College Student Finds GPS On Car, FBI Retrieves It

mngdih writes with this excerpt from Wired: "A California student got a visit from the FBI this week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online. The post prompted wide speculation about whether the device was real, whether the young Arab-American was being targeted in a terrorism investigation and what the authorities would do. It took just 48 hours to find out: The device was real, the student was being secretly tracked and the FBI wanted their expensive device back ... His discovery comes in the wake of a recent ruling by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals saying it's legal for law enforcement to secretly place a tracking device on a suspect's car without getting a warrant, even if the car is parked in a private driveway. ... 'We have all the information we needed,' they told him. 'You don't need to call your lawyer. Don't worry, you're boring.'"

Comments

Finders Keepers?

[Archangel Michael]

How about a bit of "finders keepers" and disassemble and report of the technology. Followed up by a "Does it Blend" episode !

Re:Finders Keepers?

[LWATCDR]

Your in college and find a strange device attached to your car.
I don't know about you but I would have taken it apart to see what it was. I would have figured it was some joke a friend had made.
If it wasn't marked as federal property how should I know?

Re:Finders Keepers?

[Defenestrar]

Especially if you have a family you are taking care of. You have that extra drive to make sure your daughter will grow up in a free country, but that's tempered by the knowledge that certain acts of civil disobedience (or extrapolating to an illegally oppressive government - those may be acts of constitutional obedience) may place you in custody/court for a sufficient amount of time to lose your job. That could result in failure to pay mortgage, inability to obtain another job within your career, etc...

I like to think that my daughter will still think of me as her hero and role model when she grows up, and I know my wife would support me (we'd probably be in trouble together actually) if it were one of the Big freedom issues. So what do you do when it's things like back scatter screening on a field-trip to the courthouse or driving through a DUI checkpoint in the coldest form of sobriety?

This is the insidious danger inherent in the erosion of freedom: not enough to die for, not even enough to make you homeless or hungry or inconvenienced over, but enough, over time, to leave you with a shallow shadow of what our ancestors died for.

Re:Finders Keepers?

[Americano]

being 'legally right' is moot. They are already carrying out secret operations against you.

I think you mean "They are already carrying out completely legal operations against you, using the legitimate and constitutional authority granted to them by a court of law," right?

You may not LIKE the authority they're given, but as the law stands today, they absolutely have every right to do it, and it *is* legal for them to do it. If you don't LIKE it, you should vote for legislative candidates who will promise to do something about the issue that concerns you. Or, become a candidate yourself, and educate your fellow citizens about the abuses of power you will correct when you're a representative or senator.

What happens if you destroy it?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you just find one of these and don't realize that it belongs to the FBI, and think "doesn't belong" and destory it (or just toss it in a dumpster), are you liable to pay for it when the FBI comes to get it back?

Re:What happens if you destroy it?

[Grizzley9]

B/C they found the one they wanted him to find...

Re:What happens if you destroy it?

[Obfuscant]

~50,000 students attend that school and none of them are being tracked,

Are you an official spokesman for the FBI who has firsthand knowledge of this as a fact, or are you making this up as you go along?

... except the Arabic one who has no prior criminal history/evidence of wrong doing.

After reading the Wired article, we learn many things:

• His father took the family back to Egypt, but he alone returned.
• He regularly sends money back to people (his brothers) in Egypt.
• His "friend" allegedly posted something about bombs on a website and was known to be under investigation.
• He was contacted by the FBI before for questioning.
• He's on the watch list for flying.
• His lawyer is a member of CAIR. CAIR:
  • "seeks to empower the American Muslim community and encourage its social and political activism.", according to wikipedia.
  • was created by "three officers of the Islamic Association of Palestine" (ibid), and we all know that Palestinians have absolutely no axe to grind with the US.
  • In 1998, Omar Ahmad (a joint founder of CAIR) was reported to have said: "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth."
• He's going on "a short business trip" to Dubai in a few weeks.

Of course, none of that is illegal, but neither is going to a flight school and asking to taught how to fly. The point being, those who claim he was targeted only because he was half-Egytian or that this is based on profiling aren't looking at the entire picture.

CAIR, in particular, looks a lot like the German-American Bund from pre-WWII days. They claimed to be formed to further German-American relations, but promoted Nazi propaganda and anti-semitism, as well as being a cover for espionage.

The fact he was knowingly driving with expired plates makes him a valid traffic stop by any policeman he goes by.

Not hard to guess why he was being looked at

[Dancindan84]

Not saying it's right, but "Afifi said he often travels for business and has two teenage brothers in Egypt whom he supports financially." Frequent traveling along with sending (presumably) large amounts of cash to the middle-east has to raise some red flags.

Could have been interesting

[OhHellWithIt]

It would be really interesting to see what would have happened had he disposed of it in a lake before the FBI showed up. There's nothing in the photo to indicate that it belongs to the government; it could have been placed by a private detective. As far as I'm concerned, if you attach something to my car without my permission, it's mine.

Re:Could have been interesting

[hedwards]

Or, better yet, call 911 and report a suspicious device attached to your car. Given what I saw in the picture, that would've been my first step. The device itself isn't easily distinguishable from a bomb. It's clearly got at least 3 of the components necessary, and I personally wouldn't go screwing around with something that has that many components without a robot to do it for me.

Re:Replant the device

[literaldeluxe]

Or drop it off at the police station or mail it to the FBI. An unmarked box containing electronics that sends out transmissions? They'll get the bomb squad to deal with it. Then it ends up on the news, and people will actually hear about it.

Re:OUCH

[TheGratefulNet]

grandstanding.

99.9% of us are boring.

so what? people just want to live their lives. terror is over-rated and over-reported.

how much is wasted chasing boogeymen? how many of these chases end up bothing innocent people under a dragnet?

sickening. I hate this aspect of how my country is now acting. its like a child who has not learned from the past and keeps repeating the same 'wolf!' call over and over again.

Not saying I'm ok with it...

[kungfugleek]

..but it wasn't totally out of the blue. FTA:

Six months ago, a former roommate of his was visited by FBI agents who said they wanted to speak with Afifi. Afifi contacted one agent and was told the agency received an anonymous tip from someone saying he might be a threat to national security. Afifi told the agent he was willing to answer questions if his lawyer approved. But after Afifi's lawyer contacted the agency, he never heard from the feds again until he found their tracking device.