Writer Claims Online Searches for Pressure Cookers and Backpacks Earned Her a Visit From the Feds

THe Blaze ^ | 8/1/13

[Impala64ssa]

And That’s Not Even the Scariest Part of the Story,

Professional writer Michele Catalano searched online Tuesday for information on pressure cookers while (at around the same time) her husband was Googling backpacks.

The next morning, she claims they got a visit from a joint terrorism task force.

“The composition of such task forces depend on the region of the country,” Philip Bump writes in The Atlantic, “but, as we outlined after the Boston bombings, include a variety of federal agencies. Among them: the FBI and Homeland Security.”

Catalano describes the scene:

[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.

[Impala64ssa]

When pressure cookers are outlawed.... Imagine what would happen if the feds, in the same fashion, swooped down on someone in the 'hood who bought a hoodie online...

[MWestMom]

Good Lord help us! What a bunch of Barney Fifes!

[Made In The USA]

Bookmarking to check back later to see if this story turned out to be true.

[windcliff]

I would have answered yes I have a bomb. It’s a videotape of Plan 9 From Outer Space.

[rmh47]

Did their dog survive the interview?

[BigEdLB]

And folks think the NSA data mining of everyone is harmless?

[rarestia]

Unreal! Absolutely unbelievably unreal.

So if someone wants to get a neighbor into trouble, they can hop on their unsecured wireless network and do a Google search for these terms and the Feds show up to question them?

What country... what PLANET do we live on anymore? Holy crap.

Furthermore, what happens if this sort of thing does happen completely innocently and the cops show up on your doorstep? Me personally, I wouldn’t open the door and I would tell them to come back with a warrant. I don’t talk to the police without a lawyer present.

Does that mean over the next week or month I have to be concerned for my life because I’ll likely have a no-knock raid committed on my home under the pretext that I’m a terrorist?

This is gestapo crap, folks. Make no mistake, you can become a statistic just this easy. A simple, innocent search for two seemingly unrelated items could net you a visit from the Feds. Make sure your dogs are locked up, or they’ll be shot dead just because your wife wants to make good quinoa and you want to go hiking in the Adirondacks.

[Uncle Miltie]

Good Morning Big Brother!

[Uncle Miltie]

Look folks, if they are going to abuse our Fourth Amendment Rights, we need to overwhelm their stupid systems with noise.

Any time you are reminded of how they abuse citizens, take it upon yourself to jam their stupidity and violation of our freedoms down their throats. In a legal way.

[BigEdLB]

Quinoa in a Pressure Cooker

For the retarded fascists in the NSA, that is if they can read...

[SE Mom]

yes- I had to check also- it IS true- go here and there are updates and confirmations:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/08/government-knocking-doors-because-google-searches/67864/#.UfqCSAXy7zQ.facebook

[TigersEye]

A simple, innocent search for two seemingly unrelated items could net you a visit from the Feds.

Let's see if it works. I just did a search on IXQuick for 'pressure cooker, backpack, quinoa.'

[deks]

Correction: After confirmation from the FBI that its agents weren't involved in the visit, the headline of this piece was changed to "Visit From the Cops" instead of "the Feds."

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

[wrencher]

Exactly right. Start using encryption more often and searching for known things such as this that can cause them to react. Pepper your emails with keywords.

[Uncle Miltie]

See tagline.

[TigersEye]

(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.

IOWs the Feds let the local popo take the risks based on their high-quality intel.

[rarestia]

I think this points to a larger issue that we cannot assume anything we do online is safe, secure, or otherwise innocent.

This is way past anything I believe 1984 or Brave New World could’ve predicted.

[Shimmer1]

It’s true, although it wasn’t the Feds (FBI), it was the local cops. So now not only the Feds are spying on us, but the locals are too!!!!

[publius911]

I call BS on this story.
Some drama queens will literally do anything for attention.
This low IQ couple never talked to each other?. Never made a connection between pressure cookers and backpacks? Hello?

How stupid do you have to be?

[IYAS9YAS]

I'm calling BS. I googled the heck out those items when it was in the news. I also hit every ammo and gun selling site out there, and had several searches for hi-cap mags.

No visits here. Well. None that I know of. I can say for certain my dog's still alive.