Letters to the Editor
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one more point...
before I leave the shoutfest-
5) To the poster who claimed in regard to this case that the reliance on informants- especially informants turned by legal coercion, provocateurs, and undercover infiltrators is an outgrowth of the War On Drugs: you have it backward. The reliance on such harsh and shadowy tactics has always been a part of investigations of espionage and terrorist conspiracies.
Their adoption by the "antidrug" inquisition is a much more recent development- one that reflects the ignorance and paranoia of Zero Tolerance crusaders, whose leaders have always treated the users and sellers of those drugs that they've criminalized as tantamount to terrorists in society.
It's a terrible over-reaction and folly to employ such measures against the contraband drugs market. But I have little objection to undercover infiltration and reliance on informers in investigations of violent terrorist conspiracies- although the testimony of informants who use it to benefit their own situations should always be scrutinized and carefully weighed.