NEW YORK, June 18, 2007

The Perfect Alibi

An Ankle Device Lets One Man Make The World — And Big Brother — His Witness

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    Tired of being mistaken for a terror suspect, Hasan Elahi has taken to wearing an ankle device that tracks every movement he makes and posts it on a Web site. Sharon Alfonsi reports.

  • Hasan Elahi, a Bangledesh-born American art professor, wears a device that lets the world track his every move. Photo

    Hasan Elahi, a Bangledesh-born American art professor, wears a device that lets the world track his every move.  (CBS)

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(CBS)  The reason almost anyone can find Hasan Elahi isn't because of his bleached hair or florescent green shoes. It's because of a small device on his ankle.

It behaves frighteningly like an tracking ankle bracelet.

Every time he moves, he takes a picture and a GPS pinpoints his location. Then it's all posted on his Web site, CBS News correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi reports, so anyone, anytime, can track his every move from one place to the next.

A lot of people are watching. His site gets 160,000 visitors each day. They view every airport he passes through, every meal he eats and every pit stop along the way.

"You can even see the toilets I used," Elahi said.

Isn't that a little too much information?

"No, no," Elahi said. "I'm all about full disclosure."

Elahi's over-exposed life began in 2002, when the Bangledesh-born American was detained at the Detroit airport for hours by FBI agents.

"Literally out of nowhere he asks me '‘where were you on Sept. 12?'" Elahi said.

Elahi, an art professor, says agents were tipped off that he might be hiding explosives in a storage locker.

"Of course there was nothing there. I went through nine polygraphs — nine polygraphs, back-to-back," he said.

And he passed all of them?

"I guess I did, or I wouldn't be talking to you," he said.

The questioning lasted six months and left Elahi so afraid he would be detained he started telling the FBI before he traveled anywhere.

Then he decided, why just tell the FBI? Why not tell everyone everything?

"OK, government, you want to watch me, come and watch me," he said was his theory.

They are. He says his server shows hits from the Pentagon, the CIA and even the executive office of the president.

"You can accuse me of being a terror suspect, but I can prove to you that I'm not," he said.

Some may see all this as an invasion of privacy — but to Elahi, the 20,000 images add up to a picture-perfect alibi.



© MMVII, CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Video and Galleries from CBS Evening News

Add a Comment See all 13 Comments
by CosmoStarMan June 18, 2007 7:51 PM PDT
What is this guy's website? I think he has a great idea.
Reply to this comment
by Ju-suk.Han June 19, 2007 8:26 AM PDT
CBS blocing by electricty,why other channel?
WHO smuggled my study?
I GIVE YOU


This is perhaps


IRA GIRL QUEEN BIRTH
Reply to this comment
by mitch0927 June 19, 2007 8:40 AM PDT
http://trackingtransience.net/
Reply to this comment
by dukeudevil June 19, 2007 9:01 AM PDT
We are living in very strange times.

No explanation as to why he was detained? Did he commit some crime by being an American not born in America? Or, might it be his name isn't Joe, Robert, Steve, or something equally "American-sounding?"

He must be an American. Quite the ingenious idea to turn his lemons into lemonade.
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by extremophil June 19, 2007 9:58 AM PDT
The perfect alibi (?) It can also be the perfect evidence for prosecution.
Reply to this comment
by gunownerdan June 19, 2007 10:13 AM PDT
If the government has its way, soon everyone will be tracked 24/7 by implanted microchips, "for our safety" of course..
Reply to this comment
by ralan40 June 19, 2007 10:33 AM PDT
interesting concept but wouldn't prove anything since you can be anything or anyone on the internet. One could post anything and it would be difficult to trace.

I should know, I invented the internet (haha)

I'll have to check out the site to see what it is all about.
Reply to this comment
by sty1 June 19, 2007 4:20 PM PDT

The fbi heressas regular folks also and I will bring the cancer a suffering on them 70 times 7...promice
Reply to this comment
by toolmangler-2009 June 19, 2007 6:45 PM PDT
Why didn't he just eait 5 yrs, and Big Brother would have paid for it and put it on him for free.
Reply to this comment
by toolmangler-2009 June 19, 2007 7:27 PM PDT
eait=wait +dumbthumbs
Reply to this comment
by agnim June 19, 2007 10:49 PM PDT
They persecuted this unfortunate America until they made him paranoid. Dam shame.
Reply to this comment
by agnim June 19, 2007 10:58 PM PDT
They persecuted this unfortunate America until they made him paranoid. Dam shame.
Reply to this comment
by kjhk1111 June 22, 2007 7:42 PM PDT
I thought that was my idea. At least I thought of it in 1992. I am writing a book all about my situation.
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