FBI on the Fourth of July!

By: David Ben-Ariel  

Learn from my mistake if you don't want the FBI knocking on your door! I had read or heard that if you don't properly LOG OUT that someone who's computer savvy can enter your site and appear as you. Because I was in a hurry the other day, I just shut my computer off without logging out. Today, ironically July 4th, 2 FBI agents knocked on my door and said they wanted to question me. First they said I had to go with them to be questioned and I refused, insisting they could ask me any questions they wanted right here. They said I had to go with them. I asked if they had a warrant. They said they didn't need one, and that that was "new." The one man and black woman ended up questioning me for over an hour here.

They said I had sent a bomb threat to the FBI in New York City against some Hindu festival. I said I did NOT. I told them that I wouldn't do that and am not so stupid anyway, especially since I know e-mails can be traced since I had gone to the FBI last year to report several death threats I had received (which they said they traced to east Jerusalem). They said the threat came from my computer, but that it was made to appear to have originated in Jordan. I don't know how to do that, and didn't do it. It just happens that when I recently didn't log out I had been on an Arab forum at www.arabia.com from JORDAN. Obviously, one of my enemies there abused the situation.

The FBI agents asked if I had any enemies. I said any militant Muslims could hate me for calling upon the Israeli government to build the Temple; that traditional Christians could hate me for speaking the plain truth that contradicts their pagan beliefs; that some Jews could hate me if they thought I was a "missionary," etc. I also gave them the name of the former Church member, an embittered, demon-possessed person who had written Israel that I was going to try and blow up the mosque to stop the peace process. That's why Israel deported me - fears based upon LIES.

I referred the FBI agents to my website at www.benariel.com and to my frequent Jerusalem Post letters, and my book Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall, to clearly see my beliefs that are honestly on record - and ENTIRELY aboveground and LEGAL. I have nothing to hide and am completely innocent, so I spoke with them and wished them a good Fourth as they left. The moral of this all-too-true story: LOG OUT!

But it doesn't end there. I called and complained to the FBI director in this area about being lied to by his agent. The director said I was correct, that there wasn't any change in the law that demanded I go with them for questioning without a warrant.

Later I agreed to permit the FBI to come and copy my hard drive, to further prove my innocence (although some friends were angry that I enabled my rights to be infringed upon). That time the nice black lady returned with someone new, not the Italian man who lied to me. She appeared sincerely interested in my book and biblical beliefs, which we discussed while the fellow was working with my computer. I said if they had any further questions they could call me to come downtown to their office. They must have "solved" their case, because she's since been transferred to Detroit and I haven't heard anything more from them about it. As I told her, I just figured they used that as an excuse to question me and remind me they're aware of me, not that it was necessary at all. She insisted the FBI in New York really had received a bomb threat allegedly from me. God knows.

About The Author David Ben-Ariel, an American author who has travelled widely and who has lived throughout Israel, shares a special focus on the Middle East and great interest in Jerusalem, reflected in hard-hitting articles that help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out www.benariel.com.

This article was posted on September 27, 2005  

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