Do people believe whatever the FBI tells them?

[bugscufle]

State crime lab analyst Kathryn Troyer was running tests on Arizona's DNA database when she stumbled across two felons with remarkably similar genetic profiles.

The men matched at nine of the 13 locations on chromosomes, or loci, commonly used to distinguish people.

The FBI estimated the odds of unrelated people sharing those genetic markers to be as remote as 1 in 113 billion. But the mug shots of the two felons suggested that they were not related: One was black, the other white.

In the years after her 2001 discovery, Troyer found dozens of similar matches -- each seeming to defy impossible odds.

The FBI laboratory, which administers the national DNA database system, tried to stop distribution of Troyer's results and began an aggressive behind-the-scenes campaign to block similar searches elsewhere, even those ordered by courts, a Los AngelesTimes investigation found.

At stake is the credibility of the compelling odds often cited in DNA cases, which can suggest an all but certain link between a suspect and a crime scene.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dna20-2008jul20,0,5133446.story

[Av8rTx]

Another question to ask is "do people believe whatever the LA Times reports?

[bugscufle]

They both make errors.

Perhaps the next questions are which one makes the most errors and which errors have the worst consequences for a free people?

[Runt_Pup]

IF, and that is a BIG IF, you have a brain in head, and you know how to use it, you'd be well served not to believe everything you read, see, or hear. Even if the FBI says it's so!
I am afraid there are just too many people who are to lazy to think for themselves, or to investigate matters that have an immediate or future impact on them. They'd rather believe the first thing that neatly fits into current happy pardigms.
Political Promises are one such Kumbaya thing, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation can be counted on muck up the truth to anything. * Like for instance, UFO's have never flown over Washington DC! Even though there is filmed footage of it taking place by TV news crews.
I'd say, if it comes out of a Government Office, and is an Offical Statement, then I'd be highly skeptical about it!

[pinetreefarm]

I believe nothing any part of what "our" government says. I gave up that nonsense after Civics 101. Who do I blame for this? "We", the people. We have become fat, indulgent, self-absorbed people.

Our educational systems have managed after spending billions of dollars to dumb us all down. (well, not quite all) Of course the pols tell us that all we need to do is "revamp" the system and only costing a few billion and everything will be great... yeah right....sigh.

A bridge falls down and now the entire highway system needs redoing. Only cost....a few billion. No worries.

Now oil companies are making a profit....heaven forbid in this United States of America...any would think we had a capitalism system. and who let us get "addicted" to those fast cars, those snowmobiles, those four wheelers. Where were we when the food markets shifted from local to regional, then international. Did we say...stop...maybe this isn't safe. Maybe milk trucked thousands of miles has what in it preventing it from going bad. No...we like the "small" price.And let's have an international highway cutting our nation in half and we get to pay for it...oh goody (clapping hands) Won't my grandchildren love paying for that.
Now with lots of black dirt plowed under and McMansions built one after another...now the local growers are gone....but your land values have increased so you are smiling...until you want to sell. Remember that real estate agent telling you that your house is an "investment" for your retirement.Now just what was it that Barnum, Bailey said about a fool...hummm. it has slipped my mind.

On and on it goes, the shoe industry...gone. the clothing industry...gone. The car industry...well certainly not the "big" 3. Where were we...watching the TV, I guess. and who do we listen to....Katie Couric, for pete's ske.

Pine
(spleen thoroughly vented)

Edit: The usual disclaimers apply here. No intention of hurting anyones feelings. Don't think I have "dissed" any particular minority group or accused any one particular person.

[bugscufle]

Before killing himself last week, Army scientist Bruce Ivins told friends that government agents had stalked him and his family for months, offered his son $2.5 million to rat him out and tried to turn his hospitalized daughter against him with photographs of dead anthrax victims.
The pressure on Ivins was extreme, a high-risk strategy that has failed the FBI before. The government was determined to find the villain in the 2001 anthrax attacks; it was too many years without a solution to the case that shocked and terrified a post-9/11 nation.

The last thing the FBI needed was another embarrassment. Overreaching damaged the FBI’s reputation in the high-profile investigations: the Centennial Olympic Park bombing probe that falsely accused Richard Jewell; the theft of nuclear secrets and botched prosecution of scientist Wen Ho Lee; and, in this same anthrax probe, the smearing of an innocent man — Ivins’ colleague Steven Hatfill.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26044996/

[bugscufle]

Feds were mostly relying on circumstantial evidence against 'weird guy

' Lacking hard proof, U.S. federal prosecutors relied on the process of elimination and circumstantial evidence to finger Bruce Ivins as the anthrax killer.
Their case might be compelling, but it is not airtight.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26067619/