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Hosting a Highly Inflammatory Document?
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?"
I third. Leave this one to the professionals.
You wouldn't want to have your local hometown heroes shoot you and plant a dime bag on your corpse or anything.
It's posts like this that make me fall in love with /. all over again!!
Post it everywhere.
Don't hide.
Print that shit out and nail it to the wall, Martin Luther style.
Why use Xerobank, a commercial service? I recommend installing Tor (which is free) and accessing Wikileaks only through their .onion address, http://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).
"Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
How appropriate considering the other story today.
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.
Dual Opteron < $600
It depends what you're worried about. If you're concerned about it being proven that you were part of the distribution of the document, then any of the suggestions posed so far will work. Buy a new hard drive, encrypt it, receive the document to it from a USB device (destroy the USB device afterwards). Upload to Wikileaks from the encrypted drive. Destroy the drive.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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. :)
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
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.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
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.
Do you only watch Fox News? I honestly cannot believe someone said that.
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.