Jim Choate: What's the buzz in TX about the Bic-Assassins? I spoke to a reporter at the Brownsville Herald who's been covering the case and she says that local folks think the men were entrapped by the government with a sting. Her story today and others previously at: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com She sent me a copy of the indictment which cites a confidential "source" which set up the E-mail system used to send threats to officials (the fink promised the messages could not be traced - ouch!). The poor saps were videotaped throughout their planning and executing the threats, thanks to the informant's arrangements: http://jya.com/wge072198.htm The informant is named in the court docket (which shows that the defendants' attorneys put up a fierce fight using First Amendment and other defenses discussed here in regard to CJ): http://jya.com/usa-v-wise.htm The judge's rulings favored the government consistently, though. BTW, the prosecutor says that it made no difference that nothing was ever done to act on the threats, no Bic-lighter or bio-weapon was ever made, that it was enough under the law for the threat to have been made. "Justice was done," he said of the conviction.