I remember reading another article on HN a few weeks ago (maybe, time flies) where she was planning to go to Berlin. Feels disingenuous for CNN to state she was dodging the FBI if she's been planning to go there.
> "I was worried they'd ask me to do something that hurts innocent people -- and prevent me from telling people it's happening," she said in an exclusive interview with CNNMoney.
This is also fairly convincing:
> Lovecruft had intended to move to Germany someday, but she put those plans on overdrive. She booked a flight to Berlin that weekend, including a return flight she had no intention of taking -- just to avoid raising suspicions.
> I had already been in the process of moving, permanently, to Germany, and had retained a German immigrations lawyer several months prior to these events. [1]
It's not like she just impulsively thought about Germany and left that week. Yes, it was a catalyst, but it seems to me that she was already on the fence, ready to leave. She even said she was waiting for her visa approval to be accepted after the FBI had made a request to interview her.
She bought a return ticket she did not intend to use, to throw the FBI off her trail. She would not have done that if not to avoid the FBI. Given this, and her own statements in the CNN article, the evidence that she timed her departure to avoid contact with the FBI is overwhelming.
Lovecruft had intended to move to Germany someday, but she put those plans on overdrive. She booked a flight to Berlin that weekend, including a return flight she had no intention of taking -- just to avoid raising suspicions.
On Dec. 7, without seeing family or friends, she took a taxi to San Francisco International Airport. She nervously made her way past TSA agents wearing a $1 pair of blue-green aviator sunglasses, unsure if she was breaking any laws by leaving the country.
She changed her plans and (apparently) intentionally masked her intentions. It's an obnoxious headline, but it doesn't seem to be particularly inaccurate.