A California student got a visit from the FBI this week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online. The post prompted wide speculation about whether the device was real, whether the young Arab-American was being targeted in a terrorism investigation and what the authorities would do.
It took just 48 hours to find out: The device was real, the student was being secretly tracked and the FBI wanted its expensive device back, the student told Wired.com in an interview Wednesday.
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Afifi said he often travels for business
| What kind of business would a college student have, and how does he afford to travel often? |
and has two teenage brothers in Egypt whom he supports financially. They live with an aunt. His U.S.-born mother, who divorced his father five years ago, lives in Arizona.
| She didn't like living in Egypt? How very odd. I assume that Egyptian/Muslim law decreed the boys belonged to the father, who then refused to care for them. |
| So he can afford travel and he can afford to support his brothers. In Egypt. Hooookay, it's time to inspect the accounts ... |
Afifi's father, Aladdin Afifi, was a U.S. citizen
| Through marriage to an American woman? |
and former president of the Muslim Community Association here,
before his family moved to Egypt in 2003. Yasir Afifi returned to the United States alone in 2008, while his father and brothers stayed in Egypt, to further his education he said. He knows he's on a federal watchlist and is regularly taken aside at airports for secondary screening.
| So many questions -- and no doubt the answers are quite interesting. We didn't even get as far as asking who his cell phone and internet buddies are... And does anyone here recognize the device in the photo at the link? |
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