grocery store loyalty cards

 
The US government used records from grocery store "loyalty" cards to find people
who buy "middle
eastern food"  hoping that they could find terrorists.  This was a blip on
"Democracy Now"

 

WRONG !

However...the story is not true.  Let's see if the pesky fact that all of
this reporting was wrong will make as much news.  Here's the FBI press
release from yesterday:

  We at the FBI were surprised to read about a supposed FBI program to
monitor the sales of Middle Eastern food products in the San Francisco Bay
area in support of counterterrorism intelligence gathering ("FBI Hoped to
Follow Falafel Trail to Iranian Terrorists Here," November 2, 2007).

  Having never heard of this, I spoke to the counterterrorism managers, who
in the story were identified as having hatched the plan, as well as everyone
else who would have had any knowledge of it. Nobody did. At one point in the
story, writer Jeff Stein opines "as ridiculous as it sounds," in reference
to the alleged food monitoring plan, which reportedly was described to Mr.
Stein by "well-informed sources."

  In this case, too ridiculous to be true.

  While the story may have been the source of some amusement, I appreciate
the opportunity to set the record straight on something that touches on
something so important as national security and civil liberties.

  John Miller
  Assistant Director, Office of Public Affairs
  Federal Bureau of Investigation

 

everyone

Even if the story is not true now, it's only a matter of time before similar
shit happens, is reported, and the reports are absolutely true.  -Dave

 On Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:24:26 GMT, in misc.consumers.frugal-living
ediefaber@yahoo.com (elise d faber) wrote:


Never believe anything until it has been officially denied by the government.

 On Jun 8, 6:19 pm, josejar...@ssnet.net wrote:

It's a good thing I buy Middle Eastern food at a small Middle Eastern
market, then.
Ha, ha ha!  They can't catch me.  I can consume bulgur in complete
anonymity.

Cindy Hamilton