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The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terrorism

Trevor Aaronson

4.12 · Rating details · 155 ratings · 25 reviews

A groundbreaking work of investigative journalism, The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terrorism exposes how the FBI has, under the guise of engaging in counterterrorism since 9/11, 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 c ...more

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Hardcover, 256 pages

Published January 15th 2013 by Ig Publishing (first published January 1st 2013)

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Jun 28, 2013 F.T. Moore rated it it was amazing

Shelves: background-for-copper-hollow

Chilling and frightening. Aaronson gives the facts about the terrorists the FBI has caught in the U.S. since 9/11. It doesn't look good. What appears to be "successes" in the war on terror turns out to be, basically, phony setups of marginalized petty criminals or mental cases. In almost all the cases of "caught" terrorists, these were people targeted by the FBI and setup. A petty criminal or mental case, selected by the FBI, and handed the scenario, the weapons, and the money, then told to carr ...more

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Jul 02, 2013 Jessica rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction

Mixed feelings on this one. Although some of the practices of the FBI brought to light are certainly shady, the events in Boston just three months after the publication of this book kind of undermine the argument the author is trying to make about the FBI focusing on the wrong concerns.

Some of the methods used in these terrorism stings and recruitment of informants don't sit well with me, but at the end of the day I am okay with people who were willing to blow up civilians (when they believed th ...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Nancy Yob rated it it was ok

This book convinced me of the opposite of what it was trying to. Most of the cases he uses in the book are supposed to make the point that a terrorist is not a terrorist if he doesn't have the means to be one. So, following that logic, if the FBI find out about him and give him the means, they are just setting him up. However, the terrorists in these cases actually thought they were going to blow something up/cause destruction/take lives. So in my opinion, they were terrorists. There are cases o ...more

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Apr 21, 2016 Dominic Mitchell rated it it was amazing

Shelves: revolutionary-reading-list

This is a captivating book from start to finish! Aaronson does an excellent job of illustrating for the reader how the FBI—post 9/11—has through the use of terrorism stings morphed into a domestic CIA, wasted a significant deal of resources, and alienated Muslim-American communities, all in an effort to find terrorism where there is none. This book is perfect for anyone who wants a more complete picture of our domestic War on Terror.

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Jul 10, 2017 Samantha rated it it was amazing

The author breaks down several prominent terrorism sting operations post-9/11 and shows how such operations are often driven by competing incentives: on the one hand, FBI agents are being pressured to produce results to justify the $3 billion spent every year on counterterrorism; and on the other, FBI informants have significant monetary (and often also immigration-related) incentives to find "terrorists". A very thoughtful and well-researched exploration of modern counterterrorism efforts. ...more

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May 28, 2013 Samar Dahmash Jarrah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A great book that shows how the FBI creates terror plots! makes you think!

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May 21, 2020 Ryan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, domestic-spying, war-on-terror

Wow. This describes how FBI has essentially manufactured terror plots using a bunch of idiots, informants, and perverse incentives.

Essentially, most terrorism cases in the US from 2002-now (especially 2002-2016) have been essentially started by tips or other intelligence, then FBI-directed informants working with the "terrorists" to articulate and develop terror plots specifically for the purpose of prosecution. In most cases, the "terrorists" are losers who would be incapable of doing anything Wow. This describes how FBI has essentially manufactured terror plots using a bunch of idiots, informants, and perverse incentives.

Essentially, most terrorism cases in the US from 2002-now (especially 2002-2016) have been essentially started by tips or other intelligence, then FBI-directed informants working with the "terrorists" to articulate and develop terror plots specifically for the purpose of prosecution. In most cases, the "terrorists" are losers who would be incapable of doing anything serious on their own, although it's possible some of them would "shoot up a bunch of people with a rifle" or something instead of the "blowing up the Sears Tower" plots the FBI informants directed them into. It was almost comical how incompetent most of the "terrorists" are -- incapable of buying weapons on their own, and often homeless or poor to the extent that their main goal is scamming the "real terrorist" (FBI informant) for small amounts of money.

The biggest problems with this policy are that mostly it is done under the cover of "FBI community outreach", playing into fears that any contact with the FBI or other law enforcement could lead to bad things. In some cases, they managed to drive even pretty decent people who would work with FBI overtly into prosecution by trying to blackmail them (in order to force covert vs. overt cooperation to entrap others), which is pretty unconscionable. In addition to driving a wedge between FBI/USG and the muslim community, they also seem to the majority of the time be pushing people who would likely never have done anything serious into very high end conspiracies and resulting prosecutions/convictions. There is maybe an argument that they do some good by making the US a very dangerous place for actual terrorists to operate (by making it likely everyone is an FBI informant or that the risk of informants is so high to block any collaboration, forcing overseas links which can themselves be monitored), but it definitely seems like the damage caused by the FBI informant program is greater than any benefits. I'm not sure what the correct level of anti-terrorism stings throughout the US is, but it's definitely less than we have now, and should be much more focused on credible threats who have taken much more overt actions.

A lot of this seems to come from the incentive structures for FBI agents (forced to "produce results", independent of base rate of terrorism -- even in environments where there is no actual terrorism, they are expected to show investigations and prosecutions) as well as for informants (paid well for entrapping people). The ability of FBI to use immigration violations and other things to apply pressure for collaboration is another issue.

Ironically, these manufactured plots are then used to justify more funding/continued investigations by pointing at a high level of terrorism!

Sadly, the FBI's focus on counterterrorism also led to a decline in FBI's more traditional investigations -- public corruption, organized crime, etc. -- which has actually decreased security as well. ...more

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Nov 08, 2018 R.J.Cicisly Jr. rated it it was amazing

Finally read this, after being on my reading list for years. Kinda hard to get into the book at first due to the names and aliases of all the different characters, but midway through, I was used to the flow and style of writing, and it went quick.
Just thinking how many mass murders have happened since this book was published and non have been labeled domestic terrorism.
This put in me the mood to read The Killing of Osama bin Laden by Seymour Hersh next.

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Feb 25, 2019 Falbs rated it really liked it

Nothing I didn't already suspect, but the government's duplicity in manufacturing terrorists seems to know no bounds. The funding and pressure from on high puts the FBI in the unfortunate position of setting morons up to look like terrorists. It's a true crime. ...more

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Mar 11, 2018 Steve rated it really liked it

A damning and essential read about abuses of power under the the guise of a “war on terror.

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Aug 13, 2012 Ayman Fadel rated it it was amazing

Shelves: terrorism, history-us

Trevor Aaronson's The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured war on Terrorism gathers disparate news stories into one narrative: the frequency of "terrorism" convictions in the United States in the years following 2001 is neither a measure of the threat terrorism poses to public safety nor the effectiveness of the federal government in protecting United States residents.

Aaronson compiled a database, accessible online http://www.motherjones.com/fbi-terrorist, of the characteristics of "ter Trevor Aaronson's The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured war on Terrorism gathers disparate news stories into one narrative: the frequency of "terrorism" convictions in the United States in the years following 2001 is neither a measure of the threat terrorism poses to public safety nor the effectiveness of the federal government in protecting United States residents.

Aaronson compiled a database, accessible online http://www.motherjones.com/fbi-terrorist, of the characteristics of "terrorism" cases as identified by the United States Department of Justice. A frequent characteristic is the appearance of one or more confidential informants, and often these shadowy figures do more to further the crime than the convicted felons ever did. Through scrutiny of court documents and interviews with persons involved in the cases, Aaronson makes the following claims:

1. The vast majority of the convicted terrorists were no danger to the public.
2. The informants who are chiefly responsible for the convictions are themselves often criminals who have harmed public safety, even while they are on the payroll.
3. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) uses coercive tactics to recruit large numbers of Muslims into spying on their co-religionists and punishes those who refuse to do so.
4. The FBI may be violating terrorism suspsects' rights by tolerating illegal behavior of informants during investigations and failing to record or destroying recordings of conversations which would exonerate the suspects.
5. The focus on "Islamic" terrorism leads to less effective law enforcement in other areas, such as financial crimes [link to Frontline program on insider trading] and other ideological terrorism.
6. The FBI has a financial incentive to continue to use confidential informants to produce terrorism convictions. A steady stream of such convictions helps it justify its increasing budget to Congress.

The Department of Justice has scheduled a Hate Crime Prevention Forum in Augusta, GA. It has been canceled twice, the first time because of the Federal government shutdown and the second because of inclement weather. I propose that a major cause of hate crime against Muslims and those thought to be Muslim is the regular announcements from the FBI of thwarting of terrible Muslim terrorists. Muslims around the USA have called for reevaluation of cooperation with their local FBI offices, and I believe it is important for all board members of Muslim organizations to read this book to better prepare them for government spying. Moreover, it behooves Muslim organizations to organize programs to warn their members of FBI tactics the same way we educate children to avoid sexual predators. ...more

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May 24, 2013 Dan Downing rated it really liked it · review of another edition

For decades the thing the FBI has done best is have an effective public relation's campaign. TV shows and books feature great agents doing marvelous things. The reality is that the FBI is mostly paper and politics: we have known this for a long time. Fred Cook's "The FBI Nobody Knows" stands as a decades old classic in the field of FBI studies.

Shortly before the 9/11 attacks, Louis Freeh retired as director. Freeh was a Luddite to the point that he probably avoids inoculations. Certainly he endo For decades the thing the FBI has done best is have an effective public relation's campaign. TV shows and books feature great agents doing marvelous things. The reality is that the FBI is mostly paper and politics: we have known this for a long time. Fred Cook's "The FBI Nobody Knows" stands as a decades old classic in the field of FBI studies.

Shortly before the 9/11 attacks, Louis Freeh retired as director. Freeh was a Luddite to the point that he probably avoids inoculations. Certainly he endowed the FBI with antiquated computers and banned the use of e-mail to a large degree. Upon the 9/11 attacks, the field offices had to send land mail pictures of suspects because they could not e-mail photos. With that kind of organization protecting us, we are lucky terrorists did not knock down all large buildings and slit all our throats..

Since then, the emphasis has shifted to Muslims. Muslims, Muslims, Muslims. Many arrests, many trials. Little improvement in effectiveness. Most arrests were either inconsequential or the result of informant's activity, or both. The Bureau's use of informants has become a disgrace,and a ludicrous one. Some of their most lauded 'triumphs' were cases where ineffective, stupid, disgruntled losers who could not organize their underwear drawer were sucked into mock attacks by paid FBI agents provocateur.

Meanwhile, domestic 'militias' and disaffected morons have organized attacks, mostly involving shoot outs ending in their deaths, about which the FBI had no clue. We have grown serious terrorist cells at home, mostly on the far right, and the FBI keeps creating Muslim pseudo-threats by using informers, usually paid or coerced. "Give us a terrorist or go to jail".

Additionally, financial crimes went undetected, under investigated and largely unpunished. The massive ineffectiveness comes about due to funding practices and political dimness combined with a distinct lack of spine growth among agents and leadership.

All in all, Mr. Aaronson has brought together information and revelations from many sources already available and cemented them with interviews. A helpful and, to some, enlightening effort illustrating a bumbling group with a shinning reputation: a whited sepulchre. ...more

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May 01, 2013 Tariq Mahmood rated it it was amazing

Shelves: terrorism

If you have any doubts about Muslim victims and Islamophobia, please have a good read of this book. Did the Muslim world have any realistic chance, starting from the Balfour agreement after the First World War till the aftermath of the Russian misadventure in Afghanistan. How can the meek resist the overwhelming coercing of the might US, goading them into battle against the evil Communists? The once mighty Mujahideen fall from grace to evil terrorists is well documented but the treatment netted ...more

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Mar 03, 2013 Lori rated it it was amazing

Shelves: politics

This book should be getting a lot more attention. If you don't have time to read it just check out page 217 and you'll be outraged. Hard to believe anything can shock me at this point but this did. the FBI has been railroading idiots and charging them as terrorists to justify their huge budget and getting away with it. easy to say "that's terrible!" and move on but when you consider that they used to spend their time investigating Wall Street abuses and Ponzi schemes and now they make up terrori ...more

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Feb 25, 2013 Thomas Stevenson rated it really liked it

This is a great piece of investigative reporting. If you're like me and wondered about the FBI discovery of al-Qaeda plotters in the US, Aaronson's book will show how smoke and mirrors and a lot of lives ruined have made the Feds seem effective and relevant. The secret is taking fairly foolish young men and enticing them to do things they could never have accomplished if someone wasn't providing the ideas and tools. Voila, terrorists that juries convict because they're afraid. ...more

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Apr 03, 2015 Todd Valerius rated it liked it

Good collection of several well documented cases since 911 that illustrate how the FBI entraps many pathetic, lost souls in their zeal to find real terrorists. If the FBI removed the financial incentives, perhaps they would not drive informants to radicalize our citizens. The books begins to drag because the template of the cases is so similar. Very quick read.

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Jul 19, 2015 Kevin Jimenez rated it it was ok

The Terror Factory served as an exposè of the FBI’s complicity in manufacturing terror attacks in the country. It was well researched but my main issue was how redundant the authors arguments on these revelations were. Aaronsen never offers a solution or a mode of action that we as citizens, could take to better mobilize ourselves in lieu of these new discoveries.

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Feb 25, 2013 Dudley rated it it was amazing

This is an incredible expose of the FBI's war on domestic terrorists and it's use of shady, even criminal informants. I'm glad I'm not a Muslim living here in the USA. It seems like the FBI dragnet to capture "terrorists" here in the USA needs reform and some measure of accountability so as to not prosecute fantom terrorists using very devious tactics. ...more

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Apr 23, 2013 Steve rated it really liked it

This book is an investigation into the wave of terror arrests made by the FBI over the last decade. The author makes a compelling argument that much of the terrorist activity that has been disrupted never would have occurred without the influence of FBI informants. He also looks at the role of budgeting that causes the investigations to continue. Very good book.

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Feb 20, 2014 Jamie rated it it was amazing

Well documented and easy to read account of the FBI's botched effort to be a counterterrorism agency. It becomes clear that the FBI is under intense pressure to bring results even if it means creating terrorists where none previously existed. I had medium expectations for the book when starting it, but ended up absolutely enthralled. ...more

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Jan 04, 2014 Kq rated it it was ok

A classic tale of the FBI creating terrorist so they can catch terrorists. Don't worry about reading through the grueling (boring) and redundant 270 pages, just read the first 100 pages and then watch the evening news. ...more

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Jan 04, 2014 Matt Roberts rated it really liked it

A good read that provides evidence of the startling facts that are the "War on Terror." "Terrorism threats" have been diminished to a concoction of the twisted scenarios given to us by the FBI while real crimes and threats pass through under the radar. ...more

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