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TJX Hacker Claims US Authorized His Crimes
doperative writes "Convicted hacker Albert Gonzalez is asking a federal judge to throw out his earlier guilty pleas and lift his record-breaking 20-year prison sentence, on allegations that the government authorized his years-long crime spree. From the article: 'The government has acknowledged that Gonzalez was a key undercover Secret Service informant at the time of the breaches. Now, in a March 24 habeas corpus petition filed in the US District Court in Massachusetts, Gonzalez asserts that the Secret Service authorized him to commit the crimes. “I still believe that I was acting on behalf of the United States Secret Service and that I was authorized and directed to engage in the conduct I committed as part of my assignment to gather intelligence and seek out international cyber criminals,” he wrote. “I now know and understand that I have been used as a scapegoat to cover someone’s mistakes.”'"
It's illegal if the gov't does it too. They can't "authorized" illegal activity, and "following orders" is not a legal defense.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Wow, if you read the article this gets weirder and weirder.
"Gonzalez’s former attorney, Rene Palomino, disputes assertions that the Secret Service approved Gonzalez’s crimes."
Does being his 'former' attorney mean that client-attorney confidentiality no longer applies? And how the hell does Rene Palomino know the details of whether or what the Secret Service approved of - was he in on it too?
After seeing the agent in charge of Gonzalez, now I'm thinking there might be some truth...out there.
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
No, you're wrong.
It's the Illuminati bringing back The Old Ones to immanentize the eschaton.
The sarcrifices will begin after midnight, right after the American Medical Association band does its third encore.
--
BMO
Sorry, but this sounds really implausible to me. I'd need to see some solid proof before Id' accept this. For one, I can't see what the Secret Service would hope to gain. I mean if they need records for credit card transactions at stores they've got a far easier way to get them: Just subpoena the CC processors. They can have whoever the stores use (companies like Paymentech or the like) hand over all the records. Not only is that legal, but it is also much more covert since the companies themselves are not compromised.
This would be how investigations work. They just get a court order for the people who have the info to hand it over, they don't hire some random guy to try and hack your shit. They get a subpoena or a warrant (depending on what they need, in some cases they might want to monitor traffic live for that they'd have a wiretap warrant) and they go to the people with the info. It's legal, maintains the chain of evidence, and gets much more guaranteed results than hacking.
Also I find it hard to believe that if he really was working under orders from the SS that he wouldn't have told his lawyers and they wouldn't have done something. In my experience federal public defenders aren't morons. It is a good job, they can get good people. I can't imagine if he had opened up with "Guys I didn't think I was doing anything wrong! The Secret Service told me to do this!" they wouldn't have investigated that.
To me, sounds like something he invented in a way to try and get out of jail. I'm not saying it is impossible, but I find it rather beyond credibility.
Essentially saying his attorney F'd up. The attorney has a right to defend himself against false charges of malpractice. Otherwise, every single criminal defense attorney who lost a case could be sued with no defense. I think the theory here is, lawyers have a duty of confidentiality about what they are told, but no such duty about what they weren't told, and no duty to further propagate lies clients tell them. On the contrary, there is a crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege.
IAALBNYLSDROTALA (I Am A Lawyer But Not Your Lawyer So Don't Rely On This As Legal Advice).
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
He made $75.000,00 a year but couldn't pay off a debt of $5000,00?
He's convicted for millions of dollars worth of fraud, but can't afford a ticket to Turkey for his lawyer?
Can someone explain, please.
This is not the sig you're looking for.
Didn't he ever watch "Patriot Games"? He should have known he needed his piece of paper.
not the same thing as cops / firetrucks / others to not fall under speeding laws when responding and they have training on how to be safe and most speeding is from speed traps / cash cows on roads where a high speed is safe.
Keep him in prison, and throw the people from the Secret Service who "authorized" him in with him.
Technoli
what are the laws for informants / uncover?
uncovers cops break the laws all the time (just on a basic level of having a fake ID what happens in a traffic stop?) to much more as part of being uncover.
and informants are in some of same place what happens if a beat cops gets them with drugs on them at are part of being a informant? or they get fingered by the people they are informing one as part of deal to get off easy and not all cops know they are a informant / it's for a different crime?
You joke ... but Call of Cthulhu had earthquakes and what-not happening from March 22 to April 2 that were the result of Cthulhu rising.
Atlas Shrugged : Thematic Story
I've got my reserved ticket to be eaten first.
Neener neener.
--
BMO
Has the secretary disavowed all knowledge of his actions?
If not, then I don't believe it
I'll see your hokum and raise you a boondoggle.
RTFP =Petition? :)
Most of the things he attests to actually seem plausible. My guess would be he did participate, with their knowledge and consent on SOME operations. (He probably did very little, but is exagerating to make it seem that he was lead to believe he was now an ACTUAL agent himself)
But, where he fails is that it all look quite a while before the crime for which he was convicted. Like three years later...
Summary- I think he did turn informant on some earlier crimes, but did this well after.
---"What did I say that sounded like 'Tell me about your day?'"---
-"Counselor, did your client ever tell you he was innocent?"
-"Nope"
Cute, but of course, not analogous to claiming, after you've admitted guilt in court, "I told my lawyer about a defense and he didn't use it."
Lawyers do have a right to defend themselves from claims of malpractice, unless you have some new case law I haven't seen that was passed in the last week; I've been pretty busy lately.
Lawyers have a duty of confidentiality, period.
No, it isn't "period." There is a well-settled crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege, in this case, arguably committing a fraud against the court.
Please stop impersonating a lawyer.
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
IANALOC ( I am not a lawyer or criminal) , but in most countries except the shadiest ones, if you are directed by tge government to commit illegal activities, with it you also get a letter of immunity from prosecution which you carry with you on all times.
Does such a letter or written authorization exist in this case?
New Economic Perspectives
Having had... friends... involved in similar situations, I can attest to the case that if this guy worked for the Government, and was a scapegoat, they basically set him up for failure.
If he succeeded and was able to hide his tracks of hacking, the Government got their information and won.
If he failed and was unable to hide his tracks of hacking, the Government got partial information and won.
If the guy failed gloriously, the Government got what information they could, and have an instant scapegoat. Just add press. And won.
Win win for the government, and they can say at any time plausible deniability.
The friend in question I had was an excellent hacker. He hacked into banks for shits and giggles, went into government systems like a person would skip in the park. One day, he screwed up, the government found out, the guy disappeared. No jail time, no newspaper/press of him hacking. And all his college entrance and time spent at college disappeared as well. For all intents and purposes the guy never went to college, and I'll be surprised if there was anything other than a clean-record of the guy other than being born, his SS#, and place of residence. White-washed history for government signed-on hacker. And because of the dirt the government now had on this guy, he became Uncle Sam's bitch.
How the good ol' government gets these people to accept said positions of scapegoatness is fairly simple.
They find dirt on someone exceptionally good at computer espionage, or if they can't find legit dirt, they create some and seed it throughout the gold ol' internet and stack false records against them, at least in such a way to make it... difficult... for the target individual to live a decent life without cow-towing to the government officials.
Said person signs documentation that makes them 'legally' work for said government that is their 'get out of jail free' card. Except, the documentation doesn't really exist unless it is in the best interests of the government. Ergo, they have the hacker by the balls. The hacker continues to do a good job, and can cover their tracks enough to not point a finger at the government in -any way- or can hide their existance in such a way to be not backtraced, any and all possible ability to nail the guy goes up in smoke. All logs, all reports, disappear. If they can point their finger in anyway at either the hacker or the government, the 'get out of jail free' card becomes toilet paper and the guy's head goes to the block as the scapegoat.
May sound like bullshit, but as I've seen this shit first hand, it's not a pleasant experience.
It's not paranoia when they really are out to get you.
Just food for thought.
Kick out the JAMS!
Paranoia is a Survival Trait!
don't do the crime.
You got busted, you stoled people identities and ruined credit. ain't no one going to believe you, or be on your side. If you were smart, you would of kept records of your involvement with the government, so when the shit did hit the fan, like it was going to, then you got your ass covered. You didn't.
Sleep with your back to the wall.
Don't drop the soap.
Be seeing you...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnAKd6PRjDs
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
But what does this story have to do with Microsoft, and why is there are Bill the Borg icon attached to it?
I mean... I know it's a samzenpus post but still... Wouldn't a script do his job cheaper and more effectively?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
So, tell me, why didn't he bring this up at his original trial? Blaming one of his attorneys for failing to prepare a “Public Authority” defense [from the article] is lame and a little dubious to say the least.
Should have linked to this instead:
http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0004871/
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I thought only the enemies of America, like the nefarious Chinese communists and the Iranian ayatollahs, did evil things like hire hackers to do their bidding.
I would think serving as George Bush's attorney general would earn the man a presidential pardon for something like this.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon