the corporate big wigs a lot of money.” There were no actual explosives involved and the bridge was never in any actual danger.

Cleveland City Councilman Brian Cummins said he personally knew four of the five from the protest movement, saying that they were very public in their “anarchist beliefs.” Others who met the five expressed surprise at their arrest, saying they “wanted to get people to get loud” but had never advocated violence.

This is the second major FBI plot in the last few months. in mid-February the FBI arrested a US Muslim in Washington DC after putting a phony suicide vest on him and telling him to attack the capital building.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.