Tim May wrote:
On Wednesday, September 26, 2001, at 10:58 AM, Steve Furlong wrote:
The first two examples that came to my mind were kidnaping and security clearance background checks. While one may debate whether kidnaping should be a federal crime, it _is_, and it's the Feebs' job to investigate it. Similarly with background checks for clearances. Perfectly valid reasons to talk to the Feebs.
Only if you know your coworker or neighbor is a spy.
I've refused to answer questions about neighbors when they were being checked out by the FBI. I told the agents, this was in the mid-80s, that I had no interest in speculating to them about a person I knew only in passing.
I expect a lot of background checks get idle speculation from bluehairs and busybodies.
Because of changes in US living patterns, the FBI has found neighbor interviews to be mostly useless in determining trustworthiness for purposes of security clearances. They're putting more weight on lie detectors now. As of a year ago, anyway, they'd still try to talk to neighbors, but the chance of finding one who knew enough to inform a decision on whether to entrust someone with a clearance was much worse than in decades gone by. The contaminated reports from "bluehairs and busybodies" was a problem in the 80's, and is probably worse now. That doesn't take into account the people who no longer will talk to the Feebs under any circumstances. IIRC, in the late 80's, the Feebs wouldn't tell the neighbors and coworkers why they were investigating someone. I don't know if that was official policy, or just the policy of the investigators who asked me about some of my coworkers. On reflection, I agree with you: unless the investigator told me exactly why he was investigating my neighbor, I'd refuse to give him the time of day. The questionable usefulness of lie detectors is a topic for another diatribe. SRF -- Steve Furlong Computer Condottiere Have GNU, Will Travel 617-670-3793 "Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly while bad people will find a way around the laws." -- Plato