The intent is also manufactured. Invariably, it is the FBI agent that comes up with the idea. The FBI would never run an operation like this on somebody like Tim McVeigh. These are politically motivated. Muslims and leftists only.
While I agree that the threat is manufactured, it's not just leftists and Muslism. Again, read what I linked earlier (
http://www.esquire.com/features/waffle-house-terrorists-0212).
But the recipe is pretty simple:
* Find a group of disillusioned aimless impressionable people that want to fight the system in some way or other.
* Plant a mole, who pretends to be way more extreme than the rest, and who initiates the planning of the 'terrorist attack'.
* Arrest the people in the group when they appear to agree and/or go along with the undercover agent.
* Bingo, America's safer once again, the military-industrial complex is happy and prisons need to expanded some more (never mind the US has a crazy incarceration rate to begin with).
I'm not saying that all these people are kosher, but just that if you honestly believe all such people ought to be locked up, you better be willing to imprison shittons of people who 1) never presented a danger to society, and 2) would never have planned carrying out something illegal had they not been nudged and directed by these undercover cops.