CQ: Hoping To Catch Terrorists, FBI Followed Falafel Trail
EmailHoping to catch Iranian terrorists in the United States, the FBI analyzed California grocery sales records to find patterns in the sales of Middle Eastern items, according to Congressional Quarterly’s Jeff Stein. The veteran national security writer reported that in 2005 and 2006, FBI agents "sifted through customer data collected by San Francisco-area grocery stores," with the idea that "a spike in, say, falafel sales, combined with other data, would lead to Iranian secret agents." Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage. An FBI spokesman declined to confirm or deny whether the FBI conducted such a data-mining effort. "It sounds pretty sensational to me," Stein quoted spokesman Paul Bresson as saying. The U.S. counterterrorism community has long feared that Iranian agents have infiltrated the United States and could launch terrorist attacks here in retaliation for a military offensive against their country. Bresson confirmed to CQ’s Stein that the FBI has recently "increased its focus" on one Iranian-backed terrorist group, Hezbollah, with an eye towards "the potential presence of Hezbollah members on U.S. soil." Do you have a tip for Brian Ross and the Investigative Team?
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I’m not buying into the fear mongering tactics. If terrorists attack, there is nothing the FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, or anybody can do about it. It’s kind of like predicting a tornado…good luck. But the press releasing news just to induce fear into the masses is repulsive. I’m not buying it, tho…I’ll live my life the way I always have and I’ll die when God wants me to come home. Fear Mongering is for desperate politicians who fear losing control of the masses because they are doing such a pathetic job.
Posted by: VeteranD | November 6, 2007, 2:49 pm 2:49 pm
Well here comes another ridiculous item about the “war on terrorism”. So, people who eat felafel are terrorists? How simplistic and inane. So what do you call people who do this – the food police?!!! What utter and complete nonsense.
Posted by: alioth | November 6, 2007, 2:55 pm 2:55 pm
Idiots!
Posted by: capersfortoday | November 6, 2007, 3:54 pm 3:54 pm
I eat falafel, cous cous,tabouleh and am not even of eastern culture.
so I think this is a little silly.
Posted by: zee | November 6, 2007, 3:55 pm 3:55 pm
This is the worst sort of journalism and crime fighting effort. What a joke? Maybe they can start taking stool samples from public restrooms to see if the terrorists are using public bathrooms next.
As the first poster said, its fear monginer plain and simple, nothing more.
Posted by: Kamosa | November 6, 2007, 4:08 pm 4:08 pm
I’m wondering how this is done? Unless there is an entire Iranian military here, I can’t see how the FBI can detect anything from observing the falafel buying patterns. Especially in a place like the SF area which is incredibly diverse. Let’s provide a scenario where there are 25 Iranian terrorists in a given area. Let’s further speculate that they buy their food at more than one store? Their purchases might be too spread out to amount to any tell tale spike (which is statistically discernible from the general “noise”, or the rise and fall of general purchasing patterns). Unless the FBI are thinking that these terrorists would be grouped in one small geographic area within a metropolitan area, such as a neighborhood or a block within a neighborhood. On second thought, perhaps the FBI is trying to figure something out by “releasing” this story…
Posted by: Tnette | November 6, 2007, 4:44 pm 4:44 pm
Which is more incriminating that I buy Falafel mix once a month which I do because it is healthy or excercising a still percieved freedom of speech in a quickly becoming facist America!
Posted by: GM | November 6, 2007, 4:57 pm 4:57 pm
IF this really happened then everyone associated with the effort, at all levels, should be immediately fired due to undeniable stupidity. Only incredibly stupid people would have ever imagined that this had any point at all.
Posted by: commonsense | November 6, 2007, 5:10 pm 5:10 pm
What a ridiculous waste of money and time.
Posted by: BTL musings | November 6, 2007, 5:17 pm 5:17 pm
We the people need to demand an anti-war movement, strike. The press radio stations need to kick it off, anti-war songs from the past. Melanie Safka’s “Lay Down”, kick it off. Still, the press appears to be a part of the problem, take their orders from thine “elect”.
Posted by: mikey | November 6, 2007, 5:27 pm 5:27 pm
Fearmongering is actually for 24 hour news networks competing with one another, all trying to stretch 2 hours of noteworthy daily news into a full day/night cycle. Politicians don’t need to do it when they know the press is more than willing to take that ball and run all the way home with it themselves. Regarding VeteranD’s comment, I agree that the next attack will likely come at us from a direction we’re not prepared for, and it’s likely we will not be prepared. But even when that happens, there will be another Congressional investigation, and elected/appointed officials will be put on the hotseat once again with questions demanding to know why they didn’t do more, they should have seen it coming, etc. Rubbish. Hindsight is always 20/20 you see, and it’s a lot easier to microanalyze events and procedures after the fact than it is to take EVERY possible contingency into account beforehand. Personally, I would rather we just have Congress hold hearings to determine who perpetrated said attack, then prosecute the guilty with hydrogen bombs and call it a day. If any US agencies or individuals are responsible for “dropping the ball”, let the history books sort that out later.
Posted by: Steve | November 6, 2007, 5:31 pm 5:31 pm
You can’t protest against a war that was started by somebody else. If you don’t want to fight, that’s fine. But no amount of visualizing world peace or “playing nice” will prevent Muslim extremists from continuing to try to infiltrate this country and its interests, or from launching attacks against its citizens. Anyone that honestly thinks pulling out of Iraq and/or Afghanistan will make us safe is simply kidding themselves.
Posted by: Steve | November 6, 2007, 5:39 pm 5:39 pm
I can’t believe you people!
It’s always the GOP’s fault. You complain if they didn’t use ALL of the tools to catch a terrorist.
If you don’t like it here in the US, get out. I sure there are plenty of other countries where you can live.
Posted by: z | November 6, 2007, 5:41 pm 5:41 pm
I have been married to a man from Iran for 28 years and neither of us has ever eaten falafel. My husband thinks it is an Arabic dish….NOT Iranian. That the FBI would use a cartain food item to look for a certain type of people is stupid…to use the WRONG food item to look for a certain type of people is too stupid for words.
Posted by: Yvonne | November 6, 2007, 5:58 pm 5:58 pm
Bet Fox’s Carnival Barker, Bill O’Reilly won’t report on this! Doubt he ever says the word ‘falafel’ again! lol
Posted by: Pat | November 6, 2007, 6:13 pm 6:13 pm
First of all, falafel is not a Persian food, never was. It is in most Israeli deli/bistros and of course, Arabic cafes. There are no similarities between Arabs and Iranians other than the fact their nation is plunked in the Middle East. Their style of cooking is closer to Asian than any other.
The name IRAN is a Greek word for ARYAN…for the obvious reasons.
Linking Arab/Iranian is as blatantly ignorant as implying Chinese and Russians are the same simply because they are on the same continent.
Secondly, the Iranian’s have not attacked anyone in FIVE CENTURIES, even though Western nations have occupied and pillaged theirs repeatedly. Even when Bush the First blew up one of their civilian planes in Iranian airspace in 1988 — the Iranians still did not retaliate/attack anyone.
Thirdly: if you want to find the Iranians, try Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Ave, Barney’s, Mercedes and BMW dealerships spending their hard earned money via being a highly educated valued employee here and around the world.
Posted by: Begonia Buzzkill | November 7, 2007, 11:13 am 11:13 am
The Iranians have been behind most terrorist attacks against americans since Jimmy Carter. This includes the Beirut baracks bombing in particular and many other attacks.
Posted by: Damnthetorpedos | November 7, 2007, 8:09 pm 8:09 pm
Maybe this joke of an administration could spend less time tracking falafel sales, and more time looking for those weapons of mass desctruction we invaded Iraq for.
Posted by: Tom | November 7, 2007, 10:00 pm 10:00 pm
Begonia… I might agree totally that tracking falafel sales is pretty silly. However, I take issue with the second point.
.
Secondly, the Iranian’s have not attacked anyone in FIVE CENTURIES, even though Western nations have occupied and pillaged theirs repeatedly.
.
I seem to recall a very long conflict with Iraq. Of course, Saddam opened that War because the new and improved Islamic Iranians were busily murdering their own military. Additionally, they have funded hizbullah, the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, and Kurdish groups near Turkey. They will tell you that they intend to commit genocide against the Israeli nation and by extension anyone who aids them. they have also snatched American and English soldiers from international waters.
Stable and Peaceful they are not.
At least the government isn’t. It will take a few years for the current regime to squander all the education that has occurred in the last 30 years. Then Iran will be like most other theocracies, increasingly idiotic. But this one will be armed and reasonably funded.
Posted by: Haliburton-Tourettes | November 7, 2007, 10:50 pm 10:50 pm
If you read the story carefully, it appears to be the reporter who brings up Falafel. What the story started out as is beyond our knowledge. I happen to live near a grocery store owned by immigrants, and there are a number of items they sell that I don’t even recognize and would have no idea how to use. Some of them are very high priced. I’m sure there are many Iranian foods that would leave me just as confused, and when I was in the US, I saw some stores sold items with the only the safety labeling and expiration dates in English. So it doesn’t seem completely beyond reason to try to follow a person who has disappeared from view by tracking sales of something they are far more likely to buy than the average person. After all, looking at it from the reverse angle,if you even hear someone even say “Fava Beans and a Nice Chianti”, you woould look up knowing who you expected to see, wouldn’t you? :-)
Posted by: Faraway Assumption | November 7, 2007, 11:51 pm 11:51 pm
Thats the kind of hair raising spying the libs are so afraid of. Gee, somebody might notice a trend of female razor sales or something just before a lib gathering.
Most americans aren’t so ignorant they don’t know what a suspicious foreigner looks like or acts like. Its called PROFILING for you sugar brains and yes, when you see a middle eastern fellow dressed in white looking like he has just sucked up a wad of opium you might want to duck and plug your ears. Don’t bother dialing 911, you will either be dead or alive in which case you will join the ranks of patriots who are just racist.
Posted by: Apen | November 12, 2007, 5:44 am 5:44 am
salut
Posted by: hosni | January 15, 2008, 7:25 am 7:25 am