Man angry with son-in-law fingers him as terrorist to FBI
Published: Friday November 2, 2007
A man in Sweden who was angry with his daughter’s husband has been charged with libel for telling the FBI that the son-in-law had links to al-Qaeda, Swedish media reported on Friday.
The man, who admitted sending the email, said he did not think the US authorities would stupid enough to believe him.
The 40-year-old son-in-law and his wife were in the process of divorcing when the husband had to travel to the United States for business.
The wife didn’t want him to travel since she was sick and wanted him to help care for their children, regional daily Sydsvenska Dagbladet said without disclosing the couple’s names.
When the husband refused to stay home, his father-in-law wrote an email to the FBI saying the son-in-law had links to al-Qaeda in Sweden and that he was travelling to the US to meet his contacts.
He provided information on the flight number and date of arrival in the US.
The son-in-law was arrested upon landing in Florida. He was placed in handcuffs, interrogated and placed in a cell for 11 hours before being put on a flight back to Europe, the paper said.
The FBI contacted Swedish intelligence agency Saepo, which discovered that the email tipping off the FBI had been sent from the father-in-law’s computer.
The father-in-law has been charged with aggravated libel.
He has admitted sending the email, but said he didn’t think “the authorities were so stupid that they would believe anything. But apparently they are.”
He said he “couldn’t help the US authorities’ paranoid reaction”.
So why is he lucky? He got to go home, unlike so many others in Gitmo and elsewhere, denounced for revenge or for money.
Mind you his being Swedish probably helped too.
What a bastard of a father-in-law to do such a thing, and what a bastard of a world where it’s possible to do it.
bjacques
November 6, 2007 at 12:23 pmTerrible, but a great way to enlighten your favorite “the innocent have nothing to fear” fathead. But use a proxy server.
On the other hand, I worked with a guy wrongly accused of armed robbery based on a fuzzy cashpoint camera photo. Even as the mistake became clear, the prosecutor pressed on. Friends helped him raise the money for a defense, so he walked.
But he was the first of us flight controllers (this was NASA) to volunteer for urine tests to set an example. WTF??
Palau
November 6, 2007 at 1:14 pmI expect your former colleague was pre-empting the hassle he’d been programmed to expect by his previous brush with injustice.
Unwarranted accusations’ll do that to a person.
I bet he felt guilty without having done anything at all, so no wonder he jumped at the chance to clear his name right away.
JoeBuddha
November 6, 2007 at 8:48 pmdidn’t think “the authorities were so stupid…”
He don’t know us vewy well, do he?
(…)
Palau
November 8, 2007 at 6:48 amJoeBuddha: I think he’s lying. He knew damned well.
Either that or he’\s been living in a hole since Bush came to power.