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Google 'Pressure Cookers' and 'Backpacks,' Get a Visit from the Cops


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2013 Aug 1, 5:40am   18,268 views  41 comments

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http://m.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/08/government-knocking-doors-because-google-searches/67864/

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.

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1   Tenpoundbass   2013 Aug 1, 5:50am  

I guess they've forgotten about people training to be Piolots, and pressure cooker purchases will be the new "Anti Terrorist" tool flavor of the month. Until the next attack that has nothing to do with any of the combinations they are currently investigating.

If the recent whistle blowers have taught us anything, that is that our intelligence is really just throwing enough shit on the wall and hoping any at all sticks.

Because God forbid, they actually go door to door, of every Muslim in this country and do routine spot inspections.

But hey Google something and routine spot inspections are fine regardless of religion or lack there of.

Beware falling feces from the wall.

2   Dan8267   2013 Aug 1, 5:52am  

Not only is this a stupid way to look for terrorist as the next attack won't use pressure cookers, it's also a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Had this happened to me, I would have broken out the camera and started a live streaming session and recording of the interview. And I'd insist on getting an answer for every question I answered. Other than that, I'd be happy to answer their questions.

Note to self: Google "pressure cookers and backpacks" tonight.

3   FortWayne   2013 Aug 1, 7:02am  

What the heck?!

When did this nation go off the deepend?

4   SkyPirate   2013 Aug 1, 7:09am  

"I know what you read last summer"

5   RWSGFY   2013 Aug 1, 7:34am  

epitaph says

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...

Six gentleman in casual clothes emerged from the vehicles ...

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.
...
They searched the backyard. They walked around the garage... They went back in the house and asked more questions.

So the fucking guy basically gave up all his rights right then and there only because some "men in black" showed up at his front door.

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.

But he's "ever the oppositional kind". Suuure.

6   Tenpoundbass   2013 Aug 1, 8:05am  

Before Boston a pressure cooker was a mainstay staple of your average poor family's diet. They buy cheap lean cuts of meat and the braise it using a pressure cooker.

Everything from

Beef Stew
Beef bourguignon
Stew Hen
Ropa Veija
Secco
Sudado

Pressure cooker feeds 5,000,000 people every night.
Pressure cooker used as a bomb one time.

Pressure cooker wins, why don't you go catch the criminals rather than harassing people with cooking utensils?

7   RWSGFY   2013 Aug 1, 8:30am  

robertoaribas says

I use it for beans, since I don't eat meat. Beans are one of my staple protein sources, and they cook fast in a pressure cooker.

Save your excuses for waterboarding session in Gitmo.

8   Tenpoundbass   2013 Aug 1, 8:40am  

My wife has been doing beans for so long in the pressure cooker, the other day she didn't feel like dealing with the heavy pressure cooker. She forgot to adjust for time, and needless to say, the beans weren't ready when everything else was.

9   curious2   2013 Aug 1, 8:44am  

robertoaribas says

pressure cookers are also vastly more energy efficient; everything cooks so much faster that you waste much less cooking energy.

Considering Boyle's Law, I wonder if someday it might be possible to cook using pressure alone, or maybe with solar heat or marinade. For example, if you want to go camping or live "off the grid", you might heat something with solar hot water, then increase the pressure with something like a bicycle pump. Heating and cooling use a lot of energy with current technology, but more efficient alternatives may become available. Humans can produce only modest heat (40C) directly, but we can exert considerable mechanical force.

10   FortWayne   2013 Aug 1, 8:47am  

We make beefstew with pressure cookers, it's a huge time saver, enough food for entire week usually.

11   curious2   2013 Aug 1, 8:58am  

epitaph says

Google 'Pressure Cookers' and 'Backpacks,' Get a Visit from the Cops

This report should refute the myth that "being boring" is a defense.

In this particular report, the official visitors behaved politely and reasonably, and had a legitimate purpose for their visit. I worry more about what happens when other agencies, e.g. the DEA, begin "sharing information" to "connect the dots." That agency has horrifying tactics.

12   Dan8267   2013 Aug 1, 9:21am  

FortWayne says

What the heck?!

When did this nation go off the deepend?

2001. 9/11 was the excuse that all the parasites in the NSA and defense industry were looking for.

You see, the problem is that the cold war ended. We spent the Russians and almost ourselves into bankruptcy to win the cold war. A lot of people made a lot of money off the cold war.

When the cold war ended, these assholes were out of a job unless they could invent a new boogieman. They choose terrorism as the boogieman. Throughout the 90's they tried to convince our country that we had to spend twice as much to fight this new boogieman as we did to fight the Soviets, a well-armed superpower. Of course, nobody bought this shit.

That is until 9/11. When the plans hit the towers, nearly everyone in the "defense" industry jizzed in their pants and started cheering with excitement. This was the cash cow they were looking for. This is also the reason these same assholes will never, ever do anything that significantly reduces or prevents terrorism. Asking the NSA or any defense agency to actually reduce terrorism is literally asking them to kill their own job.

When the defense/warfare/spying industry finished climaxing in their pants, they immediately went about using the corpses from 9/11 to build their unholy profit-making machine. Now government will give them all the tax payer dollars they could spend, and all they have to do in return is keep the politicians and the American public in a constant state of irrational and unjustifiable fear. Unfortunately this is easy to do because the vast majority of Americans are both cowards and idiots.

Ten times as many people die each year from car crashes than did in 9/11. And gun related deaths are about to surpass that level. That's 20 9/11's every year that the government does not give two shits about because there is no profit in preventing those deaths. However, there is great profit in pretending to prevent terrorist-related deaths.

And the American public, stupid as it is, ignores these threats and panics over terrorism because of 9/11, a terrorist plot that would have been foiled by simply locking the cockpit door or letting passengers know that they won't be prosecuted for raping the hijackers to death. A terrorist pulls out a plastic box cutter, and you pull out your dick and say, "Drop that box cutter or this dick is going up your ass.". Trust me, these homophobic religious freaks will drop their box cutter faster than Fox News dropping a story that Obama cured cancer.

The reason this country has gone off the deep end is that cowardly and uninformed Americans allow the NSA and other war profiteers to keep them in a constant panic over irrational and unjustifiable fears of invented boogiemen. And these asshole profiteers feed off the tax revenue generated by tens of millions of Americans pissing in their pants at the sight of a Muslim. The only way to stop this profiteering and lower your taxes is to starve the NSA and all other warfare agencies of funding. Do this and the beast dies. Kill the beast.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/rh98Kscctw4
Gustan is G.W. Bush. If you're not with us, you're against us.

I take that back. At least Gustan was brave enough to go into battle himself.

13   RWSGFY   2013 Aug 1, 9:21am  

curious2 says

I worry more about what happens when other agencies, e.g. the DEA, begin "sharing information" to "connect the dots." That agency has horrifying tactics.

It's not uncommon for them to raid a wrong house.

14   New Renter   2013 Aug 1, 10:07am  

curious2 says

epitaph says

Google 'Pressure Cookers' and 'Backpacks,' Get a Visit from the Cops

This report should refute the myth that "being boring" is a defense.

In this particular report, the official visitors behaved politely and reasonably, and had a legitimate purpose for their visit. I worry more about what happens when other agencies, e.g. the DEA, begin "sharing information" to "connect the dots." That agency has horrifying tactics.

From the original link:

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.”

Lets see, an employee about to be dismissed starts researching information on pressure cooker bombs and backpacks. No idea what the terms of his termination were but it was enough that when his former employer discovered the search history they called the cops. What are the police SUPPOSED to do, ignore the tip?

This is not a case of "being boring", indeed it is a case of fitting a very interesting profile of a dangerous disgruntled worker to a T.

15   Heraclitusstudent   2013 Aug 1, 10:25am  

Dan8267 says

When the cold war ended, these assholes were out of a job unless they could invent a new boogieman.

Good propagandists will always separate people of the same group from outsiders, be they infidels, communists or terrorists. Xenophobia is a powerful motivator. Didn't Goebbels say that if the "Jews didn't exist they would have to be invented"? Group identity is defined in part by its opposite and a good group dynamic creates a powerful conduit for group think.

Humans evolved to live in such groups and the human brain is designed for that purpose. We all exist in several of these groups, one of them being the nation.

16   curious2   2013 Aug 1, 11:10am  

New Renter says

What are the police SUPPOSED to do, ignore the tip? This is not a case of "being boring", indeed it is a case of fitting a very interesting profile of a dangerous disgruntled worker to a T.

I think you missed the point, but ended up illustrating it inadvertently. After what happened in Boston, probably millions of people Googled those phrases, many of them from work. Also, during the same period, a significant number of employees were "released" from their cubicles, coincidentally or perhaps even for browsing the Internet at work. In your mind, this person fits a "profile of a dangerous disgruntled worker to a T." Seriously? I hope you don't work in policing, but you've already illustrated why profiling is not admissible before a jury. And yet, having received that "tip," the task force probably felt it was necessary to go out and investigate. Imagine if the DEA received a similar "tip" and killed the family dogs.

17   mbSFBay   2013 Aug 1, 11:27am  

curious2 says

robertoaribas says

pressure cookers are also vastly more energy efficient; everything cooks so much faster that you waste much less cooking energy.

Considering Boyle's Law, I wonder if someday it might be possible to cook using pressure alone, or maybe with solar heat or marinade. For example, if you want to go camping or live "off the grid", you might heat something with solar hot water, then increase the pressure with something like a bicycle pump. Heating and cooling use a lot of energy with current technology, but more efficient alternatives may become available. Humans can produce only modest heat (40C) directly, but we can exert considerable mechanical force.

LOL. The concept behind this is to seal it to allow the pressure to rise, which in turn raises the temperature - entropy of steam - (which in turn helps cook things faster). Solar hot water won't do it, but something that concentrates solar rays to a small focal point (say a large parabola or lens) might do it.

I have used a simple gasifier stove (constructed using 2 campbell soup cans - one large and one small) to cook a whole meal for a family of five using a fistful of wood chips - with a 20 liter pressure cooker.

18   New Renter   2013 Aug 1, 11:29am  

curious2 says

Imagine if the DEA received a similar "tip" and killed the family dogs.

I'll do you one better. Imagine if the police had ignored the tip and that company had gone BOOM! Imagine the families of the injured and dead screaming for vengeance and the hysterical cries for blood when it was discovered the police had been warned of the danger and did nothing.

You also have no idea what the police were told. The person who made the call may have exaggerated the danger.

19   New Renter   2013 Aug 1, 11:32am  

Dan8267 says

When the cold war ended, these assholes were out of a job unless they could invent a new boogieman. They choose terrorism as the boogieman. Throughout the 90's they tried to convince our country that we had to spend twice as much to fight this new boogieman as we did to fight the Soviets, a well-armed superpower. Of course, nobody bought this shit.

http://www.army.mil/terrorism/1999-1990/

Seems real enough to me.

20   New Renter   2013 Aug 1, 11:38am  

robertoaribas says

pressure cookers are also vastly more energy efficient; everything cooks so much faster that you waste much less cooking energy.

If you want fast warmup and high energy transfer efficiency induction stoves are hard to beat.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/dining/07induction.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Slow cookers (e.g. crock pots) are also good.

21   curious2   2013 Aug 1, 11:46am  

New Renter says

You also have no idea what the police were told. The person who made the call may have exaggerated the danger.

You and I have exactly the same information about what the police were told. The difference is, you jump to the conclusion that the information fits a "profile of a dangerous disgruntled worker to a T." That's quite a leap. More importantly, you seem to illustrate without understanding the point that Edward Snowden tried to make about the NSA: with enough information, almost anyone can be made to seem dangerous, or a villain. Some of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib were denounced by business rivals or enemies, which happened for centuries in places where the presumption of innocence did not apply. What happens when your psycho ex-girlfriend turns out to have an uncle at NSA, and you find yourself in Guantanamo after Googling information about 9/11? Will you be pleased that you fit a profile of a dangerous person "to a T," based on a tip from someone who doesn't like you, combined with a selective search of your Web history? Nevermind though - Guantanamo was closed years ago - I remember it was a promise from an elected official, and those are always kept.

22   New Renter   2013 Aug 1, 1:34pm  

curious2 says

You and I have exactly the same information about what the police were told. The difference is, you jump to the conclusion that the information fits a "profile of a dangerous disgruntled worker to a T."

Again here was the scenario.

The police received a tip that a recently dismissed worker had been looking into "backpacks" and "pressure cooker bombs" shortly before termination on the company computer. Those facts disturbed someone at the company enough to call it in. The police paid the guy a visit and after a brief conversation decided there was no need for further involvement.

curious2 says

What happens when your psycho ex-girlfriend turns out to have an uncle at NSA, and you find yourself in Guantanamo after Googling information about 9/11? Will you be pleased that you fit a profile of a dangerous person "to a T," based on a tip from someone who doesn't like you, combined with a selective search of your Web history?

There was no arrest, there was no "enhanced interrogation", they did not send the poor schmuck to a secret prison to be executed and buried in an unmarked grave. The guy fit a very basic profile - recently dismissed worker + interest in homemade explosives and delivery devices. Hell yes the police should investigate!

The police did their jobs with nobody getting hurt. I'd like more stories such as this one to end so well.

23   curious2   2013 Aug 1, 2:44pm  

New Renter says

the police should investigate!

Would you feel the same way if, instead of the police getting a call from the owner of the computer, the NSA had pieced together the information entirely on its own? For example, if they got his search records directly from Google and got only his (un)employment status from the employer or the unemployment office? Would it concern you if they are storing your entire web history just in case someday you might become "disgruntled", and would you wonder who has access to that information meanwhile? Do you remember when the TSA confiscated nailclippers?

24   RealEstateIsBetterThanStocks   2013 Aug 1, 2:52pm  

this is 3rd rate journalism. stupid reporter can't get the story straight.

first husband and wife searched the wrong terms at once.

later the searches happened at work.

25   New Renter   2013 Aug 1, 2:56pm  

curious2 says

New Renter says

the police should investigate!

Would you feel the same way if, instead of the police getting a call from the owner of the computer, the NSA had pieced together the information entirely on its own? For example, if they got his search records directly from Google and got only his (un)employment status from the employer or the unemployment office? Would it concern you if they are storing your entire web history just in case someday you might become "disgruntled", and would you wonder who has access to that information meanwhile? Do you remember when the TSA confiscated nailclippers?

But that is not at all what happened here so it has NOTHING to do with the OT. What DID happen is the police got a tip, they investigated the person of interest and lost interest in that person after the interview. THAT is the (non) story here.

26   gsr   2013 Aug 2, 2:27am  

New Renter says

they investigated the person of interest a

Based on the picture, the police did not just investigate. They raided the house like it is in a war zone.

27   mell   2013 Aug 2, 2:36am  

New Renter says

The police did their jobs with nobody getting hurt. I'd like more stories such as this one to end so well.

While I think the mere presence of the police at the dudes house is troubling, let's make the case they followed a valid lead. The issue is that people are often severely mistreated once they rightfully refuse entry without a warrant. If the guy gave it up it's his problem but I suspect a lot do so out of fear to what happens if they don't. If a lead is credible enough a judge can hand out a warrant in no-time, but the police is caught entering homes without warrants time and time again. The nation has been primed by shows such as 24 to accept the 'shoot first ask questions later' meme.

28   New Renter   2013 Aug 2, 2:52am  

gsr says

New Renter says

they investigated the person of interest a

Based on the picture, the police did not just investigate. They raided the house like it is in a war zone.

What picture? The link in the OT had no pictures nor was there any raid.

29   gsr   2013 Aug 2, 7:52am  

Look for the desktop version of the link. The mobile version does not have it.

30   New Renter   2013 Aug 2, 8:08am  

gsr says

Look for the desktop version of the link. The mobile version does not have it.

Yep, there it is, thanks. The OT link was to the mobile version.

Gotta say that's the first time I've seen detectives outfitted in full riot gear. I have to admit the photo does change the flavor of the story.

After interviewing the company representatives, Suffolk County Police Detectives visited the subject’s home to ask about the suspicious internet searches.

One has to wonder what the company reps told the cops. Its hard to accurately make a judgement without knowing that crucial piece of the puzzle.

31   Dan8267   2013 Aug 2, 1:48pm  

New Renter says

http://www.army.mil/terrorism/1999-1990/

Seems real enough to me.

The irony of going to that page...

In any case, far more Americans lives could be saved by doing any of the following:
1. Replacing cars with maglifts
2. Stopping corporations from polluting
3. Ending childhood poverty
4. Fixing our healthcare system
5. Stopping the shipping of jobs overseas. Doing so will lower poverty and thus all poverty-related violent crimes.

Yet, we spend little or nothing on any of these things like feeding the massive pigs of the NSA and warfare industry.

32   New Renter   2013 Aug 2, 1:54pm  

Dan8267 says

Yet, we spend little or nothing on any of these things like feeding the massive pigs of the NSA and warfare industry.

Don't forget the prison-industrial complex

33   New Renter   2013 Aug 2, 1:55pm  

Dan8267 says

The irony of going to that page...

Odd, it works fine for me.

34   Tenpoundbass   2013 Aug 3, 2:06am  

Well perhaps Emperor Obama could at least send out an official communication to outline all unacceptable Google search keywords and phrases.

35   Tenpoundbass   2013 Aug 3, 2:11am  

Dude I saw an article today that the NSA can activate your Android microphone now.

36   epitaph   2013 Aug 3, 4:29am  

CaptainShuddup says

Dude I saw an article today that the NSA can activate your Android microphone now.

They have been able to do that since the iPhone 3G, with a warrant of course.

37   New Renter   2013 Aug 3, 5:14am  

epitaph says

CaptainShuddup says

Dude I saw an article today that the NSA can activate your Android microphone now.

They have been able to do that since the iPhone 3G, with a warrant of course.

I'd bet they've never NOT had those abilities.

38   RWSGFY   2013 Aug 5, 7:26am  

robertoaribas says

Do you think it would have been any different if they'd found the anarchists cookbook in his work desk, with some pipebombs circled? and notes of how to build them?

No difference: same unlawful search and seizure.

39   zesta   2013 Aug 5, 7:36am  

New Renter says

gsr says

Look for the desktop version of the link. The mobile version does not have it.

Yep, there it is, thanks. The OT link was to the mobile version.

Gotta say that's the first time I've seen detectives outfitted in full riot gear. I have to admit the photo does change the flavor of the story.

You were right the first time. Even the picture is misleading.

From the bottom of the article:
Photo: Massachusetts police search a home after the Boston bombings

40   FortWayne   2013 Aug 6, 1:29am  

robertoaribas says

CaptainShuddup says

Well perhaps Emperor Obama could at least send out an official communication to outline all unacceptable Google search keywords and phrases.

you are a f***ing idiot as usual. It was local police, and his coworkers that set off the alarm.

Just like IRS political targeting was not done by Obama appointees such as Lois Lerner and Wilkins, but by rogue low level Cincinnatti office fall guys...

Even when harrassing law abiding citizens it appears that Obama is still leading from behind, he is just a very mediocre communist.

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