Student finds a FBI GPS tracking unit in his car...

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Me favorite line:

I would have strapped it to a rabbit and sent it on its way.


Seriously though, if I found out I was being tracked by the FBI, I'd be pretty pissed off.


Discuss....

 

If his name was Khaled he was probably a terrorist.

 

Close to what I think the FBI was wondering.

His name is "Yasir Afifi" and he has family in Egypt.


That said he could be a totally average guy caught up in other people's security consciousness or paranoia (depending on the extent).

 

A US federal court has decided that cops don't need a warrant to bug your car with a GPS transmitter, even if you have parked it on your private property, since:

That's originalism for you - indeed - there is no instance of the constitution or a constitutional amendment mentioning the word 'driveway' or GPS transmitter Snark aside:

Well, fortunately that view isn't universally accepted.

But what do I worry? The Feds certainly won't abuse the discretion granted by the 9th Circuit. The government tracking a person's every move in his vehicle via satellite 24/7, what could possibly be problematic about that?

And that the FBI demanded the tracker back, because it was expensive? Priceless. And that threat to 'make things difficult for him' if he wouldn't hand it over asap? Creepy. It isn't exactly as if they asked him to carry it around. Had he destroyed it, would they have presented him with a bill, and charged him with destroying federal property, and with not cooperating with the secret surveillance of his person? Absurd.

All that secret surveillance stuff is setting up some deadly serious mischief to happen. I still wait for the predictable first case to hit the courts where someone whose home is being secretly searched by law enforcement personnel under the Patriot Act comes home early, and mistakes the intruding cop for a burglar and shoots him - ending up facing murder charges for killing a federal police officer - or better - is being killed by the police officer in self defence for the attempt to defend himself against what he thinks is a burglar.

Compared to that the English writs of assistance were a joke.

 

I'm guessing the 9th Circuit Court's ruling won't last. As you posted, Ragusa, it flies in the face of not just years, but as I understand it, centuries of legal precedent in the US.

Beyond that, if I found something like this, I'd be sorely tempted to put it in a UPS box and ship it somewhere. Alaska maybe? Or Death Valley? What about Siberia? Get it on a shipping container.

 

The batteries would probably run out before it got very far, and the FBI would know what was up when the unit spent it's first night at the UPS shipping center without your car being there.

If you ever find one of these things on your car (and chances are you never will), just report it to your local police department. Resist the temptation to get cute or think you're being smarter than everybody, because thinking that is normally a sign that you're not smarter than everybody, and things will only go down hill from there.

 

You mean like not putting it on my ex-wife's car?

 

Oh well, at least his name wasn't Abdullah Osama Mohammed Jazeera Hussein. If it was, he'd probably be in Abu Ghraib.

 

It's shocking that people can be followed like this and have their rights infringed upon.

On the other hand...
There must have been resonable suspicion to plant this thing in the first place. The FBI would surely be smart enough to know what would happen if/when they got caught.
Just think for a moment: if this guy had caused a repeat of the twin towers thing and the FBI said that they'd had the chance to track him but didn't, what would everyone be saying now?

 

It's Bush's fault? At least for the liberals. The conservatives would probably be ranting about how Obama gave a secret hand-sign on TV to give them the all-clear.

 

Just playing Devils Advocate you understand? I actually have no opinion either way on this

 

huh?

The Patriot Act was Bush's bill, but the members of congress, both on the left and the right, are also responsible since they passed it.

 

:sigh: My joke was about how partisan loons will spin any trace of a theory of an idea into absolute, incontrovertable proof. You know, like how Obama's a secret muslim or how Daniel Webster thinks women are possessions, not people?

 

Well, I don't have an ex-wife, but that was my first though - I'd put it on someone's car I didn't like.

 

That would be like signing an admission to harassing somebody ...

 

I thought that's what ex-wives are for?

 

I know that's what ex-wives are for....

 

Of course,* but it's best done anonymously.

~

*ex wives tear the souls out of their ex-husbands everywhere, but I think the best way to 'get even' is to ignore them. They tend to hate that; and they love it when you scramble around all afflicted with ex-itis.

 

HEY! This is my thread, and I approve of the bashing of ex-wives!