John McAfee Tells World How He Fooled Cops and Escaped Belize
It looks like the long and winding road of the John McAfee saga is going to continue for at least a little longer. McAfee posted a detailed blog post about how he was able to elude Belizean authorities and sneak out of the country. From the article: "'It's visually interesting and it is mostly a happy story — in line with most Christmas stories,' he wrote.
The former software executive describes an operation that was heavy in advance planning and trickery. He says he planted a lookalike ('my double — a man I have known for over 30 years and who years ago legally changed his name to John McAfee') and had him picked up by authorities in the northern Belize-Mexico border, while he and a group of friends and reporters loaded up a truck and headed in the opposite direction, to a southern town called Punta Gorda. With the news that he'd been arrested broadcasting on a local news station, McAfee figured that checkpoint security would relax."
He must have been planning his escape for years!
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
Dunno about you, but I'm really sick and tired of yet another episode of the ensuing saga McAfee, the publicity whore !
Please have some heart, Slashdot !!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
lol... I can see it now, the McAfee Ultimatum Final Trilogy. Pre-quel to the Jason Bourne series hahaha..
He should legally change his name to Carmen Sandiego.
I don't give a flying fuck what he says. I want to know the facts, not the accusations and spin.
What really happened in Belize?
Did he kill anyone?
If yes, wouldn't it be righteous to allow the authorities to properly investigate the circumstances of the homicide?
My sense is that Slashdot has been in the tank for McAfee since this started.
I want the truth and the whole story.
Why is it that people who have evaded authorities find it irresistible to gloat about how "clever" they are to have outwitted cops. I get it, maybe eventually talk about it in an autobiography, but he may technically still be evading said authorities. He might as well say, "nanna nanna booboo, come and get me!".
John, it's your story, you tell it like you want...
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
This has gone beyond news to just soap opera drama that belongs on a bad trash news site, not ./
I don't expect top notch, confirmed journalism from any internet news site but this one is pure fantasy on the part of McAfee. Stop feeding this delusional, drug addled news whore. He hasn't done anything for technology since selling his business. Stop letting these "news" stories through to the front page.
Thanks
Think about how nice the world would be if
the "right" million US citizens would be incarcerated ( instead of a bunch of unfortunate blacks and latinos ) ?
Always interesting to see that Americans seem to think that there is no law except US law in any country
they visit as guests.
Think how much better off if the entire Congress was behind bars, together with the President and all his cabinet, and most of the top corporate officers. Hey, it's a start.
Seriously? You'd lock him up based on some sketchy details you read about online. I think the world would be a much safer place without that kind of gross injustice.
A virus specialist deployed a Trojan?
Was that to evade capture or with his 18 year old girlfriend?
Silence is a state of mime.
So... a presumption of guilt?
Prove innocence or go to jail?
Nothing to hide, nothing to fear?
No smoke without fire?
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.
-- Shakespeare, Henry VI part 2, Act 4, Scene 2
McAfee and Assange teaming up for a reality based online blog/story/video reality hide/escape/fool the authorities around the World reality series.
You'd lock him up based on some sketchy details you read about online. I think the world would be a much safer place without that kind of gross injustice.
No, i would lock him up for constituting a flight risk while being involved in a murder case. If the things happened in the US as they happened in Belize, don't you think he would be in custody now (or having paid at least so much bail to make his appearance in trial likely). He takes pride in escaping the police of the country he decided to live in.
In a perfect world, we'd be able to trust the police to do their jobs without prejudice or malice. In some parts of the world, that's already the case.
The GP could be in one of those parts of the world, and may not realize that in other parts of the world bribery is the standard operating procedure, and people are presumed guilty until proven otherwise (usually by means of the appropriate bribe). In this country for example, a man refusing to speak with police, evading them, and using a body double to confuse them while skipping the border would be considered an admission of guilt. It's a crime in and of itself, in the form of obstruction of justice, regardless of whether he's guilty of the murder in question, and would land him in prison on its own.
I can give him the benefit of the doubt: though I've never been to Belize I have been to countries in that part of the world and they tend more towards the bribery side of the equation (though some of them are notable exceptions). It's still difficult not to judge him by the norms of the culture I grew up in, though.
I am not to say if he's guilty or not. I am saying that he should face the investigation and the subsequent trial (if it comes to that). If he wishes to escape justice, he has to be arrested (as it is custom everywhere in the world). It is the country he has chosen to live in. So he has to follow the rules there.
There's a fine line between panache and smug.
People hate smug, so that's a really really good way to lose one's public support.
-Styopa
If I have to read about an attention whore I'd prefer them to be bat shit crazy. It makes the stories more interesting.
"Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me". - stolen from Dan C alt.os.linux.slackware
Prove innocence or go to jail?
No... but prove innocence or be willing to talk to the cops when your neighbor gets murdered seems reasonable.
No smoke without fire?
Turns out that when you see a lot of smoke, its often worth checking to see if there's a fire. There isn't always, but there often is. Its one reason we have fire extinguishers in kitchens and workshops.
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
Why would the world be safer?
"Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me". - stolen from Dan C alt.os.linux.slackware
Especially since the cost of his actions far outweighs that of a reasonable bribe under those circumstances.
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
Because having someone out there who thinks that the laws don't apply to him is unsafe by my book ;-).
I am going to be beyond pissed if the US doesn't extradite his dumb ass straight back to Belize.
Putting the "right" in jail just because they have right-wing opinions is freaking scary. The people in prison today committed crimes that put them there, there was no round-up based on race.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
I mean, this publicity event is a great distraction to the fact that McAfee illegally escaped the country following a murder case where he legitimately was a suspect.
Not that I don't think he did it--to be honest, I'd give it about a 60% chance that he did--but he was never a suspect. He was a "person of interest".
<xml><I><am><so><damn>Web 2.0</damn></so></am></I></xml>
That could have ended badly for the other John McAffe. If the Belize authorities aren't any better than cops in, say rural Texas, they aren't likely to care all that much that they have got the wrong guy.
Dude could easily have found himself sitting in prison the night before his execution, writing "Its a far far better thing I do today than I have ever done before; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."
he install the fake mcafee on there systems as well as the real one and that give him the time to get away while there had to rebuild there systems.
or book... you do realize that's where all this publicity has been leading right?
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
Presumably he was released when it turned out to be the wrong guy. Coulda happened to anybody named John McAfee.
On one hand, how batshit crazy paranoid do you have to be to befriend a lookalike and maintain that relationship for many, many years, even getting him to change his name to yours. On the other hand, that same batshit insanity probably leads to situations where you would need said body double...
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
trust the police to do their jobs without prejudice or malice. In some parts of the world, that's already the case.
What part of the world would that be in, because I haven't heard of anyone perfecting AI and implanting it in robots yet. One of the most important lessons I learned in high school was that everyone has bias, it's part of the human condition. Most law enforcement officers have a bias towards catching the criminal and so they will color their view of the evidence to point towards their most likely suspect, most don't even realize they are doing it.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Should really be in idle.
The existence of people who obey any and all laws (with or without question) is far more dangerous to the rest of us than nuts like MacAfee. Obeying all laws rules and regulations - anywhere - is utterly socially irresponsible.
You'd think someone that would have such a contingency plan against the "government that is out to get him" would just go somewhere else, pay taxes, and not have to come up with such plans.
I smoke pot. Guess im unsafe.
the difference being that I actually believed the assange story. Mcafee gives no explaination for why the police supposedly want him dead
...there was no round-up based on race.
*cough* drug war
And I don't believe he meant the political "right", as opposed to actual criminals.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Think how much better off if the entire Congress was behind bars, together with the President and all his cabinet, and most of the top corporate officers. Hey, it's a start.
Okay, what I have learned from the movies and TV is that being in jail doesn't stop someone from getting bad things done.
Be seeing you...
Don't sell drugs, don't go to prison...or am I missing something somewhere? The CIA is forcing them, right?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Nope. Usually that doesn't include dead neighbors ;-).
Really, i don't freaking care if he was smoking his mattress, eating seaweed or running 30-day-trials of fancy pills. As long he is not offfering that stuff at the kindergarten, i could not care less. That his behavior may cause problems with law enforcement should not come completely unexpected for him. They are not as understanding as we are....
What i care about is: he had regular altercations with his neighbor about his dogs, first the dogs turn up dead, than the neighbor turns up dead and he flees the country while the police wants to question him (which i would not consider unreasonable).
He was in custody a few months prior to the incident. He was treated as roughly as everybody else there. He wasn't killed, not even close. So the claims that he has to fear for his life from the police are not credible.
How do we know that this post isn't being posted by the DOUBLE, and that McAfee actually paid him to write it to throw him off his own tail, since he's actually McAfee pretending to be a double! muwhahahahah!
...am I missing something somewhere?
Yes, prohibition is corrupt, and in these cases very racist, and must be eliminated by any means possible. The numbers speak for themselves. And yes, the CIA is enticing them, or maybe Iran/Contra never happened, right? If you want to punish people over drugs, make sure to get the "right" ones, the banks that launder the money and those government agents making all the arrangements to move the merchandise. But, of course, that cannot happen for very obvious reasons. Please, stop shilling for authority.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
I've seen what methamphetamine abuse can do to people. Heavy abuse plus large cash reserves to keep doing whatever you want are a dangerous combination. McAfee has all the classic signs. (paranoia, megalomania, grandiose plans, outrageous claims, frantic activity, confabulated memories, etc) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimulant_psychosis I don't know if he killed his neighbor. People on these drugs are capable of anything, even contrary to their history, personality, or beliefs. On the other hand, 3rd world countries like Belize are full of corruption.
So, "those people" cannot be expected to make decisions like us, and therefore it's racist. Isn't attributing characteristics to people based on race...racist? Hmmm....better not think that direction, there are some inconvenient truths that way.. Better to obey authority and not question our assumptions.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
No, the lesson is to do better drugs. Self concocted 'bath salts' is a spot on method for frying what's left of your cortex. Stick to the old standbys and you'll be fine. Just look at Mick Jagger!
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Geography Nazi...because being a grammar Nazi is just too mainstream!
Well, that would then make you a Nazi Nazi, since you are correcting the parent post about the type of Nazi he is. I suppose that also, by logical extension, that makes me a Nazi Nazi Nazi. Let's just say this post completely Godwins the entire thread, and go have a pint.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
I'm sorry. I don't think that phrase means what you think it means.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
He should go hide out with Kim Dotcom. but have a lot of camera's inside the house.
How do you know what he thinks it means? Maybe the quote was presented to agree with a post, or maybe as a contrasting disagreement. Until you know what he meant by it, you should not be so quick to pull the trigger on a long winded explanation to affirm that a quote does indeed mean the obvious definition - lawyers should all be killed.
Putting the "right" in jail just because they have right-wing opinions is freaking scary.
Not scary, just wrong.
The people in prison today committed crimes that put them there
Crimes like sodomy, marijuana, gambling...
Free Martian Whores!
Because having someone out there who thinks that the laws don't apply to him is unsafe by my book ;-).
That's almost everyone with more than a couple million dollars in the bank -- and they're usually right, they are above the law. Like the Who song says, they have guns that fire cops.
Free Martian Whores!
As usual, your view is shortsighted and misses the point, while still being somewhat consistent in a limited sense.
Yes, the poor are much more likely to commit crimes than the wealthy (or at least to get caught doing it). Minorities are a substantial portion of the poor.
You also fail to notice that drug sentences are 50% - 120% more lengthy for minorities than whites who do exactly the same crime, and conviction rates are much higher.
Now, what is the cause of this dichotomy, I have no idea. I doubt it's actual institutional racism in the courts. Maybe it's based on their behavior in court, or their willigness to submit to treatment, or some other metric such as family stability being taken into account, but we don't have any evidence other than the actual statistics which are a bit damning.
This it not to mention the fact that most drug dealing crimes begin with a search of property based on "reasonable suspicion", often in vehicles, where blacks appear to be as much as 10 TIMES more likely to be subject to a search as whites during a routine traffic stop.
Worth pointing out...
In the US, there is a presumption of innocence and a 4th amendment. He is under no requirement to speak to police and can simply refuse to talk with them.
You cannot arrest someone for not talking, nor can you force someone to pay bail unless they are charged with a crime, which for murder likely requires an indictment from a Grand Jury, based on substantial evidence.
Just saying...
Better to obey authority and not question our assumptions.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Maybe the Belize police just wanted to ask him why he's always seen entering/exiting the country twice in a row?
Or maybe his DOUBLE killed his neighbor!!!