Rants

[Kinnolo]

"FBI says paying for morning coffee with cash is potential terrorist activity."

"(NaturalNews) Purchasing a cup of coffee using cash instead of a credit or debit card, using Google Maps to view photos of sporting event stadiums and large cities, and installing software to protect your internet privacy on your mobile phone -- these and many other mundane activities are now considered to be potential terrorist activities by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). And the agency is now distributing a new series of flyers as part of its new "Communities Against Terrorism" (CAT) program that urges shop owners and others to report such "suspicious" activity to authorities.

"The Communities Against Terrorism program is funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance through the SLATT Program to provide law enforcement agencies with a tool to engage members of the local community in the fight against terrorism," writes SLATT.org, the program of the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance that is promoting the program, on its website. "To assist law enforcement in the outreach effort, templates of flyers containing potential indicators have been created for distribution to specific industries" (https://www.slatt.org/CAT).

The SLATT program offers both on-site and online training (indoctrination) for coffee shop owners, financial institution employees, tattoo shop artists, and many others into how to spot potential terrorist activities. Included among the many propaganda flyers the FBI is distributing as part of the campaign are ones for how to spot terrorists at local hobby shops and beauty supply stores, for instance, as well as flyers for owners of farm supply and home improvement stores (http://publicintelligence.net).

This little gem warns internet cafe owners to watch out for and report customers that always pay for their coffee with cash, as they could be terrorists (http://info.publicintelligence.net). Another ridiculous flyer intended for owners of boat shops warns them to be on the lookout for people interested in becoming certified scuba divers, as they could be terrorists (http://info.publicintelligence.net).

Be sure to check out the entire set of flyers here:
http://publicintelligence.net

A few years ago, this type of outlandish fear-mongering and Stasi-style spying on citizens would have been considered a crazy conspiracy theory by many. But today, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with its "See Something, Say Something" campaign, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) "First Observer" citizen spying program, and the TSA's Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response" (VIPR) internal checkpoint force, together with the new FBI spying program, are making this police state nightmare in America a tangible reality (http://www.naturalnews.com/034867_TSA_Super_Bowl_surveillance.htm
l)."

Are you #### serious FBI? You're THAT #### RETADRDED?!?!?!

#### I pay for things like morning coffee with cash, and I have a program to make what I do on the internet private. Well ASMB, I might disappear for having common sense. If I do you know what happened.  

[JQuest15]

So....I am now a Domestic Terrorist for doing a simple everyday thing?


.....Well that blows.

[westpark]

Its a vestige of the Bush years. The FBI is still paranoid about various 'potential threats.'

I hate banks. They've screwed me in the past. And I prefer to pay for stuff with cash just because its quicker & there's no potential for crazy fees that take even more of my money.

Violent crime is down across the board. Police in all levels of govt need layoffs. Without fear -- how can they justify their existence? We need more social programs & less military/security spending.

[anDaibhalsHusair]

That's, uh...just plain stupid. I'm not clicking the links because I'm too tired to search for inconsistencies or check sources, so I'm going to focus on a single idiosyncratic.

Assuming the majority of the terrorists in question are both of Islamic persuasion, and the extreme fundamentalist type, they are not going to meet allah with graffiti on the holy temple they've committed to him. That said, tattoo parlors are out of the question.

[PiginthecityBlue]

It's called lockdown.

[KnightStar]

You need to think of it like this.

All this list of every day things that the FBI has dedicated as, "Terrorist Activities" is, is a thinly veiled attempt at clamping down on information on the web.
The government is using legal means to invade our privacy as never before in this country.

In short this is just the long arm of Big Brother being ever closer to the American citizens throat.

[Zaphod_209]

Rat out your friends or family members and get a $25 Wal-Mart gift card.

[Rorschach_Reborn]

I wish I was suprised by this but i'm not.

This is exactly what happens when you give the government too much power.

Insane bull#### under the guise of national security.

[mumbojummie13]

It will also get swept under the rug just as easily when the media complaints start flooding in

[_Star_Wolf_]

Everyone is guilty now.

[PiginthecityBlue]

My boss got a call about this a long time back when they first started to send these flyers out. They are uncomfortable with people who pay in cash because cash doesn't leave a big of a footprint as credit, because they fear American revolutionaries not so much "Terrorists"

The new national ID card plays a role in this idea, but the fear is justified because there are some out there who do not like the decisions being made.

[GinaSzanboti]

How much is a cup of coffee these days?  oO   I know Starbucks is expensive, but I don't need credit to buy one yet, do I?

But let's say I was a terrorist.  How does buying food or drink with cash suggest a threat to the nation?  150 pounds of fertilizer with cash, maybe, but a mocha latte and a bagel?

"See Something, Say Something" - What am I supposed to say?  OMG!  Someone just paid cash for their coffee!  Come investigate right now before they get away!!

Now that I think of it, that would be a great way to show the stupidity of this.  If shopkeepers flooded the FBI with calls every freaking time someone paid with cash.  For anything.

[Mjöllnir]

People who buy Starbucks are funding terrorism.

[PiginthecityBlue]

It could mean you're living off the radar which brings into question "why"

If fear is used enough, paranoia will happen.

It also states on the flyer, "just because someone acts suspicious doesn't mean they are."

With NDAA and the use of torture if need be, it doesn't matter how people respond to questions lol

[Kinnolo]

The only way to rationalize this new level of retardation is by saying that using cash leaves no paper trail to who bought it.

[GinaSzanboti]

It's coffee!  Who cares who bought it?  oO

[PiginthecityBlue]

Let's say a guy buys 2 cups of coffee, he pays with cash, but he comes alone.

Perfectly normal and who cares right?

Well, with NDAA you could be brought in and have interrogation used on you, it may not do anything but agents of the crown can give you a hard time or worse yet perp you for a crime (as in accuse you of a crime and arrest you on the spot and sentence you without trial, legally) if you don't report on your fellow countrymen who pay in cash, or even worse yet, torture you until you admit to a false crime (or give up the whereabouts of your family member who spoke his or her mind against something he or she didn't like that happened to be anti government) just to make the torture stop.

Desperate times calls for desperate measures, and the powers get paranoid and very controlling especially when they feel they are losing control.

If that isn't at all possible, then why is NDAA even in existence?

[MafiaFlood]

That ####'s ridiculous.