FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

Post by scythe » Sun, Mar 30, 2025, 9:00 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #5

The fact pattern doesn't fit well with ICE, because Indiana University cooperated with the investigation (and struck him and his wife from their pages). The track record of espionage investigations against people of Chinese origin is not great, so it's not a defense of this investigation to say that that the details rhyme with that rather than immigration.

Post by orochimaaru » Sun, Mar 30, 2025, 9:01 PM UTC

cma wrote: post #103

orochimaaru wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn’t immigration. He’s a tenured professor and already has permanent residency at the very least. He is most likely a US citizen. FBI is most likely dealing with an espionage angle. His research field of cryptography and using it to protect genomic data probably has something to do with it. The US govt track record on stuff like this is quite abysmal with several researchers having their career and livelihood d…

Permanent green card residents have been sent to El Salvador prisons without trial in the recent stuff. This incident does say it was with a court behind it though.

Post by orochimaaru » Sun, Mar 30, 2025, 9:02 PM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #111

orochimaaru wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn’t immigration. He’s a tenured professor and already has permanent residency at the very least. He is most likely a US citizen. FBI is most likely dealing with an espionage angle. His research field of cryptography and using it to protect genomic data probably has something to do with it. The US govt track record on stuff like this is quite abysmal with several researchers having their career and livelihood d…

ICE has and is arresting US Citizens ICE is immune to prosecution for improper behavior so they've dialed that up to 11 this year Who exactly is going to stop them? Courts just say "don't do that" and they nod

Post by lolinder » Sun, Mar 30, 2025, 9:02 PM UTC

slg wrote: post #108

lolinder wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> by the government "disappearing" anyone (which they have objectively been doing lately) Notably, they haven't been "disappearing" people in the manner that would have to be happening here. Even the most egregious cases, which are very bad, have left a paper trail for lawyers and journalists to follow. This case is notable because no one seems to know where this man has gone. But yes, point taken: the extrajudicial…

>Even the most egregious cases, which are very bad, have left a paper trail for lawyers and journalists to follow. How can you be confident in this? Is it possible that you are saying this because the only cases we know about are when they have happened to leave "a paper trail for lawyers and journalists to follow"?

Post by rolph » Sun, Mar 30, 2025, 9:04 PM UTC

mimsee wrote: post #102

rolph wrote: post #32

if you look around, you can find, reconstruct a c.v. this guy is someone you dont want the badguy to get ahold of. AI research in an adversarial context is dual purpose tech, and could easily awaken ITAR

So if AI research is dual-use tech, would an AI research er be dual-use human, and get travel restricted because of weapons export controls. Dude is a weapon!