Thread: FBI finds and organizes the terrorist plots it disrupts

• Make it illegal to plan acts of terrorism, even without hard proof of intent
• Set up sting operations to prove intent
• Allow people to freely plan acts of terrorism

Pick one.

Originally Posted by Denziloe

• Make it illegal to plan acts of terrorism, even without hard proof of intent
• Set up sting operations to prove intent
• Allow people to freely plan acts of terrorism

Pick one.

[*] Investigate genuine terrorist threats, collect evidence, and prosecute accordingly.

I pick that one. It preserves the legitimacy of the state, whereas the other three degrade it and inadvertently bolster the sentiments of would-be terrorists.

Originally Posted by GavinGill

• Investigate genuine terrorist threats, collect evidence, and prosecute accordingly.

Firstly, this simply doesn't make any sense in the real world. The FBI doesn't have a magic truth machine. If they could tell which threats were genuine and which were false leads, they wouldn't need to investigate in the first place, would they? All you can do is investigate potential threats.

Secondly, although your rhetoric suggested otherwise, this is not actually different from the first option. There's no getting out of the fact that you have to choose one of the three options. You're saying it should be illegal to plan acts of terrorism, even when there's no hard proof of intent and the plotters have still taken no steps to actually enact the plot. Okay, sure, that's your moral decision and I imagine you have some arguments to defend it. But don't pretend it's not actually your decision.