Worrying about the intelligence of the so-called intelligence community... 2003

Okay, so the FBI has warned us to be on the lookout for suspicious people carrying almanacs.

"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.

Y'know, a careful planner who likes to maximize his likelihood of operational success seems like the kinda guy who might just figure out what he was going to blow up before leaving the house instead of wandering around downtown with a big fat frickin' reference book.

But don't you feel safer knowing that the FBI will be dicking around hassling tourists, students and trivia buffs?

(Then again, all this snarkiness should really be directed at the news media who decided to run this story as "everybody look out for strange people with almanacs & report them to the Feds!" instead of "FBI Advises Law Officials To Make Note Of Suspiciously Annotated Reference Material Found In Searches").

Comments

Worrying about the intelligence of the so-called intelligence community...

Okay, so the FBI has warned us to be on the lookout for suspicious people carrying almanacs.

"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.

Y'know, a careful planner who likes to maximize his likelihood of operational success seems like the kinda guy who might just figure out what he was going to blow up before leaving the house instead of wandering around downtown with a big fat frickin' reference book.

But don't you feel safer knowing that the FBI will be dicking around hassling tourists, students and trivia buffs?

(Then again, all this snarkiness should really be directed at the news media who decided to run this story as "everybody look out for strange people with almanacs & report them to the Feds!" instead of "FBI Advises Law Officials To Make Note Of Suspiciously Annotated Reference Material Found In Searches").

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