When Agent Mike plants a tracking device on your car, don't post a picture of it on the Net

[MrScorpio]

Don't Post Pictures of an FBI Tracking Device You Find on a Car to the Internet

On Monday, a guy in California posted pictures of an FBI tracking device his friend found on his car to the social news site Reddit. Tuesday afternoon the FBI showed up at his friend's house and demanded it back.

Reddit user Khaledthegypsy posted this picture to Reddit, asking "Does this mean the FBI is after us?"



He wrote:

Me and my friend went to the mechanic today and we found this on his car. i am pretty confident it is a tracking device by the FBI but my friend's roommates think it is a bomb..any thoughts?
Turns out it was actually a tracking device. Wired's Kim Zetter reports that the owner of the car is a 20-year-old Arab-American named Yasir Afifi. Just 24 hours after his friend posted pictures of the device to Reddit, a couple of FBI agents showed up at Afifi's house, along with four police officers in SUVs and demanded the thing back.

From Wired:

Afifi retrieved the device from his apartment and handed it over, at which point the agents asked a series of questions – did he know anyone who traveled to Yemen or was affiliated with overseas training? One of the agents produced a printout of a blog post that Afifi's friend Khaled allegedly wrote a couple of months ago. It had "something to do with a mall or a bomb," Afifi said.

http://gawker.com/5658671/dont-post-pictures-of-an-fbi-tracking-device-you-find-on-a-car-to-the-internet?skyline=true&s=i

[BrklynLiberal]

1. dumber than dirt............

[Statistical]

22. Why?

He has no right to post photo of what FBI placed on his vehicle without warrant or cause.

Note the tracker was placed WITHOUT WARRANTY soley because he is an Arab American college student.

He is "dumber than dirt" by using his first amendment right to gain information on the subject and expose the FBI warrantless activity.

Really? What other Constitutional rights should he have denied himself to be "smart" just because some FBI agent did something on a "hunch" without warrant?

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

2. Don't take pictures of it... just remove it from your car and put in under

a cop car.

A city bus or a Taxi would work also.

[A HERETIC I AM]

5. A Greyhound bus.

Headed for Calgary.

[MedicalAdmin]

29. Good idea but how 'bout this?

Send by UPS up to one of them Ice Trucker guys (and then ship via them to some remote location.

After a few months have some clerk ship it back to the US and then get it put on either an ocean cargo ship (mail it overseas via ground - not airmail). Have it shipped back and then have it sent to antarctica.

Shit, with a little creative shipping, you could really get the FEEBS worked up into a lather.

[HillbillyBob]

43. Thats a funny idea.

nt.

[Renew Deal]

15. lol

Cop car is pretty funny. They'd track the car being at crime scenes for a few days. lol

[Statistical]

23. Might also be cool to attach it to a baloon.

Might got a long way w/ FBI tailing it before they catch on.

Another option would be to Fedex it across the country. I also like the idea of attaching it to the side of a cruise ship

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

27. I thought of another

Their is a Lawnmower service in the next town and I remember seeing with McPalin type signs all over his trailer.

Funny thing is, EVERY time I see him he is angry, even before McPalin LOST. Don't know why and I don't really don't care.

[DainBramaged]

3. is that a flower on his pants or was he glad to see them?

:rofl:

[Greyhound]

4. Land of the free...

:eyes:

[Hannah Bell]

6. why not? people should just huddle in shamed silence when they're targeted by the fbi?

go off & shoot themselves, what?

did they make it illegal while i wasn't looking?

[DBoon]

9. I agree

Now the next person to find one of these on their car will know what they are

Police state surveillance tactics need to be exposed

[Dash87]

7. Nothing like good police work.

"How did he ever know we were on to him?" :rofl:

♥

[MineralMan]

8. Just take it off and put it on some local GOP politician's car.

That way, the FBI can follow that politician to his mistress's place, the tanning salon, and to meetings with the local USCoC bagman.

[Jester Messiah]

10. "Oh, did you want that back?"

"Sorry sir, I left that at the bottom of a portajohn at a highway construction site. But... shouldn't you know that already?"

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. Why did he give it back?

If the FBI "gave" it to him, it was his to keep and use as he pleases, yes?
:evilgrin:


Seriously, I wonder how many other tracking devices there are on other "suspects"..
did they just target "foreign" people randomly?

wonder if this story resulted in mass car inspections and creative switching of the devices found.

[Statistical]

24. Since judge ruled no warrant is required the FBI could put a tracker on every car in America.

Just because they want to.

[dixiegrrrrl]

35. You KNOW people in any decent sized city are now looking under their cars.

[Statistical]

36. I need to change my oil this weekend I will take a closer look this time.

:)

or maybe :tinfoilhat:

[Turbineguy]

12. OK Officer,

I really have no interest in bombs or terrorists. I just posted that blog to take advantage of the new Mossad policy of using sex to get information.

[golddigger]

13. Lol, well this didn't turn out to good for the FBI.

Now everyone will be checking or taking their car to a mechanic. Stupid as stupid does.

[EC]

14. People still go to malls?

It had "something to do with a mall or a bomb," Afifi said.

[Renew Deal]

16. I was wondering about that line.

I didn't know visiting malls was a problem, unless it's a mall in YEMEN! OMG OMG :D

[MadHound]

17. Oh the last thing I'll do is put pictures of it on the net

My thought is to waterproof it, attach it to something that floats, and dump it in the Missouri River. That should be good for a few laughs.

[MrScorpio]

19. Doubling up your Ziploc bags is always a sure fire winner. nt

[Locrian]

18. THATS a tracking device?! what year is it, 1985?

I guess they make them smaller in the movies....

why couldn't they just plant a cell phone under the car or something?

[Statistical]

26. Cellphones tend to not get good reception close to the ground and under a ton of metal.

Under a car is not an optimal location to either receive a GPS signal or to transmit the location.

That requires more powerful transmitter, more selective receiver. Both require more power and that requires larger battery.

Generally 99% of what you see in the movie is fake. Lastly under a car is generally a "hostile" location for electronics (hot, dirty, road debris, flying pebbles, etc). Anything you put there you want to be able to survive highway conditions.

strap your iphone to the bottom of your car and drive it a couple hundred miles and take a look.

[petronius]

44. The long part is probably a long-life battery

The other bit is a typical size for a GPS receiver plus transmitter. My guess, anyway...

[gratuitous]

20. Another advantage to bicycling

One of those babies would be kind of obvious on a road bicycle.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

28. Walking is even more advantageous.

More obviouser.

[Statistical]

31. If we continue on this path how long before mandated implanted GPS trackers.

The courts say the govt knowing your location isn't an inasion of privacy.

They can use GPS tracker without warrant on anyone at anytime for any reason. How long before these spook agencies decide the safest thing is simply to track everyone at all times. I mean the instant anyone commits a crime or is wanted for questioning they will know where he/she is.

[Matariki]

21. Actually, it seems like a brilliant thing to do.

[petronius]

45. I agree - destroying it or sending it cross-country would probably be illegal

(Not saying it would be wrong or that it should be illegal, just that it probably is.) This way, the actions of the FBI are exposed, and the spotlight is on them to show that they acted properly...

[Statistical]

25. I would film myself destroying it in cool ways and then put it on youtube.

When FBI showed up I would say "How was I suppose to know it was yours"? Alternative I would demand proof it is the FBI. Maybe force the FBI to prove in court that it is their property before returning it and release any court docs to the media. I mean how do I know the tracker belongs to the FBI. I doubt it has a "property of the FBI sticker on it". Wouldn't the responsible thing be to verify the owner before handing it over to strangers.

The other cool option would be to put it on a CIA car. Man how pissed would the CIA be if they found a FBI tracker on their car. :)

[MrScorpio]

30. You're a sick puppy, Stats

I love sick puppies.

[MedicalAdmin]

32. I like the idea of putting on a repub politicians car ...

and then sending them an email (while notifying the local press letting them know that you saw the FBI putting a tracking device on the local repubs car) then emailing the repub with "we know what you did / are doing." And then watching the fun on the evening news as the repub acts weird and the TV crews catch all of it on tape.

[MrScorpio]

33. Remember the movie Enemy of the State...

When Will Smith tricked an FBI surveillance team to go after an NSA covert op?

That sounds like the kind of thing that you suggested.

BTW, emails can be traced... How do you suggest getting around that problem?

[Statistical]

34. secure tunnel proxy to a county that dislikes the US (and thus is unlikely to assist FBI)?

Also encrypt all your incoming and outgoing emails. Always encrypt email delete without reading or responding to any email that isn't encrypted w/ your public key and from a verified party (signed w/ their private key). Also throw in some whole disk encryption and use a secure OS. Lastly have you "last mile" link to the internet be via sat (despite slower speed) and from a provider which accepts cash (none do that I know of)

For most people it isn't worth the hassle to live protected from govt espionage which is why the courts SHOULD (but lately don't) but limits on spook agencies.

[SoCalDem]

37. He should have just put it on a rental car

:)

[Liberal_in_LA]

38. He wasn't breaking the law by taking a pic of it.

[Vinnie From Indy]

39. I would have sold that on Ebay the day I found it

When the FBI came to get it I would show them my new tires and killer stereo.

[mkultra]

40. smart, this effectivley ended his surveliance completly.

[jmowreader]

41. He posted the wrong picture...

"This is a photo of a completely disassembled FBI tracking device..."

[socialist_n_TN]

42. Aren't there enough internet savvy people on the left...............

that could make the Internet post untracable? Or practically untracable? Like post it from a newly created email from an internet cafe or the library in a larger city? I have ABSOLUTELY no idea if either of these ideas would work or not, but surely SOMETHING would.

Anyway something needs to be done. We have to fight back with appropriate force and show they can't totally get away with Gestapo tactics.