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Hosting a Highly Inflammatory Document?
Posted by
Soulskill
on Fri May 15, 2009 06:59 PM
from the information-wants-to-be-free,-particularly-the-juicy-stuff dept.
from the information-wants-to-be-free,-particularly-the-juicy-stuff dept.
IndianaKim writes "I have been asked if I can host or assist in hosting a highly inflammatory document that reflects poorly on a Police Department. I want to help, but I also do not want the headache and possible subjection to search warrants and/or illegal searches. The document is so inflammatory that it could interest the FBI and DoJ and cause them to investigate the government officials involved. I live in the same county, but not the same city, and therefore could be subject to a search (legal or not) by some of these government agencies. I have been asked to host it on a server outside of the US. At this time, I do not have the ability to do that, but I could set it up if I needed to. My question is: would you host it if you were asked? How would you go about protecting the document and yourself?"
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I know where . . . (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I know where . . . (Score:5, Insightful)
You wouldn't want to have your local hometown heroes shoot you and plant a dime bag on your corpse or anything.
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Re:I know where . . . (Score:5, Informative)
Good point about "the professionals". For one thing, Wikileaks is smart enough not to go to Slashdot for legal advice. They'd go to a lawyer, who'd tell you that local authorities can hold a local person accountable for web content, regardless of where it's hosted.
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Re:I know where . . . (Score:5, Funny)
Good point about "the professionals". For one thing, Wikileaks is smart enough not to go to Slashdot for legal advice.
The fools, where else can you get expert IANAL legal advice? I mean besides Jack Thompson?
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Re:I know where . . . (Score:5, Insightful)
His question was neither technical nor legal. He was asking if he should do it or not.
I think the answer given here is no, let Wikileaks do it. Good reasons for doing so are technical and legal, which I think is really the justification he was looking for.
Other factors to consider might be whether he believes the document is "real", whether it has some supporting evidence and whether it can be used to do some good.
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Re:I know where . . . (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly. Wikileaks is the premier inflammatory doc hosting site out there.
There is a system for subverting the system and you should use that system!
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Re:I know where . . . (Score:5, Interesting)
Harassment isn't always so obvious. When I was a kid, for political reasons (that I won't go into, but it wasn't directly me), I had my own private escort to and from school by the police. They tried to not be obvious, but they weren't very good at it. I was pulled over in "routine" traffic stops at least once a week.
Once, with my mom in the car, I noticed a patrol car pull behind me. I told her, "We're going to be pulled over.", and she said we weren't doing anything wrong. They followed for about a mile, and when we stopped in a mall parking lot, the officer told us to wait with the car. It wasn't his call, he was just told to keep us there until further notice. There wasn't even an ID check. We were just held for 15 minutes, before the harassing officers radioed over to say to let us go this time. They were busy with something else. I was just an easy target that day.
It became a game with me. I'd spot them before they'd get close behind me, so I'd pull nice polite evasive maneuvers (3 signaled turns on side streets to get out of view, then park and lay the seat down). They may have slowed down my trip by a minute or two, but it was better than being ID'd, personally searched, vehicle searched, questioned, and finally let go.
Once an officer followed me for 5 miles. Very obviously, because he followed my lane changes, turns, etc. I even made some nonsensical turns, like off of the main road, loop through a neighborhood, and back onto the same main road in the same direction. I pulled into a parking lot with a store, and we got out. He parked several rows over and did the same thing. We were slow about getting out of the car, so he didn't want to be obvious, and walked into the store. Once he was in with his back turned, we got back into our car, and drove away. From the exit of the parking lot, we saw him running for his car. He got caught up in traffic, where we made a clean exit (before the traffic), so we had a 2 minute advantage to get out of sight.
I grew up thinking that's how the police treated either kids or drivers in general. It happened until I moved out of the area. I was amazed that I wasn't pulled over for anything for years after that.
I recommend against anything that will make a law enforcement agency want to harass you. If you do, do it very very quietly. In this case, photocopies of the document mailed to the appropriate investigative agencies anonymously are a good idea. Scanning and emailing (from a dummy webmail account in a public location through proxies is good) is a good idea also. Submitting to wikileaks and other similar places is good. Is it interesting enough for the ACLU, EFF, or AlterNet to be interested in?
The big question is, is the risk (continued harassment for years) worth the gain (busting one cop for smoking pot, or whatever?)
You could distribute to be redistributed. It's not hard to my online info (look at my profile), and I can give a hint if it's worth the trouble. Contact me through a dummy account, but remember to check it for my response.
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Re:I know where . . . (Score:5, Funny)
I'm not sure I believe your story. Police can't just randomly detain citizens, and if they did there's recourse like suing the department for violating Supreme Court rulings.
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Re:I know where . . . (Score:5, Interesting)
Sure they can, that is why 'probable cause" is such a wide open standard. I had it happen to me for about a year. The girl I was dating at the time did a lot of babysitting jobs, including a cops kid. The kid thought I was the coolest thing since sliced bread since I had the 80s feathered hair(which was in at the time, thank you very much) along with the leather jacket and a 68 Mustang. I got a feeling after the third stop the cop was hoping to catch me with "something" just to show the kid that "long hairs are bad" or some such shit.
The funny part was he got caught taking a bribe to sneak some evidence out of the evidence room to throw a case. He didn't know that a buddy of mine that worked bail bonds got so tired of his customers jumping through hoops only to get to court and find "missing evidence" that he talked the judge into installing a hidden camera in the police evidence room. Mr. Asshat cop and a couple of his buddies got busted but good for using the evidence room as their own personal stop n' shop.
So don't believe for a minute that the supreme court means shit. If he was in a small town the cops pretty much can do what they please. They are all asshole buddies with the judges, prosecutors, lawyers, etc and unless they do something SO outrageous that all the BS in the world won't cover it up, they will get by with it. All you can do is move or do like the above poster did and put up with it.
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Re:I know where . . . (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyway one day the cop who'd done most of the harrassing came on my neighbour's property without a warrant, just to give him shit, and my neighbour came out with a shotgun and ran off the cop. And that was the end of the problem -- no more harrassment.
Don't try this at home, kids. Seriously. Pulling guns on anyone is a bad idea, but pulling guns on cops is truly idiotic, I don't care how in the right you are.
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Re:I know where . . . (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, you're probably right 99% of the time, but in this case it proved the right thing to do... especially since he caught the bad cop by surprise, and with no backup.
As to whether pulling a gun is always a bad idea... I've had to use threat of deadly force to run off scum four times myself... twice saving someone's life (one being my own). IMO, getting beat up or robbed or killed because you won't defend yourself is a worse idea. :)
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Re:I know where . . . (Score:5, Insightful)
As to whether pulling a gun is always a bad idea... I've had to use threat of deadly force to run off scum four times myself... twice saving someone's life (one being my own). IMO, getting beat up or robbed or killed because you won't defend yourself is a worse idea. :)
Maybe you should try moving to a better part of town? I have never once been in a situation that would have been improved by the presence of firearms (including being robbed). I've certainly been around gun-carrying thugs before but I generally find you're left alone if you treat others with respect and without fear. I love shooting guns and I don't dispute the right to own them, but I've never felt the need or urge to run around armed myself. YMMV, I suppose.
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Re:I know where . . . (Score:5, Interesting)
Upon being stationed back in the US after being stationed over-seas the last 10 years, my father found himself with no U.S. drivers license. So, one day, still in his BDU (battle-dress uniform, aka "cammies" or camouflage) he gets in a staff vehicle and drives to the DMV, where he takes and fails the written drivers exam: the German philosophy of rechtsfahren or, "drive right", was not quite compatible with Georgia laws at the time.
So, having failed the driving exam, my father walks back out to his car, gets in his, starts the motor and is preparing to drive off when the rookie cop who was hanging around shooting the shit with the girl at the DMV office comes flying out of the building, runs up the drivers side door screaming "GET OUT OF THE CAR! GET OUT NOW!" and draws his
Now, I'm sorry, but anyone who pulls a gun on a soldier in uniform is an idiot. My father, a veteran of four combat tours as a forward observer looks over, raises his hands as is expected, and in the process neatly relieves the officer of his weapon (I've since learned the trick, it's rather useful), pulling the officer by the wrist head-first into the vehicle and introducing him to his friend, a service issue M1911A1 Colt
Long story short(er), it turned out the girl in the DMV office - who was fortunately tired of the rookie cop hitting on her all day - later admitted he had said to her that he was going to wait until he got the keys in the ignition so he'd have enough of an offense to throw my old man in jail (driving without a license) and get his first real arrest. Unfortunately for said cop, my father was a duly authorized U.S. Army officer going about official military business in a U.S. Army staff vehicle and was in possession of a valid U.S. Army Drivers license which permitted him to drive said vehicle on any any all U.S. territory, domestic and abroad. The rook's excuse for drawing his gun - that he assumed my father, as a soldier, was also armed, even though up to that point his firearm had remained in his vehicle - didn't fly in state court and he found himself without a badge very quickly. No wonder my dad liked the movie Tank [imdb.com] so much when it came out a few years later.
Sometimes you can only fight fire with fire, and occasionally one must make a stand against harassment: most especially when it comes in the guise of a government or government official trying to abuse his standing. The same way I don't feel sorry at all for the Atlanta cops who executed a wrongly issued (complete lack of evidence of real justification) no-knock warrant on an ~80 year old grandmother who lived in a somewhat bad part of town. A couple of them got shot by an old lady trying to defend herself, thinking she was being robbed, and the cops of course blew her away. I pity the old lady and her family. The cops not at all - sadly these bunch of crooks were only injured, but it serves them right. They were just lucky it wasn't someone with better aim and a weapon bigger than a
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." -Thomas Jefferson
As a result the city of Atlanta is much much more cautious about issuing no-knock warrants, and that whole department was reviewed rather critically, a number of people let go, and their procedures altered. I rather suspect that cops in a certain small Georgia town aren't quite so likely to pull their guns on uniformed soldiers driving Army staff vehicles, either.
As to whether pulling a gun is always a bad idea... I've had to use threat of deadly force to run off scum four times myself... twice saving someone's life (one being my own). IMO, getting beat up or robbed or killed because you won't defend yourself is a worse idea. :)
My point
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Re:I know where . . . (Score:5, Interesting)
Cops are thugs who happen to work for the most powerful gang of all. That's it, that's all.
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Re:I know where . . . (Score:5, Interesting)
Fear not, every stop had a legal basis.
Once I was driving a suspicious car. Oddly enough, it was the only one like it in the area that I knew of.
Once it was that I kept looking in the mirror. Of course I was. A patrol car was following me around.
Once I was told "I observed you tailgating a red truck at through ___ intersection." I clearly remembered that I was following a black car, becuse he was driving slow. I was following at 20mph (in a 35 zone) at about 8 car lengths.
Many were "random" traffic safety stops.
And the hold I mentioned, the officer detaining me did not have any information on why I was being detained, but to keep the situation peaceful, he politely requested me to stay with the car. He was actually very polite, because he had no clue what it was about. He did say that he didn't have legal authority to detain me, but it would likely be escalated by the local PD (he was county). Rather than cause an incident by refusing to stay, I stayed. He sat in his car waiting for further instructions. I stood by my car, and until just before he said we could leave, he wasn't on the radio. This was before the days of laptops in every patrol car, so I know he wasn't doing anything more nefarious.
A lawsuit wouldn't go far. In the area, the "good ol' boy" system was well in place, which is why this was happening in the first place. Me, being a 16 through 19 year old boy during the period, I made enough money to buy gas for my car and a few other things. I definitely couldn't afford a lawyer. I did have several opportunities to speak with lawyers on the subject (on my side). I was advised that I would never beat them. The most I would do would be to upset them more, and find myself in more "random" trouble. My options were to:
1) File lawsuits, and keep appealing up beyond the local "good ol' boy" system. That would be somewhere in the high 6 figures, which it was doubtful I'd ever recover.
2) Get a different car. This worked for about 2 months.
3) Move out of the area. I did this at about 19.
But hey, I don't care if you believe me or not. I know most of the "harassment" stories I read are total irrational paranoia. I thought it was just me for a while, until friends and family started getting annoyed by it, especially when they were in the car with me.
I was informally accused of several crimes. The "where were you on __ day" question was kind of hard. 6 months ago, at 10pm, where were you? I had no clue. At home asleep? At a friends house? At the movies? As the interrogation continued, it became clear that I was the only suspect in a tv/stereo store robbery. As it turned out later, it was insurance fraud, and I was just a good candidate to harass. Maybe it would have been better if they could have solicited a spontaneous confession. I was so clueless on the whole matter that I couldn't even say something wrong that would match the crime. I've since learned (now being older and wiser), STFU. If they want you to confess, even idle conversation will come back to bite you. The smart ass answer "Ok, you've seen my car. How many TV's did I fit in it?" didn't help the situation at all. Luckily, there were no stolen TV's in the crime, but they did use it to continue questioning me on being there. I wasn't.
It would probably help if I explained more of their motive, but ... well ... honestly, I don't want to tell. It was absolutely nothing criminal in nature though.
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Re:I know where . . . (Score:5, Insightful)
Never confuse "can't" with "not supposed to". One represents an impossibility, the other a mere legal impediment that may or may not be followed or enforced.
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Re:I know where . . . (Score:5, Informative)
I really don't want to tell. ... I guess I should.
My dad was a strong candidate for a senior county level elected position.
The incumbent was well rooted in the "good ol' boy" system. He was close friends with the local judges, sheriff, and most of the deputies. This was very apparent during campaign season. You could spot the who's who of local politics at various fundraisers and political events.
That rolled downhill to absorb quite a few other law enforcement people to do "a favor" for them. There was at least one state police officer involved, who later went to jail on bribery and corruption charges. One deputy involved also went away on bribery and corruption charges. Both of those happened after I moved away. I don't keep up with their news much, but a friend told me, and sent the newspaper clippings.
Local police were very friendly with the sheriff's department, as the cities generally didn't have the required manpower at all hours, so through city and county agreements, all of their jurisdictions overlapped. A city police officer from three towns over had arresting powers in any city in the county as well as the unincorporated areas.
When I mentioned that the deputy didn't have anything to hold me on, he didn't. He was actually being a good cop, and didn't want to put his ass on the line for something stupid that he had no knowledge of. The local PD wanted me, but were busy with something else.
By distracting my family with the harassment, I believe they hoped my dad would drop out of politics. They couldn't harass him directly, because they knew he wouldn't screw up. I was a teenager, I'm more likely to do something stupid.
For example, late one night I was driving out of a town towards home. It was a 4 lane divided highway, with only a few cars on the road. I saw a car going the other way, and didn't pay much attention. About a minute later, he had turned around, and was tailgating me. I wasn't sure if it was someone looking for trouble, or a cop, so I drove carefully, expecting them to hit me eventually. After 3 miles of tailgating, it turned out to be a deputy. After a patdown and search of my car, I was given a "careless driving" ticket, that was thrown out when I showed up in court. What if I had floored the gas to get away? I wasn't sure if I should run or not. If I had, that could have been reckless driving, evading law enforcement, blah, blah, blah. a whole stack of misdemeanor charges to put me in jail for a while. I got lucky.
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Re:I know where . . . (Score:5, Interesting)
This actually sounds very familiar; a similar thing happened to my family when I was in high school.
My dad, doctor in a small town, had a run-in with a cop on the road (pulled over & ticketed while racing to a medical emergency). Then he went to a public meeting where he complained to the chief of police. Chief of police told him he wouldn't rest until he was in handcuffs someday.
So my dad was followed kind of routinely. So was I, and so were my cousins. I got harassed one time sitting in an unmoving vehicle in my uncle's driveway -- cop pulls in behind me and and accuses me of illegal hunting, of all things. (Do I have any hunting gear whatsoever? No, a notepad, pencil and some D&D books.)
Didn't last as long as your story, but same deal -- harassing a guy's children because he's politically offensive. Real classy.
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Re:I know where . . . (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe Goblins were out of season?
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Re:I know where . . . (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:I know where . . . (Score:4, Insightful)
If you pay cash for your printer, I can't see any way to trace it back to you; and I doubt very much that the shops have the facility to record serial numbers of individual printer sales, link them to credit cards, and report them to the authorities.
This is probably more useful for where they get a search warrant for your place, and they can establish whether or not it was your printer that was used to print it.
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Re:I know where . . . (Score:4, Interesting)
paranoia isn't just a psychological problem, it's a protective mechanism. :)
Wrong. Paranoia is a delusion and a "mental illness". Fear of persecution is a "protective mechanism".
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1. Upload to Wikileaks with Xerobank 2. Link to It (Score:5, Informative)
Assuming the document is small, you could install Xerobank [xerobank.com] (formerly TorPark) and create an account on Wikileaks and upload it to Wikileaks through the Tor onion router. Your anonymity would be assured in a hilariously sound manner.
Your website need do nothing more than link to Wikileaks and ponder how it got there.
That would be my plan of action. I would also be careful with all the machines/devices used to transfer that file.
Depending on how important/inflammable this document is, I might look into buying a cheap 20GB laptop hard drive, installing ubuntu, going to a star bucks, doing the above and then "disposing" of the drive and all media so that there are no questions. Sorry to sound like Harvey Keitel on Pulp Fiction but
My question is: would you host it if you were asked? How would you go about protecting the document and yourself?
It depends on who is asking me. There are maybe 5 or 6 people in my life that if they approached me with this request and said it was serious and said it had to be me hosting it, I would do it no questions ask. I would not read the document, I would stop them from explaining to me what is the document, I would do it and give them the link. I would then go directly to my lawyer and have a small chat with him. Then I would grab a glass of Chivas Regal and put on a record and take the battery out of my cell phone and relax.
Re:1. Upload to Wikileaks with Xerobank 2. Link to (Score:5, Insightful)
It's posts like this that make me fall in love with /. all over again!!
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Re:1. Upload to Wikileaks with Xerobank 2. Link to (Score:5, Funny)
Depending on how important/inflammable this document is, I might look into buying a cheap 20GB laptop hard drive, installing ubuntu, going to a star bucks, doing the above and then "disposing" of the drive and all media so that there are no questions.
You could probably sell the hard drive on eBay, make a few bucks. I wouldn't worry about scrubbing it tho. Nobody checks those things.
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Re:1. Upload to Wikileaks with Xerobank 2. Link to (Score:5, Funny)
Depending on how important/inflammable this document is, I might look into buying a cheap 20GB laptop hard drive, installing ubuntu, going to a star bucks, doing the above and then "disposing" of the drive and all media so that there are no questions.
You could probably sell the hard drive on eBay, make a few bucks. I wouldn't worry about scrubbing it tho. Nobody checks those things.
Well, I have several problems with that. One is that it is uncharacteristic of me to sell something on ebay. Especially hardware like that. This could be easily seen as odd behavior leading them to the drive. The other is that it's probably becoming common to check drives for interesting stuff when you buy them on eBay. The other is that I don't care about the money a 20GB drive would net me if I'm dealing with the law.
..."
No, I am afraid my course of action would be to vigorously scrub the drive, take the drive apart and spot weld the platters together to make a set of ugly ass coasters with magnets attached as feet to the coaster. I would keep the set in plain view in my living room. Then one day when a guest inquired about them I could say, "Funny story
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Use Tor (Score:5, Insightful)
Why use Xerobank, a commercial service? I recommend installing Tor (which is free) and accessing Wikileaks only through their .onion address, http://gaddbiwdftapglkq.onion/ [gaddbiwdftapglkq.onion]. That way you don't use any exit servers, so nobody can sniff your traffic or even know that you're talking to Wikileaks except Wikileaks themselves (who won't know who you are).
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Re:Use Tor (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Use Tor (Score:5, Funny)
and for gods sake make sure you use the ransom font! un_trace_able
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Re:Use Tor (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:1. Upload to Wikileaks with Xerobank 2. Link to (Score:4, Informative)
That's assuming there's nothing in the document itself that only a particular author would write. That's how they ended up identifying the unibomber.
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Re:1. Upload to Wikileaks with Xerobank 2. Link to (Score:5, Informative)
Well, "they" didn't identify the Unabomber - his brother did, because he recognized his writing style in his published manifesto, which in turn resulted in the forensic investigation and comparison of his manifesto to some earlier stuff that he'd written. The method is called stylometry [wikipedia.org] (or stylometrics) and is used widely in forensic linguistics, but it's still only an indicator of authorship - not proof.
In the Unabomber case, they had two sets of texts, the manifesto written by the Unabomber and the texts written by Ted Kaczynski, hence it was relatively easy to compare the two sets and see if there was reason to believe the author of both sets to be the same. In this case, you'll have a single text by an unknown author... What will you compare it to first when you have no suspect or suspected texts? Exactly... This document will have to mean the end of the world before they start trawling the web for random texts and comparing. Mind you, these stylometric comparisons must be verified by a human, even though a lot can be automated with principal component analysis.
I'd say that the author can feel pretty safe, as long as he/she isn't a well-known author and/or uses linguistic constructions specific for his/her dialect or regiolect. Remove all meta-data from the file (e.g. go with plain text or HTML as suggested (far) above) and publish to wikileaks through Tor from a public hotspot. At least, that's what I'd do. I don't know about Brian Boitano, Buddha, Muhammed or Jesus.
Oh, and yes, I am a linguist. :)
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Re:1. Upload to Wikileaks with Xerobank 2. Link to (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:1. Upload to Wikileaks with Xerobank 2. Link to (Score:5, Informative)
For this to work you would also have to change your wireless interface's Ethernet MAC (hardware) address. By default this is a vendor-specific code that is probably unique enough that it could be used to link you to the upload. This would require that (a) the coffee shop kept some kind of long-term logging on their wireless device, (b) the authorities were able to trace the upload to the coffee shop, and (c) the police had some kind of suspicion of you already. All are improbable, but none are impossible.
Most wireless cards will let you change the hardware address. I'll leave instructions for how to do that to the enterprising googler.
The alternative is to use a cheap throwaway laptop with wireless, or a disposable wireless ethernet card.
(Yes, it's paranoid, but so is the original question.)
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Don't be paranoid. Really, who is watching YOU. (Score:5, Funny)
For this to work you would also have to change your wireless interface's Ethernet MAC (hardware) address.
(Yes, it's paranoid, but so is the original question.)
No, none of this security "voodoo" is required at all. It's nothing but paranoid delusional compulsion driven obsessiveness.
Really, who is going to be watch 'YOU?' You are nothing, a tiny insignificant electron fart on the massive, anonymous Internet freeway. There is no way that anyone could possibly track such a posting back to you even if you sent it from the comfort of your West Virginia trailer park, wood panelled double-wide. By the way, the cat is scratching at the door. Please let her in. The noise is driving me nuts.
...anyway. Like I was saying, the level of grandiosity required to believe that jack-booted, neo-conservative thugs with brush cuts and small testicles are following the every movement of this document and your friend Herb's handling of it is just beyond the bounds of all sane thought processes.
Damn it Frank, let that frikin' cat in already. Put down the JVC multi-function remote. Holy crap, man. You DVR'ed the mud wrestling match last night while your aunt Emma was over for dinner. It's not like you can't pause the damn show. Don't you know that Princess is very sensitive to heat and humidity? Maybe you won't have to take her to the vet 20 times this summer (like you had to last year) if you leave her in air conditioning for a change.
So, have we learned anything? No one is watching you. The government doesn't care what you do with that damn document that Herb wants you to host for him. No need to take ANY type of security/privacy countermeasure!
We ... I mean, the government is not watching anything you do. Really. This is the voice of reason speaking to you.
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Hmm... Username is "IndianaKim" (Score:4, Funny)
I think we know where to send the black helicopters!
am curious (Score:5, Funny)
Now I'm curious. Be sure to post another story pointing to the wikileaks url once it goes up.
Balls Out (Score:5, Insightful)
Post it everywhere.
Don't hide.
Print that shit out and nail it to the wall, Martin Luther style.
And you say you live in a Free Society? (Score:5, Interesting)
"Some say that power comes with responsibility, but this is not correct. Freedom is responsibility, and if one fails to be responsible for their own freedom then those who claim 'power' will become responsible for your freedom, and both will be taken from you." - me
So basically because you fear the ability of law enforcement to abuse their powers in ways that may harm you personally, you are afraid to host this document that I have to presume relates to revealing some potentially illegal police activities? The press refuses to carry this story? And people say they live in a free society, when they are free only to be afraid of the power of government??
Let me say this. If I had such documents, well, speaking from their presumed perspective and content, I would choose to host them. I would do so proudly. And I would share them with others to host as well, openly, without question. I would make sure they were also mirrored of course on something outside the U.S. as I do have resources for that. But I would happily apply my own resources to host them also.
Fascism happens when the efficiency and fear of the state becomes more important than the freedom and rights of the people.
Re:And you say you live in a Free Society? (Score:5, Interesting)
The point of a free society is not that power is never abused, it's that there are effective mechanisms for opposing the abuse of power.
Which is what is happening.
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Post it on 4chan (Score:4, Insightful)
Grow a pair (Score:5, Interesting)
This document is "so inflamatory it might interest the DoJ or FBI"?
Then send it to them. Or, if it's valid at all, send it to the closest trustworthy newspaper you can find. Or if nothing else, HIRE A CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYER so you know where the line is where you need to stop -- and so you know what to do if an illegal search comes up.
A random document on the internet means NOTHING to an investigative agency. You might as well walk up and make a random phone call from a stolen cell phone. It's not even probable cause to investigate if you don't have a name to go with the charge.
Go home, read the Constitution again, and decide if you want to help someone throw mud for zero effect, or if you want to actually see change. Our forefathers fought and died for our right to speak what we believe to be true; you are a coward if you will only exercise that when there is zero effect.
(Oh, and for the main question: no, I wouldn't. And I wouldn't try hosting it overseas, either; few countries have as strong a free speech protection as the United States.)
Isn't this slashdot article... (Score:5, Informative)
I would say put it on wikileaks as fast as you can.
I'm not a lawyer though, so perhaps there are reasons to not do this? Perhaps contact a lawyer first. Give them a copy of the documents.
use a payphone (Score:4, Interesting)
It's all quite easy if you can find an obscure pay phone that still works and will let you make 800 calls. Get yourself an acoustic coupler and find one of those free dial up accounts. Set up some sort of old laptop, that you found in the trash, to dial in using a script. You could also have it dial in to a bunch of different services to keep them off your track for awhile. Next set up a dyna DNS account and set up the laptop to update it. Hide the laptop somewhere in the phone booth. You will also need to steal power for the laptop from somewhere so get a dc-dc converter and steal the power off of the phone line going to the booth. No one ever uses pay phones anymore but you might want to leave something nasty in the booth to keep the homeless out.
Posting on Slashdot? (Score:5, Funny)
Well the first thing I would do is post about it on Slashdot under my username. That way the cops could have absolutely no way to trace it back to me.
How It's done (Score:4, Interesting)
Certain lawyers have faced a very similar issue. They have learned to live outside of cities and counties that they sue. They have also learned to use drivers and never, ever drive in those cities and counties.
I also had one friend whose home was burned when her husband ran for county sheriff.
All in all it is better to be rather remote from the people who may feel endangered by your actions. It it involves crime it may be organized and deadly.
Think twice (Score:5, Funny)
Best to do it from the computer of someone that you genuinely despise. This makes it a 2-for-1 when the cops and their associates go after the other guy.
What exactly are you afraid of though? (Score:5, Insightful)
However if you are more concerned with being thought to have been part of the distribution (as that is, after all, what's going to get you raided) then you have a bigger problem. You don't care so much whether in 5 years anybody can show you were involved, you only care about right now, can you stay under the radar.
I would build a suitable alibi (get out of town) and then receive the document from the source. Afterwards, have a change of heart, convince the source that you are NOT going to host it anywhere, convince them you have destroyed the media, and lay low for a while.
Then upload it to WikiLeaks at your leisure. If your source is convinced that you didn't upload it the Man hopefully won't think so either.
Re:Host it or don't. (Score:4, Insightful)
Simple, either you host it cause you feel that the document is important enough. Or you don't.
Important enough for what? Important enough to justify the risk. What you call a simple choice isn't. To make that decision, the OP has to know what the possible consequences of their actions are, and the chances they will have to face them, and weigh that against the importance of the information in question. To know the risk, they have to weigh their options for publishing, the chances of adverse consequences being linked to the amount of personal exposure involved in going public. A person might perform an act that has a chance of landing them in jail, but might decline to do so if it were certain they would be imprisoned for it.
What seems to you like a case of "not having the balls" seems to me like someone weighing their options and trying to make a rational decision.
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Re:Host it or don't. (Score:5, Insightful)
How appropriate considering the other story today [slashdot.org].
Well said. You do what's right even if it means it won't be easy. The good news is, we live in a country where the chances of being assassinated by government officials is not as great.
My opinion to the submitter...
Could mean some headaches, so prepare for them by consulting with an attorney.
More importantly, if this is something that the FBI or other agencies are going to be interested as you say, then why not go straight to them?
Don't put something out on the internet because it's cool to do so. That's not the right way. Take it through the proper legal channels. Then if it doesn't go forward, you put it out in the wild.
You didn't give details, but it is possible that leaking the information could hinder any potential investigation that the FBI or whoever may need to conduct to get more evidence.
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