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A mohawk-wearing anarchist nicknamed "Cyco" was among five men arrested after allegedly conspiring to blow up a bridge about 15 miles south of Cleveland, the FBI said Tuesday. The men were arrested Monday evening in an FBI sting, but posed no real danger to the public because the explosives were inert and were controlled by an undercover FBI agent, the bureau said in a statement. This is another one of those supposed plots that the FBI has helped create over the past couple of years.

The FBI has built a massive network of spies to prevent another domestic attack. But are they busting terrorist plots—or leading them?

by Trevor Aaronson, Alternet

A man arrested for allegedly placing a backpack he thought contained a bomb near Chicago's Wrigley Field got the fake explosive from an FBI undercover agent, authorities say - a tactic that has been used in other U.S. terrorism cases in recent years.

Wednesday's arrest was similar to other cases in which reputed would-be terrorists were caught in sting operations that revolved around fictional plots against various targets, such as Dallas skyscapers or a Chicago nightclub. In this case, though, authorities say Ferdaus planned the scheme.

A 22-year-old Lebanese man was arrested by the FBI for attempting to detonate in improvised explosive device left in a trash can near Chicago's Wrigley Field during a Dave Matthew's Band concert. Some have dubbed the attack a Jihadist plot, and an act of a lone wolf terrorist. But Sami Samir Hassoun did not act alone. His terror cell consisted of two undercover FBI agents posing as financiers, and long time friend who turned out to be an FBI informant. In fact the FBI were the ones who gave him the bomb, and paid him to deliver it.

Fake terror plots, paid informants: the tactics of FBI 'entrapment' questioned

Military Suicide Epidemic: More U.S. Soldiers Have Killed Themselves Than Died on Battlefield in 2012 - More U.S. soldiers have died this year by taking their own lives than on the battlefield. The Pentagon says there have been at least 154 suicides among active-duty troops in 2012, a rate of nearly one each day.

Last week, RAND Corp. published a study looking at homegrown jihadi terrorism. Of the 32 "plots" uncovered in the U.S. since 9/11, "only 10 developed anything resembling an operational plan that identified a specific target, developed the means of attack, and offered a sequence of steps to carry [it] out." "Of these, six were Federal Bureau of Investigation stings" involving fake bombs—"on their own, only two individuals actually attempted to build devices. One was arrested while doing so, and the other's device failed."

The NYPD is regularly held up as one of the most sophisticated and significant counterterrorism operations in the country. As evidence of the NYPD's excellence, the department, its allies and the media have repeatedly said the department has thwarted or helped thwart 14 terrorist plots against New York since Sept 11.