> He excused himself to shower. Who gets to go take a shower while FBI agents wait for you downstairs!?
It might be your last nice hot shower for a while, though find it more remarkable that the FBI agents acceded to the request.
John Raines, 84, Who Evaded Capture in an FBI Break-In, Dies
61–70 of 77 posts
Re: John Raines, 84, Who Evaded Capture in an FBI Break-In, Dies
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
The people who broke into the FBI office uncovered, as they suspected, a massive illegal FBI program to surveil and disrupt entirely legitimate political opposition (among others). This was a direct and real threat to democracy. Snowden collected gigabytes classified documents the vast majority of which had nothing to do with anything questionable. The program he revealed was not obviously illegal and, however distas…
Great. As a European, I don't care at all whether the Congress thinks its legal to spy on me or not. I'll applaud anyone who takes a stand against mass surveillance. And it's not like anyone really asked the Congress either, is it? http://www.hasjamesclapperbeenindictedyet.com/ >ended up in the hands of unfriendly intelligence services Sucks to be the NSA, I guess?
Great. As a European
I suspect as a branch of the US Government, the Congress of the US doesn't care much what you think about the extent of its powers either. I'm not sure how Snowden has helped you resolve this monumental impasse at all.
I'll applaud anyone who takes a stand against mass surveillance.
Yes, that's what makes Snowden and Manning interesting, they're a new kind of hero - heroes for people who don't read the news (or perhaps much at all). There was very little in their revelations that was new and things dramatically worse were reported previously without gigantic data dumps of completely unfiltered and unrelated data. None of these things set the internet ablaze, despite being far more serious.
I don't wish either of them ill, don't think they're traitors or anything overwrought like that, have no trouble believing they were motivated by idealism, however naive and misguided. I'm happy Chelsea Manning got her sentence commuted. But heroes? Not really seeing it.
Re: John Raines, 84, Who Evaded Capture in an FBI Break-In, Dies
#63> He excused himself to shower. Who gets to go take a shower while FBI agents wait for you downstairs!?
Anyone I guess, it doesn't sound like they had a warrant.
Re: John Raines, 84, Who Evaded Capture in an FBI Break-In, Dies
#64The stolen documents served to illustrate that there's a big difference between what the public thinks the FBI does and what they actually do:
"According to its analysis of the documents in this FBI office, 1 percent were devoted to organized crime, mostly gambling; 30 percent were "manuals, routine forms, and similar procedural matter"; 40 percent were devoted to political surveillance and the like, including two cases involving right-wing groups, ten concerning immigrants, and over 200 on left or liberal groups. Another 14 percent of the documents concerned draft resistance and "leaving the military without government permission." The remainder concerned bank robberies, murder, rape, and interstate theft."
Re: John Raines, 84, Who Evaded Capture in an FBI Break-In, Dies
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think Assange was "compromised" by his inability to deal, personally, with the disgusting things Wikileaks has revealed about America. That, to me, is the most significant aspect of recent events: what started out great, has been internalised and metastasised into rage, angst and frustration at the horrendous machinations of the US government and its partners in building the new world order ..
I think you're right to an extent, but it doesn't explain how he aligned himself with one major US political party at the expense of another. For example it's widely hypothesized (and I concede this isn't substantial evidence) that Wikileaks could have released the Republican leaks too if they had wanted. I suppose he could have been hoping that a friendly presidential administration would get the US off his back, bu…
He was probably convinced that the democratic party wanted to assassinate him; "Can't we just drone this guy" is what Hillary Clinton allegedly said. He isn't even a US citizen and the Obama administration already assassinated multiple US citizens.
Compare what happened to Saddam Hussein (put on trial and executed when republicans were in control) versus Gaddafi (sodomized and butchered in the street by US backed rebels when democrats were in control).
Re: John Raines, 84, Who Evaded Capture in an FBI Break-In, Dies
#66Friendly reminder the FBI still have their HQ named "The J. Edgar Hoover Building"
They still celebrate their proven criminality.
How about renaming it the "John Raines" building to show they don't think being criminal was or is a good idea? How about just having the building nameless rather than celebrating their own evil?
Re: John Raines, 84, Who Evaded Capture in an FBI Break-In, Dies
#67> He excused himself to shower. Who gets to go take a shower while FBI agents wait for you downstairs!?
Agents probably thought they could poke around while he was occupied.
Re: John Raines, 84, Who Evaded Capture in an FBI Break-In, Dies
#68> The burglary, on March 8, 1971, at the F.B.I. office in an apartment building across from the county courthouse in Media, Pa., prompted a debate over whether the perpetrators were traitors who wantonly exposed official secrets or heroic whistle-blowers who preserved civil liberties. I do hope that this debate is considered thoroughly settled in favour of the whistle-blowers by now?
Not really. Many consider Snowden a whistle blower but Manning a traitor
Re: John Raines, 84, Who Evaded Capture in an FBI Break-In, Dies
#69> He excused himself to shower. Who gets to go take a shower while FBI agents wait for you downstairs!?
A guy with balls of solid brass, cold to the touch.
Re: John Raines, 84, Who Evaded Capture in an FBI Break-In, Dies
#70Can someone explain this in simple-english? It’s pretty difficult to understand good-doers from evil-doers here… Edit/clarification: non native english speaker here…
In case it makes you feel better, I'm a native English speaker and I had to read the first seven paragraphs - which are very poorly written, I would say - twice before I really understood what was going on. Probably if you knew the context and had heard of this man it would have instantly made sense, but it certainly didn't to me.
It does make me feel better!