Anonymous Coward
User ID: 5062954
 Hong Kong
11/10/2011 08:39 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Obama administration to defend warrantless GPS tracking of citizens at the supreme court [ link to www.wired.com] Busted! Two New Fed GPS Trackers Found on SUV
As the Supreme Court gets ready to hear oral arguments in a case Tuesday that could determine if authorities can track U.S. citizens with GPS vehicle trackers without a warrant, a young man in California has come forward to Wired to reveal that he found not one but two different devices on his vehicle recently.
Then things got really weird when police showed up during a Wired interview with the man.
The young man, who asked to be identified only as Greg, is one among an increasing number of U.S. citizens who are finding themselves tracked with the high-tech devices.
The Justice Department has said that law enforcement agents employ GPS as a crime-fighting tool with “great frequency,” and GPS retailers have told Wired that they’ve sold thousands of the devices to the feds.
But little is known about how or how often law enforcement agents use them. And without a clear ruling requiring agents to obtain a “probable cause” warrant to use the devices, it leaves citizens who may have only a distant connection to a crime or no connection at all vulnerable to the whimsy of agents who are fishing for a case.
Afifi believed he was being tracked by authorities for six months before a mechanic discovered the device on his car when he took it into a garage for an oil change. He apparently came under surveillance after the FBI received a vague tip from someone who said Afifi might be a threat to national security. Afifi has filed a suit against the government, asserting that authorities violated his civil liberties by placing the device on his vehicle without a warrant and without suspicion of a crime. His attorney, Zahra Billoo, told Wired this week that she’s requested a stay in her client’s case, pending a ruling by the Supreme Court in the GPS tracking case now before it.
The Obama administration will be defending the warrantless use of such trackers in front of the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning. |
Anonymous Coward
User ID: 5101102
 United States
11/10/2011 09:22 PM
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Report Copyright Violation | Re: Obama administration to defend warrantless GPS tracking of citizens at the supreme court .
... from what I see happening ... Barry OWNS the Supremes ... to their very black robes ...
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