FBI Uses Facebook to Track Down Terrorism Suspects

I’m happy to chalk this one up to being really grateful God is in control.

Like millions of others I have a Facebook account. Unlike some of my 100 or so “friends” on the site, I try really hard not to be a Facebook junkie.

Apparently there are some pretty big fans of Facebook elsewhere–at the FBI.

Fox News reports that the FBI used Facebook to help track down men whom they suspect as terrorists. What makes the story even more intriguing is these are suspects thought to be in Somalia, perhaps the most anarchic place on the globe.

The FBI has been trying to locate 20 Somali-American men from near Minneapolis whom they suspect of going to the African nation for terrorism training. Of course, the FBI won’t elaborate much further because of the investigation.

I find it humorous–and maybe a tad scary–that terrorism suspects are being tracked down on a site whose driving purpose at times seems to be informing you of what kind of latte a high school friend of yours you haven’t seen in 15 years just got at the Starbucks drive-thru. Of course to get that pertinent nugget of wisdom so fast, they would have had to do a status update at the next stoplight on their Blackberry.

Reflecting on the possible seriousness and outright silliness of a social network drives home the absolute necessity to have faith in something more. If our recent economic woes should teach us anything, it is that our creations and what we make of them are so temporary.

And this leads to another probing question: Does the CIA use Twitter?

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  1. Klamarra said:

    Can I get that job?

    March 17, 2009
    Reply

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