snowy

Yes.

Also, one of the things that's bothered me about this whole situation is the age of the subject. This is kind of related to filtherton's reference to emotionally unstable teenagers. We know from studies of the frontal lobe that it is not fully developed until the mid-20s--and the frontal lobe controls executive functioning, decision-making, and the weighing of consequences, among other things. Who's to say that this kid would have carried out these actions had the FBI not gotten involved? Perhaps, over time, his brain would have developed further and he would have realized the consequences for the actions he was thinking of.

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

dksuddeth

and had you not given me those items, I might never have attempted it to begin with. thus, entrapment.

__________________
"no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything. You cannot conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him."

ring

Could this type of entrapment, also be considered a form of incitement?

I'm tending towards believing so. Hard tellin' not knowin' how the feds actually operated
in this instance. I dunno.

filtherton

Or maybe he could have figured his shit out and become the poster boy for reformed potential terrorists. Right now this scenario is just as plausible as yours.

I don't think it is either, in fact, nobody here has said anything about law enforcement providing counseling. I think that providing effective counseling is very likely pretty high on the very long list of things that law enforcement organizations are bad at.

What I said was that it would likely have been cheaper and at least as effective (with respect to making us safer from terrorism) if some sort of non-arresty intervention had occurred.