Forget the semester abroad - it now proves you're aiding al Qaeda

This is the most absurd thing I've ever heard:

THE FBI IS visiting the nation's top technical universities in a bid to stop students taking their holidays outside the country.

MIT, Boston College, and the University of Massachusetts, have all had a visit from the spooks to warn them about the dangers of foreign spies and terrorists stealing sensitive academic research.

The FBI wants the universities to impose rules that will stop US university students from working late at the campus, travelling abroad, showing an interest in their colleagues' work, or have friends outside the United States, engaging in independent research, or making extra money without the prior consent of the authorities.

The rules are part of guidelines given to administrators by the FBI.

The Feds are convinced that if you are doing any of these things you are likely to be a foreign agent who is nicking technology for foreign powers.

Well, maybe not the MOST absurd. Cheney's recent claim to be the fourth branch of government probably gets that title. But, pretty damned absurd. Just go dump your foreign friends, guys. Perhaps we should lock everyone in a hermetically sealed undisclosed location under ground. Then, we wouldn't need a government.