The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terrorism

A groundbreaking work of investigative journalism, The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terror shows how the FBI has, under the guise of engaging in counterterrorism since 9/11, built a network of more than fifteen thousand informants whose primary purpose is to infiltrate Muslim communities to create and facilitate phony terrorist plots so that the bureau can then claim victory in the War on Terror. An outgrowth of Trevor Aaronson's work as an investigative reporting fellow at the University of California, Berkeley—which culminated in an award-winning cover story in Mother Jones magazine—The Terror Factory reveals shocking information about the criminals, con men, and liars the FBI uses as paid informants, as well as documenting the extreme methods the FBI uses to ensnare Muslims in terrorist plots—which are in reality conceived and financed by the FBI. The book offers unprecedented detail into how the FBI has transformed from a reactive law enforcement agency to a proactive counterterrorism organization—including the story of an accused murderer who became one of the FBI's most prolific terrorism informants—and how so-called terrorism consultants and experts have made fortunes by exaggerating the threat of Islamic terrorism in the United States. Trevor Aaronson is associate director and co-founder of the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit journalism organization that produces reporting about Florida and Latin America. He was a 2010–11 investigative reporting fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, where his reporting about the FBI's informants in US Muslim communities resulted in a Mother Jones cover story that won the John Jay College/Harry Frank Guggenheim 2012 Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Award.