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Most of it was innocent enough. I had researched pressure cookers. My husband was looking for a backpack. And maybe in another time those two things together would have seemed innocuous, but we are in "these times" now. And in these times, when things like the Boston bombing happen, you spend a lot of time on the internet reading about it and, if you are my exceedingly curious, news junkie 20-year-old son, you click a lot of links when you read the myriad of stories. You might just read a CNN piece about how bomb making instructions are readily available on the internet and you will in all probability, if you are that kid, click the link provided.

Which might not raise any red flags. Because who wasn't reading those stories? Who wasn't clicking those links? But my son's reading habits combined with my search for a pressure cooker and my husband's search for a backpack set off an alarm of sorts at the joint terrorism task force headquarters.

That's how I imagine it played out, anyhow. Lots of bells and whistles and a crowd of task force workers huddled around a computer screen looking at our Google history.

This was weeks ago. I don't know what took them so long to get here. Maybe they were waiting for some other devious Google search to show up, but "what the hell do I do with quinoa" and "Is A-Rod suspended yet" didn't fit into the equation so they just moved in based on those older searches.

I was at work when it happened. My husband called me as soon as it was over, almost laughing about it, but I wasn't joining in the laughter. His call left me shaken and anxious.

What happened was this: At about 9am, my husband, who happened to be home yesterday, was sitting in the living room with our two dogs when he heard a couple of cars pull up outside. He looked out the window and saw three black SUVs in front of our house; two at the curb in front and one pulled up behind my husband's Jeep in the driveway, as if to block him from leaving.

Six gentleman in casual clothes emerged from the vehicles and spread out as they walked toward the house, two toward the backyard on one side, two on the other side, two toward the front door....

Forty-five minutes later, they shook my husband's hand and left. That's when he called me and relayed the story. That's when I felt a sense of creeping dread take over. What else had I looked up? What kind of searches did I do that alone seemed innocent enough but put together could make someone suspicious? Were they judging me because my house was a mess (oh my God, the joint terrorism task force was in my house and there were dirty dishes in my sink!). Mostly I felt a great sense of anxiety. This is where we are at. Where you have no expectation of privacy. Where trying to learn how to cook some lentils could possibly land you on a watch list. Where you have to watch every little thing you do because someone else is watching every little thing you do.

Ivytalk wrote:Backpack? Check.
Pressure cooker? Check.
Guardian columnist? Double-check.
Stan, let's drive over there and check them out.

kalm wrote:

Ivytalk wrote:Backpack? Check.
Pressure cooker? Check.
Guardian columnist? Double-check.
Stan, let's drive over there and check them out.

Constitution hater.

GannonFan wrote:

kalm wrote:
Constitution hater.

expandsos, quit hacking kalm's account, post under your own name so we know which threads to ignore. kalm will be pissed when he gets back and sees what you were posting.

Pwns wrote:A simple remedy for that Problem...

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.

∞∞∞ wrote:I'm surprised they haven't shown up at my doorstep yet for the stuff posted here. But hey, if they want to focus on backpacks and pressure cooker and ignore me...

tribe_pride wrote:Here's an update to the story from a news release from the police department:

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.

Looks like the husband recently got fired from his job. The former employer saw the internet searches that the husband and wife made on his work computer and contacted the police which is why they performed the investigation at the house.

bluehenbillk wrote:

tribe_pride wrote:Here's an update to the story from a news release from the police department:



Looks like the husband recently got fired from his job. The former employer saw the internet searches that the husband and wife made on his work computer and contacted the police which is why they performed the investigation at the house.

Thanks for clearing this up. Again, a lot of "Fox News-type" alarmism exists out there that blurs reality......

tribe_pride wrote:

bluehenbillk wrote:
Thanks for clearing this up. Again, a lot of "Fox News-type" alarmism exists out there that blurs reality......

This was more the wife's fault than anything. She is the one that blogged it and The Guardian picked it up and reprinted the blog piece I think. She apparently has updated her blog since the police issued their press release.

As for the "Fox News-type" comment of yours, you could have easily replaced that with MSNBC-type alarmism or now The Guardian-type alarmism depending on the subject.

Spoiler: show

Crap...can somebody please bail me out of this thread with a Spandos nudey pic?

kalm wrote:

tribe_pride wrote:

This was more the wife's fault than anything. She is the one that blogged it and The Guardian picked it up and reprinted the blog piece I think. She apparently has updated her blog since the police issued their press release.

As for the "Fox News-type" comment of yours, you could have easily replaced that with MSNBC-type alarmism or now The Guardian-type alarmism depending on the subject.

That's what THEY want you to believe.

Spoiler: show

Crap...can somebody please bail me out of this thread with a Spandos nudey pic?

kalm wrote:

tribe_pride wrote:

This was more the wife's fault than anything. She is the one that blogged it and The Guardian picked it up and reprinted the blog piece I think. She apparently has updated her blog since the police issued their press release.

As for the "Fox News-type" comment of yours, you could have easily replaced that with MSNBC-type alarmism or now The Guardian-type alarmism depending on the subject.

That's what THEY want you to believe.

Spoiler: show

Crap...can somebody please bail me out of this thread with a Spandos nudey pic?

bluehenbillk wrote:

tribe_pride wrote:Here's an update to the story from a news release from the police department:



Looks like the husband recently got fired from his job. The former employer saw the internet searches that the husband and wife made on his work computer and contacted the police which is why they performed the investigation at the house.

Thanks for clearing this up. Again, a lot of "Fox News-type" alarmism exists out there that blurs reality......

GannonFan wrote: Crap...can somebody please bail me out of this thread with a Spandos nudey pic?

CID1990 wrote:Man I hope no terrorist act is ever committed by a midget pornstar. I'd be fvcked.

JohnStOnge wrote:We have allowed law enforcement at all levels too much capability. Many people say that the biggest responsibility of Government is "keeping us safe." I don't think that's true. i don't think that's consistent with the ideas associated with our founding. 'safety" is not supposed to be the highest priority.

Government should not even be allowed the capability to do what led to the incident in question. It should not even be allowed to look at Google searches unless it first gets a warrant pertaining to a particular person to look at THEIR google searches.

• Wife and Husband searched for certain things on Husband's work computer
  Husband got fired (or resigned)
  Husband turned back in computer to Employer
  Employer found questionable searches on the computer
  Employer notified police of concerns
  Police interviewed employees of Employer about concerns
  Police interviewed Husband about concerns
  Police closed case when concerns were resolved
  Husband told Wife
  Wife panicked and blogged what she mistakenly thought were the facts of this case
  Police issued press release clarifying what happened
  Wife reblogged that she made a mistake

kalm wrote:

tribe_pride wrote:

This was more the wife's fault than anything. She is the one that blogged it and The Guardian picked it up and reprinted the blog piece I think. She apparently has updated her blog since the police issued their press release.

As for the "Fox News-type" comment of yours, you could have easily replaced that with MSNBC-type alarmism or now The Guardian-type alarmism depending on the subject.

That's what THEY want you to believe.

Spoiler: show

Crap...can somebody please bail me out of this thread with a Spandos nudey pic?

Read my quote above. I find it hard to see how anyone can say that the cops did anything wrong in this situation.

Here is what happened according to what I have read:

Wife and Husband searched for certain things on Husband's work computer
Husband got fired (or resigned)
Husband turned back in computer to Employer
Employer found questionable searches on the computer
Employer notified police of concerns
Police interviewed employees of Employer about concerns
Police interviewed Husband about concerns
Police closed case when concerns were resolved
Husband told Wife
Wife panicked and blogged what she mistakenly thought were the facts of this case
Police issued press release clarifying what happened
Wife reblogged that she made a mistake