The Tree-Lighting Van

A 19-year-old student had written articles for an online jihadist magazine and exchanged emails praising the September 11 hijackers. After his parents told the FBI they feared he was leaving for Yemen, undercover agents posing as militants contacted him. Offered options ranging from prayer to fundraising to martyrdom, he chose to "become operational" and himself proposed bombing a crowded holiday tree-lighting ceremony in a city square. The agents supplied an inert bomb in a van; he set off a test device, recorded a farewell video, and on the night dialled a mobile phone he believed would detonate the van. The defence argued entrapment: that the government, through months of encouragement, created a crime he was not predisposed to commit.