German Authorities Find Al Qaeda Plans Disguised In Porn

According to CNN, which credits Hamburg-based newspaper Die Zeit, German investigators have uncovered a trove of more than 100 Al Qaeda documents recovered from a "digital storage device" (and memory cards) which were found hidden in the underpants of Austrian citizen Maqsood Lodin, who had recently traveled to Pakistan. The documents "included an inside track on some of the terror group's most audacious plots and a road map for future operations." Among these future plots: "[S]eizing cruise ships and carrying out attacks in Europe similar to the gun attacks by Pakistani militants that paralyzed the Indian city of Mumbai in November 2008." The documents were reportedly neither in plain view nor simply encrypted, but instead steganographically embedded in a pornographic video.

Comments

Re:Stego

[girlintraining]

If you or I were caught with the video, then claiming that we knew nothing about any hidden content is plausible.

Justice is supposed to be blind. Whether I'm a 10 time convicted felon, or a school teacher who's never even gotten a parking ticket, the facts are the facts. That is what guilt or innocence is determined on.

But neither of us are suspected terrorists, had ties to suspected terrorist organizations, have traveled to regions of Pakistan known for terrorist training camps, or were found with multiple memory cards hidden in our underwear...that just happened to have a porn video with a lot of hidden content very pertinent to terrorist organizations.

All of those things are known as 'circumstantial evidence' and carry no weight whatsoever on their own. Standing in a garage doesn't make you a car. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian. Being in Pakistan doesn't make you a terrorist. Holding a flash drive doesn't make you a computer expert. Get it?

I believe in innocent before proven guilty and all that...but

Like hell you do. You've already judged this man, based on circumstantial evidence provided second hand.