Don’t Fly During Ramadan

[Al B. Sure!]

Maybe the first name sort of balances it out?

No it doesn't.

[regexcellent]

Wearing your uniform?

Alby can correct me if I'm wrong but I think Marines can't usually travel in uniform (IMO a good policy that the other services should emulate).

[Elok]

No it doesn't.

Are you sure? Your first name seems very non-threatening to me, it sounds like something you'd overhear at a country club.

[Al B. Sure!]

I have never worn a uniform in the airport.

The Marine Corps prohibits the wearing of the utility uniform (MARPATs) outside of base. The service and dress uniforms are, with the exception of the dress blue alphas, authorized for leave and liberty and can be worn around town if desired. I imagine they are also authorized for civilian air travel.

[Dinner]

The stupid part is when he claims people were sneaking through his house stealing random things. He has no proof and instead just seems like a paranoid nutter making wild claims.

As for the dumb asses in the TSA, well, you get what you pay for and most TSA people make less than $10 per hour so you get Barney Fife.

[Berzerker]

I imagine they were checking his story and looking for chems at the new place

[Dauphin]

Is this guy's story verified in any way? Is cynicism allowed?

(Considering a similar kentonio (?) posted story was debunked just recently)

[onodera]

I imagine they were checking his story and looking for chems at the new place

And took the poster to identify if the man on it was a radical Muslim preacher.

[Uncle Sparky]

And took the poster to identify if the man on it was a radical Muslim preacher.

"Suspect has four arms and is light blue in colour."

[kentonio]

Is this guy's story verified in any way? Is cynicism allowed?

(Considering a similar kentonio (?) posted story was debunked just recently)

No it wasn't, it just turned out that the agency involved was state level rather than federal. Unless I missed a later post, there was no suggestion that it hadn't actually happened.

[Dauphin]

It happened, but not in the way reported.

(You could say that's any news report, but the take-away point being made was debunked)

[kentonio]

It happened, but not in the way reported.

(You could say that's any news report, but the take-away point being made was debunked)

Really? That's not how I read it at all.

[onodera]

"Suspect has four arms and is light blue in colour."

Looks totally radical.

[Dauphin]

Really? That's not how I read it at all.

The basic claim appeared to me that there are task forces out there monitoring your Google searches (exemplified by the thread title too - this is an issue of internet search history). You could complain about the house search, but that did not appear the focal point:

That’s how I imagine it played out, anyhow. Lots of bells and whistles and a crowd of task force workers huddled around a computer screen looking at our Google history.

This was weeks ago. I don’t know what took them so long to get here. Maybe they were waiting for some other devious Google search to show up but “what the hell do I do with quinoa” and “Is A-Rod suspended yet” didn’t fit into the equation so they just moved in based on those older searches.


....

45 minutes later, they shook my husband’s hand and left. That’s when he called me and relayed the story. That’s when I felt a sense of creeping dread take over. What else had I looked up? What kind of searches did I do that alone seemed innocent enough but put together could make someone suspicious?Mostly I felt a great sense of anxiety. This is where we are at. Where you have no expectation of privacy. Where trying to learn how to cook some lentils could possibly land you on a watch list. Where you have to watch every little thing you do because someone else is watching every little thing you do.

All I know is if I’m going to buy a pressure cooker in the near future, I’m not doing it online.

I’m scared. And not of the right things.

-Jrabbit commented a quote:

it wasn’t NSA or FBI or Homeland Security or the JTTF itself that led the investigators to Catalano’s Google searches and then to her home.

It was Catalano’s husband’s former boss.

Apparently, Catalano’s husband worked for a Bay Shore computer company, and the Google searches were conducted on a work computer. The husband’s former boss discovered the dubious searches for “pressure cooker bombs” and “backpacks” and alerted the authorities.

So, no, NSA didn’t flag her Google search; it didn’t suspect her of being a terrorist; and it didn’t dispatch a team of government agents to her house. Not only did this not happen, but NSA would only have been targeting Catalano (using an individual court order) if she or her husband were communicating with suspected terrorists overseas. But none of this matters when there are garments to rend and 140-character outrage porn to be retweeted.

My view is that original basic claim is brought into question based on what further information has come to light.

If your take-away is different, fair enough. We have different opinions.