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  WALLETWindows: http://letitride.io/Content/wallet/LetItRide-qt.exeMac: http://letitride.io/Content/wallet/LetItRide-qt.zipGitHub: https://github.com/shogdite/letitrideEXCHANGES SOCIALhttps://twitter.com/LetItRide_Dice   ShogditeBlockchain Specialist shogdite@letitride.ioLead coin development, blockchain specialist and all around crypto nutball. Crypto enthusiast since January 2014. Interested in researching various applications of technology for decentralization such as smart contracts and DApps. Frank W.Risk Management Officer frank@letitride.ioFrank has 4 years of experience in risk assessment and management at both online and real world casinos. Frank is looking forward to bringing his knowledge and skill set to the table to ensure the profitability of LetItRide. Jigar S.Programmer / Platform Developer jigar@letitride.ioJigar is our core programmer born and raised in heart of India. He has a strong background in C, C++, Java, JavaScript and more recently C#. He will be seeking out additional teammates to form a team under him to lead the programming development aspect of our project including web development.  Our crowdfunding ran from June 14th to June 31st and we raised a total of 473.2828 BTC. We thank all the investors who participated and we are now in the process of actively developing and improved our platform.  Each month, we will be dedicating 11.5% of profits towards buying back (the cheapest available) LIR on the open market / exchanges. This allows users to set the price at which they would like a return of interest at, as well as allows us to slowly reacquire the LIR sold as we become more profitable. Dividends will be paid using a total of 28% profits on a monthly period. 10% of profits will go towards our top 10 investors in the initial sale, no strings attached. The remaining 18% will be split between those that choose to participate in dividends by opting in on our site. To participate you must first have your coins deposited on our site, and then opt in. Your coins will be moved to an address that we own (link to block explorer and signed message to come soon). Example: If Joe sends 1,000 coins into the dividend program, and Sam sends in 3,000 there is a total of 4,000 coins in the program therefore Joe will earn 25% (1000/4000) of 18% (total profits) which is 4.5% of total profits. Coins will be withdrawable if you choose to discontinue receiving dividends. Deposited coins for dividends will also subject to pooled staking, however this feature (pooled staking) will not immediately be available. Please note, once you enroll coins in our dividend program they will not be considered “mature” (eligible for participation) until we have held them for at least 21 days. This is to ensure people do not abuse our system by moving coins in and out only when dividends will be paid. If at any point it is decided it is within the team’s best interest to sell the site/project we will be issuing a buy back using 35% of valuation it is sold for.     |
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The categories are as follows, - 1. Highest Balance (at the end)
- 1st - 30,000 LIR
- 2nd - 20,000 LIR
- 3rd - 10,000 LIR
- 4th - 8,000 LIR
- 5th - 7,500 LIR
- 6th - 7,000 LIR
- 7th - 6,500 LIR
- 8th - 5,000 LIR
- 9th - 4,000 LIR
- 10th - 3,000 LIR
- 2. Largest Single Win - 10,000 LIR
- 2. Largest Single Loss - 10,000 LIR
- 3. Highest Numbers of Rolls - 10,000 LIR
- 4. Highest Total Winnings (ignoring losses) - 10,000 LIR
- 4. Highest Total Losings (ignoring winnings) - 10,000 LIR
There will also be another 50,000 LIR distributed thanks to the donation from Siameze. We'll announce the category for this prize at the end  Enjoy the tournament and have fun everyone, good luck! If you have any questions about our coin, site or games or just want to follow along please follow our main thread at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1511021.4580 |
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WALLETWindows: http://letitride.io/Content/wallet/LetItRide-qt.exeMac: http://letitride.io/Content/wallet/LetItRide-qt.zipGitHub: https://github.com/shogdite/letitrideEXCHANGESSOCIALhttps://twitter.com/LetItRide_DiceShogditeBlockchain Specialist shogdite@letitride.ioLead coin development, blockchain specialist and all around crypto nutball. Crypto enthusiast since January 2014. Interested in researching various applications of technology for decentralization such as smart contracts and DApps. Phoenix1969Marketing Director, Media Management, Networking phoenix1969@letitride.ioPhoenix1969 was born in the USA and studied post-secondary at Ohio State University. He's a hard working entrepreneur who is a huge fan and supporter of the LISK project and hopes to work with Shogdite on finding applications of LISK relevant to the LetItRide project. Frank W.Risk Management Officer frank@letitride.ioFrank has 4 years of experience in risk assessment and management at both online and real world casinos. Frank is looking forward to bringing his knowledge and skill set to the table to ensure the profitability of LetItRide. Jigar S.Programmer / Platform Developer jigar@letitride.ioJigar is our core programmer born and raised in heart of India. He has a strong background in C, C++, Java, JavaScript and more recently C#. He will be seeking out additional teammates to form a team under him to lead the programming development aspect of our project including web development. Our crowdfunding ran from June 14th to June 31st and we raised a total of 473.2828 BTC. We thank all the investors who participated and we are now in the process of actively developing and improved our platform. Each month, we will be dedicating 11.5% of profits towards buying back (the cheapest available) LIR on the open market / exchanges. This allows users to set the price at which they would like a return of interest at, as well as allows us to slowly reacquire the LIR sold as we become more profitable. Dividends will be paid using a total of 28% profits on a monthly period. 10% of profits will go towards our top 10 investors in the initial sale, no strings attached. The remaining 18% will be split between those that choose to participate in dividends by opting in on our site. To participate you must first have your coins deposited on our site, and then opt in. Your coins will be moved to an address that we own (link to block explorer and signed message to come soon). Example: If Joe sends 1,000 coins into the dividend program, and Sam sends in 3,000 there is a total of 4,000 coins in the program therefore Joe will earn 25% (1000/4000) of 18% (total profits) which is 4.5% of total profits. Coins will be withdrawable if you choose to discontinue receiving dividends. Deposited coins for dividends will also subject to pooled staking, however this feature (pooled staking) will not immediately be available. Please note, once you enroll coins in our dividend program they will not be considered “mature” (eligible for participation) until we have held them for at least 21 days. This is to ensure people do not abuse our system by moving coins in and out only when dividends will be paid. If at any point it is decided it is within the team’s best interest to sell the site/project we will be issuing a buy back using 35% of valuation it is sold for. There is a live tournament going on right now from August 7th to August 22nd 00:00 GMTTo participate, simply sign up on our website http://letitride.io visit the "Dice" page, claim the faucet, and get rolling! The categories are as follows, - 1. Highest Balance (at the end)
- 1st - 30,000 LIR
- 2nd - 20,000 LIR
- 3rd - 10,000 LIR
- 4th - 8,000 LIR
- 5th - 7,500 LIR
- 6th - 7,000 LIR
- 7th - 6,500 LIR
- 8th - 5,000 LIR
- 9th - 4,000 LIR
- 10th - 3,000 LIR
- 2. Largest Single Win - 10,000 LIR
- 2. Largest Single Loss - 10,000 LIR
- 3. Highest Numbers of Rolls - 10,000 LIR
- 4. Highest Total Winnings (ignoring losses) - 10,000 LIR
- 4. Highest Total Losings (ignoring winnings) - 10,000 LIR
There will also be another 50,000 LIR distributed thanks to the donation from Siameze. We'll announce the category for this prize at the end Enjoy the tournament and have fun everyone, good luck! |
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Wondering what the general consensus is regarding conjugal visits in prison. The way I see it, these criminals broke the law and it's been determined by a judge or jury that their freedom is to be taken away.
So why let criminals have sex in prison?
Do they let inmates on death row have them? If not. Why not?
What do you guys think?
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Just stumbled across this article:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/wifi-connected-synthetic-eyeballs-with-vintage-filters-are-on-the-way-10191731.htmlItalian startup MHOX believes it can synthesize versions that would not only correct the eyesight of those with bad vision but augment it beyond normal human standards. Three types of synthetic eye:  Heal - A basic option that would serve as a replacement for patients who have suffered diseases or traumas related to their eyes. Enhance - This eye would boost vision up to 15/20 and enable colour filters (turned on and off using pills), in case you've always wanted to see the world like a 1950s camera Advance - This frighteningly futuristic organ would come with additional glands at the back for capturing and recording what the person is seeing, being able to connect to Wi-Fi to share the resultant images/videos. The EYE designers believe the products will be ready to hit the market by 2027, though unsurprisingly given the ambitiousness of the plan there is a long way to go before synthetic eyes are a reality. |
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 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/bitcoin-is-being-used-by-african-migrant-workers-to-send-money-home-10098169.htmlMigrant African workers are increasingly turning to bitcoin to send money home.
BitPesa, a service that allows bitcoins to be transferred to Kenya and Ghana for a flat fee of 3 per cent, said its user base is growing by 60 per cent month-on-month. Elizabeth Rossiello, chief executive of BitPesa, told the BBC that a shortage of payment options in Africa is driving bitcoin use.
It’s also cheaper: that 3 per cent fee contrasts sharply with an average 12.3 per cent paid to money transmitters by Africans living abroad, according to figures by the Overseas Development Institute. The ODI said that total annual fees to money transmitters amount to $1.4 billion.
In some parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, MoneyGram and Western Union control 50 per cent of the remittance market while credit cards are available to less than 3 per cent of the population. Other web solutions like PayPal are not widespread and can also be expensive. Bank transfers are no better – they can be two the three times as expensive as other countries.
Africa is fertile ground for bitcoin. It has history with mobile money services that allow users to pay for good using a mobile phone as an alternative to cash or cards. A mobile money service called M-Pesa is now so widespread in Kenya that almost 70 per cent of the volume of all national payments is made through the service.
Toby Shapshak, a technology journalist, said that M-Pesa has become a financial institution in its own right. “You can pay school fees, you can buy groceries, I’m told you can even bribe customs officials using MPesa. The most important thing is that you can do it on the most basic of cell phone because Africa isn’t a smart phone continent yet,” Shapshak told the Guardian.
Bitcoin works with this local economy. Once it is received by a transmitter like BitPesa it can be converted into M-Pesa in Kenyan shillings.
While bitcoin is on the rise, liquidity might still be a problem. As a commodity, can also be subject to greater volatility than currencies, though remittance companies say they combat this by immediately converting transfers.
Transparency can also be an issue. Bitcoin users store a record on their computer of where every bitcoin is spent that acts as a virtual ledger – but the record does not show the identity of users. “From a law enforcement perspective, the danger is that the anonymity makes it an attractive proposition for criminals to use in terms of hiding the money trail we would use to get evidence against them,” Terence Chua, Singapore's deputy public prosecutor, told the Guardian. |
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Billions of pounds of corruptly gained money has been laundered by criminals and foreign officials buying upmarket London properties through anonymous offshore front companies – making the city arguably the world capital of money laundering. Some 36,342 properties in London have been bought through hidden companies in offshore havens and while a majority of those will have been kept secret for legitimate privacy purposes, vast numbers are thought to have been bought anonymously to hide stolen money. The flow of corrupt cash has driven up average prices with a “widespread ripple effect down the property price chain and beyond London”, according to property experts cited in the most comprehensive study ever carried out into the long-suspected money laundering route through central London real estate, by the respected anti-corruption organisation Transparency International. Some sources claim it has skewed developers towards building high-priced flats and houses rather than ones ordinary people can afford. While corruption and tax evasion are likely to be the biggest sources of the illicit money, drug dealing, people trafficking and sanctions busting are also common, police say. TI’s research, which includes previously unreleased internal figures from the Metropolitan Police Proceeds of Corruption Unit, found that 75 per cent of properties owned by people under criminal investigation for corruption are held through secret offshore companies. London has become a global magnet for corrupt funds, TI said, due to the high prices of property – enabling millions of pounds to be laundered at a time – and Britain’s notoriously lax rules on the disclosure of property ownership. Any anonymous company in a secret location, such as the British Virgin Islands, can buy and sell houses in the UK with no disclosure of who the actual purchaser is. Meanwhile, TI said, estate agents only have to carry out anti-money-laundering checks on the person selling the property, leaving the buyers bringing their money into the country facing little, if any scrutiny. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/london-property-boom-built-on-dirty-money-10083527.html |
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http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/05/war-on-drugs-failed-decriminalise-illegal-useAn increasing proportion of Britons favours a more liberal approach to drugs and would support decriminalisation strategies, according to a comprehensive survey commissioned by the Observer. An overwhelming majority also believes that the so-called "war on drugs" is futile, with 84% saying that the decades-long campaign by law enforcement agencies against the global narcotics trade can never be won. The poll provides welcome reading for those campaigning for illegal drugs to be decriminalised, with 27% saying that Britain's drug laws are not liberal enough. A previous Observer survey into the nation's drug-taking habits, in 2008, recorded a figure of 18%, suggesting a society that is steadily moving towards greater tolerance of drug use. The proportion of Britons who believe certain drugs should be decriminalised has risen from 27% to 39% since 2008. More than half (52%) support the introduction of initiatives like that recently pioneered by two US states, Colorado and Washington. Colorado's decision to legalise the sale of recreational marijuana has been hailed a success by some, with reductions of crime reported in the state capital of Denver and concerns about social breakdown yet to be borne out. In the UK, however, there appears to be little appetite among Tories for a fresh look at drugs policy despite David Cameron, as a young MP, endorsing more lenient penalties for ecstasy possession and formerly sitting on a parliamentary committee that called for an international debate on the legalisation of drugs. The Liberal Democrats are currently examining the decriminalisation of all drugs for personal use and allowing cannabis to be sold on the open market. This week the party will discuss a policy paper advocating such options at its annual conference. Prohibition has failed to curb the popularity of narcotics, as the number of Britons who have taken drugs continues to increase. Almost a third of the adult population – up from 27% in 2008 to 31% now – say they have taken an illegal substance – about 15 million people. While men and women are equally likely to have taken drugs, those aged 35-44 are the most likely to have used narcotics, with almost half this age group having taken them. Across all age ranges, around three million people continue to take drugs, half of whom are aged 16-34. If drugs were decriminalised, however, the proportion of Britons who have never previously tried drugs but who would consider doing so in the future would increase fourfold to 16%, offering some proof to hardliners that drug laws act as a deterrent. The effect would be most pronounced among young people. Among 16- to 24-year-olds, 30% of those who have never taken drugs say they would consider doing so if substances were decriminalised. The recession appears to have a had an impact on drug consumption. In the 2008 poll, conducted towards the beginning of the global economic slump, 35% of users were more likely to use drugs in a pub/club/bar environment. This has now fallen to 16%, possibly an indication of more straitened circumstances. Users spend an average of £74.36 on drugs each month, compared with the £54.58 an average drinker spends on alcohol a month or the £76.73 a smoker spends on tobacco. Concerns that legal highs would create an explosion in drug use have yet to appear, with only one in 10 Britons saying they had tried them. Among those aged 25-34 the proportion to have tried legal highs almost doubles to 19%.
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/03/rick-perry-shrugs-off-1700-deaths-in-gaza-war-is-a-horrible-thing-so-people-die/Rick Perry shrugs off 1,700 deaths in Gaza: ‘War is a horrible thing’ so people dieTexas Gov. Rick Perry (R) on Sunday suggested that 1,700 civilians who had died in Gaza — including children — were legitimate targets for Israelis because Hamas was using them as human “shields.” Last week, Perry called on the United States to provide “vigorous support” for Israel so CNN’s Candy Crowley began her weekly Sunday show by inviting him to share his thoughts on the ongoing fighting in Gaza. “When you look at 1,700-plus civilian deaths in Gaza — the large majority of which are civilians we are told — what is your thought about that, what is your reaction to that?” Crowley wondered. “War is a horrible thing,” Perry responded without emotion. “There are individuals who lose their lives in war.” “But when we have a fairly good understanding that Hamas is actually using their citizens as shields, at that particular point in time, it loses a lot of the the power, if you will, from my perspective,” the Texas Republican continued. “When you look back at Hamas’ statements that they will not be satisfied until Israel is wiped off the face of the Earth, then you start understanding the mentality a little bit better of a terrorist organization like Hamas.”
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 http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/27/new-lab-on-a-chip-that-decodes-a-patients-dna-within-minutes-makes-preventing-illness-possible/Greek-Cypriot engineer wins European Inventor Award for USB device that decodes patient’s DNA within minutes outside a lab There was a time when the closest Christofer Toumazou thought he would get to the hallowed halls of Imperial College in London was when he was walking down Exhibition road on the way to the science museum, with the workshops of the esteemed institution visible on his right. But at age 23, and without an O level or A level – let alone an Oxbridge degree – on his CV, the young engineer was accepted for a postdoctoral position in the university, beginning a career from there which would see him create a combined digital and analogue mobile phone, an artificial pancreas for type one diabetics and a wireless heart monitor, among other inventions. It is his latest creation, however, which has sparked the most interest and last month earned him a European Inventor award. Using a small silicon microchip in a USB, a ‘lab on a chip’ as it has been coined, DNA data can be analysed within minutes and outside a laboratory. The new technology is aimed at identifying predispositions for hereditary diseases like diabetes and prescribing the exact right dosage for medications, cutting down on the cost of current DNA testing machines. “My dream was to have a handheld consumer device with … a little USB stick that could look at rapidly screening for genetic mutations of particular diseases, whether it is a predisposition to type two diabetes [or] whether to a type of breast cancer,” said Toumazou in his office in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering. The new DNA analysis method is the latest instalment in a far from traditional career path for the Greek-Cypriot. Having left school in Cheltenham at 16 with a “few CSEs”, the most typical route for him to follow would have been in the family catering business until he became inspired by an aunt’s husband who was an engineer and from there developed an interest in electrical engineering. Encouraged to do a one year radio and electronics certificate – when the “whole Greek Cypriot contingent of Cheltenham turned up” on his first day – he says he found the environment in which he wanted to thrive and went on to a two year general engineering course, a degree at the then Oxford polytechnic and later a PhD. By 23, he had applied for a postdoctoral position at Imperial College and was offered it the same day. The position involved working with industry to reduce the size of a satellite phone at a time when his interest was in analogue – speech, sound and vision – electronics. Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Thai prime minister who then ran a mobile phone operator, asked him to make a combined digital and analogue mobile phone in the 90s, which led to the establishment of Toumaz Technology, a commercial spin-off. His next inspiration came in combining the biological and electronic, working on cochlear implants and directing Toumazou towards healthcare. “I was very keen on bringing medical grade technology to the consumer,” he said. Later came the Sensium, a processor termed a “digital plaster” which could monitor vital health signs – heart rate, respiration and temperature among others – of patients and then send them to a nurses’ station, cutting down on the gaps between observations and leading to prioritisation of patients in accident and emergency departments. At around the same time, his son Marcus – now in his early 20s – got renal failure when he was nine years old. “For the first time I was on the receiving side of what medical technology was like rather than being in a plush environment trying to develop all these super duper widgets and gadgets and it really, really frightened me,” he said. This personal development led him to focus on technology which could detect hereditary diseases like his son had which, while it would not have prevented it, would have been able to help manage his condition better. Describing his DNA analysis system as his “simplest invention but most significant”, Toumazou focuses on the fact that humans differ by 0.1%. That difference, he says, shows whether people can metabolise drugs properly and whether there are different genetic conditions present. His invention uses small silicon microchips which can identify genetic differences which dictate a person’s inclination to hereditary diseases like diabetes or how they will react to a drug like warfarin, which is used to treat blood clots. To use the ‘lab on a chip’ system, a sample of saliva or a swab from inside the mouth is taken and put inside a container with the chip inside. The chip is then put inside a USB stick and plugged into a computer after which results are returned within about 30 minutes. One of the key benefits is the speed of the return of information, said Toumazou. In a situation where a drug is needed to counter a hospital-based infection, the new technology could help determine what drug is needed in a short space of time instead of waiting and risking fatality. Cost savings on conventional DNA-sequencing machines opens the possibility for use in areas like sub-Saharan Africa where clinics can be poorly equipped. DNA Electronics, the company set up by Toumazou around the technology, licences out its patents to companies including Roche, Life Technologies and the National Institute for Health Research of the NHS. The technology has also been licensed out to Geneu, a cosmetics company based on New Bond Street where bespoke anti-ageing products are created based on DNA testing. Toumazou says “real science” will get recognised in the industry where there is so much “placebo science” and will help in wider acceptance of his invention. “If it gets recognised, then it will help with my big picture of getting consumer acceptance. It takes the stigma away from it being a medial device and then I can go back to the big picture and it is all about lifestyle,” he said. How it WorksThe DNA testing takes place on the “lab on a chip” where organic semiconductors and sensors which use tiny amounts of chemicals do tests on the spot. The chip can recognise a genetic mutation in a sample which is placed on it and return the results in minutes. This allows the identification of certain hereditary diseases like diabetes. It is through this technology that Toumazou claims doctors will soon be looking at a patient’s future medical records instead of their past. |
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Right-wing professor: Raping Arab women is ‘the only thing that deters suicide bombers’  http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/22/right-wing-professor-raping-arab-women-is-the-only-thing-that-deters-suicide-bombers/A professor and researcher for a right-wing Israeli think tank suggested in an interview earlier this month that raping Arab women was the only way to deter suicide bombers. After Palestinians allegedly abducted and killed three Israeli teens in late June, Bar-Ilan University professor Dr. Mordechai Kedar spoke with a Hebrew-language radio show about what could be done to stop Hamas. “You have to understand the culture in which we live,” Kedar explained in the June 1 interview, according to a transcript published by Haaretz. “Terrorists like those who kidnapped the children and killed them — the only thing that deters them is if they know that their sister or their mother will be raped in the event that they are caught. What can you do, that’s the culture in which we live.” Host Yossi Hadar pointed out Israel could not “take such steps.” “I’m not talking about what we should or shouldn’t do,” Kedar insisted. “I’m talking about the facts. The only thing that deters a suicide bomber is the knowledge that if he pulls the trigger or blows himself up, his sister will be raped.” “That’s all. That’s the only thing that will bring him back home, in order to preserve his sister’s honor.” In addition to working for the right-wing Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies of Bar Ilan University, Kedar also founded the Israel Academia Monitor website, which is dedicated to fighting left-leaning “extremist Israeli academics who exploit academic freedom in order to take steps to deny Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.” In a statement provided to Haaretz, Bar-Ilan University said that Kedar was not advocating using rape to fight terrorism. The professor “wanted to illustrate that there is no means of deterring suicide bombers, and using hyperbole, he gave the rape of women as an example,” the statement said. “In order to remove all doubt: Dr. Kedar’s words do not, God forbid, contain a recommendation to commit such despicable acts. The intention was to describe the culture of death of the terror organizations. Dr. Kedar was describing the bitter reality of the Middle East and the inability of a modern and liberal law-abiding country to fight against the terror of suicide bombers.” A letter to Bar-Ilan University president Rabbi Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz from feminist activists in Israel warned that Kedar could be inciting “Israel Defense Forces soldiers and Israeli civilians to commit rape, and endanger both Israeli and Palestinian women.” “Kedar’s words echo expressions that treat rape as a remedial practice, although it is a war crime,” the letter noted. |
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/21/fbi-pressured-muslims-into-committing-terrorist-acts-then-arrested-them-report/The FBI encouraged and sometimes even paid Muslims to commit terrorist acts during numerous sting operations after the 9/11 attacks, a human rights group said in a report published Monday. “Far from protecting Americans, including American Muslims, from the threat of terrorism, the policies documented in this report have diverted law enforcement from pursuing real threats,” said the report by Human Rights Watch. Aided by Columbia University Law School’s Human Rights Institute, Human Rights Watch examined 27 cases from investigation through trial, interviewing 215 people, including those charged or convicted in terrorism cases, their relatives, defense lawyers, prosecutors and judges. “In some cases the FBI may have created terrorists out of law-abiding individuals by suggesting the idea of taking terrorist action or encouraging the target to act,” the report said. In the cases reviewed, half the convictions resulted from a sting operation, and in 30 percent of those cases the undercover agent played an active role in the plot. “Americans have been told that their government is keeping them safe by preventing and prosecuting terrorism inside the US,” said Andrea Prasow, the rights group’s deputy Washington director. “But take a closer look and you realize that many of these people would never have committed a crime if not for law enforcement encouraging, pressuring and sometimes paying them to commit terrorist acts.” US Attorney General Eric Holder has strongly defended the FBI undercover operations as “essential in fighting terrorism.” “These operations are conducted with extraordinary care and precision, ensuring that law enforcement officials are accountable for the steps they take -– and that suspects are neither entrapped nor denied legal protections,” Holder said July 8 during a visit to Norway. The HRW report, however, cites the case of four Muslim converts from Newburgh, New York who were accused of planning to blow up synagogues and attack a US military base. A judge in that case “said the government ‘came up with the crime, provided the means, and removed all relevant obstacles,’ and had, in the process, made a terrorist out of a man ‘whose buffoonery is positively Shakespearean in scope,’” the report said. The rights group charged that the FBI often targets vulnerable people, with mental problems or low intelligence. It pointed to the case of Rezwan Ferdaus, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison at age 27 for wanting to attack the Pentagon and Congress with mini-drones loaded with explosives. An FBI agent told Ferdaus’ father that his son “obviously” had mental health problems, the report said. But that didn’t stop an undercover agent from conceiving the plot in its entirety, it said. “The US government should stop treating American Muslims as terrorists-in-waiting,” the report concluded. Mike German, a former FBI agent now with the Brennan Center, said FBI counterterrorism excesses were a source of concern — “concerns that they both violate privacy and civil liberties, and aren’t effective in addressing real threats.” But JM Berger, a national security expert, said law enforcement faces a dilemma: it can’t just ignore tips or reports about people talking about wanting to commit a terrorist action or seeking support for one. “The question is how to sort out which cases merit investigation and which do not,” he said.
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