The FBI's files on Steve Jobs • Hacker News Board

Re: The FBI's files on Steve Jobs

#81

Post by sgentle » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 4:58 PM UTC

mhurron wrote: post #49

emilepetrone wrote: post #21

"Based on the background information furnished by Mr. Jobs, he has no close relatives residing in communist-controlled countries."

Ya there are some odd questions when applying for green cards in US as well. You would like to think that the communist questions are artifacts, but I doubt they are. "Are you or have you been a member of the Nazi party/movement" "Are you or have you been a member of a Communist Organization" "Have you been charged with or convicted of genocide" Who would answer yes to those questions?

It's not illegal to be a member of a communist organisation, or a Nazi, but it is illegal to lie on those forms. Asking those questions is a way of upping the stakes; you either admit you're a commie and they don't let you in, or you lie and you're up on a felony charge for making false statements.

Re: The FBI's files on Steve Jobs

#82

Post by annon » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 4:58 PM UTC

In question 17, he lists two code 9 relatives, which means sister. I thought his only sister was Mona Simpson?

Re: The FBI's files on Steve Jobs

#83

Post by jshort » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 4:59 PM UTC

troymc wrote: post #77

"At the time of his dismissal [from Apple Computer] he was the general manager of the Mackintosh Division of Apple..." Did they spell "Macintosh" with a 'k' back then or did the FBI person spell it wrong? The fruit is spelled "McIntosh".

I also noticed that they address him by "Stephen" and "Steven"

Re: The FBI's files on Steve Jobs

#84

Post by adolph » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 5:01 PM UTC

troymc wrote: post #77

"At the time of his dismissal [from Apple Computer] he was the general manager of the Mackintosh Division of Apple..." Did they spell "Macintosh" with a 'k' back then or did the FBI person spell it wrong? The fruit is spelled "McIntosh".

A Scottish brand of waterproof coat that became a generic name for raincoat is spelled Mackintosh[1]. It could be that the FBI person was being redundant to cover all the spelling bases.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackintosh

Re: The FBI's files on Steve Jobs

#85

Post by unreal37 » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 5:04 PM UTC

joshaidan wrote: post #50

My favourite snippet: "Several individuals questioned Mr. Jobs' honesty stating that Mr. Jobs will twist and distort reality in order to achieve his goals."

So far my favorite: "He added that the Appointee lives within his means financially, however, his means are considerable and the Appointee is worth at least 100 million dollars."

It's easy to live within your means if you're worth 100 million dollars I guess. Unless you are Elton John or Nicolas Cage.

Re: The FBI's files on Steve Jobs

#86

Post by jshort » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 5:07 PM UTC

annon wrote: post #82

In question 17, he lists two code 9 relatives, which means sister. I thought his only sister was Mona Simpson?

I would think he would consider his adopted sister as his second sister.

Re: The FBI's files on Steve Jobs

#87

Post by gyardley » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 5:08 PM UTC

rsmiller510 wrote: post #52

This is outstanding reporting requesting and staying on the request for information, and it's a fascinating look at Jobs and the government process of vetting White House appointments in 1991. Note that they are still obsessed with the idea of anyone belonging to or contributing to the Communist Party and even checked if had relatives in foreign countries who might have been Communists (they couldn't find any). I als…

When I was applying for permanent residency in 2003, this question also came up as part of my interview. I had briefly been a member of a small radical left organization in Canada, back when I was 18 or so - and since I didn't know how in-depth the background check would be, I decided it'd be best to disclose it.

Paraphrasing from memory:

Interviewer: "So, tell me about this thing."

Me: "Stupid kid stuff. I was in college."

Interviewer: "So you don't believe this stuff any more?"

Me: "No, I've made my peace with capitalism."

And that was that.

I came away with the impression that (at least for people from countries lacking a near-term history of guerrilla warfare) this was largely a formality.

Re: The FBI's files on Steve Jobs

#88

Post by GFischer » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 5:08 PM UTC

mhurron wrote: post #49

emilepetrone wrote: post #21

"Based on the background information furnished by Mr. Jobs, he has no close relatives residing in communist-controlled countries."

Ya there are some odd questions when applying for green cards in US as well. You would like to think that the communist questions are artifacts, but I doubt they are. "Are you or have you been a member of the Nazi party/movement" "Are you or have you been a member of a Communist Organization" "Have you been charged with or convicted of genocide" Who would answer yes to those questions?

Well, the Communist party is part of the governing coalition here in Uruguay (the president is a former guerrilla fighter), which has caused a lot of problems (top government officials are not cleared to visit the U.S. because of their past).

And the Communist party has a lot of members here.

Re: The FBI's files on Steve Jobs

#89

Post by jrockway » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 5:10 PM UTC

morisy wrote: post #33

sjtgraham wrote: post #23

I don't know how to check this myself, but are the redactions flattened, i.e. so they cannot be removed, or are they just shapes on a another layer drawn over the relevant areas, i.e. is the redacted data still recoverable by editing the pdf? It wouldn't be the first time a "redaction" turned out to be no more than a mere obfuscation in practise.

They are flattened: The FBI prints out files, redacts them, and then scans them back in. A number of federal agencies do this, really making it a pain to search through documents.

You can upload the PDF to Google Docs, which will OCR it and make the document searchable. This particular PDF, however, is rejected because it's more than 2MB :(

Re: The FBI's files on Steve Jobs

#90

Post by chimeracoder » Thu, Feb 09, 2012, 5:13 PM UTC

smountcastle wrote: post #56

cyrus_ wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SSNs of the deceased are no longer considered private.

From: http://www.ssa.gov/history/hfaq.html Q20: Are Social Security numbers reused after a person dies? A: No. We do not reassign a Social Security number (SSN) after the number holder's death. Even though we have issued over 453 million SSNs so far, and we assign about 5 and one-half million new numbers a year, the current numbering system will provide us with enough new numbers for several generations into the futu…

Hopefully by then people will have realized that a social security number isn't a great way of identifying a person, so it won't be that relevant anyway.