Despite Dianne Feinstein’s claims to the contrary, there’s no actual evidence that the U.S. surveillance apparatus has foiled any actual, independent plots of terrorism. There is, in fact, far more actual evidence that the surveillance state has missed numerous signals of plots: from 9/11 to the Boston bombings.

In its latest attempt at P.R. smoke-and-mirrors, the FBI ensnared a Wichita, KS airport employee, Terry Lee Loewen, in an FBI-created conspiracy and “sting” operation. The FBI stalked Loewen for six months following their seeing allegedly positive online comments he made about jihad.

An FBI agent befriended Loewen:

In September, the undercover agent told Loewen he had returned from overseas after meeting with individuals connected with al Qaeda. The agent told him the “brothers” were excited to hear about his access to the airport and asked Loewen if he would be willing to plant some type of device, according to court documents.

Other FBI agents joined in the fun, posing as conspirators, and developed a plot for Loewen to use his airport employee access card to plant explosives they would provide him.

I’m not sure who raised these FBI guys, but my parents taught me it was unkind to take advantage of the gullible. The FBI specializes in such tactics, and gets higher budgets and lots of good press as a reward. Apparently, we can classify Senators and the vast majority of the mainstream media in the gullible camp as well.