Good, this is a great step to counter the spread of terrorist cells. If they don't feel as comfortable spreading their hate, it will become more difficult to recruit.

The American Stasi.

Like Bin Laden said, Bush will lead the west into the choking hell of tyranny.

It's about time we establish an American Stasi. We will also need quasi-deputized roving bands of volunteers to physically discourage treasonous rabble rousing whenever it gets out of hand. They'll know it when they see it. They'll need some sort of visible ID so we know they are officially authorized peace and safety maintainers. How about red, white and blue shirts?

WOW. Talk about Big Brother. Sounds like the principles of this country keep getting further and further eroded away. Everytime Bush and his cronies heighten the "terror alert" something like this follows. Is there anyone out there paying attention, anymore?

Where do I sign up?

"U.S. intelligence officers abroad can use bribery, extortion, and other patently illegal acts to corral sources into working for them, Aftergood noted. 'You're not supposed to do that in the United States,' he said."

Um, recruiting a network of undercover informants to spy on "terrorist cells" -- which is really just anyone we don't like -- is ALSO not supposed to be done in the United States. Does anyone really believe this will be limited "terrorism"? When the military in Iraq is defining any attack on coalition forces as "terrorism"?

This sounds like the state of fear that the East German Stasi inspired, or Saddam's mukhabarat. Informants informing on informants.

Great. Now the FBI can spy more effectively on the ACLU, PETA, Greenpeace and various anti-war groups. See the NY Times Dec 20, 2005 if you don't think the FBI could possibly be spying on Americans for partisan polical reasons.

Why don't we just address the real culprit of terror -- ISLAM, instead of imprisoning ourselves.

Good idea, anyone that opposes such an idea is a coward.

What has happened to this country.Where is our true freedom.We need a revolution now.This country scares me more and more every day.

The only way your scenario plays true is if the three letter boys target actual terrorists 100% of the time.

The remainder are fourth amendment violations according to their victims. Given the past, one cannot, nor should not, expect the government to always excercise its' intrusive powers in accordance with the law or Constitution.

The canard of those with nothing to hide having nothing to fear would better be served on members of the Executive branch refusing to answer questions from Congress, no matter what the motivations of those questions are, same as the black bag jobs you apparently support.

sad sad sad

This is a GREAT idea! These FBI heroes should also be given the power to execute anyone they suspect of terrorism. I am soooo scared. Please protect me Director Mueller.

Sure, it's a Stasi until the next terrorist attack kills a few thousand people, then "we should have done more to stop them."

It's a pretty simple view of a democracy to think that its essence and its ends are the absolute protection of liberty and rights for its citizens.

Rather, it is about the balance of liberty and security, in regard to both the lives of the individuals and the state.

When there are as many bad people willing to kill themselves just to kill Americans as there are today, it is only logical that the balance tilts more and more toward security. THAT is how Democracy works.

Typically a CI means that a criminal is left on the streets to practice their trade. It will be interesting to see how crime trends track with a mass recruitment effort.

The last time I spent any time with law enforcement speaking about the use of CI's, I was a bit surprised to find that at least half of the CI's were deemed completely unreliable since their main goal seemed to be elimination of their bosses competition.

In the end, it will be just one more hole in the dam of Democracy as the floodwaters of fascism continue to swell.

We are at war. Are you going to wait until they set off nukes in 7 cities at the same time, before taking "extreme" measures? Of course, it would be much easier to put cameras in the Mosques, and play it back on the evening news every night with English subtitles. You see,,,if we heard their message of "brotherly love" and "peace" more often,,,,maybe our distrust of Islam would dissipate some. (don't think that's what you will hear though)
***As we speak/type though,,,our heroic airforce fight/bomber pilots are having their planes fitted with super bunker buster bombs,,,Goodbye Nantanz a-bomb plant,,,,goodbye AKMANUTBAG presidential palace,,,goodbye ASSAD presidential palace. My guess is this will happen in September. God bless Israel and the USA, peace out!

Bravo! It's long overdue. It's about time we did something about poten tial terrorists and the left-wing apologists who want to "make-nice" with people who want to kill us.

Is the FBI going to indemnify these informants and cover any legal expense/civil liabilities when the informants are sued by CAIR?

Remember, if you report a suspicious Muslim CAIR and the ACLU will sue you.

The republic is lost. We are doing almost everything the Germans did before WW II. Everything the Romans did before the Roman Democratic Republic became the Roman Empire.

Dont fear for us. Fear for our children.

Dollars to donuts...this is being pushed by the ADL.