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FBI Seeks To Restrict University Student Freedoms

amigoro writes with a link to the Press Escape blog, which is discussing new guidelines suggest by the FBI for university administrations. The Federal Bureau, worried about the possibility of international espionage via our centers of learning, now sees the need to restrict the freedoms of university students for national security. "FBI is offering to brief faculty, students and staff on what it calls 'espionage indicators' aimed at identifying foreign agents. Unexplained affluence, failing to report overseas travel, showing unusual interest in information outside the job scope, keeping unusual work hours, unreported contacts with foreign nationals, unreported contact with foreign government, military, or intelligence officials, attempting to gain new accesses without the need to know, and unexplained absences are all considered potential espionage indicators."

12 of 593 comments (clear)

  1. First This by bsytko · · Score: 0, Troll

    Next week it its immigrants, extremists, hippies, and pretty much anyone who they deem a "threat." All I see here is an attempt by the FBI to make Americans scared of fellow Americans. Pretty soon we'll be turning each other in for doing mundane tasks soon seen as "crimes." Naturally I feel this is a bit extreme, but I could see it going this far, someday.

  2. Stupid Company, Dumber School. by twitter · · Score: 0, Troll

    Actually, it's neither paranoid or counterproductive .... if you're working for a defense contractor, the government, or the military directly.

    Any company that discourages curiosity and hard work will end up with stupid and lazy employees, the kind that would think those kinds of rules should be applied to Universities .... oh shit. Scratch that, there's nothing stupid or lazy about the FBI, I swear, I didn't mean it. Please don't put me on a no fly, no work, no rent, no life list.

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    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

  3. Re:Read TFA by MonGuSE · · Score: 0, Troll

    Since the government has been retroactively classifying information that they deem sensitive for the last 6 years, one mans classified information is another mans senior thesis. People say nano tech is the future but what could an evil person do with nano tech, or chemistry knowledge, or robotics, or pesticide research, or GM plants, virologists, and even computer scientists now. For instance you have to have a license to buy glass beakers because people might use them to make drugs. You have to have a license to buy propellant for model rocketry because you might use it to blow something up. The list goes on and now they are talking about making common tools in an IT techs arsenal illegal because they could be used for illegal means. As taxes continue to increase the government continues to grow and continues its dominance as the largest funding source for purely scientific research. Also since we the public pay for the research it should be by default non governmental and non secret unless it would lead directly to death and destruction. Imagine someone sticks down a servo controlled pistol in the middle of a busy pedestrian space walks away and starts taking people out or any other number of things. Now is robotics strictly controlled because it could be used to aid in the death of people? I mean come on anything could lead to anything it just depends on what it is going to be used for and the only people you inconvenience with these rules is law abiding people.

  4. Re:Since when by DigiShaman · · Score: 0, Troll

    This is not about a second cold war. This is about combating global radical Islam.

    Whether you agree or not with the agency's necessity is a whole other topic.

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  5. Re:...and? by nurb432 · · Score: 1, Troll

    I *never* said he was perfect. It just has gotten really old to hear them complain that *everything* bad that goes on in government ( hell, even non government if you listen to the real wackos ) is his fault. It almost started from day one and i personally and sick of hearing it.

    The 'system' has been around long before him, will be long after him. Besides the president does not have *that* much power in the first place. Its the *system* that is at fault for most of the wrongs in government, not one man.

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  6. Re:Since when by ArcherB · · Score: 0, Troll

    its because the enemy doesn't exist. Do you really think that an organized, well financed enemy wouldn't be able to pull off any attack in 6 years? Not even bombing a school or some hit and run shootings? You think a group so incompetent they can't even do that would be able to pull off 9/11? No, there is no mystical Alqueda organization out there wanting to kill us all, thats a myth used by the government to keep us afraid and consolidate their power.

    Dude! Do you live under a fucking rock or are you just plain stupid. Did you not see the videos from the leader of that imaginary group bragging about how he managed to pull off the attacks of 9-11. Did you not see him say that the original attack was to include the West Coast as well. When you go to NY, and you see that giant hole in the ground and all the memorials for the dead people, do you think to yourself, "Wow! That hot dog vendor must have laced my sour kraut with acid because I'm seeing a hallucination of a giant hole! This is almost as good as that bender back in 2001 where I kept seeing crashing planes!" Do you tell the families of those victims that they imagined it all and accuse them of being government conspirators?

    Here is a news flash for you. Al Qaeda exists. Radical Muslims what to kill you. Some want to kill you because you don't pray 5 times a day facing west. Some want to kill you because you don't pray 5 times a day facing east. Some want to kill you because your beard is not the right length. Some want to kill your wife/daughter/mother/sister because they saw some ankle skin and it gave them a hard-on or they left the house without a male escort or they went to a male doctor who saw them naked. Denying these FACTS won't make them go away.

    It is NOT a government plot so John Ashcroft can beat off while listening to your phone conversations with bill collectors. This shit is REAL. Don't take my word for it, go to Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Gaza or Syria and ask the guy with the RPG or AK-47 what they think about your love of bacon. Be sure to offer them a pork rind and tell them how there is no such thing as Mohamed or God (Allah). Since it's all imaginary, you'll be fine.

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    There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
  7. Destroying the Village to Save It by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 0, Troll

    The fascists running the US government are working with our enemies to destroy our civilization. I don't care whether they think they're "doing the right thing" or whether they're actually coordinating their attacks.

    Who cares why the invaders burned the Library of Alexandria, or sacked Rome or Constantinople, or leveled Persepolis? They're millennial-scale criminals, still hated by anyone with any sense of history. And we don't even have to live in those ruins. This gang of barbarians has even destroyed ancient ruins not even past millennia had erased. And they're adding the young USA to their hit list.

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  8. Re:Since when by florescent_beige · · Score: 1, Troll

    Global radical Islam? What part of TFA or the DiA doc referenced that? I'll tell you which part, the implied part, the part that plays to your fears and prejudices that live in the FOX News (sic) part of your brain, that's which part. Because it's not stated explicitly.

    Also, the FBI doesn't even aim this at classified positions. I quote: '"What we're most concerned about are those things that are not classified..." Warren Bamford, special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office, told the Boston Herald.'

    So, according to the FBI, a grad student is not to be trusted if he comes in with a hangover, works until 3 am, shacks up with a girl from Canada, and is broke. Have any of those people ever SEEN a grad school? There is nothing BUT people like that.

    One can go on and on about this. Love the section of the DIA's pocket guide to playing spy entitled "Why We Hesitate to Take Action" which lists "Fear of Being Paranoid" as a character flaw to be overcome. Funny, I thought paranoia was a mental illness. Does that mean mental illness is now a preq for working at the FBI?

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  9. Re:Since when by polar+red · · Score: 0, Troll

    It is amazing how little has changed between 1942 and today. that's because 'civilization' is an illusion. Take away people's TV's and they become war-mongering savages.
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    Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
  10. Re:Shut up cunt by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 0, Troll

    OK, coward, come to NYC and I'll explain it to you in person. When will you arrive?

    I'll make you understand that flying in front of the warring forces is exactly what's keeping our part of their civil war going.

    Stupid fucking bitch is a parody of their own stupid comment about bravery behind a keyboard, without even a userID's worth of courage.

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  11. Re:Fuck you liar by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 0, Troll

    The Mideast is a lot bigger than Iraq, stupid shit.

    That's your last free clue. Goodbye.

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  12. Re:Since when by ioshhdflwuegfh · · Score: 0, Troll

    It's also very interesting that he was making lists for the British government of people he considered pro- and anti-communists after the WW2.