A salvage diver wants to go find bin Laden’s body to see if he’s dead or if it’s all psy-ops. The ocean isn’t that big a place, so that should go pretty well.
Dude says he’s never missed finding a ship he went after, which must mean he hasn’t gone after very many ships, or else he personally sank all of them in his bathtub. If he finds bin Laden’s body, I’d be willing to give him 10 bucks to go after Blackbeard‘s treasure hoard for me.
ALSO: This would probably have given us a payment to cover at least a few hours’ worth of federal deficit:
The Pentagon admitted last year that it could not account for over $8.7 billion in Iraqi reconstruction funds, and that about $2.6 billion of it was sent out without any documentation at all.
Investigators said in 2005 that Bush officials apparently neglected to put procedures in place to track the money or hold recipients accountable for its proper applications.
The sent pallets of cash to Iraq, all with no detailed plan. Hard to imagine how that could go wrong.
AND THEN: The FBI is apparently set to unilaterally declare that agents can search its databases for your info, go through your trash, or deploy surveillance teams on you with due cause
just because they want to. At least in some cases:
Mr. German said the change would make it harder to detect and deter inappropriate use of databases for personal purposes. But Ms. Caproni said it was too cumbersome to require agents to open formal inquiries before running quick checks. She also said agents could not put information uncovered from such searches into F.B.I. files unless they later opened an assessment.
The new rules will also relax a restriction on administering lie-detector tests and searching people’s trash. Under current rules, agents cannot use such techniques until they open a “preliminary investigation,” which — unlike an assessment — requires a factual basis for suspecting someone of wrongdoing. But soon agents will be allowed to use those techniques for one kind of assessment, too: when they are evaluating a target as a potential informant.
Agents have asked for that power in part because they want the ability to use information found in a subject’s trash to put pressure on that person to assist the government in the investigation of others. But Ms. Caproni said information gathered that way could also be useful for other reasons, like determining whether the subject might pose a threat to agents.
The new manual will also remove a limitation on the use of surveillance squads, which are trained to surreptitiously follow targets. Under current rules, the squads can be used only once during an assessment, but the new rules will allow agents to use them repeatedly. Ms. Caproni said restrictions on the duration of physical surveillance would still apply, and argued that because of limited resources, supervisors would use the squads only rarely during such a low-level investigation.
It’s incredible how often, in recent years, we read variations on the same thing: we reserve the right to invade your privacy, but don’t worry, we promise we won’t invade it too much. We all know how much legal weight such promises carry.
Didn’t we used to have a constitution that addressed these things?
