Couple get armed police visit for googling "pressure cookers"

[KeyMaster45]

I feel like bad things are going to happen very soon in the North American political climate.

Going to happen? Dude we've been experiencing a second "Red Scare" (I'd call it "The Brown Scare" but that sounds like a nationwide epidemic of explosive diarrhea.) since 2001, all we're missing now is something similar to the McCarthy hearings.

 

[hazabaza1]

I guess it's a relief that he was ratted out.
Still, stuff like this always feels messed up y'know? Sometimes I just wanna google weird shit, don't wanna get arrested for that.

 

[Dryk]

I don't usually get angry over stuff like this, but this just too damn stupid.

Terrorism, even if attacks like 9/11 happened once a year, is NOT A MAJOR FUCKING THREAT TO LIFE IN THE US!!! Our responses to 9/11 killed more Americans--needlessly--than 9/11. Cigarettes, cars, drunk driving, and cholesterol kill more people than 9/11. Insufficient medical care due to ridiculous healthcare costs kills more people than 9/11. People with guns kill more people than 9/11. I'd bet more innocent people have been shot to death by police in this country than have been killed by terrorist attacks here in the last few years.

Why is it that people are absolutely willing to throw their freedom away for fear of terrorism, but make such a big stink about "fascism" when we try to reform our health care system, or promote gun control, or try to encourage healthier diets in our children? None of that even resembles totalitarian bullshit like our anti-terrorism measures do!

What the fuck is wrong with us?

After the last two years I'm convinced that reckless ship and train drivers are a bigger threat to the population of West Europe at least than terrorism will ever be.

 

[Kyr Knightbane]

This is actually some orwellian terror style shit here.

For your reading pleasure:

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

It's making me actually to be online. I'm not American, but who knows? My government is probably doing it too.

Did you bother to even read the story? Dude wasn't being spied on, he googled "Pressure Cooker Bomb" At work. Dudes boss saw the search. He also googled "Backpacks" in the same day.

Granted, the boss was pulling a huge dick move, but don't try to make it more than it was. We all know about the NSA and everything we do is monitored. It sucks, but there's nothing really we can do about it. Douche-bags in power frequently abuse it

 

[Wraith]

Everyone needs to calm down and actually read the damn article, before jumping to hyperbolic conclusions and joining the tinfoil hat nutters.

 

[evilneko]

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Some of you guys need to lay off the hyperbole a little bit.

The dude's workplace ratted him out:

[/quote]

And that's what I posted.

Did you bother to even read the story? Dude wasn't being spied on, he googled "Pressure Cooker Bomb" At work. Dudes boss saw the search. He also googled "Backpacks" in the same day.

Granted, the boss was pulling a huge dick move, but don't try to make it more than it was. We all know about the NSA and everything we do is monitored. It sucks, but there's nothing really we can do about it. Douche-bags in power frequently abuse it

Did you read the part where it said "updated"?

That part wasn't there when the story was originally published.

 

[ThatDarnCoyote]

The dude's workplace ratted him out:

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".

After interviewing the company representatives, Suffolk County Police Detectives visited the subject's home to ask about the suspicious internet searches. The incident was investigated by Suffolk County Police Department's Criminal Intelligence Detectives and was determined to be non-criminal in nature.

Exactly right.

The irony is that when this sort of information comes out in the wake of some gruesome atrocity, the same people now screaming "police state" would be howling for heads to roll at the anti-terrorism agencies:

"The guy's boss tells you he's Googling 'pressure cooker bombs' right after losing his job, and you didn't even talk to the guy? What, was there a 2-for-1 sale at Dunkin' Donuts or something?"

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

 

[Darren716]

Well it turns out the guy actually was googling pressure cooker bombs, and he wasn't being spied upon by the government, his boss ratted him out. So all in all a terror attack may have actually been prevented.

 

[WoW Killer]

See now i'm tempted to make some very funny combinations of google searches. Wonder if the local CIA branch would knock on my door (Wouldn't surprise me there are CIA agents in my country).

Well, even though it turned out it needed a prompt from a concerned workplace boss to spur this into happening, y'know what? Wouldn't need too many stories like this before it'd stop happening. It's only because searches like "pressure cooker bomb" and "backpack" within short succession are uncommon that they are suspicious. Make them more common and innocent, and they're not suspicious anymore. Look at me, I'm inciting all kinds of trouble in countries I don't even live in; tee hee ^^

[small]What's that, NSA are working with MI5 now? Oh shit...[/small]

 

[lacktheknack]

Nope, there's no way that's the whole story.



Whelp.

Come ON, guys. I know being cynical is cool, but police actually do have brains. They try not to waste their time on truly insignificant stuff, they're too busy. They have people whose main job is police-call prioritization. Source: Family in the police force.

 

[WanderingFool]

Thing is... Im kinda curious about "pressure cooker bombs". Is that an actual explosive device? or what happens if one miss-uses a pressure cooker?

 

[uchytjes]

Seeing the whole "update" to the story, I feel this isn't much in the vein of "government conspiracy" and more in the vein of "shit not to do at work"/"companies/businesses are evil". Unless it was his break, I doubt he should have been googling anything.

 

[uchytjes]

Thing is... Im kinda curious about "pressure cooker bombs". Is that an actual explosive device? or what happens if one miss-uses a pressure cooker?

My best guess is that, due to the way pressure cookers work, the person would put in the cooker some normally harmless chemicals, turn the cooker on, then wait for the extreme heat and pressure in the cooker to change the normally harmless chemicals into something explosive. Either that, or just plugging all seals/saftey releases and making the thing explode that way, but that wouldn't be very damaging.

Edit: Something like this, but on a smaller scale.

 

[briankoontz]

We all know about the NSA and everything we do is monitored. It sucks, but there's nothing really we can do about it.

https://www.torproject.org/

https://joindiaspora.com/

There's a lot we can do about it, actually.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I'm glad the though police don't live where I do. I've googled some shady stuff.

 

[Caiphus]

Thing is... Im kinda curious about "pressure cooker bombs". Is that an actual explosive device? or what happens if one miss-uses a pressure cooker?

I believe the actual bombs used at the Boston Marathon were pressure cooker nail bombs.

No idea how they actually work though. Maybe I should google it

 

[RicoADF]

Thing is... Im kinda curious about "pressure cooker bombs". Is that an actual explosive device? or what happens if one miss-uses a pressure cooker?

I believe the actual bombs used at the Boston Marathon were pressure cooker nail bombs.

No idea how they actually work though. Maybe I should google it

I dare you, no I double dare you.

*goes away then comes back 5 mins later, checks latest news story and reads one on a gamer being arrested for googling about how pressure cooker nail bombs work, FBI suspects he's the next Bin laden*

.... shit.

 

[Childe]

This is actually some orwellian terror style shit here.
For your reading pleasure:

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

It's making me actually afraid to be online. I'm not American, but who knows? My government is probably doing it too.

Theres nothing they can do about it

I might have some fun with this and type in something like "how to covert to islam" (not that islamic people are terrorists but i can imagine the government flagging this) and search for fertiliser on ebay. They cant do anything about it because no laws have been broken. I may just be trying to gain a better knowledge of islam and i may also have a small vegtable patch that i need fertiliser for

That might be funny but i would advise against it. Governments arn't known for keeping peoples right on the forefront of their minds

 

[Childe]

This is actually some orwellian terror style shit here.

For your reading pleasure:

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

It's making me actually to be online. I'm not American, but who knows? My government is probably doing it too.

Did you bother to even read the story? Dude wasn't being spied on, he googled "Pressure Cooker Bomb" At work. Dudes boss saw the search. He also googled "Backpacks" in the same day.

Granted, the boss was pulling a huge dick move, but don't try to make it more than it was. We all know about the NSA and everything we do is monitored. It sucks, but there's nothing really we can do about it. Douche-bags in power frequently abuse it

He actually was just looking up pressure cookers. The police automatically assumed that he was making a bomb because he looked up backpacks in the same day. Got of to love the iq of our government. But then again if they could grow up a little maybe we would be in a better country.