The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terror

• Inside the Terror Factory, Mother Jones
• How the FBI’s Network of Informants Actually Created Most of the Terrorist Plots “Foiled” in the US Since 9/11, AlterNet
• Most Terrorist Plots in the US Aren’t Invented by Al Qaeda — They’re Manufactured by the FBI, AlterNet

The Terror Factory 

Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terror shows how the FBI has, under the guise of engaging in counter
terrorism since 9/11.

FBI built a network of more than 15,000 informants whose primary purpose is to infiltrate Muslim communities to create and facilitate phony terrorist plots so that the bureau can then claim victory in the war on terror.

FBI built a network of more than 15,000 informants whose primary purpose is to infiltrate Muslim communities to create and facilitate phony terrorist plots so that the bureau can then claim victory in the war on terror.

An outgrowth of Trevor Aaronson’s work as an investigative reporting fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, which culminated in an award-winning cover story in Mother Jones magazine, The Terror Factory reveals shocking information about the criminals, conmen and liars the FBI uses as paid informants, as well as documents the extreme methods the FBI uses to ensnare Muslims in phony terrorist plots—which are in reality conceived and financed by the FBI.

The book offers unprecedented detail into how the FBI has transformed from a reactive law enforcement agency to a proactive counterterrorism organization–including the full story of an accused murderer who became one of the FBI’s most prolific terrorism informants–and how the FBI has used phony terrorist plots to justify spending $3 billion every year on counterterrorism.

Reviews

“In an analysis of five hundred terrorism-related cases brought since September 11th, the journalist Trevor Aaronson found that nearly half of them involved a confidential informant. In some cases, the threat posed by the target was remote.”
— Evan Osnos, The New Yorker

“The Terror Factory is a well-researched and fast-paced exposé of the dubious tactics the FBI has used in targeting Muslim Americans with sting operations since 2001.”
— Michael German, Reason

“Compelling, shocking, and gritty with intrigue.”
—Publishers Weekly

“A real eye-opener that questions how well the country’s security is being protected.”
—Kirkus Book Reviews

“This is investigative reporting at its best.
This is a story that the major media has been afraid to look at, much less commit the resources to report it out. Now Trevor Aaronson has done it.
For the first time a documented investigation into the domestic terrorism program is available to the general public.

And the story this dogged reporter tells has been garnering growing attention. Is it possible that we have in fact created the very threat we fear? Are we in danger of destroying the fabric of our freedom in our panic to preserve it? Read Aaronson’s groundbreaking report and make up your own mind.”
–Lowell Bergman, Pulitzer Prize-winning Professor of Investigative Reporting

“Aaronson explains just how misguided and often deceptive FBI terrorism sting operations have become. In case after case, he demonstrates how the money being spent is more about producing theater than about federal agents arresting suspected terrorists.”
–James J. Wedick, former FBI Supervisory Agent

“This is the kind of journalism that should prompt Congressional hearings.
The Terror Factory offers a rare combination of meticulous data-driven reporting with personal narratives about the lives ruined – and careers made – by the FBI’s rampant use of informants. Aaronson is an expert guide through a hidden counter-terrorism network of con men, and through the changes in technology and the FBI itself that paved the way for this new era of law enforcement. The Terror Factory is a damning exposé of how the government’s front line against terrorism has become a network of snitches at the end of their ropes, and FBI agents desperate to thwart a terrorist plot even if it means creating one.”
–Will Potter, Green is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege

“A disturbing window into America’s war on terror. In story after story, Aaronson reveals in detail how the FBI and its informants are creating crime rather than solving it. This is an important piece of journalism.”
–Alexandra Natapoff, author of Snitching: Criminal Informants and the Erosion of American Justicehttps://trevoraaronson.com/book/
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