February 12, 2008 12:59PM 

# The Fear Factory 

By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) 

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Via [Hit and Run](http://www.reason.com/blog/show/124914.html), the article from the February 7 *Rolling Stone* that Ben Friedman [blogged about recently](https://www.cato.org/2008/02/01/is-the-domestic-terror-threat-overblown/) is now online. “[The Fear Factory](http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/18137343/the_fear_factory)” discusses multiple cases where the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces have brought cases against defendants who “posed little if any demonstrable threat to anyone or anything.” Crucially, the story illustrates how information about the JTTFs’ activities are shrouded behind claims of secrecy.

This is no way to do law enforcement — or to secure a free country.

##### Related Tags 

[Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) 

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