Muslim student sues FBI over GPS tracking device placed on his car without a warrant

Straight from Boing Boing: “The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) this week filed a civil rights lawsuit against the FBI on behalf of Yasir Afifi, a Muslim-American student of Egyptian descent who lives in Santa Clara, California.

Mr. Afifi last year discovered a strange gadget attached to the underside of his car, when he took his car in for an oil change. He was afraid it was a pipe bomb. A friend of his then posted photos of Reddit, asking if anyone knew what it was. With the help of savvy internet observers, and civil rights groups including the ACLU and CAIR, Afifi soon figured out that this was a secret GPS tracking device, placed by the FBI without a warrant to spy on his movements and activities. News of the internet attention spread to FBI agents, who then demanded he return the device to the bureau.

Here’s an overview of the lawsuit at AP, San Francisco Chronicle, SJ Merc, CNN.

Here is a PDF of the suit, via CAIR.com.

Video, from CAIR.com: Is FBI Using GPS Devices to Spy on Muslims?”

Copenhagen Suborbitals shooting for human in space

Straight from Boing Boing: “This ain’t no SpaceShipOne. Copenhagen Suborbitals is a Danish group of maverick researchers hoping to launch a human being into space on a rocket booster vehicle. The nosecone holds one astronaut in an upright position, “with a full view through a polymer plexiglas-dome to experience the entire ballistic ride.” From the Copenhagen Suborbitals mission statement:

‘We are currently developing a series of suborbital space vehicles – designed to pave the way for manned space flight on a micro size spacecraft.

Two rocket vehicles are under development. A small unmanned sounding rocket, named Hybrid Atmospheric Test Vehicle or HATV and a larger booster rocket named Hybrid Exo Atmospheric Transporter or HEAT, designed to carry a micro spacecraft into a suborbital trajectory in space.

The mission has a 100% peacefull purpose and is not in any way involved in carrying explosive, nuclear, biological and chemical payloads.

We intend to share all our techninal information as much as possible, within the laws of EU-export control.’”