FBI Shows Up At Journalist's Home Over Google Searches About 'Pressure Cookers' And 'Backpacks'

Freelance journalist Michele Catalano, a former music contributor at Forbes and freelancer, received a friendly visit at her Long Island home from six agents from the joint terrorism task force FBI on Wednesday morning.

In March Google reported that the FBI monitors the Web for potential terrorist activity. It appears this situation is a case of that task force in action.

Catalano said she had researched pressure cookers and her husband was looking for a backpack, a combination of terms that raises flags in the wake of bombings at the Boston Marathon on April 15 that killed three people and injured more than 260.

In a post describing the incident, Catalano writes:

Mostly I felt a great sense of anxiety. This is where we are at. Where you have no expectation of privacy. Where trying to learn how to cook some lentils could possibly land you on a watch list. Where you have to watch every little thing you do because someone else is watching every little thing you do.

Catalano says that the agents told her husband that "they do this about 100 times a week. And that 99 of those visits turn out to be nothing."

Here are the tweets:

— Michele Catalano (@inthefade) July 31, 2013

— Michele Catalano (@inthefade) July 31, 2013

— Michele Catalano (@inthefade) July 31, 2013

After the initial scare, Catalano made light of the situation.

I keep thinking those six guys from the joint terrorism task force are sitting around talking about what a mess my house is.

— Michele Catalano (@inthefade) August 1, 2013

Nevertheless, judging by the last two lines of her blog post, the circumstantial gravitas has stayed with her:

All I know is if I’m going to buy a pressure cooker in the near future, I’m not doing it online.

I’m scared. And not of the right things.