- 4,323
- 4,705
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2011
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?
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. Among them: the FBI and Homeland Security.
(Update, 12:50 p.m.: The Guardian confirmed with the FBI that the agency was aware of the visit, but that it was conducted by local police on Long Island. Local police forces participate in joint terrorism task forces, as in the Boston example above and as described by the Department of Homeland Security here. The FBI describes its Joint Terrorism Task Force on Long Island as covering those two counties.)
More of the story here: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/nati...knocking-doors-because-google-searches/67864/
I just wanted to bring this to everyone's attention.
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.
This happens 100 times a week. Across two counties. There are over 3000 counties in the continential U.S. alone. All that wasted money for a 99% failure rate.
Hope y'all got your passports. I definitely got mine.