Despite all the advances, human error can still trump modern technology.
The Portland Oregonian reports that the FBI’s efforts last July to record Mohamed Mohamud first talking about taking part in a terrorist bombing plot in Portland failed because the tape recorder went dead.
“Put simply,” the government wrote in court paper filed Thursday, “it was human error: the device was accidentally turned on hours before the meeting time and therefore ran out of battery power as the meeting began.”
Mohamud’s lawyers have claimed their client was entrapped into participating in a plot to kill and maim thousands at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland on Nov. 26.
The paper reports that the first utterances in the case could be very significant.
The paper reported that legal scholars say “the FBI’s botched recording will make for interesting arguments in court because first utterances of criminal intentions are pivotal in entrapment cases.”
