6 ms·

Hacker Killed by Drone Was 'Secret Weapon'

24 points by Bud 11y ago

sarciszewski 11y ago
Setting my referrer to Googlebot doesn't break the paywall. Uuuuuugh
click170 11y ago
Is this being reported on by anyone other than WSJ? I don't like paywalls.
- mtgx 11y ago
  Yes. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/27/junaid-hussain-british-hacker-for-isis-believed-killed-in-us-airstrike http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/27/junaid-hussain-... Apparently it didn't take Obama long to do another 180 on this issue as well: "I'm not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker," he told reporters during a news conference in Senegal. http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/26/politics/nsa-leak/index.html http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/26/politics/nsa-leak/index.ht...
  - tmuir 11y ago
    It's pretty disingenuous to interpret this statement as the president giving a free pass to all twentysomething hackers.
    - latj 11y ago
      I agree. Obama's record is quite clear when it comes to drone assassinations as a cheaper alternative to dragging people in for their day in court-- his own constituents included.
  - lsiebert 11y ago
    Seems like he didn't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrambling_(military) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrambling_(military)
- Buge 11y ago
  I bypassed the paywall by googling the url of the article, because they whitelist google as a referer.
  - kuschku 11y ago
    Only for US IPs. If you are from Germany, even with a Google referer you don’t get the article.
    - Aldo_MX 11y ago
      I could read the article from Mexico: https://www.google.com.mx/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB0QqQIwAGoVChMIma6LiN_KxwIVSJQeCh22iAEH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fhacker-killed-by-drone-was-secret-weapon-1440718560&ei=BMnfVZmcBsioeraRhjg&usg=AFQjCNG3WNw3DvdOkYfGmNQa02pgnjTGfw https://www.google.com.mx/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=we...
      - kuschku 11y ago
        Well, from Germany it seems to not work at all. I archived it through archive.is using your link (which uses X-Forwarded-For to allow wsj to see my IP), and the page looks like this: https://archive.is/HsIiC https://archive.is/HsIiC
    - dogma1138 11y ago
      Works from the UK, if you are unlucky go to https://www.4proxy.us/ https://www.4proxy.us/ type in https://www.google.co.uk/search?num=100&newwindow=1&site=&source=hp&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fhacker-killed-by-drone-was-secret-weapon-1440718560 https://www.google.co.uk/search?num=100&newwindow=1&site=&so... And it will work ;)
  - SeldomSoup 11y ago
    You seem to be right (https://i.imgur.com/VBfbvOv.png https://i.imgur.com/VBfbvOv.png), but I thought sites accessed through HTTPS, like Google, are never sent as referers.
jug5 11y ago
Lets celebrate the death of a total innocent who never physically harmed anyone. Congrats folks.
frozenport 11y ago
Can we flag this for being pay-walled? For all we know this is spam encouraging me to buy the WSJ.
- dangrossman 11y ago
  Here's a non-paywalled link: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB8QqQIwAGoVChMIkuXKjNbKxwIVBm4-Ch3cWgzN&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fhacker-killed-by-drone-was-secret-weapon-1440718560&ei=nb_fVdKiJYbc-QHctbHoDA&usg=AFQjCNG3WNw3DvdOkYfGmNQa02pgnjTGfw&sig2=4jsVPhW-hiWTSQEhZAH-SQ https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c... > Flagging an article that's otherwise good for HN, purely because it's behind one of these semi-paywalls, is not an ok use of flagging. We revoke flagging rights from accounts that do that. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10032121 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10032121 > The HN guidelines explicitly call for original sources. We want the best, most substantive version of a story. Other things being equal, we all prefer non-paywalled articles, but when things are not equal, substance should win. When there are standard workarounds to read the content, paywalls are just an inconvenience. The more this comes up, the clearer it gets that we shouldn't ban paywalls. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9717733 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9717733
  - JorgeGT 11y ago
    All the substance that I am able to access in this case is: >Hacker Killed by Drone Was ‘Secret Weapon’ >Targeting of Islamic State’s electronics expert shows how digital warfare has upset balance of power on modern battlefield >By MARGARET COKER in London, DANNY YADRON in San Francisco and DAMIAN PALETTA in Washington Aug. 27, 2015 7:36 p.m. ET >U.S. and British officials decided earlier this year that a hacker needed to die. So I don't really understand what the 'Secret Weapon' the title of the post means, or anything more than the fact that according to US and UK officials a hacker needed to die and was indeed killed by a drone. Not much to hold a meaningful discussion really.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
rhino369 11y ago
He was an avowed member of ISIS, an army. He was a legitimate target. I'm glad he is dead. He's complicit in the rape and murder of countless people.
dogma1138 11y ago
While we can debate the effectiveness or 'legality' of drone strikes why is this case any special? He's a member of a non-nation state militant organization, he's clearly (as much as this can be in such cases, but ISIS likes to take credit and not to hide it's footprint) responsible for multiple acts of violence which resulted in deaths. What does it matter if it's an extremist cleric who recruits, incites violence and supports ISIS, AQ, or any other similar organizations through video tapes from a cave or a "hacker" which uses twitter to do the same?

24 points by Bud 11y ago

sarciszewski 11y ago

Setting my referrer to Googlebot doesn't break the paywall. Uuuuuugh

click170 11y ago

Is this being reported on by anyone other than WSJ? I don't like paywalls.

mtgx 11y ago
Yes. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/27/junaid-hussain-british-hacker-for-isis-believed-killed-in-us-airstrike http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/27/junaid-hussain-... Apparently it didn't take Obama long to do another 180 on this issue as well: "I'm not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker," he told reporters during a news conference in Senegal. http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/26/politics/nsa-leak/index.html http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/26/politics/nsa-leak/index.ht...
- tmuir 11y ago
  It's pretty disingenuous to interpret this statement as the president giving a free pass to all twentysomething hackers.
  - latj 11y ago
    I agree. Obama's record is quite clear when it comes to drone assassinations as a cheaper alternative to dragging people in for their day in court-- his own constituents included.
- lsiebert 11y ago
  Seems like he didn't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrambling_(military) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrambling_(military)
Buge 11y ago
I bypassed the paywall by googling the url of the article, because they whitelist google as a referer.
- kuschku 11y ago
  Only for US IPs. If you are from Germany, even with a Google referer you don’t get the article.
  - Aldo_MX 11y ago
    I could read the article from Mexico: https://www.google.com.mx/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB0QqQIwAGoVChMIma6LiN_KxwIVSJQeCh22iAEH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fhacker-killed-by-drone-was-secret-weapon-1440718560&ei=BMnfVZmcBsioeraRhjg&usg=AFQjCNG3WNw3DvdOkYfGmNQa02pgnjTGfw https://www.google.com.mx/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=we...
    - kuschku 11y ago
      Well, from Germany it seems to not work at all. I archived it through archive.is using your link (which uses X-Forwarded-For to allow wsj to see my IP), and the page looks like this: https://archive.is/HsIiC https://archive.is/HsIiC
  - dogma1138 11y ago
    Works from the UK, if you are unlucky go to https://www.4proxy.us/ https://www.4proxy.us/ type in https://www.google.co.uk/search?num=100&newwindow=1&site=&source=hp&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fhacker-killed-by-drone-was-secret-weapon-1440718560 https://www.google.co.uk/search?num=100&newwindow=1&site=&so... And it will work ;)
- SeldomSoup 11y ago
  You seem to be right (https://i.imgur.com/VBfbvOv.png https://i.imgur.com/VBfbvOv.png), but I thought sites accessed through HTTPS, like Google, are never sent as referers.

jug5 11y ago

Lets celebrate the death of a total innocent who never physically harmed anyone. Congrats folks.

frozenport 11y ago

Can we flag this for being pay-walled? For all we know this is spam encouraging me to buy the WSJ.

dangrossman 11y ago
Here's a non-paywalled link: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB8QqQIwAGoVChMIkuXKjNbKxwIVBm4-Ch3cWgzN&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fhacker-killed-by-drone-was-secret-weapon-1440718560&ei=nb_fVdKiJYbc-QHctbHoDA&usg=AFQjCNG3WNw3DvdOkYfGmNQa02pgnjTGfw&sig2=4jsVPhW-hiWTSQEhZAH-SQ https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c... > Flagging an article that's otherwise good for HN, purely because it's behind one of these semi-paywalls, is not an ok use of flagging. We revoke flagging rights from accounts that do that. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10032121 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10032121 > The HN guidelines explicitly call for original sources. We want the best, most substantive version of a story. Other things being equal, we all prefer non-paywalled articles, but when things are not equal, substance should win. When there are standard workarounds to read the content, paywalls are just an inconvenience. The more this comes up, the clearer it gets that we shouldn't ban paywalls. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9717733 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9717733
- JorgeGT 11y ago
  All the substance that I am able to access in this case is: >Hacker Killed by Drone Was ‘Secret Weapon’ >Targeting of Islamic State’s electronics expert shows how digital warfare has upset balance of power on modern battlefield >By MARGARET COKER in London, DANNY YADRON in San Francisco and DAMIAN PALETTA in Washington Aug. 27, 2015 7:36 p.m. ET >U.S. and British officials decided earlier this year that a hacker needed to die. So I don't really understand what the 'Secret Weapon' the title of the post means, or anything more than the fact that according to US and UK officials a hacker needed to die and was indeed killed by a drone. Not much to hold a meaningful discussion really.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]

rhino369 11y ago

He was an avowed member of ISIS, an army. He was a legitimate target. I'm glad he is dead. He's complicit in the rape and murder of countless people.

dogma1138 11y ago

While we can debate the effectiveness or 'legality' of drone strikes why is this case any special? He's a member of a non-nation state militant organization, he's clearly (as much as this can be in such cases, but ISIS likes to take credit and not to hide it's footprint) responsible for multiple acts of violence which resulted in deaths. What does it matter if it's an extremist cleric who recruits, incites violence and supports ISIS, AQ, or any other similar organizations through video tapes from a cave or a "hacker" which uses twitter to do the same?