FBI created fake Seattle Times Web page to nab bomb-threat suspect

The Federal Bureau of Investigation in Seattle created a fake news story on a bogus Seattle Times web page to plant software in the computer of a suspect in a series of bomb threats to Lacey’s Timberline High School in 2007, according to documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco.

The deception was publicized when Christopher Soghoian, the principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union, revealed it on Twitter. Soghoian called the incident “outrageous” and said the practice could result in “significant collateral damage to the public trust” if law enforcement begins co-opting the media for its purposes. The EFF documents reveal that the FBI dummied up a story with an Associated Press byline about the Thurston County bomb threats with an email link “in the style of The Seattle Times,” including details about subscriber and advertiser information.