FBI seizes local Md. library computers

Source: WTOP News

The FBI removed computer records from the C. Burr Artz Library this week, a library official confirmed Saturday.

Darrell Batson, director of Frederick County Public Libraries, said two FBI employees came to the downtown Frederick library either Wednesday or Thursday. The agents removed two public computers from the library's second floor. They told him they were taking the units back to their office in Washington, D.C., Batson said.

Batson expected the computers would be returned early this week, he said.

Debbie Weierman, spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington field office, would not comment Saturday on whether the agency had removed records from the library.



Read more: http://wtopnews.com/?nid=598&sid=1452848

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And they didn't have a court order! Whassup with that?
:wow:

If not, maybe we can get some justice out of the Dept of Injustice :rofl:

...of publicly funded and publicly used computers. Nothing to worry about, America, go back to sleep.

If I were that director I'd likely be out of a job right now for INSISTING they leave and not return without a warrant.

:wtf:

Ivins, trying to go to a safe place? Who?

:)

If we hear about some reporter committing suicide, we'll know who did it.

either a Sikh or a woman in a head scarf using one and panicked, calling the Feds on his/her cell and swearing s/he saw them at an Arabic site that showed a bomb.

This stuff reminds me so much of the McCarthy era. Every time we get a new bogeyman, the Feds go off the deep end with little provocation.

You can bet your bottom dollar there was no warrant, nor will there ever be.

Eventually, they will get so tired of investigating all of these "incidents" they will simply stop doing it, or run out of the money to pay for it.

Since it is against the law to lie to the FBI and simply SAY you saw a middle-eastern person using a computer, you may want to enlist the help of a middle-eastern friend willing to be "reported."

Simply report to the FBI every time you see a human being using a library computer.

"Place carefully under clothing."

:rofl:

Seriously, it could be kiddie porn related. :shrug:

spell edit

They drain a pond, they seize our library's computers...

Methinks the Feds don't have a good enough cover story yet, for driving a guy to suicide.

Locals don't believe the allegations about Ivins btw. They should charge Jerome Hauer... who somehow had the foresight to recommend Cipro to the WH staff on 9/11, BEFORE the anthrax letters turned up. Hmmm, must've been esp... just like his foresight about the West Nile Virus in NYC... and just like his happening to be available to comment on the WTC bombings within minutes of the attack on 9/11. He sure is prepared for emergencies alright!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GDa-L4hHHo


Oh, and Jerry just happened to have a connection to Emergent BioSolutions, which recently got the patent Ivins worked on for anthrax vaccine...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080100404.html


"In March 2000, Ivins and other Army specialists filed to patent a method of making a genetically engineered anthrax vaccine. The patent was awarded in May 2002.

In the wake of the anthrax attacks, the U.S. government contracted with the California company VaxGen to manufacture 75 million doses of the vaccine at a total cost of $877 million. VaxGen's chief executive said his company was licensed to use the manufacturing method created by Ivins and the other Army specialists.

But the chief executive, James P. Panek, said in an interview last night that it would have been "very unusual" if Ivins and the other scientists had received a financial stake in the licensing deal. Although it is common for scientists working for government laboratories and private corporations to apply for patents to protect inventions developed while on the job, it is relatively uncommon for those individuals to benefit personally from products developed and sold as a result of those patents. Panek said that Ivins had no commercial arrangement with the firm.

VaxGen recently sold the vaccine to Emergent BioSolutions of Rockville for $2 million."

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Wellconnected_drug_company_obtained_anthrax_vaccine_0529.html



Ivins didn't stand to gain from the anthrax attacks, but Hauer did. Just sayin'... I'd look there first.

visited it often in the 60s and 90s. My son lives there now.

since you're "just sayin'..."

I have a feeling that there are documents or a journal in that library that spill the beans on the whole operation.

They need to decide if they can call it done or have to worry about more information out there.

The more they can get away with warrantless searches and confiscations, the better their stranglehold on Americans. This public display of fascist arrogance - without a squeal - is just what BushCo wants.

In case you want to theorize about good reasons for doing it this way: It was &*(*^** computers itting on a &*(^&% table! It wasn't a person being held hostage. Power, arrogance, thuggery - just for the pure fun of doing it.

I wonder if this had anything to do with that Rockefeller nut case. They found him in Baltimore.

One doesn't have to do with the other.

this will happen.

Maybe they'll come and get my computer next.:evilgrin:

using public computers could expect. I do think people's library lending records should be private. But if say, this was a huge financial investigation -- wiring money for a drug deal to a swiss bank account -- and it was done on a public computer, then I don't know why sitting down at a computer in a library should give someone an extra shield to their identity...

that good detective work would result in sufficient information to support a warrant. This sounds like a fishing expedition because they knew they didn't have enough for a warrant. If they did then why not take the extra hour to get one?

they've established in "investigating" this case.

with no reason whatsoever. Seize it, copy it, takes notes...whatever they want.

So this doesn't surprise me at all. Saddens me to my core, but doesn't surprise me.

I think that by taking individuals computers this allows any government official to steal Propriatary company secrets and pass them on to Republican competitors.

Once they confiscate someones computer they can share the information with any and all Agencies.

It's all about Corporations with this Administration...don't forget that.

My sister is a big traveler and she went to Cuba,Bolivia and Colombia and said to me that she felt

safer over there than in the US.I always and will always love the American people but your

Government is scaring the shit out of me.:scared:

You are not the first person I've heard say that.

Are you near our border? I have friends in Alberta who are happy that they live quite a ways up.

Hopefully in next 8 years of President Obama you can come down and have a lovely time.

I'll show you San Francisco!


:hi:

Right wing conservative fascists have seen to that. I will use my freedom of speech until they take me away. I refuse to be silent about the criminals in our precious White House. :dem:

As an American living in Egypt, near some major American-owned hotels, I think I have a patriotic obligation here.

Every time I see an American tourist logging into a terrorist website--say, Mikey Savage-Weiner or Fox News or Limbaugh--I should probably report him or her to the Mukhabarat (a/k/a Intelligence Service, a/k/a Secret Police) over here.

;) I got dibs on Chaney's laptop:evilgrin:

The library's procedure for such requests usually requires a court order, however after the agent described the case and the situation, he was persuaded to give them access, Batson said.

"They had an awful lot of information," he said, but he was not allowed to discuss specifics.

"It was a decision I made on my experience and the information given to me," he said.

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Seems clear to me the head librarian was clued in to something we are not privy to.
May want to save the tinfoil for something less benign.

invites abuse and the FBI has already been quite abusive with respect to this case. It's not "tinfoil", it's public record. Ask Steve Hatfil.

may lie in one or more of the since 2001 signing statements. Or executive orders. Or Fatherland Security. Or Patriot Act. (I know they said it was repealed) Or FEMA Or the Unitary Executive. Actually it's probably the latter. Yep. The Good Old Fascist Directive The Unitery Directive.