DHS and John Lennon
 

Can't get the link here, but just saw on Yahoo News where the FBI seized a fingerprint card of John Lennon from a New York memorbilia shop.

The article stated that 'the DHS was interested in the card too.'

... does DHS have to do with a JL fingerprint card in a memorbilia shop?

A security issue????? Thank God I no longer pay taxes for this idiotic organization...

If I were the shop owner, I'd have destroyed the card before giving it to the authorities.

+1

Looks like DHS is addicted to spending our money. I wonder if they drove down the block with a bunch of cars, flashing lights and sirens going..

BBC News:

FBI seizes Lennon fingerprint card from auction house

I wonder what they'll want next...

A. Michael Jackson's ear wax
B. Billy Joel's saliva
C. Madonna's lipstick
D. A jock strap worn by Boy George

Personally, my bet is on (D). TSA has already shown that their agents have both underwear and crotch fetishes.

Funny, somebody else just sent me a link to the story in the NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/ar...MiR0cFrmzE2R9w

From that story:

Yet despite the display of federal investigative force, the interest in Lennon’s fingerprint card may turn out to be prosaic, perhaps having to do with ownership of government property. On Wednesday an F.B.I. spokesman, James Margolin, said there was an “investigation into how that item came to be up for auction.”

Yeah, lets tie up a ton of man hours for an old fingerprint card.

I would presume that the major concern is not the fingerprint card itself, but the failure of control processes that allowed it to be released in the first place.

Given that the government is already collecting a ton of data on people, I would hope that there are control processes to prevent the unauthorized release of that data.

Since when did the government care about privacy? Are the Feds now going to track down every decades-old clerical document floating around out there, or are they just PO'd that someone is making money from the sale of this particular one?

This story suggests the card may be stolen property - note mention of the theft from Lennon's lawyer's office, which, considering the estimated value of the card, would seem to make it legit for law enforcement to confiscate it until true ownership could be determined.

Out of an overabundance of paranoia...Think of the children....

The fingerprints were taken for an immigration application Lennon made. Thus, if the print card were stolen before being submitted to the FBI for processing, it is actually a DHS record. And possibly misappropriated by a DHS employee. (Okay, more likely a former employee of an agency now part of DHS, but still...)

funny it happened on what would have been his birthday....

Articles I read said the papers were stolen from JL's lawyer's office, how do you blame that on a federal employee? :confused: You're accusing them of breaking and entering now?

His attorney claims it was stolen from his office, yes. But according to the article, the FBI believes it was government property.

I'm just trying to explain why both the FBI and DHS might have a claim to ownership of said property.

Perhaps it is government property. If someone breaks into my home and steals my passport or Social Security card, that would be theft of government property that is in my possession.