Big Boss, Not Big Brother, Spotted Long Island Family's 'Suspicious' Google Searches

[muriel_volestrangler]

125. No, you've imagined a whole lot of that

Here's what she wrote, for reference: https://medium.com/something-like-falling/2e7d13e54724 - plus 3 tweets listed here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3385470 ; and the police statment is here: http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/01/employer-tipped-off-police-in-pressure-cookerbackpack-gate-not-google/

Her story was that the Google turned over her search history to the NSA, which then sent the JTF/FBI to search her house.

Problems:
1) Google wasn't involved, it was her husband's former employer
2) The NSA wasn't involved, it was her husband's former employer
3) It wasn't the JTF or FBI, it was the Suffolk county police.
4) It wasn't a search. You can tell because they just talked to people, even in her story.
5) It wasn't just her innocuous search terms at home. It was whatever her husband did at work.
6) She claims her husband was laid off. The company said they fired him. Note that laying someone off is technically firing them, just not firing them for cause. So both could be accurate.

No, she never said Google turned her history over to anyone. She imagined the task force looked at her Google history. She never said anything about Google, the company, doing anything. She never mentioned the NSA. She tweeted "Pro tip: don't do a search for pressure cookers right after your spouse does a search for backpacks if you don't want the FBI at your door". Yes, it was her husband's former employer - and he was never told that. She called it a joint task force - and the FBI thinks it was too:

Earlier on Thursday, the FBI told the Guardian that Catalano was visited by the Nassau County police department working in conjunction with Suffolk County police department. "From our understanding, both of those counties are involved," said FBI spokeswoman Kelly Langmesser. She said Suffolk County initiated the action and that Nassau County became involved, but would not elaborate on what that meant.

The Nassau County police department said Catalano "was not visited by the Nassau police department" and denied involvement in the situation.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/01/new-york-police-terrorism-pressure-cooker

It was a search, but not a thorough one - they looked at their books, walked around the back yard and garage. 'Whatever her husband did at work' - ie search terms. The police statement only talk about search terms, nothing more.

Where does the company say they fired him? The police statement calls him "a recently released employee". There is nothing about his behavior.

You're still claiming it was innocuous search terms that had the police show up

And that's what the police claim too.

You're also trying to paint a SWAT-team raid picture with "6 armed men!!!!"

No, I've never said anything about 'SWAT'. But these are not uniform police, one blocks in their car, and 4 of them go round the house, to surround it:

What happened was this: At about 9:00 am, 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.

A million things went through my husband’s head. 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.

the story they got from the former employer hinted at something nefarious.

It hints at it in your imagination. The police says it was about the search terms. It's up to the police to see things in proportion. For instance, George Zimmerman phone up the police, saying he had seen a suspicious black guy in a hoodie looking into people's homes. The call handler was able to see that in proportion, and decide this was not criminal behavior. Zimmerman was unable to do that, and look what happened.

If 6 police officers are spending 45 minutes at a home on the basis of a google search for terms in the news, this is something Americans should know. It's baseless suspicion, an intrusion, and a waste of public money. They should be out trying to catch criminals.