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You don't think it defies logic that a SOFTWARE ENGINEER who works for the CIA, would leave such an obvious trail to a horrific crime on his home computer? Thi

You don't think it defies logic that a SOFTWARE ENGINEER who works for the CIA, would leave such an obvious trail to a horrific crime on his home computer? This person has intelligence, technical acumen, and is immersed in secrecy and privacy at an extreme level on a daily basis. Maybe people are just dumber than we want to credit them for. But I don't think its "conspiracy theory" to find this indecent strange.

shadowgovt 7y ago
> You don't think it defies logic that a SOFTWARE ENGINEER who works for the CIA, would leave such an obvious trail to a horrific crime on his home computer? The history of people being arrested for crime suggests no. People who are incredibly savvy in one field have been incredibly stupid in what should have been a very-closely-related field. Entirely too many politicians who know how much people talk have had their careers tarnished by unpopular sexual trysts, for example.
- ghostbrainalpha 7y ago
  That's all true. Maybe it is just people are that stupid. Here is ANOTHER article from Today about a famous Hacker being arrested for child porn. https://kotaku.com/nintendo-switch-hacker-busted-also-pleads-guilty-to-ch-1841419348 https://kotaku.com/nintendo-switch-hacker-busted-also-pleads... It just feels like from reading the news, that to be an illegal hacker it's almost a requirement to have tons of child porn on your personal computers.
rbanffy 7y ago
This person went through one of the most demanding interviewing process on the planet and has passed probably more than one interrogation without anyone suspecting he was a paedophile. I'm really not sure which possible assertions is more disturbing: that the FBI would frame him or that the CIA may be full of paedophiles.
dontbenebby 7y ago
You're assuming CIA software engineers are good at their jobs, and that engineers have opsec skills Those are two big assumptions. HN is usually pretty logical, so I find it odd that people are jumping to conclusions here. Jumping from "the CIA is all elite software engineers" to "CIA engineers must have extraordinary opsec" to "if unencrypted evidence was found, the most likely explanation is it was planted" requires several wild leaps. Maybe the same sort of person who blows up their life by leaking classified information and does it in a manner sloppy enough to at least be accused of the crime is also careless to not properly cover up other crimes? Also, clandestine service and analyst roles are two very different roles housed under the same agency. Not everyone in the CIA is in clandestine service. (In fact it's my understanding the vast majority are not) I have no idea if this person is guilty, that's what a trial is for. But I'm not going to say the presence of evidence is evidence of innocence - that seems like extremely flimsy, circular logic. Then again, I've never held a clearance or worked a government job - this is all just my own analysis based on open source information, so take what I say with a grain of salt :) Folks may want to read this article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/entries/3662a707-0af9-3149-963f-47bea720b460 https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/entries/3662a707-0af9... (There's also a HN discussion thread for that article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14500633 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14500633)

shadowgovt 7y ago

> You don't think it defies logic that a SOFTWARE ENGINEER who works for the CIA, would leave such an obvious trail to a horrific crime on his home computer? The history of people being arrested for crime suggests no. People who are incredibly savvy in one field have been incredibly stupid in what should have been a very-closely-related field. Entirely too many politicians who know how much people talk have had their careers tarnished by unpopular sexual trysts, for example.

ghostbrainalpha 7y ago
That's all true. Maybe it is just people are that stupid. Here is ANOTHER article from Today about a famous Hacker being arrested for child porn. https://kotaku.com/nintendo-switch-hacker-busted-also-pleads-guilty-to-ch-1841419348 https://kotaku.com/nintendo-switch-hacker-busted-also-pleads... It just feels like from reading the news, that to be an illegal hacker it's almost a requirement to have tons of child porn on your personal computers.

rbanffy 7y ago

This person went through one of the most demanding interviewing process on the planet and has passed probably more than one interrogation without anyone suspecting he was a paedophile. I'm really not sure which possible assertions is more disturbing: that the FBI would frame him or that the CIA may be full of paedophiles.

dontbenebby 7y ago

You're assuming CIA software engineers are good at their jobs, and that engineers have opsec skills Those are two big assumptions. HN is usually pretty logical, so I find it odd that people are jumping to conclusions here. Jumping from "the CIA is all elite software engineers" to "CIA engineers must have extraordinary opsec" to "if unencrypted evidence was found, the most likely explanation is it was planted" requires several wild leaps. Maybe the same sort of person who blows up their life by leaking classified information and does it in a manner sloppy enough to at least be accused of the crime is also careless to not properly cover up other crimes? Also, clandestine service and analyst roles are two very different roles housed under the same agency. Not everyone in the CIA is in clandestine service. (In fact it's my understanding the vast majority are not) I have no idea if this person is guilty, that's what a trial is for. But I'm not going to say the presence of evidence is evidence of innocence - that seems like extremely flimsy, circular logic. Then again, I've never held a clearance or worked a government job - this is all just my own analysis based on open source information, so take what I say with a grain of salt :) Folks may want to read this article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/entries/3662a707-0af9-3149-963f-47bea720b460 https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/entries/3662a707-0af9... (There's also a HN discussion thread for that article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14500633 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14500633)