An anti-terror squad raided the home of a New York family Wednesday, weeks after the family made a Google search for pressure cooker bomb instructions and an unrelated search for backpacks. The officers also estimated 100 raids are conducted each week.
Out of curiosity created by the Boston Marathon bombing, Michele
Catalano said she recently looked up pressure cookers, to see how
the bombs were assembled. Coincidentally, her husband was
investigating backpack sales online, which were also used to
conceal the homemade explosives in Boston.
Catalano, a professional writer described the police search in an
article on Medium.com. Her initial suspicion that her family’s
Google searches were being monitored proved unfounded after the
story had already gone viral, when the police revealed in a
statement they had been acting on a tip from a local employer who
noticed the search history on a work computer.
“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,’” the statement
read.
“After interviewing the company representatives, Suffolk
County Police Detectives visited the subject’s home to ask about
the Internet searches. The incident was investigated by Suffolk
county Police Department’s Criminal Intelligence Detectives and
was determined to be non-criminal in nature.”
Catalano’s fears were based, at least in part, on the information
disclosed in the leaks from former National Security Agency
contractor Edward Snowden. Snowden’s disclosures revealed the
existence of the PRISM and Tempora web monitoring programs, which
allows the US government to access American’s emails, chat logs,
and other Internet activity in the same of protecting national
security.
She described the fear her husband felt when he saw six casually
dressed men step out of the three sports utility vehicles that
pulled up in front of the family’s home.
“A million things went through my husband’s head,” she
wrote. “None of which were right. He walked outside and the
men greeted him by flashing badges. He could see they all had
guns holstered in their waistbands.”
While the agents made a cursory search through the residence,
“they 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.”
The officers left 45 minutes later without incident, except to
leave Catalano stunned and nervous. Near the end of their visit,
after the police were sure Catalano’s husband did not pose a
threat, they told him how frequently they search peoples’
homes.
“They mentioned that they do this about 100 times a week,”
she said. “And 99 of those turn out to be nothing. I don’t
know what happens on the other one per cent of visits and I’m not
sure I want to know what my neighbors are up to.”
An FBI spokesman told The Guardian that Bureau agents had not
been to the home, but that “she was visited by Nassau County
police department…They were working in conjunction with Suffolk
County police department.”
While Catalano said the officers identified themselves as members
of the joint terrorism task force, the FBI told The Atlantic Wire
that the JTTF “did not visit the residence.” The Suffolk
and Nassau police departments, the spokesman said, are two of the
52 police agencies across the country that participate in a
federal JTTF program that deputizes local law enforcement.
“Any officers, agents, or other representatives of the JTTF
did not visit that location.”
The National Security Agency has struggled to explain its
surveillance methods that monitor millions of Americans’ Internet
activity since the Snowden leak. NSA Director General Keith
Alexander has denied the agency peruses data it collects on
Americans, only logging it for a vague future use.
“I felt a sense of creeping dread take over,” Catalano
wrote. “What else had I looked up? What kind of
searchers did I do that alone seemed innocent enough but put
together could make someone suspicious?”
“This is where we are at. Where you have no expectation of
privacy…Where you have to watch every little thing you do because
someone else is watching every little thing you do,” she
continued.
“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.”
Republished from: RT