First 100 Pages of Aaron Swartz’s Secret Service File Released • Hacker News Board

Re: First 100 Pages of Aaron Swartz’s Secret Service File Released

#11

Post by unclebucknasty » Tue, Aug 13, 2013, 3:39 AM UTC

kibibu wrote: post #9

unclebucknasty wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Question for anyone who might know: does a judge sign off on what is redacted and the justification for doing so? Redacting names of investigators, etc. makes sense here, but when entire paragraphs are redacted, it makes you wonder if FOIA requests are really worthwhile?

Not an answer, but this might tell you whether FOIA requests are much good: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/05/justice-departm...

Wow. I think that's pretty much the answer. Thanks.

Re: First 100 Pages of Aaron Swartz’s Secret Service File Released

#12

Post by anigbrowl » Tue, Aug 13, 2013, 5:07 AM UTC

thezach wrote: post #3

the one thing I can conclude from reading this.... is the secret service needs a serious technology upgrade

Budgets are tight, FOIA compliance is way down the list. Congress likes keeping the executive branch on short rations, and legal stuff like this is a cost center.

Re: First 100 Pages of Aaron Swartz’s Secret Service File Released

#13

Post by ars » Tue, Aug 13, 2013, 5:17 AM UTC

jeremycole wrote: post #5

They made so much more work for themselves in redacting by scanning at a slight angle...

There is no them. I can just imagine the redactor cursing out the idiot who scanned this for him.

Re: First 100 Pages of Aaron Swartz’s Secret Service File Released

#14

Post by aquaroris » Tue, Aug 13, 2013, 5:17 AM UTC

unclebucknasty wrote: post #7

kefs wrote: post #2

While this is a great start, the majority appears to be just evidence inventory. There are some good parts around pg18, which is weirdly continued around pg97, along with an interesting, albeit heavily-redacted, interview on pg98.

Question for anyone who might know: does a judge sign off on what is redacted and the justification for doing so? Redacting names of investigators, etc. makes sense here, but when entire paragraphs are redacted, it makes you wonder if FOIA requests are really worthwhile?

Nevertheless, we have a greater resolution on the kind of information that is sensitive to governments.

Re: First 100 Pages of Aaron Swartz’s Secret Service File Released

#15

Post by alan_cx » Tue, Aug 13, 2013, 11:57 AM UTC

thezach wrote: post #3

the one thing I can conclude from reading this.... is the secret service needs a serious technology upgrade

If they were asked to supply the White House with photocopies of non controversial documents, would the photocopies look like that? I'm, (perhaps wrongly) assuming not.

So to me, it hints at a level of contempt for having to comply.

In other words, doing a slap dash crappy job because doing it annoys the person tasked with it or authorizing it. Like a kid who is told to clean it's bedroom and then doing it sloppily because it doesn't want to do it.

Re: First 100 Pages of Aaron Swartz’s Secret Service File Released

#16

Post by saucetenuto » Tue, Aug 13, 2013, 2:13 PM UTC

rhizome wrote: post #6

thezach wrote: post #3

the one thing I can conclude from reading this.... is the secret service needs a serious technology upgrade

I'm sure a lot of it works fine within the agencies, it's just the translation process to "muggle" where the problems coincidentally appear.

I've heard that that actually varies a lot; sometimes you're working with the world's biggest data center, sometimes it's 30 guys with a building full of cabinets and a single TRS-80 in a closet.