FBI Denies Falafel Data Mining, But CQ Stands By Story

Earlier this month, the internet had a mighty fine chuckle at the FBI's expense after the Congressional Quarterly reported that tech-savvy G-Men had been data-mining Bay Area grocery store records in 2005 and 2006 for suspicious falafel purchases. The ostensible point was to find sleeper Iranian agents who couldn't hide their culinary preferences.

THREAT LEVEL got in on the fun, suggesting that looking for eggplant and saffron - more traditional Persian foods - would have certainly have led the FBI to "right to the mess hall of the San Jose chapter of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards."

But the FBI in D.C and San Francisco now says it can find no such program and in a letter to the editor called the falafel story "too ridiculous to be true," while CQ's Jeff Stein says his sources are solid and he's standing by his piece. The San Francisco FBI told THREAT LEVEL that the Washington bureau would send such a letter, but when we reported that fact, Stein went all threat level orange on us in a comment. His reply to the FBI's denial (below) is a bit more cordial.

In this situation, THREAT LEVEL feels rather like Time's Joe 'I have neither the time nor legal background to figure out who's right' Klein, not knowing whether falafel was data mined or not.

But I did file a Freedom of Information Act request, so maybe I will figure out the falafel mystery months from now.

Dear Editor:

We at the FBI were surprised to read about a supposed FBI program to monitor the sales of Middle Eastern food products in the San Francisco Bay area in support of counterterrorism intelligence gathering (“FBI Hoped to Follow Falafel Trail to Iranian Terrorists Here,” November 2, 2007).

Having never heard of this, I spoke to the counterterrorism managers who were identified in the story as having hatched the plan, as well as everyone else who would have had any knowledge of it. Nobody did. At one point in the story, writer Jeff Stein opines “as ridiculous as it sounds,” in reference to the alleged food monitoring plan, which reportedly was described to Mr. Stein by “well-informed sources.”

In this case, too ridiculous to be true.

While the story may have been the source of some amusement, I appreciate the opportunity to set the record straight on something that touches on something so important as national security and civil liberties.

John Miller

Assistant Director for Public Affairs

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Our response, directed to Michael P. Kortan, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s office of public affairs:

Mr. Kortan:

Like you, we take the issues of national security and civil liberties very seriously, which is why Jeff Stein thought it important to write about the domain management program. His sources described to him the intelligence-gathering program that involved the sales of Middle Eastern food in some detail, and we had no reason to believe that those sources inaccurately portrayed it when the column was published. After conferring further with them upon receipt of your letter, Mr. Stein and Congressional Quarterly stand by the column.

The FBI’s San Francisco office was given repeated opportunities by Mr. Stein to respond to his column before it was published, and declined. An FBI spokesman in Washington did respond, choosing neither to confirm nor deny the existence of the program, and his comments were included in the column. An after-the-fact denial is of less use to readers than one that could have run with the column, but, in the interest of fairness, we will publish it with Mr. Stein’s next column.

If you have any further questions about this matter, please don’t hesitate to contact me. We appreciate you taking the time to communicate your concerns to us. And we appreciate your service to our country.

Sincerely,

Mike Riley

Editor

See Also:

• FBI Mined Grocery Store Records to Find Iranian Terrorists, CQ ...
• FBI Denies Data Mining Grocery Records
• Spy Official Calling Anonymity Dead Simply Summarizing Gov Spying ...
• Before 9/11, NSA Asked Qwest for Network Access, Not Phone Records ...

CC Photo: T-bet