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The FBI's files on Steve Jobs

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Re: The FBI's files on Steve Jobs

#161

Post by jrockway »

sliverstorm wrote: post #147
morisy wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I can't help but suspect they do this very much on purpose.

Yes. Accidentally leaking information makes it harder for the FBI to gather information in the future, so they ensure that they are very careful when disclosing information. In this case, it makes the information harder to search, but that's why we pay journalists to read the released documents and summarize them for us.

Re: The FBI's files on Steve Jobs

#162

Post by [deleted] »

aklofas wrote: post #121
beatle wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple would've gone bankrupt if Jobs took the position. Instead this happened. Apple now worth more than Google and Microsoft combined http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3572487

Who knows, man. He could have solved world peace, cured aids and cancer, gone back in time and killed Hitler. Instead, this happened. I guess we'll never know...

[deleted]

Re: The FBI's files on Steve Jobs

#164

Post by philwelch »

wbhart wrote: post #149

The confusing thing about this lot is the redundancy. They got at least 15 people to make statements, but it looks like multiple SA's interviewed the same people and they all said pretty much the same thing (with the exception of the one dude who thought integrity and honesty weren't prerequisites for a job in the government). Does this mean all of these people had multiple visits from different field agents? That mu…

Well if someone changes their story, that's suspicious. Some people feel intimidated or trusting or shy or outspoken on different days, when approached by different agents.

Re: The FBI's files on Steve Jobs

#165

Post by philwelch »

DrJokepu wrote: post #134
unreal37 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Curiously enough it's more difficult than you'd think. According to Sports Illustrated, within five years of retirement 60% of NBA players go bankrupt (although I'm not sure how reliable the source is).

When you have a hundred extended relatives reaching out for help, combined with scam artists trying to talk you into "investments", it's easy to go broke.

Re: The FBI's files on Steve Jobs

#166

Post by philwelch »

vacri wrote: post #155
jordan0day wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To expand on liber8's point, the "red scare" and such seems funny and unreasonable now, but it's important to remember that during the cold war, the USA and the Soviet Union were very much enemies . To put it in another way, would we think the FBI was out-of-bounds today if background checks today included determining if the person being vetted (or their family members) were associated with a terrorist organization?…

It's not apparent these days with rose-coloured hindsight glasses, but when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s, there was a very palpable fear that there would be a nuclear war, regardless of actual risk. Certainly there was in the west, a fear that 'those crazy russians' would start something because of ideology. A russian friend of mine says the same was not true in Russia. They were aware of the cold war, obvious…

I think Americans did too, they just weren't sure about Russia's leaders.

Re: The FBI's files on Steve Jobs

#167

Post by davidhollander »

mikeash wrote: post #142
davidhollander wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "communism" can be completely peaceful and nice Perhaps some forms of Anarcho-socialism could be argued to be both completely nonviolent (peaceful) and voluntary (nice). However any form of Communism calling for the abolition of capitalism, which asserts that others do not have the right to continue asserting claims to private ownership of capital independently, most certainly cannot be considered either.

By that measure, no political organization can be considered completely peaceful and nice, making it meaningless to say so about communism. (Excluding full-on no-government libertarians from the above under the assumption that organizing would be contrary to their beliefs.)

Yes, that was my argument. I believe it stands until a semantic context for "completely peaceful and nice" can be proposed that is disjoint in meaning from "nonviolent and voluntary".

Re: The FBI's files on Steve Jobs

#168

Post by karlmarxman »

ArbitraryLimits wrote: post #73
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…

One of my favorite tidbits from "The Best And The Brightest" is that Dean Rusk, President Kennedy's nominee for Secretary of State, had to fill out a security questionnaire like this one, and to the question, "Have any of your relatives been part of an organization whose purpose was to subvert the government of the United States?" he answered "yes" because both his grandfathers had fought for the Confederacy in the C…

i portrayed Dean Rusk in a Model UN simulation of the Cuban Missile Crisis once upon a time, but was not aware of this. Good knowledge.

Re: The FBI's files on Steve Jobs

#169

Post by dman »

yardie wrote: post #67
shimon_e wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't he fired?

No he was put in charge of the advanced research division. They basically stripped him of all managerial duties without firing him. When presented with his new position and title he was like, "F it, I'm outta here!" Firing a company founder is probably the last thing any publicly traded would do. It's just not done. You'd have sympathetic stockholders rioting, the neutral ones now pissed at you, and every last member…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Greene

Re: The FBI's files on Steve Jobs

#170

Post by bbob »

niels_olson wrote: post #126
culturestate wrote: post #15

The most interesting thing in these documents is among the last few pages which appear to be fingerprints (presumably SJ's) lifted from a telephone receiver at SFO. I wonder why? Can't just ask the guy for his prints? EDIT: it appears from further reading that they're related to a bomb threat involving him at SFO. They're labeled as "misc notes on extortion at Apple."

It was almost certainly the caller. Unsub would be an unsubstantiated caller. If I had to guess, I'd go with Burrell Smith.

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