Fresh off new Snowden-leaked revelations that the NSA has the ability to record and monitor all Internet activity, came this curious tale from writer Michele Catalano where the she claimed that a chance combination of innocuous Internet searches prompted a visit from a "joint terrorism taskforce." You may have seen it tweeted about or shared on Facebook, or even seen Ms. Catalon's fuller re-telling in The Guardian. Turns out it wasn't exactly true.
An tweet shortly after she found out about the investigation.
In the original telling of the story, Catalono describes as "a confluence of magnificent proportions," as six officers from a non-specifically named agency came to her home for a casual visit on Wednesday morning. Catalano believed the search was prompted by a weeks-old combination of Google searches she performed for "pressure cookers" and a separate search her husband performed for "backpack" in possible conjunction with her 20-year-old son's following of links for online bomb instructions mentioned in a CNN.com article.
Catalono was not home during the 9 AM visit, but her husband and son were. The officers performed a cursory casual search around the house and asked a few questions such as "Have you ever looked up how to make a pressure cooker bomb?"
The officers then left and clearred the household of any suspicions. Still a crazy story, right? Well, perhaps it wasn't quite as crazy as it might seem.
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