PADI hands over all diver records to FBI

[MadisonK]

Doesn't bother me one bit. There has been talk lately about Al Qaeda using scuba divers to carry out terrorist acts. Searching PADI's database seems like a great place to look for these guys. Don't we all wish they had done the same with those taking flying lessons?

 

[BigJetDriver]

---cheap knock off dive gear and all the viagra they can shake their stick at delivered direct to their doorstep---

Well, hey, what else does one need?? Beer at Canadian case prices???

 

[dweeb]

Nope. YMCA required warrants. I don't know if any warrants were actually produced.

They were. Under the Patriot Act, all they have to do is say the magic word "terrorism" and the court isn't allowed to deny it.

 

[dweeb]

Doesn't bother me one bit. There has been talk lately about Al Qaeda using scuba divers to carry out terrorist acts. Searching PADI's database seems like a great place to look for these guys.

Not really. Dive training is available all over the world. There are adequate texts available, and plenty of people who know all they need to train someone, especially someone with a paramilitary background (as opposed to your typical suburbanite mired in learned helplessness.) They could easily assemble everything they needed at a training camp in Afghanistan to train divers, just like they do to train people to fire mortars and RPG's. 747 simulator suites are little harder to come by than a PADI OW text and a couple sets of dive gear.

 

[DiverRick69]

Most terrorists that the US Gov't is concerned about are NOT US citizens.

 

[Quarrior]

Considering the fact I used to be in the military, I figure the only thing the FBI didn't already know about me was that I am now a diver.

 

[DallasNewbie]

They were. Under the Patriot Act, all they have to do is say the magic word "terrorism" and the court isn't allowed to deny it.

I don't know about the first part, but the second part is false. The standards for issuance of warrants are established by the 4th amendment, and the PATRIOT act didn't change that.

 

[kwesler]

yawn...I buy gear online with a credit card, I book travel online to scuba destinations, I subscribe to a bunch of scuba oriented magazines etc etc. If they don't know I am a diver by now, we are DOOMED!

Privacy is a myth anymore...you would have to pay everything in cash (including house and car), subscribe to nothing, belong to nothing, etc. PLUS, if you DO pay cash for the big ticket items, you have to fill out special paperwork, so they get you that way!

 

[jerrynuss]

This is old news. The local FBI office regularly calls me to check on my teaching activity. Just if I had any unusual requests for training and who was asking.
I'm not a PADI instructor so they are just a part of the instructors and agencies being questioned.

 

[MikeFerrara]

This is old news. The local FBI office regularly calls me to check on my teaching activity. Just if I had any unusual requests for training and who was asking.
I'm not a PADI instructor so they are just a part of the instructors and agencies being questioned.

Besides that the FBI agent who asked us for the info in the first place was a diver. He and his girl freind became pretty good customers when I had the shop.