Monopoly Media Regurgitates FBI Fabrications About “potential terrorist attack”

Read our editorial on the growing reactionization of the US

Major monopoly media outlets like CNN, CBS, and NBC published vague stories on Friday (10/31) regarding what the FBI alleges to be a “potential terrorist attack” it foiled. The uncritical regurgitation of FBI talking points—themselves highly suspect—demonstrates how liberal monopoly media provides cover for and facilitates the reactionization of the state, coinciding with a corrosion of basic journalism standards.

The FBI arrested 5 teenagers and young adults in the Arab-majority city of Dearborn, Michigan, and the neighboring city of Inkster on October 31 after claiming they were “allegedly plotting a violent attack over Halloween weekend”, according to a tweet from FBI Director Kash Patel.

But according to John Miller, CNN’s chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst who spoke with law enforcement officials who had been briefed on the situation, “what that plot was, when that plot would be, what the target would be, was unclear as they discussed various options in terms of timing.”

This is despite the fact that, according to the law enforcement officials, “An FBI undercover person was introduced into the chatroom in the early stages of discussion”.

What even was the plot? According to CBS, “The plot, however, was not well formed, and the FBI was monitoring an online discussion about the plot for a period of time. There was no concrete plan for an attack.” Perhaps this is why there are no charges for these media outlets to report, just scenes of pre-dawn raids complete with smoke bombs and families in handcuffs. What the FBI left out, monopoly media felt free to fill in with its own colorful imagination.

The media outlets also repeat the FBI’s fear-mongering claims that the “plot” was “ISIS-inspired”. CNN reports the suspects “were communicating online with each other here in the United States … but also talking to people overseas, possibly connected to ISIS” – possibly connected! According to what evidence, this possibility is not mentioned.

Not satisfied with possibilities, CBS write in a more definitive tone: “an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force member had apparently uncovered two teenagers on an online ISIS chat room in some kind of discussion, but that no real plot materialized.” The chat room is now an “ISIS chat room”, yet despite all of the monitoring the FBI was apparently doing, we are only left knowing that the teens used the chat room for “some kind of discussion”.

What is the evidence for these 5 arrested youths to be “ISIS-inspired”? The government claims they were inspired by 19-year-old former Michigan Army National Guard member Ammar Abdulmajid-Mohamed Said, who was arrested in May 2025. The May 14 Department of Justice filing for Said’s case alleges that he “informed two undercover law enforcement officers of a plan he had devised and formulated to conduct a mass-shooting at the U.S. Army’s Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command (TACOM) facility at the Detroit Arsenal in Warren, Michigan. In April 2025, the two undercover officers indicated they intended to carry out Said’s plan at the direction of ISIS.” This is the only explanation provided in the filing of Said’s connection to ISIS—undercover officers claiming they will carry out “his” plan at the direction of ISIS—meaning that the “ISIS-inspired plot” was conceived by the US government. The shadow of this US government invention is now being cast onto the 5 youth in Dearborn and Inkster by the monopoly media outlets as they glibly regurgitate the slop from Patel and co.

Such entrapment operations are part of the policy of the FBI to utilize the justified hatred of the masses against US imperialism—particularly in the context of the US’s brutal plunder and occupation during its so-called “War on Terror”— to fabricate plots against them and use the ensuing legal process to fan up chauvinism in support of US imperialism and behind the continued reactionization and expansion of internal counter-insurgency operations. Examples like the “Newburgh Four” and the “Liberty City Seven” saw the FBI invent operations against the US government and poured money into persuading poor workers to carry out the operations, only to then arrest them for allegedly acting at the behest of Al Qaeda.

The latest arrests reek of the same US government-inspired plot. The attorneys for one of the individuals in custody told CNN, “We are confident that, once the facts are reviewed objectively, it will be clear there was never any planned ‘mass-casualty’ event or coordinated terror plot of any kind,” and that, “The reality here involves a small group … with a lawful interest in recreational firearms, not a terrorist cell or organized attack. All firearms were legally obtained and registered.” The individual in custody has not yet been formally charged with anything.

Such uncritical, speculative, and glib reports by monopoly media serve the State’s interest in drumming up hysteria to mobilize people behind the reactionary plans of the rich in increasing their militarization and counter-insurgency against the people. Let’s not forget that just last year The Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece titled “Welcome to Dearborn, America’s Jihad Capital”, whipping up hysteria against the only Arab-majority city in the US, particularly at a time of widespread mobilization in defense of Palestine.

Behind the bad journalism is monopoly media fulfilling its purpose: as a mouthpiece for the distorted viewpoint and reactionary ideas of the ruling class, standing at the ready to defend the old-State and the old society and to condemn those who fight for the democratic rights of the people, against the growing aggression of the US imperialist ruling class, and ultimately ready to condemn the masses in rebellion and the revolutionaries who must join with and lead them. The FBI served up a half-baked “alleged plot” to the monopoly news organs and they ate it up.

We offer some suggestions to our colleagues who have found themselves in the oppressor’s camp. Instead of knee jerk repetition, try asking: why is the FBI concocting such shaky frame-ups at this moment, when US imperialist aggression against Venezuela is growing, the imperialists have been dealt a harsh blow in Gaza by the ceasefire, journalists—even the monopoly ones—are being repressed, food stamps have been strangled, and Trump’s approval ratings have hit a new low?

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