Posted on 10/17/2010 12:24:32 AM PDT by jerry557
SAN FRANCISCO Yasir Afifi, a 20-year-old computer salesman and community college student, took his car in for an oil change earlier this month and his mechanic spotted an odd wire hanging from the undercarriage.
The wire was attached to a strange magnetic device that puzzled Afifi and the mechanic. They freed it from the car and posted images of it online, asking for help in identifying it.
Two days later, FBI agents arrived at Afifi's Santa Clara apartment and demanded the return of their property a global positioning system tracking device now at the center of a raging legal debate over privacy rights.
One federal judge wrote that the widespread use of the device was straight out of George Orwell's novel, "1984".
"By holding that this kind of surveillance doesn't impair an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy, the panel hands the government the power to track the movements of every one of us, every day of our lives," wrote Alex Kozinski, the chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a blistering dissent in which a three-judge panel from his court ruled that search warrants weren't necessary for GPS tracking.
But other federal and state courts have come to the opposite conclusion.
Law enforcement advocates for the devices say GPS can eliminate time-consuming stakeouts and old-fashioned "tails" with unmarked police cars. The technology had a starring role in the HBO cops-and-robbers series "The Wire" and police use it to track every type of suspect from terrorist to thieves stealing copper from air conditioners.
That investigators don't need a warrant to use GPS tracking devices in California troubles privacy advocates, technophiles, criminal defense attorneys and others.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Big brother better watch out.
Just move it to a local police car and shut up.
Jack
I wonder how hard it would be to shove it up a horses rear end....
FR has changed a lot lately. A few years ago, there would have been knee-jerk anti-Muslim comments within the first three replies. Wow...there are actually conservatives here now.
The Feds will be watching all foreign students.
But they won’t be the only ones.
Private citizens also have access to the same grade of surveillance hardware if not better.
These possible terrorists can complain all they want, they may have found the loopholes to get into America. But while America is still the land of the free we are also permitted to act individually and independently of the legal system, in other words the law of the frontier applies.
Conservatives aren’t anti-Muslim? Since when?
Or someone (who was once a Fed Agent) who is pro Law Enforcement and supports any effort to uncover anyone who may wish to do us harm....
This tactic (and its being uphelf by some courts) is beyond the pale and should frighten all law abiding citizens and those who believe in the Constitution.
I hate the thought of siding with anyone who "may" be involved with Jihad, but the Feebs were wrong here and should have gotten a court order.
Today it's someone who is suspected of some terrorist activity; tomorrow it could be one of us who belongs to the Tea Party Movement or a Pro 2nd Amend group as we know that the head of the DHS (That Mooncalf, Moron) working with the Commies (Southern Poverty Law Center) has already designated Vets, anti-big gov't groups, etc. as "Threats!"
Wishe this had happened to me. I can guarantee they would not gotten their device back or if ordered to do so by a court, it would have looked like a jigsaw puzzle.
One of the worst consequences of an unnecessary level of legal immigration, student visas and the unrestrained invasion is that constitutional freedoms become impossible.
Not all conservatives are anti-Muslim. Some of us would even say it's US global over reach and stupid war-mongering that is a real cause for the terrorism some Muslims (and others) exhibit.
You have pre-submitted to Islam. Take a good look at the Muslims swamping Europe and taking it over 25-40 years down the road. That sure has a lot to do with US foreign policy
Islamic doctrine says Jihad is not over until the whole world is Muslim
So, would you infer that "some Muslims" and others are merely riding in on white horses to save the world from the eeevilll USA?
If Muslims aren't the real problem, how does one explain that they are the predominant source of populace-oppression and glory-killing on the planet Earth?
What other entity takes so much time and effort preaching hate, intolerance and killing of "infidels"?
Since YOU brought it up... screw muslims.
LLS
A few years ago Obama was not in charge
Does this explain Muslim atrocities in Indonesia, Egypt, Chechnya et al?
And what "others," may I ask?
Nah. People who say that are liberals, and far left ones, at that. Last time I looked, Noam Chomsky wasn't considered a conservative.
But perhaps that is what constitutes a conservative in Massachusetts these days, that state have fallen totally away from the values it engendered during the American Revolution.
Global socialism?? The track record of socialism is far worse than Islam (as bad as that is).
THe guy I was responding to inferred the USA was the problem that brought about "some Muslims" to resort to terror.
Happy Freeping
Your wife can put one of these on your car and track you.
Anyone can. It’s so simple an idiot could do it.
Forget the FBI. Any person who desires to know where you are can use these things.
Privacy went out the door long ago. Your ointernet is tracked for every site you go to, your emails easily hacked, even your bank account and with the new health care Bill your health records will soon be public information.
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