FBI and police deny alleged search of journalist's home after Web searches (UPDATED)

[phleshdef]

Last edited Thu Aug 1, 2013, 08:51 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Eric Pfeiffer, Yahoo! News

New York based journalist Michele Catalano claims a series of unconnected Internet searches, including one for a pressure cooker, led to her home being searched by members of a “joint terrorism task force.”

However, the FBI and the police department in New York's Nassau County, where she apparently lives, deny any such investigation took place.

“There has been no involvement from the Nassau County Police Department,” Detective Vincent Garcia told Yahoo News in a phone interview on Thursday.

A report by The Guardian on Thursday said the FBI also has denied involvement but said members of the Nassau and Suffolk County Police Departments visited Catalano’s home.

UPDATE:


Employer Tipped Off Police To Pressure Cooker And Backpack Searches, Not Google

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http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/01/employer-tipped-off-police-in-pressure-cookerbackpack-gate-not-google/

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/-police-and-fbi-deny-alleged-search-of-new-york-home-stemming-from-journalist’s-web-searches--200309173.html

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UPDATE: Now the story is, that the police did in fact interview these people based on a tip coming from the husband's former employer.

It sounds to me like, after he was let go, someone was using the computer he used for whatever reason, they saw the searches, reported them and the employer got all paranoid that this former employee might be planning to go postal on the office... so they called the police.

[geek tragedy]

1. Let's hear from the husband. Badge numbers, names, cards, which agency were they

from, etc.

[tridim]

2. Wow.. Whole cloth. Why do people keep falling for this bullshit?

She's probably in love with Snowden.

[phleshdef]

3. I think some folks want this and stuff like it to be true.

Some, not all, but some people who are latching onto the NSA anger live in a fantasy world where they are revolutionaries taking on some unjust, oppressive power and stories like this feed the fuel they need to keep believing their fantasy is reality. These are people who want to still play cowboys and Indians in a more adult context and they NEED validation.

[Comrade Grumpy]

4. Any comment from the Suffolk County Police?

[struggle4progress]

10. "... How'd the government know what they were Googling? Update, 7:05 p.m.:

Because the Googling happened at work.

The Suffolk County Police Department released a statement this evening that answers the great mystery of the day.

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.

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

[rocktivity]

5. Of course the local police knew nothing of it

not with all the super duper double-secret out-of-jurisdiction squads who look down upon even the FBI as insignificant hicks.


rocktivity

[Fearless]

6. It comes down to whom you believe.

[eggplant]

7. Well, I would tend to believe the evidence, if any was actually presented. n/t

[Fearless]

9. I was referring it to given the info provided.

[struggle4progress]

8. Holy moly! Somebody mebbe posted some untrue bullshizz on the internet? That's so hard to believe!

[phleshdef]

11. OP updated with more developments.