US Teen Pleads Guilty To Teaching ISIS About Bitcoin Via Twitter 312
jfruh writes: Ali Shukri Amin, a 17-year-old from Virginia, has pleaded guilty to charges that he aided ISIS by giving the group advice about using bitcoin. An odd and potentially troubling aspect of the charges is that this all took place in public — he Tweeted out links to an article on his blog about how bitcoin and Darknet could help jihadi groups, making it difficult to say whether he was publishing information protected under free speech or was directly advising the terrorist organization. Free speech qua speech isn't the only relevant charge, though: Amin "also admitted facilitating the travel of another teenager, 18-year-old Reza Niknejad, to Syria to join IS. Amin faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison if convicted."
Mixture (Score:5, Insightful)
The advising on use of bitcoin should be allowed under free speech, but aiding someone to become a fighter seems pretty far over the line as far as aid to a terrorist organization goes...
Re:Mixture (Score:5, Insightful)
What worries me is that some asshole politician is going to try and use that as an argument against crypto-currencies, as if fiat money was any better.
Re:Mixture (Score:4, Insightful)
What worries me is that some asshole politician is going to try and use that as an argument against crypto-currencies
Free advice: Worry about problems that actually exist, of which there are many to choose from, rather than stuff that you made up.
Re: (Score:2)
In the face of the successful 7N6 ban, the failed but attempted M855/SS109 ban, the attempted technical internet discussion ban from ITAR, the attempted blocking of the FCC Net Neutrality rulings.... your advice is to be REACTIONARY!?
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Worry about problems that actually exist
Actually, worry about risk, not problems. There are tons of problems in the world, many of which are low risk if you know how to avoid them. However, in this case, there is little one can do to prevent the risk on a personal level, while at the same time, a high probability that such a problem actually come to fruition. AND by the time it does come into being, is already too late for Freedom.
Please, do not take the idea of liberty slipping away slowly, as it is already happening. Liberty is something we mus
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What worries me is that some asshole politician is going to try and use that as an argument against crypto-currencies, as if fiat money was any better.
Well, if "some [asshole or not] politician is going to try and use that as an argument against crypto-currencies"... he will have a point! Keep in mind that "fiat money" IS BETTER because some checks are in place already (that is why crypto-currencies are so popular among criminals/terrorists/"bad guys") - let's be honest!
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If you think drug dealers are not bad guys then why did you equate them as such. There are plenty of other "bad guys" to choose from. Pedophiles trading kiddie porn or murder for hire or even what the op offered "criminals and terrorists".
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When you use a pejorative like "bad guys" to describe bitcoin users you are taking the government's position that drugs should be illegal. Maybe these are not bad guys but just "anti authority" which is not necessarily always bad.
My comment (that i see now has been -already!- down-modded...) was:
What worries me is that some asshole politician is going to try and use that as an argument against crypto-currencies, as if fiat money was any better.
Well, if "some [asshole or not] politician is going to try and use that as an argument against crypto-currencies"... he will have a point! Keep in mind that "fiat money" IS BETTER because some checks are in place already (that is why crypto-currencies are so popular among criminals/terrorists/"bad guys") - let's be honest!
Don't you know that many "bad guys" use bitcoin? How can you miss my point, and write about "legalize drugs" and "anti authority" my friend? Please excuse me, but i think many Slashdoters should try a "back to earth" trip...
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Earth is a horrible place. It is infested by humans!
Have you seen how stupid humans are?
World wide people prefer the lies they tell themselves and the lies of their culture to actually looking at scientific evidence. Humans are also very poor at dealing with any threat that it nos immediate to them and so all kinds of things we deal with poorly.
Face it humans are really not very nice to be around and earth is not exactly a good place.
Of course I also agree completely that many that don't want to be traced a
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Earth is a horrible place. It is infested by humans!
Have you seen how stupid humans are? World wide people prefer the lies they tell themselves and the lies of their culture to actually looking at scientific evidence. Humans are also very poor at dealing with any threat that it nos immediate to them and so all kinds of things we deal with poorly.
Face it humans are really not very nice to be around and earth is not exactly a good place.
Well, that "back to earth" trip i advised for... it should be just for business, not for pleasure mein freund!
Of course I also agree completely that many that don't want to be traced are drawn to crypto currencies. It was an inevitable given the nature of the currency and even if the currency itself is neutral and there are many good uses for it also the negative uses will always overwhelm the neutral and good uses of crypt currency.
I like your point about the "neutrality of the tool" and i am really glad that you did not missed my point (i.e., *this* "tool" is -because of its "nature"- popular among "bad guys"...).
Movie Plot again ? (Score:3)
some asshole politician is going to try and use that as an argument against crypto-currencies
Googling around...
Apparently the story about this teen has been reported in the Washington post (among other).
I would have thought instead that this was straight out of Bruce Schneier's Movie Plot Threat Contest [schneier.com]
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I'm far more worried that this will be used to defend some kind of surveillance program as having "prevented an attack", or that it'll be used without context as precedent of curtailing speech without controversy.
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an argument against crypto-currencies,
Like flying to Syria is an argument against airlines.
Re:Mixture (Score:4, Informative)
The quality and safety of drugs sold via anonymous markets like Silk Road are much better than those sold person to person. For example, cocaine sold "on the street" in the UK ranges from about 5 to 20% pure on average, where as Silk Road regularly averaged about 60%. Silk Road was also much safer and much less likely to result in the buyer becoming the victim of violence, and the prices were generally a bit lower too.
The key was that although anonymous Silk Road did allow sellers to be rated and reviewed. It is possible to be anonymous and still ensure quality.
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Buy grocery product, inject with $poison and covertly return it to the store shelf. If you want to be a homicidal psycho, you don't really need the Internet to do it. Compared to all the other risks of buying and doing drugs, like for example bad batches or accidental contamination the odds of problems seem slim. And you'll always have the truly desperate who'll try from the cheapest offer with no reputation, you don't have to be one of them.
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At least cash is just for criminals. I feel. I don't need them.
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Sneaking out of your mom's house without getting caught doesn't qualify as covert.
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Fucking geek poseurs like you make me puke.
Why are you really puking, because you think it's cool to puke on such things?
Realistically, what would you expect him to do about it? (Any why would it have to be covert?)
Re:Mixture (Score:5, Insightful)
Want to end terrorist Isalm, target the two originators Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Exactly, because ... Islamic terrorists ... like ... Israel ... and they are ... buddies and ... WHAT?
Perhaps you are arguing that Israel creates Islamic terror groups by its actions. While that is certainly an arguable issue, it is clearly not the sole root since Al Qaida explicitly cited the basing of US troops in Saudi Arabia as a motivation for the 9/11 attacks. Which had nothing to do with Israel, and was actually Islamic terror based on anger at Saudi Arabia ... which you say is the originator ... of ... WAIT, WHAT AGAIN?
So far the only government to tackle Saudi Arabia has been the Russian government with direct threats should any Saudi Arabian government led terrorists attack occur during the Russian Olympics. Shame Uncle Tom Obama the choom gang coward is such a god damned weasel
This seems like a reasonable argument that ... wait ... DAFUQ? How did this get to +3?
Congratulations Slashdot on hitting on a topic that somehow makes even init/SystemD discussions seam rational and well researched.
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I'm not sure that "giving a ride to the airport" is really what laws against "material support of terrorism" are supposed to be about. Heck, even flying to Syria isn't against the law (though the State Department has a two page explanation of how terrible an idea it is). It's more of a "teachable moment", if anything.
Brutal responses are what the terrorists want; this kid was misguided, but when the US government is done with him, he'll be radicalized.
Knowledge (Score:5, Insightful)
"Hey, I'm gong over to Syria to kill westerners and enslave Christians for the raping and whatnot. Give me a lift?"
How is that not aid?
If he didn't know, that would be one thing. But the Twitter stuff makes it seem pretty likely he did know why the guy was going...
Re:Knowledge (Score:5, Insightful)
Is imparting (academic, general) knowledge really "aid", though? And where do you draw the line?
"Hey, I'm going over to Syria to kill westerners and enslave Christians for the raping and whatnot..."
"but my car broke down Ms Librarian. Do you have a book on automotive repair?"
"but my car broke down Mr Mechanic. Can you point out the distributor for me?"
"but it costs money to get there. Do you have any investing advice?"
"but I have no idea where Syria is. Can you point me in the general direction?"
At some point, you can't be held for responsible for the intentions of others, even if they tell you what they are.
Re:Knowledge (Score:5, Interesting)
At some point, you can't be held for responsible for the intentions of others
Yes, at some point. There *is* a big grey middle, but the edges are also pretty clear.
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Telling people how to do something, knowing they will use it in a crime, makes you a participant. It's legal to say that house over there sells cocaine, but not if I'm a roving salesman for them drumming up sales.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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But that is pure information, removed from any intent for use.
BTW that particular book is also REALLY POORLY WRITTEN. Some of the things in that book are wrong, some are so wrong I swear it was written by the CIA so terrorists would off themselves first. I guess in that sense the book is good, there's no telling how many lives it saved due to crappy malfunctioning bombs in the past... but its time is over as terrorists have more accurate info now. At this point that book is only hurting miscreant 14-year
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But that is pure information, removed from any intent for use.
Yo, if you want to explode some things there is explosives info in this publication https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] - now am I a terrorist?
BTW that particular book is also REALLY POORLY WRITTEN. [etc]
Yet people are still trying to ban it.
Any way you slice it, how-to content should be protected speech.
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It's not illegal to explode things- only certain things and people. In my neck of the woods, all i have to do is notify the sheriff in advance. In other areas you might need a permit and perhaps a license or more.
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No. The sheriff cannot say no.
Explosives have been used in farming for a long time. They are not as common now because of the availability of heavy machinery. Your state laws are probably similar and no licensing is needed. The permit restrictions i know about in my area are within municipal city limits in surrounding cities. I can understand that because there's more people closer by. But it's not like they can deny the use. Just ensure certain precautions are taken.
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It's not a grey line at all, it's a really simple test. If the person tells you that they intend to commit a crime it is illegal to help them with knowledge or in any other way. As soon as it becomes obvious to a reasonable person that they intend to break the law, you become an accessory.
That's how they got that guy who was teaching people to beat lie detector tests. If he had just been teaching it would have been legal, but because they were able to show that he knew some of his students wanted to learn s
Re:Knowledge (Score:5, Informative)
Where do you draw the line? Somewhere long before you get to here [slashdot.org].
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Yikes, fair enough. I, of course, didn't read TFS and was operating off of the poor summary.
Publishing a blog called, "Evading security systems for cat burglars: a vocational manual," sounds just as sketchy and well-past-that-line.
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i dunno, it sounds kinda tongue in cheek. like a Burglary for Dummies book.
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In none of the cases you listed were your own personal resources put forth, it was either transactions or freely given information (which as I stated earlier, knowledge transfer I feel is free speech and not aid).
Using your own gas and wear and tear on a car is quite clearly aid, just as donating even a single dollar to ISIS knowingly would be. The punishment may seem disproportionate and that could be argued, but not the fact they gave aid...
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"Hey, I'm going over to Syria to kill westerners and enslave Christians for the raping and whatnot...but my car broke down Ms Librarian. Do you have a book on automotive repair?"
The laws were written to hold you responsible for helping if you provided the book and there is a reasonable argument that they should. On the other hand, if they just ask for the book without mentioning what they plan on doing as soon as the car is fixed means that you cannot be held responsible for their intentions. In addition, if you can make a believable case that you did not believe them when they said they were going to Syria to kill westerners, etc, you are also off the hook. Or if you can make the
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he should have taken uber...
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What I'm saying is that jailing a teenager for giving a lift, no matter how much he knew, isn't going to fix anything. Sure, he knew is buddy was going abroad to "wage jihad".
But how much meaning does that have for a 17-year-old who grew up in Virginia?
He needs to be taught about the horrors of war, and the difference between an independence movement and a terrorist organization. 15 years of prison is going to intensify his misguided anger towards western democracy, not weaken it. When he gets out, all he w
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Has the US declared war on ISIS/ISIL? I know it's a moot point but I'd like to know. Obama has asked congress for some sort of declaration on the 12th June but I'm unsure of the previous status.
So by facilitating (in any manner) assistance for the enemy in a war not legally declared, is illegal?
Last time this happened was the police action against North Vietnam.
Re:Mixture (Score:5, Informative)
ISIL is a "designated terror organization". It is a crime to support a designated terrorist organization.
Re:Mixture (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a crime to support certain terrorist organizations and perfectly acceptable to support others -- which congress member was a supporter of the IRA? Oh yeah -- Peter King: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03... [nytimes.com]
I find it very disturbing that certain beliefs are so totally verboten that to speak of them at all seems to be a Federal crime, and worse than that, so many people don't even see it as a problem. What we have are random politicians or cabinet members declaring a group to be off limits -- no declaration of war, no trial with public evidence, just a bureaucratic determination. So what group is next? Model rocketeers? Certainly the Sierra Club. At the word of an official in DC you could basically be killed or imprisoned -- at least this kid got a show trial. God Bless America, Home of the Free [to think and speak in an approved manner].
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I noticed that as time passes, there is smaller and smaller difference between the US and Russia. It almost looks like the US government is looking at Russia as a model of how to do things...
Re:Mixture (Score:5, Insightful)
Really? I watch and read every single day all kinds of objections to the way things are run in the USA. I've yet to see anyone sent off to rot in a prison for 20 years or so just for bitching about the government. I've seen miscarriages of justice but even these, once they get the light of public scrutiny shone on them generally get righted. Just because things aren't perfect hardly calls for such extreme accusations. In the old USSR, comrade, just the level of protest you've shown here would be enough for you to be interrogated about your crimes against the state.
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I've yet to see anyone sent off to rot in a prison for 20 years or so just for bitching about the government.
If the Russians did that, there'd be nobody left to guard the gulags.
Anyway, he said the US is getting more like Russia. We still have a few decades before they meet. Until then, yes, the US is better.
But is being better than Russia enough for you?
Re:Mixture (Score:5, Interesting)
My grandmother said that you could bitch about the government, though you would not be allowed to do that on TV or radio. Well, at least after Stalin's death.
Also, I am not saying that the US is the same as Russia (or USSR), but it's getting there. If this continues, then after a few decades, it may become even more of a police state than USSR ever was. After all, the various agencies have spying capabilities that the KGB could only dream about. Automatic tracking of cars by photographing license plates, internet data mining, call data mining (speech recognition beats a guy listening to one conversation at a time).
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My grandmother said that you could bitch about the government, though you would not be allowed to do that on TV or radio. Well, at least after Stalin's death.
That's sort of true in that I think if the complaints were kept to a very small group of people, like bitching to your next door neighbor, it was mostly tolerated. But you still had to be careful what you said. Complaining about a lack of bread was one thing. Complaining that Brezhnev (for example) was terrible might be something else.
There's a great old joke in Russia from the Soviet days about how a Texan came to visit Moscow.
Muscovite: How do you like Moscow and the Soviet Union?
Texan: Well i
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So your constitution, which gets ignored by the government anyway, allows you to bitch about a government that existed over 2 centuries agoo. Some freedom you have there...
Re:Mixture (Score:5, Insightful)
Just what kind of proof are you looking for? The fact they openly state their desire to destroy the US and kill Americans isn't enough for you? The videos they proudly make and distribute where they round up people because they don't believe as they do and then behead them is not enough proof? The fact they encourage Islamic citizens of the US to join their Jihad and kill their neighbors isn't enough? What the fuck more do you need? I'm pretty ambivalent about a lot of the shit coming out of Washington D.C. but I've got to pretty much admit that ISIS and it's followers seem like terrorists. Convince me I'm wrong if you can.
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If Peter King can be an elected Congressional member after supporting a terrorist group, why should the kid go to jail for less support?
What you are really supporting here is for an arbitrary designation of groups to have legal consequences, which means things have devolved down to the point that whoever is in charge gets to decide whether belonging to a group, or supporting a group, is worthy of being gulaged or disappeared. We're entering a very dangerous time I think, not from ISIS (*), but from our own
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So killing US soldiers who kill civilians with drone bombardments is not being a terrorist. Somehow the US government does not agree.
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ISIL is a "designated terror organization". It is a crime to support a designated terrorist organization.
Well, sure, but the underlying question is whether it should be a crime.
How much do you trust the government? Is this Western civilization fighting for its very survival or is this yet another banana republic situation of a small number of ultra-rich people in the USA exploiting poor people in a foreign country?
I'm not claiming ISIS are good guys. But bad guys often come to power in the context of a great underlying injustice. And unless you do something about the underlying injustice then you'll just be p
Re:Mixture (Score:5, Insightful)
They don't have to. The authorization to use force after 9/11 (that was re-passed more recently) covers any foreign terrorist organizations.
It's a stretch IMO, but that's the way the law has been interpreted ever since.
If some random person in a Slashdot comment asks you how to use Bitcoin to transfer funds anonymously and you help him, that's not a crime. If you know the people you're helping out are ISIL then it's a different story. The Internet is not a magical place where laws don't apply.
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I wasn't trying to assert that there was, only what authority the administration is asserting.
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So fuck you and your self righteous conservative bullshit.
Frown boner! The linked article is factual and neutral analysis. It's posted on WaPo, not breitbart! You should read it, you may find it interesting.
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So, yiou think that because the congress and house are showing they can act like children this is a valid excuse for the president to start wars all on his own?
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What, like the CIA and other government agencies do.....Train, Fund and supply "freedom fighters" who become next years terrorists.
The USA has had a LONG history of doing this.
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What, like the CIA and other government agencies do.....Train, Fund and supply "freedom fighters" who become next years terrorists.
The USA has had a LONG history of doing this.
Yes but the mass media conveniently keeps forgetting to mention this. That's ... strange, because one would think such an important part of understanding the Middle East would be newsworthy. Since the corporate media considers this subject taboo, it's known only to those who had the curiosity, initiative, and appreciation of truth to perform their own research.
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Last time I checked, there were plenty of reports by the mass media on this topic. Unless by "mass media" you mean Fox News.
Did he tweet... (Score:3, Interesting)
here's how to use bitcoin, or did he tweet, hey Jihadists, here's how to use bitcoin and evade the NSA ? It makes a big difference.
(No, I did not RTFA.)
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From TFS:
he Tweeted out links to an article on his blog about how bitcoin and Darknet could help jihadi groups
I didn't RTFA either because the link doesn't include a domain so I have no idea where it is hosted /article/2935195/enterprise-software/virginia-teen-pleads-guilty-to-giving-islamic-state-help-on-bitcoin.html
It currently points to:
Re:Did he tweet... (Score:5, Informative)
From the statement which he pled guilty to:
Hello ISIL ... (Score:2, Funny)
Hello ISIL and all other banned groups, criminals, conspirators, freedom fighters, druglords, mafioso, cash hoarders, money launderers, anarchists, revolutionaries, gun and rum runners, privacy nuts, journalists, lobbyists, leakers, whores, et al...
HERE is where you learn about money...
https://bitcointalk.org/
HERE is how you move money around...
https://bitcoin.org/
HERE is how you hide data...
https://www.gnupg.org/
HERE is how you move data around...
https://geti2p.net/
HERE is how you secure your computer...
ht
Pleaded Guilty, Broken Link (Score:2)
The link to the article is broken (of course).
If the first charge wasn't a crime then Amin had the option not to plead guilty to it. On the other hand, if he's satisfied with the plea deal his attorney presumably negotiated (presumably heavily based on the other charge), then maybe a guilty plea was his best option. Absent evidence to the contrary, one has to assume his attorney properly assessed whether that first charge could have been beaten in court and weighed that factor in advising his client.
Great (Score:4, Insightful)
Let's put a 17 year old in prison for 15 years for writing forbidded sentences. He'll come out as a well adjusted 32 year old adult.
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You're right. Treason is constitutionally punishable by death, after all. We could avoid that problem rather easily.
Re:Great (Score:5, Insightful)
Treason...
It's amazing how different the views can be on why the USA is mucking about in Iraq.
In one view, the US government (and, by extension all of Western civilization) is teetering on the brink of being overthrown by ISIS - and any assistance to ISIS is treason.
In another view, it's basically just a Banana Republic situation where some corporate fatcats with close ties to the US government saw an opportunity to make themselves a few extra bucks exploiting Iraq's oil - using the US military as their muscle to keep the locals in check.
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You're right. Treason is constitutionally punishable by death, after all. We could avoid that problem rather easily.
Whatever you want to call what he did, you can't call it treason.
Treason is defined clearly in the US constitution as aiding or giving comfort to an enemy at a time of war declared by Congress. The last time Congress delcared war was in 1942.
Re:Great (Score:5, Informative)
If you levy war against the U.S., it doesn't matter if the U.S. has declared war against you. And you don't actually have to be making war, that's just one way of being labelled a traitor.
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They may be an evil bunch of pig fucking psychopaths but it's a completely different crime to talk to them. This is no more treason than that Senator (Peter T. King - Rep N.Y.) who is proud of the money he used to send to the IRA back when they were setting off bombs in the UK.
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Aiding someone in joining an enemy military (Score:2)
that is currently actively waging war against the US and its allies. Hmm... where have I heard that before...
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.
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The US does not declare war anymore. They learned from Pearl Harbor that attacking without warning works much better.
Strategically speaking... (Score:5, Insightful)
And I can see the reason for concern, from the perspective of a desire to see ISIS collapse sooner rather than later. The expats haven't, on the whole, been marked by particularly notable skills or anything; but unless they are out and out fuckups, they are presumably of some use.
On the other hand, though, there doesn't seem to be much attention being paid to the positive side: If going to some sandtrap hellhole to fight a meatgrinder land war in the service of the Caliph is something you'd do voluntarily; it seems fairly likely that you are not exactly liberal democracy's best buddy, or a strong candidate for 'most likely to get along just fine with the apostates and unbelievers'. Isn't having such people voluntarily decide to leave us to sin in peace and go travel far away to take substantial risks, up to and including fatal ones, rather convenient?
I've been surprised by the amount of chatter among various government talking heads about trying to prevent the would-be jihadis from traveling. Were I in their position; I'd be keeping a careful eye on anyone who tries to come back; but would be very much tempted to politely ignore anyone heading out for martyrdom and hope that they'll no longer be my problem.
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So this has come up in a number of countries already.
eg Australia has a number of now ex-jihadi's and ex-Mujh (of a several flavours) wanting to come back to Australia, having spent time in caliphate
This is proving problematic as of course they can come back, but essentially face court proceedings and extensive jail time before they can rejoin society, and they aren't all that keen on paying that entry tax.
You don't want it to seem too appealing. (Score:2, Insightful)
No, the government has to keep up pretenses - Make it challenging to slip of to join ISIS so that only the hardcore religious fanatics actually make it to Syria. The last thing you want is millions of people signing up as cannon fodder, because that might actually enable ISIS to destabilize the region more than it already is.
As a side note, extreme religious fanaticism has all the hallmarks of a mental illness -- delusional thinking, belief in the supernatural, a willingness to do horrific things to please
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Isn't having such people voluntarily decide to leave us to sin in peace and go travel far away to take substantial risks, up to and including fatal ones, rather convenient?
Um... In case you'd not noticed... That "in peace" part? Doesn't seem to be happening.
Google and Wikipedia next? (Score:2)
Wikipedia could well become a target in the future, but it's probably safer- it's a ton of info, after all.
But google's search (and other searches) has become over the course of just a few years, a science fiction made reality. Will these search agents be blocked or censored in the US because they COULD be used to help a terrorist?
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Ackbar.... sounds Arabic....
uh oh.... [demotivati...osters.org]
ISIS is the bad guy? (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, and check out who the good guys [wsj.com] are now. The charade can go on indefinitely...
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The thing that's astonishing, and that Orwell got wrong, is that you will find astute people who actually defend this fully aware of the fact that they will attack it in the future—just as you find people now who defend the stability of Assad's regime who will readily admit they attacked it in the recent past. We were not always at war with Eurasia, but we may well be again in the near future and we should always be at the ready to be craven profiteers of whatever short-sighted gain can be had in any
Re:ISIS is the bad guy? (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, and check out who the good guys [wsj.com] are now. The charade can go on indefinitely...
OK, feel free to actually pay attention to the news coming out of Syria and then do that retroactively for a few years.
If you're clueless, seriously, go research it. This is a multipolar conflict. We never ever armed or allied with Al Nusra or ISIS. ISIS came from an org that we did our best to destroy and actually the entire surge was based more or less around destroying them and coopting former insurgents. The whole country (Iraq) fought against these guys. and then we left and it all went to shit. They moved next door and were heavily infiltrated by former Batthist intelligence and military guys. It's a long story.
I used to say shit like that all of the time, in the early days of the Iraq War. And then I spent a few years reading news and analysis all day, and I realized that it was far more complicated than this reductionist conspiracy bullshit. There are many sides in this war, not just two. Quite a lot of the guys fighting Assad are actually moderates. These are the guys we tried to arm. Many of them were killed and coopted by ISIS and Al Nusra. If you can't wrap your head around the actual dynamic at work here, how messy of a civil war this is, then you should seriously read more about it and branch out from obvious left-wing, right-wing, and conspiracy sites.
Am I fully aware of the past crimes of the CIA? Oh, fuck yeah. Have I read Chomsky and shit? Yes. The neocons were full of it, and I was against all of these wars. We created this mess in a very large way. But is Assad a monster? Yes! If you think the opposite, you have most likely fallen for his propaganda, of which there is a lot. Is ISIS complete madness and yet half Baathist... and quite possibly possessing serious military genius? Yup! Is Al Nusra a better option? Actually yeah, but they're still fucked up. The point being, it's seriously complicated over there, and reducing this situation to the CIA making this shit up and it all being a charade for.... for what I'm not sure... but this doesn't at all fit the facts. It sure as shit fits a dumb conspiracy narrative which will conveniently ignore the facts.
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Has Assad deliberately destabilized other countries, infiltrated their governments, spied on their people, interfered with their internal affairs, bombed innocent people without a declaration of war?
Why, yes he had. Or perhaps you were not paying attention to what has been going on in Lebanon and Jordan over the last few years. Jordan has remained stable and most of the damage in Lebanon was done by Assad's father, but that does not change the fact that Assad has interfered with their internal affairs.
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Pleaded Guilty to Conspiracy (Score:2)
Dead 404 link in the Summary, but found article on CNN
First, the charge is "conspiracy" so that kind of covers all kinds of free speech if the intent is to help someone do something bad. It's not "speech violation" to keep your mouth shut and allow someone from ISIS to hide in your garage, but it's nevertheless conspiracy. Similarly it's not the bitcoin instruction, it's the conspiracy to help something bad happen with it. Second, if he and his attorney wanted to argue that twitter is free speech, they shou
This is good for bitcoin. (Score:2)
you left something out (Score:3, Funny)
US Teen Pleads Guilty To Teaching ISIS About 3D Printing Bitcoins Via Twitter
ftfy
Re:ISIS is a CIA operation (Score:4, Funny)
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http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/13/... [cnn.com]
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No, but there's a hierarchy..
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So toughen up, little Ali Amin, because your ass belongs to the Commonwealth of Virginia now, and
they are going to teach you that sympathizing with the lunatics who behead people or burn people
alive comes with a price. Personally I wish the authorities would just report you had hung yourself in
your cell and call it a day.
Damn right. Get ready to deal with a slightly-to-moderately different bunch of lunatics and their nominally distinguishable abuse.
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A whole lot of random stuff about ass and someone who's confused about whether the gays or the islams are the enemy. Sharpen your point.
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Without your knowledge is pretty key here. This kid was fully aware of what he was doing and that it was intended to aid terrorist.
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It's time all open source crypto development moved out of the US. Suppose they want to attack people like Moxie Marlinspike working on TextSecure, hiding messages from who knows who from the NSA? Fortunately the SMS fork, SMSSecure, is developed by European developers and while we don't have a true constitution (although the EU human rights treaty acts like one in practice, no wonder right wing politicians hate it) we are still free to talk about such things.
Re:Laugh (Score:5, Informative)
He already is - read the sort of stuff he's writing. He's damned lucky that they're not charging him as a member of a terrorist organization rather than, basically, their Booster Club.
Perfect storm! (Score:2)