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FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

theguardian.com

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Re: FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

#71

Post by gruez »

naravara wrote: post #49
edot wrote: post #2

"Natanson said her work had led to 1,169 new sources, “all current or former federal employees who decided to trust me with their stories”. She said she learned information “people inside government agencies weren’t supposed to tell me”, saying that the intensity of the work nearly “broke” her." Wow. So they're going to plug her phone in to whatever cracking tech they have and pull down the names of everyone who has…

I hope Washington Post does a better job of training their reporters than my friend’s former employer did. They sent her off to a certain country with highly repressive speech laws and secret police to interview and survey various civil rights activist groups. They gave her little to no guidance about how to protect herself aside from “Use a VPN to send any documents to us.” They didn’t even instruct her to use an en…

>They sent her off to a certain country with highly repressive speech laws and secret police to interview and survey various civil rights activist groups. They gave her little to no guidance about how to protect herself aside from “Use a VPN to send any documents to us.” They didn’t even instruct her to use an encrypted email provider or to use a VPN for any online work that didn’t get sent to the employer.

How would those advice have helped?

>an encrypted email provider

Unless this was in the early 2010s the email provider was probably using TLS, which means to the domestic security service at least, is as safe as a "encrypted email provider" (protonmail?)

>FileVault enabled

That might work in a country with due process, but in a place with secret police they can just torture you until you give up the keys.

>password manager

Does the chance of credential stuffing attacks increase when you're in a repressive state?

None of the advice is bad, but they're also not really specific to traveling to a repressive country. Phishing training is also good, but I won't lambast a company for not doing phishing training prior to sending a employee to a repressive country.

Re: FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

#72

Post by lawn »

mikeweiss wrote: post #34
lawn wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they'll have ICE take them and they'll be deported or made to disappear. Some might even end up dying. That's how the US is right now.

That only works if they aren't U.S citizens... Which if they're working for the gov means they are. This administration is creative they will find other more 'legal' ways for retribution so the punishment sticks.

Don't be so gullible.

There are quite a few examples where they did detain US citizens, even claiming that the papers they had weren't good enough.

The president has also multiple times said that he will strip people of citizenship. Yes, it's not exactly legal but they're doing illegal shit all the time and nobody's stopping them.

Re: FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

#73

Post by eunoia »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #61
embedding-shape wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, don't blame the individual (all thought the individual has plenty of individual blame going their way, rightfully so), blame the system. Unless the system changes, it'll continue to let people misuse it to their own gain. Trump was hardly the first one, and depending on how things will go, he might be the last, but "last" in a good way or in a bad way remains to be seen.

I absolutely blame the individual. Who is responsible for the system if not the individual - and the collective thereof? The fundamental problem is the citizen not being educated or caring enough about their own independence and state of being in the framework of a global economy and sovereign nation state

I would highly recommend the book Amusing Ourselves to Death if you are looking to understand how the populace got to the point where truth is irrelevant and nothing really matters.

It helped my mental model a lot at the very least.

Re: FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

#74

Post by an0malous »

iamtheworstdev wrote: post #20
edot wrote: post #2

"Natanson said her work had led to 1,169 new sources, “all current or former federal employees who decided to trust me with their stories”. She said she learned information “people inside government agencies weren’t supposed to tell me”, saying that the intensity of the work nearly “broke” her." Wow. So they're going to plug her phone in to whatever cracking tech they have and pull down the names of everyone who has…

> The following question is "what will they do with the names of the people they pull?". I'll take a shot at the answer -> Charge them with treason. Because that's the country we live in now, and most of us are just sitting by passively watching it happen.

There’s a good fraction of people, especially on this forum, who are actively encouraging this. Posts that criticize the administration consistently get flagged off the front page even when they’re related to tech

Re: FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

#75

Post by embedding-shape »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #61
embedding-shape wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, don't blame the individual (all thought the individual has plenty of individual blame going their way, rightfully so), blame the system. Unless the system changes, it'll continue to let people misuse it to their own gain. Trump was hardly the first one, and depending on how things will go, he might be the last, but "last" in a good way or in a bad way remains to be seen.

I absolutely blame the individual. Who is responsible for the system if not the individual - and the collective thereof? The fundamental problem is the citizen not being educated or caring enough about their own independence and state of being in the framework of a global economy and sovereign nation state

Similar to how we investigate and figure out airplane crashes, the system should not allow you to get into those situations in the first place, that's the solution that works across time, instead of for just individual situations.

For example, how is someone who led/incited an insurrection against the government able to become head of said government? Already there, something is gravely wrong. You don't let undemocratic leaders lead a democratic society. So the system is broken, and the current administration is proof of that.

Otherwise what other commentators said will happen, someone who might even be worse than Trump will eventually lead the country.

Re: FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

#76

Post by lawn »

embedding-shape wrote: post #47
eunoia wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you’re fundamentally right. Trump is obviously the worst we’ve seen yet, but power has been accumulating unchecked in the executive branch’s hands for decades now. Trump is merely a symptom of the problem that is the Imperial Presidency. If we can’t tackle the problem itself we’ll get another politician doing the exact same shit after Trump.

Indeed, don't blame the individual (all thought the individual has plenty of individual blame going their way, rightfully so), blame the system. Unless the system changes, it'll continue to let people misuse it to their own gain. Trump was hardly the first one, and depending on how things will go, he might be the last, but "last" in a good way or in a bad way remains to be seen.

We must blame the system and the individual, otherwise the system will never change.

Re: FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

#77

Post by nickff »

bossyTeacher wrote: post #17
chasd00 wrote: post #4

“ Agents searched Hannah Natanson’s Virginia home and seized devices in inquiry tied to a classified materials case” Right underneath the headline. That’s pretty normal for the FBI, assuming they had a search warrant.

As others pointed out, the problem with this is that you end up with a government that can target any reporter by claiming they have "classified materials". No need to prove what those materials are (because they are classified). This is how third world countries choke journalists.

In the USA, the claim has to be convincing to a judge, so it’s not quite as arbitrary as you indicate.

Re: FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

#78

Post by chasd00 »

CodingJeebus wrote: post #8
chasd00 wrote: post #4

“ Agents searched Hannah Natanson’s Virginia home and seized devices in inquiry tied to a classified materials case” Right underneath the headline. That’s pretty normal for the FBI, assuming they had a search warrant.

No, this is absolutely not normal as the article clearly states. Reporters are very rarely raided in the US under circumstances like these. The problem is that "classified materials" means whatever the government wants it to mean in this context. Is there a journalist you want to target for a particular reason? Just accuse them of handling classified information, which they don't ever have to produce to the public be…

Here’s a less sensational article. The journalist is not even a target of the investigation, the target is a contractor leaking documents.

“ Natanson was told that she is not a target of the investigation, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.

Instead, it appears to be related to an ongoing probe of a government contractor in Maryland.”

https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/14/media/fbi-hannah-natanson-was...

Re: FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

#79

Post by andsoitis »

joering2 wrote: post #44
mikeweiss wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That only works if they aren't U.S citizens... Which if they're working for the gov means they are. This administration is creative they will find other more 'legal' ways for retribution so the punishment sticks.

What difference does it make whether they are US citizens or not? At least DHS is not interested in finding out. And there has been plenty US citizens deported under DHS. https://www.congress.gov/119/meeting/house/118180/documents/... https://www.propublica.org/article/immigration-dhs-american-...

> And there has been plenty US citizens deported under DHS.

Are you sure? Do you mind linking to information / reporting about that? I have not seen any.

Re: FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

#80

Post by kasey_junk »

everdrive wrote: post #68
edot wrote: post #2

"Natanson said her work had led to 1,169 new sources, “all current or former federal employees who decided to trust me with their stories”. She said she learned information “people inside government agencies weren’t supposed to tell me”, saying that the intensity of the work nearly “broke” her." Wow. So they're going to plug her phone in to whatever cracking tech they have and pull down the names of everyone who has…

It's important to note, that the law is not written such that it's only illegal to share classified information when you have a good president. I think a lot of us are very sympathetic when classified information is released to the public due to public interest, concern regarding government action, etc. But it's still illegal. I'm not making a moral claim here. Rather, people who release classified information withou…

But also note the government is punishing people for legal acts as well. It’s perfectly legal to tell a soldier they do not have to obey unlawful orders, in fact in many cases it’s a requirement. But the us military started court martial proceedings against a sitting congressman person for doing it.
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