Caught Spying on Student, FBI Demands GPS Tracker Back

Caught Spying on Student, FBI Demands GPS Tracker Back

www.wired.com

A California student got a visit from the FBI this week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online. The post prompted wide speculation about whether the device was real, whether the young Arab-American was being targeted in a terrorism investigation and what the authorities would do.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Turns out the device was real!

So you can go so many different ways with this... But the one way that is the most amazing is the fact that this is actually going on.

Ok so he was an Arab American... I support the burqa ban in France, however I don't believe we should be tapping Arab Americans because of their lineage...

And then the FBI wants their gear back? No way... find it in the Bay buddy!


www.wired.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I would have taken a bunch of photos of it and then either stuck it on a semi, or a church van. or maybe i would have gone out on the boat and thrown it in 3000 feet deep water. I dont know the possibilities are endless.

the fact that when the fbi asked for it back they told them all they knew about his personal life sent me in to a rage.

I would have called them creeps and everything that is wrong with america, and then called a lawyer immediatly

If that was me and I found the device on my car you bet your ass that I would toss it in the bay or better yet film and post online of me blowing it up in my backyard. You want your intrusive device back? Go pick up the pieces yourself.


Tracking me without a warrant? That's the cost of doing business.

Apparently the guy thought about throwing it in the lake. I would quote paragraph from the Wired article, but it had language in it that might violate T&C for this site .

It is paragraph 16 in the article.

It is interesting, though, that the the only reason it was found was due to a wire being spotted. I wonder if it was a sloppy installation?

What does FBI stand for in this case? Fat, Bald and Ignorant?

They get caught, then they have the cojones to ask for their equipment back??? They should have kept quiet and denied that they did anything, they really are a bunch of dummies.

reply to post by HunkaHunka


WOW! What a story!

I hate to sound racist, but he does sound a little suspicious. He is 20, a student, and was recently laid off his job, yet he travels frequently to Dubai for "business?" He financially supports his two brothers in Egypt? His father was killed recently in Egypt? His friend made a post about a mall and a bomb and that is what got the FBI's attention.

I am all for personal rights, smaller government, and I hate the sealed warrants and para-military raids that have become so common, but if someone put me in charge or National Security, and this guy crossed my desk, I believe I would order some surveillance as well.

Sloppy work though!

reply to post by HunkaHunka


theres no way id return it. i would send them a bill for the removal of it. then say they can have it back for a nominal fee. get it back... sha.
i think its ridiculous fbi needs to do that. dont we pay enough of them that they can follow them in person?
once you put something of yours in someones house, or attach it to their car, you forfeit ownership of device.

reply to post by getreadyalready


if you read his freinds post he just talks about why tsa takes his deoderant and throws it in the trash if it could be a bomb. that throwing potential bombs in the trash dosnt make sense. he then talks about if terrorism were real, people would blow up malls because it is easy to do. he then jokes that the FBI is probably going to track him after that comment.

he didnt say "im going to blow up malls to kill people"

in short the FBI saw his comment because they lurk all the internet, including this site probably, and because they are traitorous creeps they went ahead and put a bug on his freinds car.

in short traitors like the fbi are why this country is dying...

If you're an Arab, or have Arabic connections and make a questionable blog posting about terroristic activities, and then combine it with the fact you're a young student who travels overseas frequently, then yes, you're going to get some attention.

I don't much care for the way this was handled, but to be fair to the FBI they are not in the business of customer relations, their job is to track down and deal with individuals intent on killing Americans. If this guy really had been a valid threat, and they failed to adequately monitor him, they would receive heat for being incompetent.

If your thoughts center around "the cool stuff I would have done with their tracker" then good luck with 8th grade.

I can't believe all the negative feedback from the article. The FBI's got a lot more to do than to sit around and target people that aren't any threat to the security of the nation. The GPS device was planted on the student because there is suffificient eveidence to cause suspicion to the subject. Agents aren't going to do anything to cause the agency to have a negative public image.

Here is the very thing that everyone here is overlooking. The student found the GPS device on his vehicle. A device that is usually placed in an inconspicuous place on a vehicle. It's very obvious that the individual was up to something because he went looking for the device and found it. A person isn't paranoid for no reason.

He's up to something and everyone here is defending him.

reply to post by TheRepublic


DAM! I have said far worse than that on ATS! I have said very similar things, and then gone into details about better ways to attack our lifestyle, economy, and morale. (I guess I won't repeat them here, in light of the recent developments!)

Ok, so the comments were harmless. I still don't like the trips to Dubai. I have a friend that is a citizen of Dubai. They pay him $70k per year just for being a citizen. They also provide free healthcare and education. So, he travels back there quite often for medical reasons. He works in the US, he is pretty wealthy, and still, I give him a hard time about being a terrorist. He is a great guy, very fun-loving, so I highly doubt if he is up to any no-good, but if the FBI wants to track him, I wouldn't blame them! Too much easy flowing money, too much travel to suspect places. Too much bling. Too fast of a lifestyle like he is trying to fit everything in before it is too late. You get me?

Maybe this kid is fine, but we pay the FBI, NSA, CIA and a bunch of other alphabet agencies to keep tabs on these types of things, so I won't criticize them for doing their job. They didn't hinder him in anyway, they are just observing.

On another note, from the looks of that picture, would any of the rest of you just pulled it off and taken it home? It could be a bomb as easy as a tracking device. I would have soiled myself and put the whole car in the lake!

If that had been my car, I would have taken the device home and put it on my workbench. Then I would have taken a video of the process of me removing the casing , and laying out the parts in order of interest. Then I would have put the entire thing through a wood chipper (all on camera). Then I would have posted the entire video on Youtube (and here of course lads, first responsibility is to my fellow conspiracist) and invited law enforcement to either come to my house to discuss the issues at hand, or go suck a railway spike. Preferably one attatched to an electrical outlet. Mind you, the states is alot different to here. I mean for a start, they use trackers here that are about the size of a gaming dice, not something which looks like a friendly little pipe bomb.

reply to post by Intelearthling


a mechanic found it and showed it to him. this guy did nothing wrong. saying "he was up to something" is baseless paranioa. baseless paranioa is why the fbi put the bug on his car in the first place.

there are plenty of real threats the fbi should be investigating. how bout the international banking cartels and how they have destroyed the country. how about how our congress is in the pockets of mega corporations and foriegn countries? how about how 9-11 was clearly done with internal help? what about the dancing israleis on 9-11? what about all the corruption in the SEC?

no, no, no, none of that matters lets put a tracker on a 20 year old american students car and keep track of his employment history and favorite resteraunts. the fbi is garbage. and the few actual good fbi agents who go after the real terrorists end up like John P. O'Neill.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by TheRepublic
On another note, from the looks of that picture, would any of the rest of you just pulled it off and taken it home? It could be a bomb as easy as a tracking device. I would have soiled myself and put the whole car in the lake!

No doubt. It does indeed look like some sort of remote triggered bomb. I would have called the cops first off.

reply to post by Intelearthling


You're mincing defending him and defending your rights. He is an American born citizen. As has been demonstrated a jillion times before on these forums no less rights have to be defended unequivocally across the board. Once you start sectioning whose rights in particular are worth defending you are fighting a losing battle of rights to all.

They need to take it apart, document its design photographically, and put it online.

reply to post by merryxmas


It may be possible that he is not a threat but the people he associates with may have reasonable cause to be scrutinized.

It seems to me that many of you believe that since he's an "American" born Arab, he's doesn't pose any kind of threat to the United States.

Nice conclusion.

Originally posted by Intelearthling
reply to post by merryxmas

 

It may be possible that he is not a threat but the people he associates with may have reasonable cause to be scrutinized.

It seems to me that many of you believe that since he's an "American" born Arab, he's doesn't pose any kind of threat to the United States.

Nice conclusion.

No more or less than any other college student. Maybe the FBI should investigate the mechanic who found the device while doing an oil change, since the guy now knows how to remove them and where to look. He is an obvious threat to the national security of this country.. oh, and he is known to associate with Arabs with suspicious connections.

Come to think of it, mechanics are capable of building pipe bombs and have access to explosive chemicals. They could easily place pipe bombs in cars and people would never know. This makes them a big threat.

reply to post by rogerstigers



You are absolutely right (if i can join in your sarcasm). Mechanics are among the most deadly creatures known to man.

The only thing more dangerous to the safety and freedom of the American people are US citizens, what with their right to own a gun. It is a threat to national security, and we must eradicate them. Fight them "over there" so we don't have to fight them "over here".

You're either with us or against us.