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Cyber-criminal Left In Charge of Prison Computer Network
samzenpus writes "A 27-year-old man serving six years for stealing £6.5million using forged credit cards over the internet was recruited to help write code needed for the installation of an internal prison TV station. He was left unguarded with unfettered access to the system and produced results that anyone but prison officials could have guessed. He installed a series of passwords on all the machines, shutting down the entire prison computer system. A prison source said, 'It's unbelievable that a criminal convicted of cyber-crime was allowed uncontrolled access to the hard drive. He set up such an elaborate array of passwords it took a specialist company to get it working.'"
...hire these people for the FBI or something? At least that's how the movies go...
Slashdot is too nerdy for me.
This guy wants to appear like he is technical but only makes himself look foolish. The operating system was compromised. The protections should have been put in place to limit his rights to access the system and should always have been done so under supervision and with logging. They were foolish, he did what was to be expected
Where's a "whatcouldpossiblygowrong" tag when you one?
6yrs.. turned into LIFE.. what a moron
Some cyber-criminal stole my 'need'!
I stumbled this a long while ago. I'm surprised to see it is just now on slashdot.
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Chicken Coop, Inc. is proud to announce the promotion of Mr. Fox to the position of chief of security...
This was the same guy who helped the joker take over Arkham Asylum.
6.5 million pounds vs. six years in prison. Considering 20 years in cube for about 2.5 million pounds total, this crime thing is looking like a better alternative career!
Failbus. What did they offer him to do this? He might've helped them out if they actually offered him something instead of doing it out of the godness of his heart.
Interesting that inmates have access to computers and TV. I'm glad we pay for that for them while normal citizens are having a hard time finding a job...
Given that our best and brightest are running the prison system.
Up next:
Sexual offenders run the prison rape-prevention program.
The case of Kevin Mitnick, who was initially restricted from using any sort of communications technology whatsoever (no computer access at all, no mobile phone, etc.), other than a landline telephone...
You're a computer guy, right? My cousin's kid been trying to help us with this TV station thing we're doing but I don't think he knows what he's doing. Plus he's starting soccer now and he doesn't have much time anymore. It's not like you don't, eh? Heh heh.
Anyway, can you help? We use The Windows and all that so it's pretty standard.
You will? Thanks buddy - I'll see that you get some extra "unmonitored" visits from the little lady this month.
... that this happened when the "prison source" still refers to a computer as "the hard drive"?
Ed R.Zahurak
You know, oblivion keeps looking better every day.
Why did this story get a lock instead of a foot?
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. . . is assigned in prison to garden detail . . . and is given . . . a chainsaw!
The prison now has a few open bunks.
The prison psychologist stated, "I hoped that we could discover how to do pleasant things with a chainsaw, instead of nasty things."
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Or starring Jeffrery Dahmer on an episode of Iron Chef.
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Thats almost as dumb as putting a Halliburton CEO in charge of the entire military.
Luckily nothing that stupid would ever happen here in America.
You're right, that never happened. While Dick Cheney was at one point the CEO of Halliburton, he was in charge of the U.S. military before he worked for Halliburton. As Vice President he had no authority over the military.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
does it mean nobody should be ever given a chance? This guy acted pretty dumb, knowing that he be caught for sure. It's too bad someone else is now less likely to be given a chance to put their skills for good purpose after screwing up.
Stupid lol, they do know that they put the guy in a prison for a REASON?? And the criminal was stupid too,he could have gotten out of prison faster for his work,but the prisons are full of really smart criminals huh?? LOL
Jack of all trades,master of none
Nah, that's ok. The contestants don't get to pick the theme ingredient. Having him sub for Chairman Kaga, now, that'd be a bad idea.
Still, it would give a whole new meaning to the "Tasting and Judgement" segment.
If the individual who allowed this prisoner access to the system somehow died as a result, it would be a great candidate for the Darwin Award.
Restore from your last good backup.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
The VP has no military powers. None. Your comment should be letting a trust fund kiddie coke-head alcoholic who has driven at least two companies into the ground run the US Military. I know middle-america is big on born-agains, but please stop voting them into office. Thanks.
There where those few hours while Bush was at the doctor's.
Or politics.
...the hacker guy tried to be funny but only made things worse for himself. There was no way he could get away with it. He should have tried something a bit more subtle, like installing some malware to collect data on the users for 'future reference'. He was foolish, they, in turn, did to him what was to be expected.
Why didn't he just alter his own records and get himself released?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Just because he had no "authority" didn't mean he didn't assert control. I seem to recall that it was Cheney's office that provided the falsified intelligence that was used to justify the war in Iraq. Authority is only required if you have ethics.
If the military was assigned to "protect" the interests of Haliburton (which it was), there was indirect control. Nice revisionism.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
My question is, why? I can understand stealing credit card information due to the financial side of things. Why would he pull a stunt like this? So he can get an extended prison sentence, and have no hope of being let out on parole? When you're in prison, do you want to piss off the prison staff? Do you know what happens when you do that? Idiot.
Just because I can hook a shark from a boat, I do no offer to wrestle it in the water.
So much so for the privileges. Dumb fsck.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
Same guy who founded Setec Astronomy, right?
Populus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur...
"Force shits upon Reason's back." - Poor Richard's Almanac
You mean like the "America Police Force" private detention facility in Hardin, Montana?
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
And this felon had "no authority" over the prison computer system.
You don't need "authority", you just need access.
"Pen-testing" and "set a thief to catch a thief" does not mean letting a thief build your security infrastructure without supervision.
Correction: "ex-coke-head dry-drunk". That's my understanding, anyway.
-kgj
Just because he had no "authority" didn't mean he didn't assert control. I seem to recall that it was Cheney's office that provided the falsified intelligence that was used to justify the war in Iraq. Authority is only required if you have ethics.
Such an asinine statement. Who has more ethics, the asshole gassing the Kurds or the asshole that bombs the asshole gassing the Kurds (regardless of the reason)?
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
If the military was assigned to "protect" the interests of Haliburton (which it was), there was indirect control. Nice revisionism.
Not only that, but regardless of what "authority" he did or didn't have as VP, pretending he wasn't instrumental in us (and Haliburton) being in Iraq is beyond revisionism.
That would be restitution, retribution, and rehabilitation. All three are necessary. Rarely are all three implemented. To whatever extent is possible, the victims of the crime should receive restitution (from the offender, not from the public at large). Punishment is needed to make certain that crime does not pay (if crime does pay, and the pay is better than the criminal can legally earn, we will have crime). Rehabilitation is required to minimize the chance of the criminal re-offending. If said criminal lacks the means to get and hold a decent job, the chances of re-offending are high. If he has the means of getting and holding a decent job, the chances of re-offending are reduced (but not nil).
linquendum tondere
Ok, I wanted to link to a comment in a previous story here, where someone complained about everything being "cyber-" this and "cyber-" that, and that it makes you sound like it came from the 80s.
I answered, that he then might not like my new "CyberCyber Virtu@l e-Cloud Turbo CoolClick iNetExplorer 2000 XFX GTX - Ultimate Social Web 2.0 Gold Edition"... or something like that.
But strangely, the comment vanished from the face of the net. I searched Google, and even manually went trough all recent articles here containing "cyber". Especially "cybercyber". It's gone!
How can that happen? Anyone care to explain, or find it, even if it's OT? Because this is really strange...
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
An asshole who bombs the asshole who is bombing the Kurds while telling us that the reason he is bombing the asshole who is bombing the Kurds is because that asshole is bombing the Kurds is not such an asshole. OUR asshole, however, was an asshole who was bombing the asshole who was bombing the Kurds while lying out of his ass that the reason he is bombing the asshole who is bombing the Kurds is because the asshole who is bombing the Kurds is getting ready to bomb US, which he wasn't.
So the asshole was thinking if he told the truth he might not get to bomb and so he will lie to get his way. That asshole was supposed to work for us, by the way.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
How about the asshole who gave the asshole gassing the Kurds the gas in the first place?
Oh right, that would be Donald Rumsfeld who completed that deal during the Reagen administration, not Richard Cheney.
... Epic Fail picture in there too.
Ethics mean doing the right thing for the right reasons.
Had we executed Hussien at the end of the first war? I would call that ethical.
Had we justified the second Iraq war as bringing a vile tyrant to justice? I would call that ethical.
Thats not what he did. He made financial investments in the military complex,
then he or someone under his direct control falsified evidence of WMD's and delivered it personally to the intelligence and military agencies.
This false justification combined with pulling the strings of the trained monkey was used to start the war.
Profit was had. I can't claim to say profit was the motivation, it could have been going back to finish the job.
But it was done in an unethical way.
Not much details, but that sounds stupid.
Instead of ruling the system he put it to halt?
He definitely deserved his sentence.
An asshole who bombs the asshole who is bombing the Kurds while telling us that the reason he is bombing the asshole who is bombing the Kurds is because that asshole is bombing the Kurds is not such an asshole. OUR asshole, however, was an asshole who was bombing the asshole who was bombing the Kurds while lying out of his ass that the reason he is bombing the asshole who is bombing the Kurds is because the asshole who is bombing the Kurds is getting ready to bomb US, which he wasn't.
So the asshole was thinking if he told the truth he might not get to bomb and so he will lie to get his way. That asshole was supposed to work for us, by the way.
So what you are really saying is that you are all for genocide, and preventing it no matter what the public reason is, is wrong. Nice. See you in hell my friend.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
As Vice President he had no authority over the military.
Yes, he did.
You don't actually think Bush was in charge, do you? He was just a puppet.
Because we all know that Bush really had his own set of balls... *sarcasm*
Read what I mean, not what I wrote.
From the same site: http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2009/10/07/michael-jackson-s-face-appears-in-baby-s-ultrasound-scan-115875-21729849/ Meh.
How about the asshole who gave the asshole gassing the Kurds the gas in the first place?
Oh right, that would be Donald Rumsfeld who completed that deal during the Reagen administration, not Richard Cheney.
I'm sorry when exactly do you think Regan took office? The Iraqi's were trying to kill all the Kurds since about 1960. Killing the Kurds and stealing their oilfields. So what if the gas was purchased and used later, the genocide attempt was going on for 20 years prior.
I just love it when the frothing-at-the-mouth liberals try to blame a single, US "official" for doing something EVEYRONE FUCKING KNOWS was the right thing to do, even if the reason was falsified.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
...the cops went to the sexual correction facility to pick up their kids from daycare...
If you quote this signature there'll be 72 copies of Windows ME waiting for you in Heaven.
access to the hard drive
the hard drive
hard drive
This is why these things happen.
What a twisted and warped reality you live in. The end justifies the means, except not for Turkey who have killed just as many Kurds as Sadam did. Oh and also that inconvenient fact that the us invasion caused the deaths of over 100,000 civilians - at least an order of magnitude more people than Kurds killed by Sadam. What? Is that OK because they were regular iraqis so it wasn't 'genocide?'
Meanwhile nobody did shit about the 1 million people killed in Rwanda, and I'm guessing that if they had, you would've been bitching about it because it would have been a different political party than the one you worship.
Who has more ethics, the asshole gassing the Kurds or the asshole that bombs the asshole gassing the Kurds (regardless of the reason)?
Huh? There was no "asshole gassing the Kurds". There was an "asshole who gassed the Kurds over a decade previously".
I mean, you aren't seriously trying to imply that GWB's actions were an attempt to prevent/stop an attack that happened back in 1988, are you? Because I'm pretty sure that asshole didn't have time travel technology.
The good news is that some people are dicks. You see, dicks fuck assholes...
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Wanting truth = wanting genocide?
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Interesting that inmates have access to computers and TV. I'm glad we pay for that for them while normal citizens are having a hard time finding a job..
The management of a prison is easier - cheaper - and safer - when you have rewards to offer as well as punishment.
Most prisoners will be released.
That gives you two choices; either you prepare them for a successful re-entry into society or you accept that they will be returning -
probably after conviction on a much more serious felony charge.
Um? So you're saying we should invade Iran?
in charge of the Federal Reserve
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
"...it took a specialist company to get it working."
If Sheriff Joe was running the place, he would have "persuaded" the prisoner to give up the passwords. Of course Sheriff Joe wouldn't have allowed a such a situation to have occurred either.
I suppose it's a balance between human rights versus being stupid with those who consistently problems at the first opportunity. Joe is all the way to the side where human rights don't matter. And more liberal prison systems are sometimes too soft and too worried about the opinion of the outside layperson. Both sides are too easily effected by government politics. Prisons are ran terribly in the US, but that does not mean I lost the right to be critical of prison systems of the UK or other countries.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
No way would that be a bad idea - That would be the PPV episode. I'd tune in just out of curiosity as to what the dessert would be - Sweet-bread sorbet? Liver mousse?
"The winner will get the privilege of having dinner tomorrow with me. The loser will also get to come, but I need you to arrive 4 hours early after bathing in Worcestershire for 3 hours."
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
Or Michael Symon
Obviously the prison didn't have anyone IT saavy or they never would have relied on an inmate. As I understand it, he simply changed some admin passwords and set the bios password. When they couldn't figure out how to change things back, they refused to let the guy show them how to fix it and hire an outside consultant.
Who has more ethics, the asshole gassing the Kurds or the asshole that bombs the asshole gassing the Kurds (regardless of the reason)?
Huh? There was no "asshole gassing the Kurds". There was an "asshole who gassed the Kurds over a decade previously".
I mean, you aren't seriously trying to imply that GWB's actions were an attempt to prevent/stop an attack that happened back in 1988, are you? Because I'm pretty sure that asshole didn't have time travel technology.
Are you actually trying to prove that Saddam Hussein was not actively engaged in a Kurdish genocide? I actually think the specific time he used the gas is completely irrelevant... He gassed them, he shot them, he bombed them and he stole their land. Who's the bigger asshole now?
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
You NEVER know where they are UNTIL you're caught.
Wait a sec, have the goal posts moved again? It was about weapons of mass destruction, then it was about bringing democracy to masses yearning for it, then it was about protecting the Sunnis from the Shiite forces that we kind of, um, unleashed on them, and now it's payback for the Kurds?
I think the real motivation was to revive the corpse of Gilgamesh and create a new race of super-warriors, but that's just my theory.
Nooo, not at all. We just have a "community organizer", not stupid at all, nooooo /sarcasm
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Suffice to say he will not be released early. He's too stupid to make it as a crook. It's sad to see someone with intelligence that also has a complete lack of it.
Either the warden was extremely stupid, or he got smooth talked like the guy did in Prisonbreak, sometimes,
even the best of them get fooled, when someone really sounds like they have reformed...and are willing to help.
Riiiight, Haliburton gets all of the juicy contracts over in Iraq and Dick Cheney's role as CEO of Haliburton was merely coincidence.
Plus we all know who "wore the pants" in that administration when it came to Iraq, and for that matter every other important decision.
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if he had just done whte rabbit.obj, he wouldnt never have gotten caught
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Blame it on years of us frothing-at-the-mouth liberals trying to explain rationally all the factors of complex foreign policy to batsh*t crazy conservatives who only look at the world in terms of black and white and get their information from Fox News as opposed to actually reading books on the subject.
how about the asshole who sold the asshole the gas used to gas the kurds with. That would be a Bush too. He was a Vice president at the time too. Why was cheney sure that Iraq had WMD'as. because they were all made in America.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
As Vice President, [Dick Cheney] had no authority over the military.
You must be new here...
Richard Cheney? He's a dick!
We shot Iraqi people, We bombed Iraqi people, and we occupied their land.
We also at this point have likely reduced Kurdish autonomy for better cooperation with Turkey.
We didn't even hit Suddam with a bomb, so saying we bombed the asshole gassed the Kurds is absurd on the face of it.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
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'It's unbelievable that a criminal convicted of cyber-crime was allowed uncontrolled access to the hard drive. He set up such an elaborate array of passwords it took a specialist company to get it working.' Why didn't they just restore the most recent backup?
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Authority is a wimpy force when compared to INFLUENCE. Cheney had massive INFLUENCE over the military--and Cheney RETAINED his Halliburton stock.
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I got busted for this in high school(only because I told someone within earshot of a faculty member). Here's a protip: if you run a novell network, don't silently mount a network share in the background that has the netware admin program on it. Furthermore, don't allow users to change their own account's permissions with that program. Glad it was before everything was terrorism and this sorta crap gets you thrown in jail. It was completely worth the suspension when the principal and network 'admin' had to ask me how to get higher than kindergarten level access on their accounts.
If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
I mean, come on. The man must have known that he would get caught, which leads me to wonder if in fact he really did anything wrong.
Anybody here who wrote a program for a prison system would consider it irresponsible to NOT set passwords. But before you are given a chance to explain the very good reasons for what you've done, the big men with truncheons who are already watching you like a hawk assume the worst and start running around like Chicken Little with the sky falling.
That's my guess.
And chickens just LOVE it when the sky falls; it gives them a sense of purpose and an excuse to play 'hero'. Heck, I know a couple of cops, and they are good people, but their world view is very slanted due to regular exposure to the criminal element. Without a healthy means of grounding to the real world, their sense of reality can become wildly inaccurate. Add to that some over-enlarged ego, lots of fear, pack-mentality and a bit of down-home stupid, and you're looking at a system where innocence is not assumed and some really terrible things can -and do- happen.
I'm not saying the guy was mister pure-heart, but I bet the whole story isn't being represented here. --What with the hysteria that both police and the media typically spin themselves into over anything to do with computer 'hackers', I think this is entirely likely.
But it appears that many posters here aren't capable of remembering the patterns they see in the news wrt this kind of story. Hackers!
-FL
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Why not just hire armed robbers to work as prison guards? I bet they'd do it for less...
I can assure you that TV and computers are the lesser of the evils here. I'd rather have prisoners watching TV than finding new and exciting ways to shiv the prison guards.
Pres: I was under the impression that I was the only one in authority to order the use of nuclear weapons.
Turgidson: That's right sir. You are the only person authorized to do so. And although I hate to judge before all the facts are in, it's beginning to look like General Ripper exceeded his authority.
No, but it amazing how many people on slashdot don't have a clue and most of them call the "birthers" nutjobs. The birthers are wrong, but the Obama campaign intentionally cultivated the doubts of those who questioned his qualifications to be President.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
Such an asinine statement. Who has more ethics, the asshole gassing the Kurds or the asshole that bombs the asshole gassing the Kurds (regardless of the reason)?
Neither one. One 0 is not greater nor less than another 0.
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How about the asshole who gave the asshole gassing the Kurds the gas in the first place?
Oh right, that would be Donald Rumsfeld who completed that deal during the Reagen administration, not Richard Cheney.
I'm sorry when exactly do you think Regan took office? The Iraqi's were trying to kill all the Kurds since about 1960. Killing the Kurds and stealing their oilfields. So what if the gas was purchased and used later, the genocide attempt was going on for 20 years prior.
I just love it when the frothing-at-the-mouth liberals try to blame a single, US "official" for doing something EVEYRONE FUCKING KNOWS was the right thing to do, even if the reason was falsified.
I'm sorry, I lost the thread - are you actually saying that killing kurds was the right thing to do and that only frothing libs care about that? Really not sure what you're on about.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
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That was the most confusing asshole statement I ever read. I got lost after the 3rd asshole and all I gather from reading that is there are assholes killing assholes. Sounds like a win win situation to me.
watch The Shawshank Redemption
Dr. Seuss goes political.
Or starring Jeffrery Dahmer on an episode of Iron Chef.
No, he's too busy being a spokesperson for Creationism.
'Or starring Jeffrery Dahmer on an episode of Iron Chef.'
Or Issei Sagawa. Oh, wait...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issei_Sagawa
'He has also written restaurant reviews for the Japanese magazine Spa'
http://blogcritics.org/scitech/article/cooking-with-nico-issei-and-jane/
'In Japan he is now a well-known author, and frequent talk show guest. And a frequent guest on cooking shows.'
Thats almost as dumb as putting a Halliburton CEO in charge of the entire military.
Luckily nothing that stupid would ever happen here in America.
Yet again someone who just can't turn off their "everything -> Bush administration!" association reflex, no matter what the topic is. There's been a new president for over nine months, and the subject is still so prominent in your thoughts that this story reminds you of it? It's like picking up a Madlibs sheet and seeing it filled out like:
"Today ___Bush___ visited __Bush__ to ___Bush____ a __Bush____ __Bush__."
But to take your comment with a grain of seriousness: no, dumb was putting the president of Ford Motors in charge of the entire military.
"The Greens lynched a hacker in Chicago. Last month, but I think the body's still hanging from the old Water Tower."
Don't know how to react to this...but am in kind of shock!!
That they would:
1) Ask him nicely to undo it.
2) When he refused, beat him fucking senseless.
3) The next day, ask him nicely again.
4) When he refuses, lock him in concrete box with no lights, no toilet and no heat. Hose with 2 degree celsius water every day. Minimum rations.
5) After 30 days of this, ask him nicely again.
6) If he refuses, tell him you're done asking and he can enjoy his fucking box for the rest of his 6 years. See step 4.
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Hey! Maybe he was just lucky or something! Let him give it a go again! This time, make sure fences and gates are included, oh, and lights too, and shift schedules for all the guards too. Hey, what could go wrong? Oh, and while we're at it, the federal treasury too! One last request: find the rocket surgeon who gave him access in the first place, and consider giving that clown the job of watching him in jail, 24/7/365 for his full term, till he's released.
As Vice President he theoretically had no authority over anything ("The office of Vice President is not worth a warm bucket of "spit""), but Prince Cheney had his fingers in a lot of places they should not have been.
Dark Helmet:
How many Assholes we got on this ship, any how?
Everyone:
Yo!
Dark Helmet:
I knew it. I'm surrounded by Assholes. *closes helmet* Keep firing, Assholes!
Sadly everyone in that region bombs the Kurds (including other Kurds), so you need a pile of other reasons. The only three ones that came close to making any sense is to establish a safe spot for a US military base in the middle east (epic failure), secure an oil supply for the USA (epic failure) and as a way to generate PR to make a useless playboy look like a strong wartime President for long enough to get another term (mission accomplished). There appears to have been a LOT of war profiteering on the side but that may have happened even if the war had been run like a military operation instead of based on the crazed delusions of a washed up wrestler.
Personally I think pulling troops away from what looked like the likely capture of Bin Laden so they could be redeployed in Iraq is one of those epic mistakes people will be talking about in a century. To make things even worse that military was handed over to civilian intelligence with the assistance of locals with divided loyalties that informed Bin Laden where all the troops were and he got away - the CIA wanted the credit and the real troops were pulled out.
Also we've known how evil Saddam was for decades and that did not stop the US Navy providing escorts for his tankers in yet another horribly botched and under resourced political "show the flag" operation where ships were sent into mined waters without minesweepers.
To make things even worse that military OPERATION was handed over to civilian intelligence with the assistance of locals with divided loyalties.
Because a link from TFA led me to this: http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2009/10/07/michael-jackson-s-face-appears-in-baby-s-ultrasound-scan-115875-21729849/
From Halliburton media FAQ (link):
Q: What work is the Company performing in Iraq?
A: Halliburton Company has never been contracted for services by the U.S. government, particularly none of the logistics support services frequently discussed in the media today. Also, Halliburton and its subsidiaries have no work in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Instrumental in what?
It is if it's older.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
Wait a sec, have the goal posts moved again? It was about weapons of mass destruction, then it was about bringing democracy to masses yearning for it, then it was about protecting the Sunnis from the Shiite forces that we kind of, um, unleashed on them, and now it's payback for the Kurds?
The real reason for the war was possession of the oil. After Britain and the US collaborated in staging a coup to overthrow the previous dictator Mohammad Mossadegh*, who had explained himself as attempting to do what was best for his people by nationalizing their oil and Britain would stand to lose a good deal they had going.
After Britain's and the US' cooperation, which led to burning down the man's house, terrorizing his family, executing his adviser, forcing him into a mock trial where he was to admit his guilt to his people, dividing the country politically with bribes and threats then arming them, etc., many were furious. Apparently it wasn't enough when they pulled a few more strings to have Saddam replace him, so they rolled in with tanks to sweep the place up and cut out the middle man. I doubt any intelligence truly believed Saddam had been "gassing his own people by the thousands". If anything, he probably sent out an army now and then to fight opposing factions with the WW1 and 2 weapons supplied to him by the US.
* Read about it here: http://www.mohammadmossadegh.com/biography/
Thats almost as dumb as putting a Halliburton CEO in charge of the entire military.
Luckily nothing that stupid would ever happen here in America.
You're right, that never happened. While Dick Cheney was at one point the CEO of Halliburton, he was in charge of the U.S. military before he worked for Halliburton. As Vice President he had no authority over the military.
Right, like Bush was smart enough to run anything... We all know Dick Cheney was the puppet master. So yes, Dick was "in charge" of the military.
Now that's hard time you can believe in. Force prisoners to use Microsoft Windows.
I just love it when the frothing-at-the-mouth liberals try to blame a single, US "official" for doing something EVEYRONE FUCKING KNOWS was the right thing to do, even if the reason was falsified.
Sorry, but now that there is a "liberal" in office, it's the other guys that get to do the frothing at the mouth. Well, except for the libertards, they get to froth at the *mouth* regardless of who is in office. Not that it really matters, US congress seems to be stacked with retards anyway, no matter which party they claim to represent. In the land of the blind...
As for everyone fucking knowing it was the right thing to do...why all the lies then? Surely if putting Saddam out of business was something we'd all be squarely behind about there was no need to fabricate a brick of lies to justify doing so?
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
I don't subscribe to the train of thought that the best security specialists are ex black-hats. Mainly because most black-hats are only out, open about it, because they have been caught. IMHO this doesn't make them good it just goes to show that they are rather poor at it. They did get caught right?
Though they would never admit it, I imagine that most of the best white-hats / security specialists I have known have likely wore a black-hat at some point in their past.
Just as I would state that the best computer scientists are those that grew up with a curiosity and interest in computing that cannot be extinguished one has to have the ability to put themselves in their opponent's mindset (the white-hat in the mind of the black-hat) or they won't be very successful.
I have done so much information / network security tasks combined with countless internal security audits (Sarbanes, etc) that I cannot connect to a network or walk into a new building without thinking about how one would theoretically subvert the systems in place. This doesn't mean I am acting on this knowledge but I would say it is a switch that gets turned on in the best security professionals that cannot be turned off. I'll meet someone at their office for the first time and find myself saying something like: "Physical security is terrible here, why would anyone waste time hacking into a network located in this facility when they could just walk right through the front door?" This is constructive criticism, though I shouldn't be giving away my knowledge as doing so reduces the perceived impression of the value of people in my profession.
I was working on Bank of America's firewall team, early in my career, and a potential candidate had made it past our teams rigorous technical screening and though maybe unknown to him he was going to be offered the job, as he had impressed us with his knowledge, and the meeting with our manager that turned into lunch with the team was just a formality. That was until during lunch when he openly stated "He had worn so man color hats, white, black, gray that he often gets confused on which he is currently wearing." We all looked at one another and sighed because we all knew such a statement had made him ineligible for the position. We were not upset that we might have hired a former black-hat but rather disappointed that he was so naive about the environment that he would openly state such a stupid declaration in front of us and our manager. If he were experienced enough to realize his mistake before making it he would have likely been a valuable member of that team.
It's like a television show called MasterMinds on the History channel that shows supposedly criminal master-minds, the details of their crimes, and the story of how they were eventually caught. I wouldn't call any of these people criminal master-minds. A show about criminal master-minds would not be that entertaining because they would say this is how it was concluded that a crime had been committed, if they could even determine that, and then they would explain how they don't know how the crime(s) were committed, and that the unknown suspects have yet to be identified. This is because a true criminal master-mind would have never been identified and the crime would be so unique as to defy description.
I tried to explain to a close-minded information security professor, during my Masters program, that going through detailed descriptions of known security exploits was a waste of time. I tried to no avail to explain that known (named) security exploits posed no threat, as they would have a countermeasure in place already and that the real risk was security exploits that have yet to be identified because their is no current countermeasure for them. I suggested that discussing the inherent security risks of deploying UDP on a network, for which I later wrote a research paper, or similar such topics would be a better use of our time. Rather than taking advice from a graduate student, the professor instead had us s
Encryption: I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend your right to encrypt it...
reminds me of this tongue twister
If one doctor doctors another doctor, does the doctor who doctors the doctor doctor the doctor the way the doctor he is doctoring doctors? Or does he doctor the doctor the way the doctor who doctors doctors?
My Blog | Badsh
Your post is a really interesting read, but did you consider that he set passwords to protect the system in the first place? All it takes is a clueless supervisor who can't admit that he was wrong to end up _exactly_ where we are now.
Assuming that the guy is not misanthropic, having Asperger's, _very_ stupid or was forced to do what he did, he is just a victim of the terrorist hacker craze. The level of sophistication of the source which describes a computer as "the hard drive" and the fact that this is a Mirror story, this is the most likely explanation, by far.
I have no mod points left, but you deserve them.
Is it our past or our current behavior that defines us? What would Jesus do?
Jesus didn't really say anything straight about it, I think. But when he was hanging at the cross with two criminals, and the other criminal said something like "I'm getting what I deserve", Jesus said, "See you in paradise".
8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
You're getting Iraq and Iran muddled up.
The above is a fact, and a deleted scene from Michael Moore's Sicko.
It's some time ago so I didn't verify the video clips. Google "sicko norway chainsaw", I think it is this one but didn't watch it to check for the specific scene:
http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/11/22/norway-a-deleted-scene-from-michael-moores-sicko/
It depends on the case if this would be genius or madness to do.
I lost my sig.
Maybe you need authority to "install passwords"... I've had plenty of access to plenty of computers but I've NEVER installed a password. Maybe I need authority to be able to do such a hackerly deed.
Your post is a really interesting read, but did you consider that he set passwords to protect the system in the first place? All it takes is a clueless supervisor who can't admit that he was wrong to end up _exactly_ where we are now.
Assuming that the guy is not misanthropic, having Asperger's, _very_ stupid or was forced to do what he did, he is just a victim of the terrorist hacker craze. The level of sophistication of the source which describes a computer as "the hard drive" and the fact that this is a Mirror story, this is the most likely explanation, by far.
I personally thought this myself. /fake-shock
You mean a source that describes the crime as "installing passwords" may not understand the situation?
However Nick's point stands even in this case, the guy in question is as much a victim of his reputation as anything else. What he said/did to create that reputation or what he may have failed to do to change it are not known to us, but his situation shows that it wasn't well engineered.
Asshole and gassing in the same sentence... Fate?
Wait a sec, have the goal posts moved again? It was about weapons of mass destruction, then it was about bringing democracy to masses yearning for it, then it was about protecting the Sunnis from the Shiite forces that we kind of, um, unleashed on them, and now it's payback for the Kurds?
I think the real motivation was to revive the corpse of Gilgamesh and create a new race of super-warriors, but that's just my theory.
Payback? You don't seem to understand the United States' need to interfere with genocidal maniacs' motives, especially when there is something to lose...
I dunno, my readings say that Saddam killed approximately 300,000 Kurds. A lot of them with gas. But what do I or anyone that wrote books about it know? I still don't care, as I said, I have no problem dispatching assholes with or without a lie to get me motivated.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
Errr... the genocide was going on for decades beforehand.
Also in several other places.
Why does it seem to be so hard for Americans (particularly Republican'ts) to understand why people the world over do not like the US setting itself up as "World's Policeman"?
If I was a smartass, I would have just said:
So what you are really saying is that you don't support unilateral military action against genocide in foreign countries while similar genocide takes place unnoticed in other countries, and preventing it no matter what the social, political, environmental, and economic fallout is, is wrong. Nice. See you in Starbucks my friend.
FTFY.
Why is it so hard for non-Americans (particularly sociashits) to understand that people in the US don't care about people in any other country, unless there is a) a humanitarian issue, b) a strategic military issue, or c) a natural resource issue?
If the US didn't interfere with genocidal maniacs goals, there is a high probability the Earth would no longer be inhabited by the Jews. I thank God that we did interfere, and it saddens me that we don't have the troops or resources to interfere in more places.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
Blame it on years of us frothing-at-the-mouth liberals trying to explain rationally all the factors of complex foreign policy to batsh*t crazy conservatives who only look at the world in terms of black and white and get their information from Fox News as opposed to actually reading books on the subject.
Haha, are you the same "you suck cuz you watch Fox News" jerk that's trolling me on several threads thinking that I watch Fox News? R O F L
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
See, there are 3 kinds of people in this world. Dicks, Assholes, and Pussies. We're dicks! We're reckless, arrogant, stupid dicks. And the Film Actors Guild are pussies. And Kim Jong Il is an asshole. Pussies don't like dicks, because pussies get fucked by dicks. But dicks also fuck assholes: assholes that just want to shit on everything. Pussies may think they can deal with assholes their way. But the only thing that can fuck an asshole is a dick, with some balls. The problem with dicks is: they fuck too much or fuck when it isn't appropriate - and it takes a pussy to show them that. But sometimes, pussies can be so full of shit that they become assholes themselves... because pussies are an inch and half away from ass holes. I don't know much about this crazy, crazy world, but I do know this: If you don't let us fuck this asshole, we're going to have our dicks and pussies all covered in shit!
We shot Iraqi people, We bombed Iraqi people, and we occupied their land.
We also at this point have likely reduced Kurdish autonomy for better cooperation with Turkey.
We didn't even hit Suddam with a bomb, so saying we bombed the asshole gassed the Kurds is absurd on the face of it.
We bombed many locations owned and operated by Saddam and his regime. I remember some awesome pictures of some hamburger patties formerly known as his sons Uday and Qusay. We bombed the shit out of them, they were identified by dental records :)
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
You won't love me then.
I don't blame any one person. I blame the entire electorate for falling for Cheney's fearmongering (which he himself was a victim of, having asked for a list of threats, rather than the usual filtered list of threats presented by order of magnitude -- if you don't know what I'm talking about, please research it before wasting my time on a response on that particular issue... moving right along...).
Yes, the genocide was wrong and should have been curbed many decades earlier. But the way the US went about it was manipulative (of the American people and the US's allies) and underhand (internationally). It was an abuse of power like none we've ever seen.
You don't win a battle of minds with dirty tricks, and international politics is all mind games.
At least you agree there was a genocide in progress that the US put a stop to.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
Oh, and it's "Reagan", not "Regan". Sometimes it can be "Raygun". Sometimes it can be standing in front of a bunch of veterans telling them "I was in uniform once".
Since we're being grammar assholes, punctuation belongs inside the quotation marks. Oh, and a comma before quoted speech, as in I say, "Fuck you."
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
Parent is not insightful whatsoever.
Parent attempts to contradict the assertion that Cheney unethically falsified intelligence by pointing out that Saddam Hussein was also unethical. So what?
That is a red herring.
If you think its OK to lie to congress if you have a good reason, just say so. As is, parent's post is simply a fallacy.
I think everyone is a lying asshole. I think when there is a genocide in progress, if the truth doesn't provide proper motivation to interfere than a lie is appropriate. I'm glad we invaded, and I'm glad the genocide was stopped by our hand.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
Such an asinine statement. Who has more ethics, the asshole gassing the Kurds or the asshole that bombs the asshole gassing the Kurds (regardless of the reason)?
Neither one. One 0 is not greater nor less than another 0.
Hehe. I love your handle, and your post :)
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
How about the asshole who gave the asshole gassing the Kurds the gas in the first place?
Oh right, that would be Donald Rumsfeld who completed that deal during the Reagen administration, not Richard Cheney.
I'm sorry when exactly do you think Regan took office? The Iraqi's were trying to kill all the Kurds since about 1960. Killing the Kurds and stealing their oilfields. So what if the gas was purchased and used later, the genocide attempt was going on for 20 years prior.
I just love it when the frothing-at-the-mouth liberals try to blame a single, US "official" for doing something EVEYRONE FUCKING KNOWS was the right thing to do, even if the reason was falsified.
I'm sorry, I lost the thread - are you actually saying that killing kurds was the right thing to do and that only frothing libs care about that? Really not sure what you're on about.
Yes you lost the thread. I'm saying I don't care if it was a lie that was the final motivation to get the US to invade. It was the right thing to do, and politics is not a game that can be played while a genocide is occurring.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
I just love it when the frothing-at-the-mouth liberals try to blame a single, US "official" for doing something EVEYRONE FUCKING KNOWS was the right thing to do, even if the reason was falsified.
Sorry, but now that there is a "liberal" in office, it's the other guys that get to do the frothing at the mouth. Well, except for the libertards, they get to froth at the *mouth* regardless of who is in office. Not that it really matters, US congress seems to be stacked with retards anyway, no matter which party they claim to represent. In the land of the blind...
As for everyone fucking knowing it was the right thing to do...why all the lies then? Surely if putting Saddam out of business was something we'd all be squarely behind about there was no need to fabricate a brick of lies to justify doing so?
The reason for all the lies is actually rather simple. You see, for 30 some odd years the US has been under attack by socialists, corporatists, egalitarians and totalitarians. As such, many people currently in power have loyalties that lie outside of the US borders. This means they must at all cost avoid pissing off their backroom-deal-making-foreign-allies. My guess is that it took a lie to get the majority of people on board, regardless of how many socialists it pissed of.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
So naive - they've been killing kurds over there so long it's practically tradition. Are we going to invade turkey for killing kurds? Did we care about them during the iran/iraq war? Are we doing anything about darfur? No, we seem to care about genocide when it suits us.
Given that, we should have used our limited means to go after afghanistan, which is what we're moving towards now.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
So naive - they've been killing kurds over there so long it's practically tradition. Are we going to invade turkey for killing kurds? Did we care about them during the iran/iraq war? Are we doing anything about darfur? No, we seem to care about genocide when it suits us.
Given that, we should have used our limited means to go after afghanistan, which is what we're moving towards now.
Correction: we currently seem to care about genocide when it suits us because currently our leaders (in the USA) have so many ties to the socialists, totalitarians, corporatists, and egalitarians overseas. If we cut those ties, and stop caring about what they think, I believe you would find us invading more places where humanitarian injustices and things like genocide are occurring.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
in charge of the whole damn country!
Half that stuff happened during the bush and reagan years. Were those guys socialists or totalitarians? Or are you saying that it's France's fault we sit on our ass watching people die unless they're white or have oil?
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
Half that stuff happened during the bush and reagan years. Were those guys socialists or totalitarians? Or are you saying that it's France's fault we sit on our ass watching people die unless they're white or have oil?
France, among other countries, is overseas yes. However, you can't blame a single man (in your case, the President of the US of A). You blame Congress and all of our foreign diplomats. For over 30 years they have been trying to turn the US into some bastard child from Europe.
After reading a lot of history about my homeland (US of A) I'm a firm believer that the we did better as a mostly isolationist country, and that things have gone severely downhill since the beginning of the Cold War and all these foreign trade agreements. It's allowed these new politicians personal gain, when their job is to serve the people. It's allowed these people to turn a civic duty into a career path. As such, they make deals that benefit them personally and cause great harm to the working middle class, which built this country.
It's these selfish, greedy politicians and corporate lobbyists that prevent us from doing the "right" thing, because often times the "right" thing will piss off all of our foreign trade partners, and thus shrink their personal pocket books. It's their fault we only act on possibility of profit. I'm quite sure that if the Jewish Holocaust were to happen today, that our Congress and our President would rather sit around and talk about it than act to put a stop to it.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
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If the US didn't interfere with genocidal maniacs goals, there is a high probability the Earth would no longer be inhabited by the Jews. I thank God that we did interfere, and it saddens me that we don't have the troops or resources to interfere in more places.
Besides your response is just half a step away from Godwin's Law, equating the US's response to Pearl Harbor with its unilateral or majority acts of war since is ridiculous to the extreme.
Just, WOW. Really? You really fucking think it's relevant to cite Godwin's Law when we are talking about genocide, and the fucking Nazi Gustapo were like the mother of all genociders? FFS...
You might want to read up on World War II, because to actually fucking think that we liberated the Jews because of Pearl Harbor, you are severely undereducated on the subject. :(
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
At least you agree there was a genocide in progress that the US put a stop to.
Erm, we weren't debating that.
You have a point?
You do?
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
No, just spelling. And your grammar's wrong.
Last first: you only need commas before reported speech, and then only when you have a pause for clarity. Mine had no pause for clarity, and besides, it's paraphrased, not a quote.
First last: punctuation that doesn't belong to the quote belongs outside the quotation, otherwise you're misquoting. Did Armstrong say, "One small step for [...] man?" No. He wasn't confused. Hence Webster's English is wrong wrong wrong on that point.
Yawn. I hope you realize there is a difference between American English, and English.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
A better question would be "Why do Americans think they have the right to be the "World's Policeman"?
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?