The irony is that the Clinton Administration was accused of deferring to politics over intelligence warnings that Boeing was inadvertently or carelessly leaking technology to China.
How a federal spy case turned into a child pornography prosecution
71–80 of 178 posts
Re: How a federal spy case turned into a child pornography prosecution
#72If, during the entire history of the USA, some FBI agents had never been proven to be corrupt, if judges had never been proven to be corrupt, if evidence had never been proved to be planted by authorities, then maybe, just maybe this would be justified. In the real world, however, this is very, very scary and I consider myself lucky I am not subject to this travesty. Since there does not appear to be any proof that h…
I'd also add that the FISA court rubber-stamps almost all government requests.
http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/foreign-intelligence...
Re: How a federal spy case turned into a child pornography prosecution
#73The main problem I see is this: > His attorney said his defense was hampered by an inability to obtain basic information about how the evidence was obtained and on what specific grounds the warrant was issued. Authorities can obtain secret warrants and conduct ordinary criminal investigations with it, conveniently withholding the evidence from the defense attorney on the grounds that it was obtained under FISA. So no…
Jail time for storing a pattern of bits? I will stand up and say that's unjustified. The ridiculous basis of the concept is exactly what causes this screwed up regime with no possible discernment between the crime and being framed for the crime.
We see the same patterns arising for the only-slightly-less preposterous idea of criminalizing possession of psychoactive substances - uniformed thugs planting a bit of an utterly innocuous substance into a victim's possession, and then riding the legal fiction (/moral panic) to carry out their personal vendettas.
By all means, find the criminals performing the real physical crime of child abuse and throw away the key, keep such images off of Google etc so we don't stumble upon them, etc. But criminalizing bit patterns just puts us all in the position where we can be arbitrarily imprisoned and unsympathetically prejudged as repugnant.
Re: How a federal spy case turned into a child pornography prosecution
#74Tell me again why well-off American programmers continue living in that country without the most basic of human rights? It's time to go. You can still access us-east-1 from the civilized bits of Europe, you know. It has now been between 2 and 10 years since the time where it became totally unreasonable to continue living there while other options are available to you. Don't wait until the trumped-up federal charges.…
> Tell me again why well-off American programmers continue living in that country without the most basic of human rights?
1) If we all abandon ship, who will be left to argue that this is wrong?
2) A number of countries in Europe lack substantial protections for the freedom of expression. This stuff is only known in the US because its extremely difficult to shut people up.
3) A number of countries are as heavily, if not more heavily, invested in using the tools of the state [surveillance, etc] against the domestic population.
4) The simple fact is if the Government [in whatever country] puts you on their list of people to destroy, you will be destroyed 9 times out of 10. There is substantial xenophobia in both the US and Europe that is fueled by a combination of terrorism, wages, immigration, and a "Fuck you, I have mine" mentality. The US may be swinging heavily in one direction at the moment, but many European countries have been as bad in the past.
5) Please list countries which you consider "enlightened" and I'll tear them down to size if that is your desire.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/opinion/the-french-surveil...
> Mr. Valls, who announced the bill on the day after the deadly attack at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis and as France still reels from the terrorist attacks in Paris in January, has assured the nation that the bill “is not a French Patriot Act,” a comparison to America’s post-9/11 law. But, in a statement on the bill, the Digital Council, which advises the French government about technology’s effects on society, referred specifically to Edward Snowden’s revelations of the extent of United States government surveillance, warning that the bill proposed by Mr. Valls would open the door to similar excesses in France.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/24/france-big-brot...
> The constitutional council made only minor tweaks to the legislation, which human rights and privacy campaigners, as well as the United Nations, have described as paving the way for “very intrusive” surveillance and state-approved eavesdropping and computer-hacking.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/03/french-pa...
> French parliamentary deputies, defying government wishes, have voted in favour of penalising smartphone makers which fail to cooperate in terrorism inquiries, entering a controversy that has pitted the FBI against Apple in the United States.
Similar laws exist in other EU countries.
Re: How a federal spy case turned into a child pornography prosecution
#75If, during the entire history of the USA, some FBI agents had never been proven to be corrupt, if judges had never been proven to be corrupt, if evidence had never been proved to be planted by authorities, then maybe, just maybe this would be justified. In the real world, however, this is very, very scary and I consider myself lucky I am not subject to this travesty. Since there does not appear to be any proof that h…
And yet a jury convicted him. This kind of thing is far beyond the comprehension of the common juror. Knowing what I know about computer security and how EASY it is to plant digital evidence without leaving a trace, even from thousands of miles away, I'd have to see video evidence of the defendant downloading the material as it happens before rendering such a verdict, especially if it's going to mean decades in prison.
Re: How a federal spy case turned into a child pornography prosecution
#76And the child porn charge doesn't really matter to the prosecutors. They offered to drop it in return for espionage data. The insidious part of all of this is that everybody is guilty of something. And for a sufficiently connected person, you can find a sufficiently broad law that you can charge them with a serious crime. Combine that with selective enforcement (witness the absence of charges in the wake of the subpr…
// I can handout a million vaccinations -
// Or let 'em all die in exasperation.
// Have 'em all healed from their lacerations,
// Or have 'em all killed by assassination.
// I can make anybody go to prison,
// Just because I don't like them.
// And I can do anything with no permission; // I have it all under my command, because -
// I can guide a missile by satellite // By satellite
// And I can hit a target through a telescope // Through a telescope
// And I can end the planet in a holocaust // In a holocaust
- 'flobots - handlebars'
Re: How a federal spy case turned into a child pornography prosecution
#77If, during the entire history of the USA, some FBI agents had never been proven to be corrupt, if judges had never been proven to be corrupt, if evidence had never been proved to be planted by authorities, then maybe, just maybe this would be justified. In the real world, however, this is very, very scary and I consider myself lucky I am not subject to this travesty. Since there does not appear to be any proof that h…
And yet a jury convicted him. This kind of thing is far beyond the comprehension of the common juror. Knowing what I know about computer security and how EASY it is to plant digital evidence without leaving a trace, even from thousands of miles away, I'd have to see video evidence of the defendant downloading the material as it happens before rendering such a verdict, especially if it's going to mean decades in priso…
[deleted]
Re: How a federal spy case turned into a child pornography prosecution
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
>but the Federal Government is completely sitting on it. Arguably in a democracy we Americans should all be blaming ourselves for that. Because of the whole voting/paying attention/holding elected officials accountable thing. The Federal Government is representative of our collective ability to do that well, plus our historic ability to do that well I suppose.
> Arguably in a democracy we Americans should all be blaming ourselves for that. I'll accept the blame for spending so many years falling for the two-party system. For that I'll take my blame. But for voting for candidates who turned out to be nothing like they presented themselves? Who outright and repeatedly lied during election season? (and here I'm talking about more than just the presidential level) I'm a reason…
Booted. That's a laugh. They get paid handsomely to leave.
Re: How a federal spy case turned into a child pornography prosecution
#79If, during the entire history of the USA, some FBI agents had never been proven to be corrupt, if judges had never been proven to be corrupt, if evidence had never been proved to be planted by authorities, then maybe, just maybe this would be justified. In the real world, however, this is very, very scary and I consider myself lucky I am not subject to this travesty. Since there does not appear to be any proof that h…
And yet a jury convicted him. This kind of thing is far beyond the comprehension of the common juror. Knowing what I know about computer security and how EASY it is to plant digital evidence without leaving a trace, even from thousands of miles away, I'd have to see video evidence of the defendant downloading the material as it happens before rendering such a verdict, especially if it's going to mean decades in priso…
In the US, juries are not required to follow the law:
SOURCE: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification
RELATED TEXT: "A jury can similarly unjustly and illegally convict a defendant on the ground of disagreement with an existing law, even if no law is broken (although in jurisdictions with double jeopardy rules, a conviction can be overturned on appeal, but an acquittal cannot)."
Re: How a federal spy case turned into a child pornography prosecution
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
So, you'd rather have weapons yourself than an accountable government? That explains a lot, I feel.
I'd like both, actually, but I guess your strawman allows you do just dismiss other perspectives. I want a government accountable to the people, and the right to bear arms was meant to ensure that. The removal of arms turns a citizenry into subjects.
It doesn't seem to be doing a particularly good job of ensuring it at the moment.