THIS IS A WARNING TO US ALL!
This story got a lot of buzz on the Internets today, as it seemed to suggest that the dragnetting of America’s phone metadata and browsing habits via Prism by NSA might be resulting in young couples with simultaneous interests in new pressure cookers and backpacking were being raided by armed law enforcement.
The blogger in question is Michele Catalano, who some of you may remember from her blog, “A Small Victory,” on which she wrote during the mid-2000s. As the story evolved throughout the day, police released a statement clarifying that it wasn’t NSA’s dragnetting that got her family ensnared but the “see something say something” impulse of an employer on whose computer the above Googling occurred.
Here is Catalano’s account of her experience, which she theorized had something to do with her family’s Googling habits, based on the questioning her husband got. Read the whole thing because she’s a good writer:
What happened was this: At about 9:00 am, my husband, who happened to be home yesterday, was sitting in the living room with our two dogs when he heard a couple of cars pull up outside. He looked out the window and saw three black SUVs in front of our house; two at the curb in front and one pulled up behind my husband’s Jeep in the driveway, as if to block him from leaving.
Six gentleman in casual clothes emerged from the vehicles and spread out as they walked toward the house, two toward the backyard on one side, two on the other side, two toward the front door.
A million things went through my husband’s head. None of which were right. He walked outside and the men greeted him by flashing badges. He could see they all had guns holstered in their waistbands.
“Are you [name redacted]?” one asked while glancing at a clipboard. He affirmed that was indeed him, and was asked if they could come in. Sure, he said.
They asked if they could search the house, though it turned out to be just a cursory search. They walked around the living room, studied the books on the shelf (nope, no bomb making books, no Anarchist Cookbook), looked at all our pictures, glanced into our bedroom, pet our dogs. They asked if they could go in my son’s bedroom but when my husband said my son was sleeping in there, they let it be.
Meanwhile, they 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.
They searched the backyard. They walked around the garage, as much as one could walk around a garage strewn with yardworking equipment and various junk. They went back in the house and asked more questions.
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.
So more freedoms are being taken, people google certain words and phrases and the cops are at the door. Does this make you feel safe as it may have been a terrorist or unsafe as you ALL KNOW now you are being spied on. Is it time to leave Google and search here? https://ixquick.com/ There is nothing we can do. This is an issue here in the UK as well as the USA also. Another article I did will show this. I will ask “What happened to our World?” I want the old one back where it us safe and free. Was the person on Google black, Muslin, North African? Was it a race issue? I am only asking
prayingforoneday 