A federal jury has found four men from New York state guilty of plotting to bomb a synagogue and a Jewish community center in the Bronx. The men known as the Newburgh 4 were arrested in an FBI sting operation. All four were from Newburgh, one of the poorest cities in New York. Defense attorneys argued the men were entrapped by government agents and not predisposed to commit a terrorist crime. Alicia McWilliams-McCollum, the aunt of one of the defendants, recently spoke with Democracy Now!

Alicia McWilliams-McCollum: “This is entrapment. You’re going to send an informant into an impoverished community, the most impoverished county, to do your trickery. You ain’t stumbled upon a cell. Nobody ain’t tell you that someone was plotting to do anything. You created a crime!”

Visit our website to watch our recent investigation on the FBI’s reliance on paid informants produced by Anjali Kamat and Jacquie Soohen.