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Careful What You Post, the FBI Has More of These
jamie writes "A comment posted to a website got its author's *friend's* car an unwanted aftermarket addon. The Orion Guardian ST820, a GPS tracking device, was attached to the underside of the car by the FBI. No warrant required. The bugged friend, a college student studying marketing, was apparently under suspicion because he's half-Egyptian. As Bruce Schneier says, 'If they're doing this to someone so tangentially connected to a vaguely bothersome post on an obscure blog, just how many of us have tracking devices on our cars right now ...' The ACLU is investigating." This follows up on our earlier mention of the same student, who turned the tracking device over to the FBI.
4chan / Anon should start a campaign called "operation fearstorm" in which local crimestoppers and FBI tip lines are flooded with anonymous terrorism and pedophile suspicions of random citizens, or perhaps the families of law enforcement, local politicians, and the clergy.
Mainstream media coverage of the fiasco will show just how stupid and bust-desperate the Feds are. And, of course, the most dangerous are the informants and provocateurs working for the feds. They should be rounded up and beaten brutally.
One interesting thing from TFA is that newer GPS trackers are installed under the bonnet, and powered by the car battery. I can sort of see how one might say you can track cars without a warrant using magnetic, battery powered GPS trackers (like the one in the article), but how on earth can breaking into the car not require a warrant?
If the government has a warrant to track your vehicle with a GPS device, I'm fine with them tracking it.
Some caveats.
1) They should _not_ be allowed onto private property to install said devices. That's a slippery slope. If your property is not private, then what is? If I'm on my driveway, apparently it's fair game "because the UPS driver can walk on it". But what if you park in the yard because too many cars are in the driveway? What if you park around back? What if you park in a car port? What if it's in the garage but the door is open enough to get in? What if... No. Follow me and tag my car when it's in a public place, again, if you have a warrant to do so.
2) If I find a device on my car and I don't know you put it there. It's mine, period. Now, if you tell me its there and that's its government property and I'm legally obligated to leave it there, fine. I can rent a car (I guess that's why they don't tell you). But you can't expect me to just inherently know that the device isn't mine when I had no idea you put it there without my knowledge. For all I know it's a part of the car right out of the factory.
This BS with agents/contractors going onto private property installing devices and then threatening you when you find it... It has to stop.
I read a series of the attached articles. A seperate instance upon which the apparent ruling that allows this particular abuse of power said: "On two occasions, agents sneaked into his driveway before dawn to affix the tracking devices to the undercarriage of his Jeep." Can't you at the very least say that this constitutes trespassing or illegal search? I'm shocked that this doesn't violate constitutionally granted freedoms (privacy, illegal search, etc.)
Ideally, if they install one, they'll put it somewhere that you'll never see it. There are plenty of wonderful places to hide objects on cars. Ask any mechanic if they've ever lost a tool in a car. If they say "no", they haven't been doing the job very long, or they're lying. Those are just the places that things can fall to.
Most cars have plastic/rubber bumpers. Behind the bumper is some sort of material that will crush on impact. Some used hard plastic honeycomb pieces. Some use styrofoam. Those don't always fill all the space, which leaves nice gaps to hide things in.
I had to change my turn signal housings about a year ago. They were cracked. To remove them, the electric raise headlights had to be removed, and some other plastic removed. Only then could I see that there was a space on each side of the front of the car large enough to put a shoebox.
On a car with a grill, how many of you have looked behind the grill to see what may be lurking? I know most people don't. It gets warm there, but it also leaves a nice spot to leave something in plain sight.
For the power wires, that's not really very hard either. Slip the wire into an existing loom, or put an oem-ish one in.
I was helping a friend do some significant changes to the interior of his SUV. As we were pulling stuff out, we came across several boxes of unknown origin. I'm sure they were there since the truck was manufactured, but no one had seen them since. Who pulls the headliner, and all the interior trim parts out? Not too many people. We searched the part numbers, and found that they were indeed factory pieces, but they were for options that weren't included on this particular truck. Behind the radio and throughout the dash has many gaps that you'd never notice. I was installing GPS tracking devices for a fleet (perfectly legitimate, the owners and vehicle operators knew they were there). Most of them had spots that I could mount the oversized box in very nicely, and hide all the wiring away so you'd have a really tough time finding them. I could set up a private or commercial vehicle in about 15 minutes, but I was taking my time and doing everything right.
But, there are plenty of mystery boxes that you simply don't know exist, or you don't know what they do. In 2005, 65% of new passenger vehicles had EDR (Event Data Recorders), which store the last few seconds before an event (i.e., crash). 2006 on, it was suppose to be 100%. I haven't heard too many people asking "What's this box do?". They just accept that it's a piece of the car. In reading up on it, some vehicles may become disabled if it's removed. If people aren't finding or questioning this standard equipment, would they ever notice an extra piece? Probably not unless you duct taped it to the windshield with a note that said "This is a government tracking device, do not remove under penalty of law"
How well it's hidden directly relates to how long the person installing it believes they have, and how adept they are at getting around a security system. If you can disable the alarm and unlock the doors, in most driveways you'd have from 1am to 4am (climb inside, and work with the doors shut). Mounting it outside just adds visibility. Sure, you can put it on, but will a neighbor or passer by stop to find out why you're crawling around under the car in the middle of the night? Surely if a fed was doing it covertly, and the local police spotted him, it would ruin the covert part of the operation.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
I need to point out that we actually don't know why the FBI is tracking this fellow. Every single reason anyone has given for the tracking has been pure speculation. In the original reddit post, the kid even said "we were high when we found it so we thought it was a bomb." So, for all we know, the FBI is tracking him related to a drug sting. There is no indication that blog posts or Muslim community connections had anything to do with it.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Religious extremism is merely a tiny subset in the world of extremism. What all extremists have in common is that they employ an initiation of physical force (coercion, not persuasion) as a means to their end. Indeed, it isn't their ideology or motive that makes them evil; it is precisely the initiation of force (or threat thereof). It is the initiation of force itself that is extreme, and the acute observer will realize that the label "extremist" applies to anyone who resorts to coercion as a means to an end, including schoolyard bullies, thiefs, and (get ready for this) governments.
Many people are fond of claiming that money is the "root of all evil". On the contrary, it is coercion which is the root of all evil, because coercion is the one absolute prerequisite of all forms of injustice.
I have seen two people in Austin misconstrue Castle Doctrine. The first was someone who shot someone who was entering a neighbor's house. The second was someone who tried to shoot at another driver due to road rage.
Both people are facing heavy duty felony prison terms.
To get a concealed weapons permit in Texas requires to take (and pass) classes and be able to at least hit a target which shows that you know which end the bullet comes out of. These classes include knowing that discharging a firearm can bring a lot of charges, even if it is plinking in the air for a new year's celebration. Shooting at a person will be an attempted murder charge, and an assault with a deadly weapon charge on the spot unless there are real special circumstances (self defense, defense of property).
Don't assume Texas is a gun happy, lawless place. Yes, we have concealed carry laws and castle doctrine, but judges here will throw the book at anyone who does not follow the CHL laws to the letter. And yes, even the type of handgun is considered, as there is a CHL for a revolver, and a CHL for a semi-auto.