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I feel like you didn't actually read the article. They were describing some pretty standard LE work where there's no meaningful sense of they phrase "parallel

• tptacek 12y ago
  I agree in spirit that allegations about NSA involvement are conspiracy-theoretic, but the idea behind parallel construction is to create a "hint book" to start standard LE techniques off in the right place. You wouldn't see any indications of parallel construction in a competently run investigation. Of course: the claim is non-falsifiable; in the airless vacuum of a message board, you could just as productively argue that the Grey Aliens tipped the FBI off.
  • nemo 12y ago
    The allegations of NSA involvement were regarding things that the article didn't discuss so far as I can tell. They weren't talking about how the server's IP/location was found, they were talking about physically following the guy to the library and nailing him with his laptop open while he was chatting with an informant in an SR admin panel. There's no meaningful role I could see the NSA playing in that particular scene even if there's a question about how the Feds. reached the point of identifying him. They appear to have had a number of angles that they used to nail him physically, rather than the single point of revelation through the server, where some of those angles don't look like parallel constructions on their face (Post Office finding fake ids, IRS investigation, etc.).