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FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

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Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

#81

Post by dragonwriter »

vessenes wrote: post #16

FBI + Client Attorney present + University's data scrub + nothing on the public docket likely means FISA court, which is in theory reserved for espionage and terrorism in the US. Most University cryptographic research happens in public these days, so I have a hard time imagining a sequence of events strictly bounded by cryptography research + chinese origin that yields FISA court motions. The real thing to say here i…

> FBI + Client Attorney present + University's data scrub + nothing on the public docket likely means FISA court

No, it doesn't. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court proceedings are only warrant applications for surveillance that cannot be used on criminal trials; targets wouldn't be informed of or represented in proceedings.

Espionage or terrorism charges are handled by normal US District Courts, on the public docket (though certain documents and proceedings within those—or any other—cases dealing with classified evidence are handled under special procedures to preserve the secrecy of the evidence )

Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

#82

Post by lolinder »

Animats wrote: post #74

This hasn't hit mainstream media yet. It should have by now. Disappearing people is not something the US government is allowed to do. Here's Xiaofeng Wang's bio on the Indiana University site.[1] Google Scholar.[2] Archived version of home page at Indiana University.[3] If anybody has a PACER account, please check there. [1] https://alliance.iu.edu/members/member/8580.html [2] https://scholar.google.com/citations?use…

We have no evidence that Wang "was" disappeared. We know that he's nowhere to be found, that the university put him on leave weeks ago [0], and that the FBI recently searched his home. Notably, the university put him on leave weeks before the FBI searched his home.

That sequence is better explained by the hypothesis that Wang vanished himself suddenly and the university called in the FBI to investigate things that they found in the aftermath. (Note that that's still pure speculation, but it's speculation that better accounts for all known facts.)

[0] https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/more-details-on-situati...

Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

#83

Post by radicalbyte »

tptacek wrote: post #63
derbOac wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a problem with any of this being secret one way or another. If someone is detained the public has a right to know about the case. Otherwise it's all abductions as far as I'm concerned.

We don't even know that he's been detained!

Or who has taken him. We rolled up cells of the Chinese security services who would disappear (or worse) Chinese nationals on foreign soil.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/20/explainer-chin...

Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

#85

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

gopher_space wrote: post #66
raverbashing wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Probably being downvoted for the deadpan naivete. Nobody wants to hear "let's just trust the government" right now.

Nobody wants to hear it, but I don't think it's right to call it naivete. The source article says that local media were able to reach a lawyer representing the family, who did say they're not sure what the investigation is about but didn't say anything like "my clients are missing and I don't know where they've been taken". If the FBI hasn't filed formal charges yet, and the targets of the investigation aren't interested in talking to the public or the media, the only options are to wait for more information or engage in wild speculation.

Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

#86

Post by croes »

raverbashing wrote: post #20
_kava wrote: post #9

Sound scary but when looking at the facts, it is probably reasonable. Both the university, the court, and the lawyer seem to not raising any fuss yet, signaling that whatever this is, it likely all legal and severe enough to warrant absolute silence. The employer was likely contacted far in advance for detail not available to the public, and very likely they complied and realized there are serious issues that can tar…

[flagged]

Vanishing people is rarely a good sign.

Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

#87

Post by croes »

raverbashing wrote: post #76
gopher_space wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably being downvoted for the deadpan naivete. Nobody wants to hear "let's just trust the government" right now.

I do agree that the level of trust right now is very low > Both the university, the court, and the lawyer seem to not raising any fuss yet, signaling that whatever this is, it likely all legal I'm not a lawyer to say if it's legal or not, but to me it seems that the university is being cooperative and with due reason

Fear of getting their funding cut.

Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

#88

Post by Fricken »

It sounds like the China initiative is back:

>Two bills introduced by the Republican Party that passed the House of Representatives on September 11, 2024, have been described as reviving the China Initiative. The bills are part of "China Week", a House Republican-led effort to advance China-related legislation

>The China Initiative was a program by the United States Department of Justice to prosecute potential Chinese spies in American research and industry, in order to combat economic espionage. Launched in November 2018, the program targeted hundreds of prominent Chinese-American academics and scientists, of which an estimated 250 lost their jobs. Many more had their careers negatively impacted and the prosecutions also contributed to at least one suicide.

>According to a Bloomberg News analysis of the 50 indictments displayed on the China Initiative webpage, the program had not "been very successful at catching spies." Most of the cases listed by December 17, 2021, involved individual profiteering or career advancement by the accused, rather than state-directed spying. Despite this, many of these indictments portray the alleged crimes as for the benefit of China. Seton Hall University law professor Margaret Lewis described this as "a conflation of individual motives with a country’s policy goals" that has led to the criminalization of "China-ness."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Initiative

Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

#89

Post by outer_web »

hypeatei wrote: post #14
packetlost wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The university would likely not have scrubbed them from their site if they were merely being deported. There are either espionage concerns or this guy solved prime factorization.

I think both things can be true: this involves espionage and the FBI collected what it needed then "disappeared" them.

> Neighbors say the agents announced "FBI, come out!" over a megaphone. A woman came out of the house holding a phone.

Then they are really selling the ruse that they don't know where he is.

Re: FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

#90

Post by tw04 »

lolinder wrote: post #82
Animats wrote: post #74

This hasn't hit mainstream media yet. It should have by now. Disappearing people is not something the US government is allowed to do. Here's Xiaofeng Wang's bio on the Indiana University site.[1] Google Scholar.[2] Archived version of home page at Indiana University.[3] If anybody has a PACER account, please check there. [1] https://alliance.iu.edu/members/member/8580.html [2] https://scholar.google.com/citations?use…

We have no evidence that Wang "was" disappeared. We know that he's nowhere to be found, that the university put him on leave weeks ago [0], and that the FBI recently searched his home. Notably, the university put him on leave weeks before the FBI searched his home. That sequence is better explained by the hypothesis that Wang vanished himself suddenly and the university called in the FBI to investigate things that th…

[flagged]
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