Christmas Tree Bomber’s Appeal Puts FBI Entrapment In Spotlight

‘An appeal from the man accused of plotting to blow up a Christmas tree in downtown Portland, Oregon accuses the FBI of entrapping the man on charges of terrorism.
On Wednesday the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments related to surveillance and possible entrapment of Mohamed Mohamud, the man convicted of attempting to blow up a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Portland, Oregon in 2010.
Mohamud, a Somali-American student who was 19 at the time of the incident, was told he would be participating in a bombing with two al-Qaida recruiters. The recruiters ended up being informants for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the bomb was a fake. In 2014 Mohamud would be sentenced to 30 years in prison. The arrest and sentence lead many activists and members of the Muslim community to question whether the FBI had gone too far and possibly created a terrorist out of thin air.’
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