Specious terrorism busts in which a close reading of news accounts reveals that the supposed plot actually originated with police or FBI infiltrators continue to be alarmingly common, despite the change of administration in Washington. The headlines continue to imply that there was a real threat in these cases, while the actual text indicates otherwise. Here's the latest example, with the phrases that let slip the bogus nature of the pseudo-plot in bold. From AP, Oct. 26:

More than 1,100 agents from the FBI and local police agencies conducted pre-dawn raids on 47 residences across South Los Angeles Oct. 22, arresting 74 suspected members of the Rolling 40s street gang. "They have a vise grip on the neighborhood, and we are going to release that grip this morning," Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese of the Los Angeles Police Department said of the gang. More than 30 of those detained face federal charges that could carry sentences from 20 years to life. The sweep was the culmination of an 18-month investigation. The FBI said more than 500 people have been arrested since May in 10 Southern California anti-gang sweeps. (AP, Oct. 22)

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona's Maricopa County is vowing to defy a federal order to halt immigration round-ups. On Oct. 16, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told Arpaio to stop using the authority of the federal 287g program—which deputizes local law enforcement to help federal agents target undocumented immigrants—in his Phoenix street sweeps that have primarily led to arrests of people who haven't committed any serious crimes. Arpaio publicly refused as he headed a 12th major anti-immigration operation through the metro Phoenix county that day.

It has emerged that Pittsburgh police used an "audio cannon" dubbed the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), manufactured by the San Diego-based American Technology Corporation (ATCO), against protesters at the G-20 Summit—the first time the device has been used on civilians in the US. "Yes, we sold one LRAD unit to a government agency—I don't know which one—which was used in Pittsburgh," said an ATC sales representative. (Daily Finance, Sept. 25) The LRAD has also recently been used against protesters in Honduras.

The American Civil Liberties Union is offering to help University of Pittsburgh students who were arrested during the Group of 20 economic summit in Pittsburgh—some of whom say they weren't even protesting. ACLU attorneys made the offer at a rally Oct. 1 attended by some 150. They say police conducted unlawful mass arrests and used excessive force.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. From AP, July 10:

Supermax prison: Obama's books objectionable
The federal government's most secure prison has determined that two books written by President Barack Obama contain material "potentially detrimental to national security" and rejected an inmate's request to read them.

In a joint press conference in Miami, several big-city police chiefs urged Congress July 2 to draft a new immigration policy that improves public safety by bringing the undocumented out of the shadows. Miami Police Chief John Timoney, Austin Chief Art Acevedo and former Sacramento Chief Art Venegas said local law enforcement has been undermined by the blurred line between crimes and civil violations of immigration law. Those who call undocumented immigrants "criminals" are misreading the law and hurting their own communities, they said. "When you remove the emotion from the debate," Chief Acevedo said, "no one can argue that it is in the best interest of public safety to keep these people living in the shadows." (NYT, July 1)

Last weekend, Shawna Forde, 41, leader of the Minuteman American Defense (MAD) group, and two of her associates were arrested in connection with the murder of a 9-year-old girl, Brisenia Flores, and her father, Raul, in Arivaca, Arizona. Local police are reporting that Forde and her posse broke into the Flores home dressed as law enforcement officers looking for money and drugs to finance her border-watch group—with the intention of leaving no witnesses behind.