The FBI had to abandon a plan to use records from San Francisco grocery stores to spot terrorists; they believed that a spike in falafel sales would lead them to secret Iranian agents.
The brainchild of top FBI counterterrorism officials Phil Mudd and Willie T. Hulon, according to well-informed sources, the project didn't last long. It was torpedoed by the head of the FBI's criminal investigations division, Michael A. Mason, who argued that putting somebody on a terrorist list for what they ate was ridiculous – and possibly illegal.
A check of federal court records in California did not reveal any prosecutions developed from falafel trails.
(via JWZ)
