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FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

arstechnica.com

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

#131

Post by gtirloni »

lolinder wrote: post #105
slg wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the long list of problems caused by the government "disappearing" people (which they have objectively been doing lately) is that it destroys trust and therefore makes even valid legal proceedings seem more shady than they would in a world in which due process was a universal guarantee in practice. I don't fault anyone for jumping to conclusions implicating the government is in the wrong here rather than Wang.

> 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…

> This case is notable because no one seems to know where this man has gone

If this was simply a missing person case, wouldn't the local police be involved instead of the FBI? If it's still in the FBI's jurisdiction (odd), wouldn't they have something to say instead of nothing?

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

#132

Post by dale_huevo »

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…

> This hasn't hit mainstream media yet. It should have by now.

Is it typical for the media to write stories when spies surreptitiously sneak out of a country?

I speculate this guy was long gone before the feds kicked in his door. Assuming he and his wife were indeed spies of course. Right now we cannot confirm or disconfirm that, but the narrative fits it so far.

> Disappearing people is not something the US government is allowed to do.

Do you have any sources that this guy was vanned, besides the very reliable Ars Technica comments section crying about 'fascists' and random schizos on BlueSky?

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

#133

Post by cluckindan »

01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote: post #78
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…

[flagged]

I want to get off Mr. Bones' wild Haskell course.

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

#134

Post by dragonwriter »

dale_huevo wrote: post #132
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…

> This hasn't hit mainstream media yet. It should have by now. Is it typical for the media to write stories when spies surreptitiously sneak out of a country? I speculate this guy was long gone before the feds kicked in his door. Assuming he and his wife were indeed spies of course. Right now we cannot confirm or disconfirm that, but the narrative fits it so far. > Disappearing people is not something the US governme…

[flagged]

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

#135

Post by lolinder »

slg wrote: post #127
lolinder wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, it's possible, but it's also speculation. You can't rationally use speculated possible hushed-up disappearances as evidence to fuel further speculation: there lies the road to totally unhinged conspiracy theories. If we see more cases like this one of someone disappearing without a trace and their disappearance getting documented but not explained, I'll accept this one as evidence to fuel future speculation. Un…

My first comment was not speculation. I only speculated in my second comment to highlight how your rather definitive "they haven't been "disappearing" people in the manner that would have to be happening here" was also in fact speculation.

Point taken.

Better said: We have no evidence that they have been disappearing people in this manner. We also, clearly, have a large body of people who are on guard for any such possible evidence, so I would reasonably expect that if it were happening with any kind of regularity we would have seen it by now. There's a possibility that this is instance #1 and we see repeats. If we do see repeats, I will happily engage in speculation that this is a pattern and the government may in fact be disappearing people.

Until then, the known facts don't match a government disappearing program as well as they match other possible explanations.

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

#136

Post by dcrazy »

yieldcrv wrote: post #122
perihelions wrote: post #24

- "None of this is in any way normal," Matthew Green, a professor specializing in cryptography at Johns Hopkins University, wrote on Mastodon. He continued: "Has anyone been in contact? I hear he’s been missing for two weeks and his students can’t reach him. How does this not get noticed for two weeks???" Prof. Green also posted about the vanishing of Prof. Wang here on HN the other day, https://news.ycombinator.com/…

I’m missing the chronology here So he was missing for two weeks already and then the FBI raid occurred Friday? Who was the woman at the house if not his wife

The woman was at their second home, which I am guessing she was renting as a tenant.

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

#137

Post by irundebian »

dragonwriter wrote: post #91
giantg2 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of court was Drake tried in?

Drake who? Whoever, it wasn’t FISC, because FISC doesn’t have jurisdiction to do any trials.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_A._Drake

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

#138

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

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"?

It's clearly not true that everyone is properly documented.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/lawyers-advocates-say-48...

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

#139

Post by lurk2 »

perihelions wrote: post #24

- "None of this is in any way normal," Matthew Green, a professor specializing in cryptography at Johns Hopkins University, wrote on Mastodon. He continued: "Has anyone been in contact? I hear he’s been missing for two weeks and his students can’t reach him. How does this not get noticed for two weeks???" Prof. Green also posted about the vanishing of Prof. Wang here on HN the other day, https://news.ycombinator.com/…

> But HN is an increasingly difficult place to discover such stories, what with the systematic flagging brigades.

What stories are getting flagged?

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

#140

Post by tlogan »

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.

We don’t know whether Xiaofeng is a U.S. citizen, a Chinese national, or holds some other status. He’s been in the U.S. for at least 20 years. He hasn’t been arrested, but it’s unclear whether he’s been located or is currently missing.

Let’s not spread misinformation. This could turn out to be a simple criminal case. He might even be a victim. Or it could be something bigger—maybe a spy case, or even something on the scale of Watergate. At this point, no one really knows.

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