Out of Pod Experience

Tricks of the prosecution. Technology unaware judges are a problem. The prosecution creates a myth of a "mad hacker"

"In the Manning case, the prosecution used Manning’s use of a standard, over 15-year-old Unix program called Wget to collect information, as if it were a dark and nefarious technique. Of course, anyone who has ever called up this utility on a Unix machine, which at this point is likely millions of ordinary Americans, knows that this program is no more scary or spectacular (and far less powerful) than a simple Google search. Yet the court apparently didn’t know this and seemed swayed by it."

from EFF here...

ps be a "mad hacker" download eve-online

wget http://content.eveonline.com/575759/EVE_Online_Installer_575759.exe

there are times when you chose duty or responsibility.

Manning chose responsibility.

Well said.

Not to be rude, but that kind of thinking keeps dictators in power.

Because it's just orders, right?

Manning is not Snowden. Manning is a bitter, whiny soon-to-be ex-soldier who went overboard taking out his frustration at the US government. Had he just released the journalist video, the argument would be valid. As it stands, he uploaded as many documents as he could find in the same way an angry ex would post nudes on the internet of his or her ex.

Snowden, on the other hand, is a little bit both patriot and traitor. He's more patriot than traitor but he's not completely in the right here. He began with the NSA leaks which showed surveillance on civilians, but he also leaked classified but not unlawful information to other countries who could use that information against the US. In both cases of whistleblowing, both of them are at fault in some way. The moral of the story: cover your ass because courts don't recognize well-meaning mistakes.

That said, I'd just like to touch on the state of hypocrisy seen around Europe since this whole ordeal exploded. As an American living in Europe, I have to say that Europeans are being very, very hypocritical about this. First off, Germany colluded with the NSA programs so as to gather information on its own citizens, and no amount of feigned outcry will change that. Now EU governments want the information gathered by the NSA, I'm sure to delete it all, right? Riiiiiiight.

Secondly, European governments have been collecting data on its citizens for YEARS. The French, Germans, and Italians, just to name a few, have been snooping on journalists and private citizens of interest for years, and it's not about to stop anytime soon. Europeans are just using this as another excuse as to why they deem it ok to despise Americans, without even owning up to their own misdeeds over the years and hoping the rest of the world doesn't see the hypocrisy. The America hate is becoming more than just an internet pastime; it's now becoming real. While I agree that Americans should be ridiculed for being rather ignorant and ego-centric, the hate coming from Europe, most notably the UK, has to stop. In Europe, it's not prejudicial as long as the target is an American, and it's disgusting.

European condition, we used to rule the world, now we eat humble pie.

And what with the release yesterday of the other systems, plus the fact that GCHQ is taking money from the NSA leads to only one conclusion. We need to kick the US out of Europe for the sake of our independence. Out, all of it. Remove all USAF bases, all collaborative military functions need to be removed as it is proving to be systematically toxic. As it stands we could have a considerably better relationship with Russia and the Ukraine if we are not nursing forward foreign military assets.

To be honest, this is coming from both sides, not just Europeans.

Because all Germans are na-zed-i's, all French are coward, croissant eating lazy farmers, all Dutch people are high and morally corrupt because weed is legal.... The stuff i've heard from some Americans quite frankly trumps whatever's going on the other way if i'm honest as far as prejudices go. On one hand there's prejudices based on what we see in the news and what a certain country is doing to others in the rest of the world, on the other hand there's prejudices based on hearsay and fairytales made up by people who have never even left their state.

You act like the ignorant Americans are the only ones in the world who look down upon other nations. How many times have you heard the English talk badly about the French? It's practically a national pastime. When was the last time you heard any European NOT speak badly of Italians, even when most of the time it's flat-out racism? But that's ok in Europe, because it's ok to be racist as long as everyone can agree on the country deemed at fault.

While I love living here and I'll never leave, Europe as a whole is one big ball of hypocrisy in nearly any controversy. Europeans hide behind their relative anonymity among themselves in order to lash out against other people because they know it's so much easier to find something wrong with a big issue while simultaneously hiding the mountain of smaller but equally disturbing issues in their own country.

Europeans are that guy who throws the shoe at the band from the crowd and then moves through the crowd so no one can find him, and then defends his actions by saying the band sucks in his opinion and deserved it. Americans can be just as hypocritical, but to act like Europe is some bastion of generosity, fairness, and tolerance is absolutely idiotic. It's cool as hell and I love living here, but it's just as ****** up as the US, just in different ways.

I dunno, seems pretty obvious that the usgov has the deed to that house or at least has significant dirt on the chap that does.

(But I eagerly await the day you all throw them out on their asses. That would be glorious.)

Sounds like the only intelligent thing you can do in a situation like this is find a job that involved you moving back home rather than being on a continent full of "hypocrites" such as the Europeans that has the favorite pastime of bashing anything and everything 'MURICAN. Right?