FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home • Hacker News Board

Re: FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

#191

Post by fzeroracer » Wed, Jan 14, 2026, 4:25 PM UTC

a2tech wrote: post #3

Between this and Minneapolis I guess the water temperature just keeps on being turned up, and us frogs are just chilling out in our warm baths.

I live in Seattle and I've seen multiple large protests around the ICE murder of Renee Good. Part of the problem is that the US is too large as the people responsible for the jackbooted thugs kicking in doors and killing citizens are on the other side of the country. Business in Minneapolis is practically grinding to a halt as stores and businesses close their door out of fear.

I think we're one or two bad incidents away from wide-scale rioting.

Re: FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

#192

Post by ceejayoz » Wed, Jan 14, 2026, 4:26 PM UTC

HNisCIS wrote: post #134

cjs_ac wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's all well and good, but the law stands because the administration has more firepower than you.

The American military couldn't handle rice farmers or goat herders, they sure as fuck can't handle the most armed country in history. The question is how many people will side with them vs reality.

> The American military couldn't handle rice farmers or goat herders…

The American military at the time cared - at least somewhat - about the international reputation of the United States. That may not always be a thing. It may not be a thing now.

Re: FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

#193

Post by naravara » Wed, Jan 14, 2026, 4:26 PM UTC

gruez wrote: post #71

naravara wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Unless this was in the early 2010s the email provider was probably using TLS

It was the mid 2010s yes.

And they’re not going to abduct and torture and American citizen out of the blue. The more “intensive” methods are higher cost, the intention is just to increase the friction involved with engaging in the routine and scalable, ordinary forms of snooping.

Re: FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

#194

Post by peab » Wed, Jan 14, 2026, 4:26 PM UTC

njovin wrote: post #138

a2tech wrote: post #3

Between this and Minneapolis I guess the water temperature just keeps on being turned up, and us frogs are just chilling out in our warm baths.

I don't know if it's fair to say we're chilling - there have been fairly organized (although admittedly not very large) protests around the nation related to the killing of Nicole Renee Good. I live in southern California and there were at least 6 within easy driving distance this past weekend. Whenever ICE goes into a new city, they're meeting more and more community resistance. The protestors have mostly been very…

I understand protesting ICE for better accountability, they certainly need to be held accountable. But I don't understand those who protest the presence of ICE as a concept. Are there any countries that don't enforce their immigration laws?

Re: FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

#195

Post by selectodude » Wed, Jan 14, 2026, 4:26 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #111

dabluecaboose wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I don't know whether you've noticed, but being armed is simply giving the Federales more reasons to kill you first. The woman shot in Minneapolis was shot on the pretext of using her car as a weapon. How do people really expect this to work? In detail? You show up with an armed militia at a school and the ICE guys just drive on past (and then raid someone else)? Or are they expecting more of an Amerimaidan situation?…

It’s a bunch of dudes who think they’re literally Rambo. Like, sure with enough firepower you can maybe take out two before they take you out but any sort of application of your second amendment rights is going to end quickly for you.

Re: FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

#196

Post by ceejayoz » Wed, Jan 14, 2026, 4:26 PM UTC

johnisgood wrote: post #184

HNisCIS wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American military couldn't handle rice farmers or goat herders, they sure as fuck can't handle the most armed country in history. The question is how many people will side with them vs reality.

> The American military couldn't handle rice farmers or goat herders Where can I read more about this?

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80...

Re: FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

#197

Post by BryantD » Wed, Jan 14, 2026, 4:26 PM UTC

giancarlostoro wrote: post #129

snowwrestler wrote: post #88

To clarify why it’s aggressive: federal employees have a legal duty to secure classified information, but everyone else does not. Reporters are not federal employees and it’s not illegal for them to have or discuss classified materials. Most of what Snowden leaked was classified, and remains classified to this day , but you and I can read about it on Wikipedia. The government pursued Snowden because he was legally ob…

That's nothing, there was the time the FBI raided James O'Keefe's house to find Ashley Biden's diary. I feel weird writing any of that out, because its sounds batshit, but they did that. Some people may not like James for any given number of reasons (NPR did a hit peace saying he doesn't qualify for journalism protections - which to me is a matter of opinion not necessarily fact), but since when do federal agents rai…

Sorry to be a pedant, but not exactly. They raided James O'Keefe's house to seize his cell phones as part of an investigation into potential conspiracy to traffic stolen goods (the diary) across state lines. Journalists (which is a very broad term, and in this context I think O'Keefe qualifies) are certainly allowed to receive stolen or classified material, which also applies to the raid on the WaPo reporter. They are not allowed to induce others to break the law on their behalf, and that's what was at question in the Biden diary case.

I don't think the O'Keefe raid was justified and it's certainly the first step on a slippery slope. I also think the current situation is a worse violation of norms.

Re: FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

#198

Post by bix6 » Wed, Jan 14, 2026, 4:27 PM UTC

quietbritishjim wrote: post #150

an0malous wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

You are severely misreading why people flag posts about that discuss the administration (whether for or against): they are tiresome to read about, and it doesn't lead to productive interesting discussion (which is supposed to be what the vote buttons are for here). Politics isn't 100% off topic for HN but mostly I come here to get away from it and I'm sure others do too.

I find the political discussions on here interesting and generally of decent+ caliber. Plus so much of what’s happening is tech related / enabled.

There’s 30 posts on the front page. If someone doesn’t care about politics why can’t they just ignore that 1 post instead of flagging it into oblivion?

Re: FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

#199

Post by addandsubtract » Wed, Jan 14, 2026, 4:27 PM UTC

quietbritishjim wrote: post #150

an0malous wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

You are severely misreading why people flag posts about that discuss the administration (whether for or against): they are tiresome to read about, and it doesn't lead to productive interesting discussion (which is supposed to be what the vote buttons are for here). Politics isn't 100% off topic for HN but mostly I come here to get away from it and I'm sure others do too.

Is this thread not about the administration? The FBI currently acts at the will of the White House / GOP / Trump. Stick your head in the sand all you want, but don't betray the people who are standing up against oppression.

Re: FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home

#200

Post by iAMkenough » Wed, Jan 14, 2026, 4:27 PM UTC

fwip wrote: post #106

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must accept that 3 letter agencies have full root access to any Tim Apple or Google device and will use it if they already went far enough to do an FBI raid on a reporter.

Counterpoint - if they have full root access to any phone, why did they need to do the raid?

The same reason federal agents wear GoPros. Security theater, and to send the message that journalists should not pursue stories like this that put the federal government in a less-than-favorable light.