January 09, 2004
Almanacs and the internet.
The FBI recently warned people to be on guard against people carrying almanacs, claiming that these handy reference works could be used to research potential targets and such.
"The FBI is warning police nationwide to be alert for people carrying almanacs, cautioning that the popular reference books covering everything from abbreviations to weather trends could be used for terrorist planning. In a bulletin sent Christmas Eve to about 18,000 police organizations, the FBI said terrorists may use almanacs 'to assist with target selection and pre-operational planning.' It urged officers to watch during searches, traffic stops and other investigations for anyone carrying almanacs, especially if the books are annotated in suspicious ways. 'The practice of researching potential targets is consistent with known methods of al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations that seek to maximize the likelihood of operational success through careful planning,' the FBI wrote." [Via
TomDispatch.]
Many sarcastic comments have been made about this, many pointing out that maybe the finest American who ever lived, Benjamin Franklin, himself published an almanac. But what just occurred to me, is that the internet has effectively made almanacs obsolete. All of the information in them, and infinitely more besides, is easily available over the web. Train and plane schedules, abbreviations (???), weather reports, you name it.
So is the next step to shut down the web, and/or to arrest anyone carrying a PDA or portable computer as a potential terrorist? Are they going to start searching and questioning anyone seen in an airport terminal using a computer? Or writing something in a notebook? And aren't there still internet terminals available to the public in airports?
It's pretty funny actually. But in a way it's also rather frightening, since it seems to imply that the FBI is unaware of the amount of info available on the net, and that they really believe that they can actually prevent people from accessing it. Almost pathetic.
And what about chat rooms, discussion forums and so on? Not to mention good old fashioned telephones and faxes. All of which could easily be used to organize a terrorist plot. And what is a "suspicious way" of annotating an almanac? Using a yellow hilighter? Underlining words? Unbelievable.
Another rather strange policy is that of fingerprinting people arriving at airports and cruise ship terminals. I understand the value of this, which actually could be used to trace people. But they are exempting people from Europe, Canada, Australia and other mostly-white nations. Which is absurd. If they're going to take these measures, then take them and make them effective. But to take them while leaving such glaring and obvious loopholes in them indicates an extraordinary degree of incompetence, and an incredibly unrealistic view of the modern world. There are, for example, millions of Islamic people in Europe.
