Up To 4 Years In A Federal Pen For Clicking On A link

We're only going to see more of this entrapment bullshit as our authoritarian police state needs a steady flow of criminals to justify it's miserable existence. Just like in Iraq:

U.S. Aims To Lure Insurgents With 'Bait' "A Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents by scattering pieces of "bait," such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then killing Iraqis who pick up the items, according to military court documents."

To subways in NY:

Operation Lucky Bag "The decoy operation involves planting shopping bags, purses, backpacks and wallets around the subway system, where unsuspecting passersby are watched to see how they react."

To just driving on a road:

Random Saturation Patrols To Stop Drunk Drivers

"A total of 74 vehicles were stopped Monday night in Bennington and North Bennington, Doucette said. Not a single person was found to be driving while impaired..." (This report is as fawningly obsequious to state power as can be.)

Fascism creates crime to justify itself. In fascism you're guilty until proven innocent, and it's militarized goon squads are endlessly out to prove it. As for the naive person who will claim that the police are justified in dawn raids or busting down a door in the middle of the night because the so called perps displayed intent to commit a crime, are you comfortable with such surveillance of your net activities? Don't you understand how easy it would be to make the next step to political sites that the fascists don't like? And how many times have you distractedly or accidently clicked on a hyperlink, Binky?

FBI posts fake hyperlinks to snare child-porn suspects

"The FBI has recently adopted a novel investigative technique: posting hyperlinks that purport to be illegal videos of minors having sex, and then raiding the homes of anyone willing to click on them.
Undercover FBI agents used this hyperlink-enticement technique, which directed Internet users to a clandestine government server, to stage armed raids of homes in Pennsylvania, New York, and Nevada last year. The supposed video files actually were gibberish and contained no illegal images.
A CNET News.com review of legal documents shows that courts have approved of this technique, even though it raises questions about entrapment, the problems of identifying who's using an open wireless connection--and whether anyone who clicks on a FBI link that contains no child pornography should be automatically subject to a dawn raid by federal police.
Roderick Vosburgh, a doctoral student at Temple University who also taught history at La Salle University, was raided at home in February 2007 after he allegedly clicked on the FBI's hyperlink. Federal agents knocked on the door around 7 a.m., falsely claiming they wanted to talk to Vosburgh about his car. Once he opened the door, they threw him to the ground outside his house and handcuffed him.
Vosburgh was charged with violating federal law, which criminalizes "attempts" to download child pornography with up to 10 years in prison. Last November, a jury found Vosburgh guilty on that count, and a sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 22, at which point Vosburgh could face three to four years in prison.
The implications of the FBI's hyperlink-enticement technique are sweeping. Using the same logic and legal arguments, federal agents could send unsolicited e-mail messages to millions of Americans advertising illegal narcotics or child pornography--and raid people who click on the links embedded in the spam messages. The bureau could register the "unlawfulimages.com" domain name and prosecute intentional visitors. And so on."