"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
Here we are in Box's Amerika. J.O. B.O.x is doing handstands that we have a Gestapo this efficient. "Where are your parents from?" is a question that would make any tyrant/NAZI/BOXAROX PROUD! If he says "The South" then maybe they can detain him for 40 years without a lawyer and he will never be able to vote again, and of course that would make doing away with those pesky elections a moot point!
Quoted Text
Michele Catalano was looking for information online about pressure cookers. Her husband, in the same time frame, was Googling backpacks. Wednesday morning, six men from a joint terrorism task force showed up at their house to see if they were terrorists. Which prompts the question: How'd the government know what they were Googling?
Update, 7:05 p.m.: Because the Googling happened at work.
The Suffolk County Police Department released a statement this evening that answers the great mystery of the day.
Suffolk County Criminal Intelligence Detectives received a tip from a Bay Shore based computer company regarding suspicious computer searches conducted by a recently released employee. The former employee’s computer searches took place on this employee’s workplace computer. On that computer, the employee searched the terms “pressure cooker bombs” and “backpacks.”
After interviewing the company representatives, Suffolk County Police Detectives visited the subject’s home to ask about the suspicious internet searches. The incident was investigated by Suffolk County Police Department’s Criminal Intelligence Detectives and was determined to be non-criminal in nature.
Original article: Catalano (who is a professional writer) describes the tension of that visit.
[T]hey were peppering my husband with questions. Where is he from? Where are his parents from? They asked about me, where was I, where do I work, where do my parents live. Do you have any bombs, they asked. Do you own a pressure cooker? My husband said no, but we have a rice cooker. Can you make a bomb with that? My husband said no, my wife uses it to make quinoa. What the hell is quinoa, they asked. ...
Have you ever looked up how to make a pressure cooker bomb? My husband, ever the oppositional kind, asked them if they themselves weren’t curious as to how a pressure cooker bomb works, if they ever looked it up. Two of them admitted they did.
The men identified themselves as members of the "joint terrorism task force." The composition of such task forces depend on the region of the country, but, as we outlined after the Boston bombings, include a variety of federal agencies. (The photo above is from the door-to-door sweep in Watertown at that time.) Among those agencies: the FBI and Homeland Security.
As of this afternoon, it was still not clear which agency knocked on Catalano's door. The Guardian reported that an FBI spokesperson said that Catalano "was visited by Nassau County police department … working in conjunction with Suffolk County police department." (Catalano apparently lives on Long Island, most likely in Nassau County.)
Detective Garcia of the Nassau County Police, however, told The Atlantic Wire by phone that his department was "not involved in any way." Similarly, FBI spokesperson Peter Donald confirmed with The Atlantic Wire that his agency wasn't involved in the visit. He also stated that he could not answer whether or not the agency provided information that led to the visit, as he didn't know.
Local and state authorities work jointly with federal officials on terror investigations similar to the one Catalano describes. Both Suffolk and Nassau County's police departments are members of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), Donald confirmed. Suffolk County is also home to a "fusion center," a regionally located locus for terror investigations associated with the Department of Homeland Security. It wasn't the JTTF that led to the visit at Catalano's house, Donald told us. The task force deputizes local authorities as federal marshals, including some in Suffolk and Nassau, who can then act on its behalf. But, Donald said, "officers, agents, or other representatives of the JTTF did not visit that location.
Ever since details of the NSA's surveillance infrastructure were leaked by Edward Snowden, the agency has been insistent on the boundaries of the information it collects. It is not, by law, allowed to spy on Americans — although there are exceptions of which it takes advantage. Its PRISM program, under which it collects internet content, does not include information from Americans unless those Americans are connected to terror suspects by no more than two other people. It collects metadata on phone calls made by Americans, but reportedly stopped collecting metadata on Americans' internet use in 2011. So how, then, would the government know what Catalano and her husband were searching for?
It's possible that one of the two of them is tangentially linked to a foreign terror suspect, allowing the government to review their internet activity. After all, that "no more than two other people" ends up covering millions of people. Or perhaps the NSA, as part of its routine collection of as much internet traffic as it can, automatically flags things like Google searches for "pressure cooker" and "backpack" and passes on anything it finds to the FBI.
Or maybe it was something else. On Wednesday, The Guardian reported on XKeyscore, a program eerily similar to Facebook search that could clearly allow an analyst to run a search that picked out people who'd done searches for those items from the same location. How those searches got into the government's database is a question worth asking; how the information got back out seems apparent.
It is also possible that there were other factors that prompted the government's interest in Catalano and her husband. He travels to Asia, she notes in her article. Who knows. Which is largely Catalano's point.
They mentioned that they do this about 100 times a week. And that 99 of those visits turn out to be nothing. I don’t know what happens on the other 1% of visits and I’m not sure I want to know what my neighbors are up to.
One hundred times a week, groups of six armed men drive to houses in three black SUVs, conducting consented-if-casual searches of the property perhaps in part because of things people looked up online.
But the NSA doesn't collect data on Americans, so this certainly won't happen to you.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
There's nothing funnier than an Irate Right Wing Nut.
The FACTS?
Quoted Text
Suffolk County Police released a statement indicating it was the woman’s employer — and not her Internet search activity — that tipped her off to the police. (And Graham was enjoying this story soooo much!)
Suffolk County Criminal Intelligence Detectives received a tip from a Bay Shore based computer company regarding suspicious computer searches conducted by a recently released employee. The former employee’s computer searches took place on this employee’s workplace computer. On that computer, the employee searched the terms “pressure cooker bombs” and “backpacks.” After interviewing the company representatives, Suffolk County Police Detectives visited the subject’s home to ask about the suspicious internet searches. The incident was investigated by Suffolk County Police Department’s Criminal Intelligence Detectives and was determined to be non-criminal in nature. Any further inquiries regarding this matter should be directed to the Suffolk County Police Department.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Searching pressure cookers and backpacks is probable cause? That's the FACT. Welcome to Easy Germany.
“pressure cooker bombs” and “backpacks.”
The call came from the employer to the police, not the other way around Sounds like a reasonable thing to do. Kind of like if on Sept 10th 2001, you saw an employee search "Flying commercial planes into the world trade center, terrorists, Jihad".
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
The call came from the employer to the police, not the other way around Sounds like a reasonable thing to do. Kind of like if on Sept 10th 2001, you saw an employee search "Flying commercial planes into the world trade center, terrorists, Jihad".
BOX...gotta understand, it's only way CISSYBOY knows how to act. Now if Authorities did not act on the concern from the employer, Cissy would then take the position that the costumed goons didn't do their job. And if indeed the employers concerns were legit, and something did happen, and the authorities did not act, then CISSYBOY would say the costumed goons are at fault for not stopping it..... and so on, and so on, and so on......
JUST BECAUSE SISSY SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO...BUT HE THINKS IT DOES!!!!! JUST BECAUSE MC1 SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO!!!!!
The call came from the employer to the police, not the other way around Sounds like a reasonable thing to do. Kind of like if on Sept 10th 2001, you saw an employee search "Flying commercial planes into the world trade center, terrorists, Jihad".
If someone seen that before an attack and then the attack took place that would raise some flags, however if someone typed that in after the attack in a search engine what is there to really go on, I bet millions of people typed that in after the Boston attacks. And anyways what would questioning do, do you think a sleeper cell would just openly admit they were terrorist. This incident was stupid, the guy should of just said do you have a warrant, if not just say get the hell off my property.
"In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot."
If someone seen that before an attack and then the attack took place that would raise some flags, however if someone typed that in after the attack in a search engine what is there to really go on, I bet millions of people typed that in after the Boston attacks. And anyways what would questioning do, do you think a sleeper cell would just openly admit they were terrorist. This incident was stupid, the guy should of just said do you have a warrant, if not just say get the hell off my property.
You know Henry, for the most part I agree with you. But at the same time, had this been a valid issue and something occurred, we would be lambasting authorities for not acting on the concern...it's a case of rock and a ahard place...damned if you do/damned if you don't
JUST BECAUSE SISSY SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO...BUT HE THINKS IT DOES!!!!! JUST BECAUSE MC1 SAYS SO DOESN'T MAKE IT SO!!!!!
If someone seen that before an attack and then the attack took place that would raise some flags, however if someone typed that in after the attack in a search engine what is there to really go on, I bet millions of people typed that in after the Boston attacks. And anyways what would questioning do, do you think a sleeper cell would just openly admit they were terrorist. This incident was stupid, the guy should of just said do you have a warrant, if not just say get the hell off my property.
Yea... so if today you saw a suspicious person googling "how to make a bomb"... You'd just blow it off cause it's already been done.
NOTE: The Boston Bombers Googled "HOW TO MAKE A PRESSURE COOKER BOMB TOO"... that's how they learned how to make their bomb.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Yea... so if today you saw a suspicious person googling "how to make a bomb"... You'd just blow it off cause it's already been done.
That is not what he googled, he typed in what millions of other people did after that attack to find out information about the attack, should all those millions of people be paid a visit from the Gestapo.
"In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot."
That is not what he googled, he typed in what millions of other people did after that attack to find out information about the attack, should all those millions of people be paid a visit from the Gestapo.
An employer saw something suspicious. He called the police. It turned out to be non threatening. Just like your HERO, George Zimmerman, who also called the police when he saw a "suspicious person" (which to George meant "a black man" ). If you saw something suspicious at your workplace, would you report it? The police know that most of these calls are going to be nothing at all, but they must check out all leads to find the very rare very destructive events.
Note: On that computer, the employee searched the terms “pressure cooker bombs” and “backpacks.”
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
You know Henry, for the most part I agree with you. But at the same time, had this been a valid issue and something occurred, we would be lambasting authorities for not acting on the concern...it's a case of rock and a ahard place...damned if you do/damned if you don't
I wouldn't blast the cops if I felt there was real evidence to go on, a simple google search doesn't fall into that category especially after an attack took place. Its almost how they were questioning anyone who took pictures of buildings after 9/11, that to them was considered suspicious activity. Now if this guy ordered a pressure cooker and a backpack and the next day ordered 50 pounds of black powder I would say question him and try to find out what his need was for such a purchase.
"In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot."
Note: On that computer, the employee searched the terms “pressure cooker bombs” and “backpacks.”
I know what he typed box but you are failing to realized millions of people googled the same thing after the attack, now answer my question, do those millions of people need to be paid a visit?
"In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot."
I know what he typed box but you are failing to realized millions of people googled the same thing after the attack, now answer my question, do those millions of people need to be paid a visit?
That depends... If George Zimmerman witnesses the search, and the person searching is black... then yes of course, or George could just shoot the guy, cause George would no doubt, feel threatened and that his life was in danger. And of course, as George knows, “These a---holes, they always get away.”.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
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