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Hector Xavier Monsegur, Aka Sabu, Dodges Sentencing Again
hypnosec writes "Ex-LulzSec leader Hector Xavier Monsegur, aka Sabu, has been handed another sentencing delay, possibly because of his continued cooperation with the U.S. government that led to the arrest of several Lulzsec members. Sabu plead guilty to all counts of bank fraud and identity theft offenses, and was to receive up to 124 years of imprisonment — but was granted a six-month breather back in August 2012 after the U.S. government asked the District Attorney to consider adjournment of Monsegur's trial 'in light of the defendant's ongoing cooperation with the Government.' New reports indicate that Sabu has dodged sentencing for a second time, with no dates set for the next hearing."
Midst ??
The government doesn't like competition.
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
Sabu is an oxygen thief, he ratted on his mates - for that he should be locked up for life.
He has already been sentenced to a lifetime of cooperation with the feds in exchange for a pittance and an assurance he won't do hard time... or any time maybe. The courts are just a formality at this point; just to placate those calling for his and Anonymous' head.
If computers were people, I'd be a misanthrope.
I'll most likely jail you in the morning.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Mal: You called the Feds.
Jayne: I got pinched!
Mal: Which is what happens when you call the Feds.
Not now, but when his case is heard at least.
The system “works” by getting people who may or may not be guilty to “cooperate”. If you “cooperate” it means your helping to convict other people who may or may not be guilty. The way they get you to “cooperate” is by intimidation. They pile on every conceivable charge and you can't feasibly defend against everything financially. The reason only rich people get off is because they can afford to fight (pay a good lawyer for a near indefinite period of time).
"plead guilty to all counts of bank fraud and identity theft offences"
It doesn't matter what you're guilty of, if you actually plead guilty. If they had me in court, threatening to imprison me for a hundred years of more, I wouldn't plead guilty. Argue the bastards down to something manageable (ie, less than a lifetime) or make them PROVE their charges. Don't agree to a plea bargain that effectively ends your life.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
... he even hacked justice!
The sentences reported in press releases when someone is indicted are derived by adding up for each charge the maximum sentence that it is possible for anyone to get for that charge, and then that total is reported. That is nowhere near what the person actually faces in almost every case. There are three things under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines that greatly reduce the sentence they actually face.
First, the maximum sentence for a given count is only possible for the most severe instances of that kind of violation.
Second, priory convictions are taken into account. To get the maximum sentence, you have to pretty much be a career criminal.
Finally, felonies are divided into groups. If you are charged with multiple felonies from the same group for the same underlying acts, you will only be sentenced for one of the felonies in the group.
The Federal Sentencing Guidelines are non-binding, so it is possible for a judge to sentence someone to more than the guidelines call for, but such sentences are almost always reduced on appeal to something in accord with the Guidelines. I've not seen anything in the Sabu case that would make it an exception to this.
Well in reality he was facing 320 years but guidelines brought down the sentence.
And, just like torture, the torturer gets whatever information the one being tortured thinks they want to hear.
However, the USA has long since decided that this is not a problem.
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3068789&cid=41106927
Last time, I said as long as he helps he won't go down....
- http://www.milkme.co.uk
"If he was smarter, he would have gotten a job as a banker and actually stole shit and destroyed people's lives. In that case he would be immune from prosecution."
Well said AC and I could not agree with you more!
I don't like rats but also cannot condone criminal activity if that indeed happened. I don't know the full truth about that and suspect that very few people ever will.
However, here's another prime example of how the US maximizes it's leverage by amassing as many charges and counts as possible to intimidate citizens into giving up their rights and giving the government whatever they want. I cannot support the policies of my country and that is why 7-years ago I left. I bought my plane ticket the night GWB was re-elected and have been living in Thailand ever since. My tax $ will not go to support a government that uses it to maintain a world hegemony and to persecute it's citizens with heavy-handed intimidation tactics. The signs of it becoming a police state are all over the place, if it's not one already. I never imagined that when I read 1984 I would live to see the day where something like that would come to pass yet, here we are.
Obviously it's not possible to fix the system at the ballot box anymore, the corporations have rigged the system so citizens have no power or voice. The only option left is to vote with your feet and your wallet because $ is the only thing that matters anymore in the US. Many of you are able to work from anywhere in the world and make a living. Your money will go much farther in a foreign country and you will have a high standard of living and a much higher quality of life.
I recommend getting out while the getting is still good because when, not if, the shit really hits the fan other countries will not want US refugees and you'll be stuck.
I'm a man without a country and that weighs heavy on my mind. It sucks to not be able to feel proud of where I come from anymore but I have found a lot of like minded good people living here and we take comfort with each other where and when we can.
Less *is* more.
The past tense of plead is pled or pleaded (both are acceptable). The word "plead" (unlike "lead") only has one pronunciation.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
'nuff said
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
He has already been sentenced to a lifetime of cooperation with the feds in exchange for a pittance and an assurance he won't do hard time... or any time maybe. The courts are just a formality at this point; just to placate those calling for his and Anonymous' head.
There is no other word for someone like Sabu. Sabu is a snitch. It does not matter what excuse he used to snitch, he's a snitch. He turned on his own to avoid prison, there is nothing respectable or trustworthy about such a person. His word his shit and he has no honor or self respect.
Whether you agree with the Antisec philosophy or not, whether you agree with the Lulzsec philosophy or not, Sabu represented and talked up a philosophy he didn't believe in. He encouraged others to break the law in a philosophy that when time came for him to serve prison time to prove he believed in, really never believed in.
Nothing is worse than a traitor and Sabu is a traitor to his cause. I'm not even someone who agrees with his cause, but I don't like bullies or traitors.
When he arrives at prison he will have a target on his back. He will have no friends and will have to be put in the protective custody section of the prison. In that section of the prison he will again have no friends because most of the people there are snitches or sex offenders. People who don't believe in anything, people who can't be trusted.
If you're willing to break the law for some cause, whether it be Antisec, Lulzsec or whatever the hell else you claim to do it for, then you have to be prepared to go to prison for that cause. If you're not prepared to go to prison for that cause then don't break the goddamn law. Part of protesting is going to prison. Part of being an activist if you're doing it as social activism is to be willing to go to prison, potentially for life. If you're not then get another profession.
How can you prepared Sabu to Aaron Swartz? Sabu is more comparable to Albert Gonzalez from the Shadowcrew. He was turned into a snitch too http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/magazine/14Hacker-t.html
It's really simple, if you believe in something enough to break the law in protest then you have to be prepared to take on the ultimate consequence of life in prison should that be the consequence. There should be no setting people up, no snitching on other who are on your side. If you're fighting for a cause you truly believe in with all of yourself then you cannot snitch, you cannot set other people up who believe in the same cause and fight you do, that is the ultimate traitor.
Sabu was the ultimate traitor. He claimed to believe in a set of beliefs he did not really believe in. He helped to entrap young and impressionable idealists. A lot of people call Adrian Lamo a snitch but what Adrian Lamo did wasn't snitching. Adrian Lamo never claimed to be the leader of Wikileaks, never asked Bradley Manning to contact him and give him classified materials, never even seemed like the type of person who you'd want to try that with. Sabu on the other hand seemed to be in with Wikileaks, seemed to truly believe in Antisec, was encouraging people to conduct illegal activities all while setting them up to be entrapped?
Sabu is the ultimate scumbag traitor. He didn't do it because he thought he was protecting other people as in the case with Adrian Lamo, he didn't do it out of some sort of selflessness or for any moral reason, he did it for pure selfishness. He did the crime but he didn't want to do the time and would rather entrap his comrades than serve his own punishment when caught. He was like Judas.
If they want to get you they'll find something on you until they get you. The point is this, if you're a political activist then you gotta plan on getting got. Plan ahead of time on going to prison or don't be any kind of political activist. MLK knew he was going to be arrested a lot and knew he was going to be killed. So did most others.
So why are the current generation of so called hacktivists populated by these coward snitches like Sabu who start out talking all brave and tough but then get questioned by men in uniform and suddenly they turn completely against their crew and their side? Either you're with Antisec or you're not. The posers are the problem. Sabu was like the agent provocateur who would encourage people to commit crimes so the authorities could have something on them and pressure some of them into becoming traitors.
If you're not prepared to go to jail for 124 years then you shouldn't be involved in crime.
The principle idea behind punishment proportional to the severity of the crime is that it gives criminals an incentive not to escalate:
Raising the punishment for 'stealing' or for 'threatening' (depending on how one interprets LulzSec's actions) to the same or even higher level than killing means the next group of crackers will make sure to erase their tracks, even if it means killing a few people here or there. It's not going to make punishment worse for them but increases their chance to get away.
And the US will finally have their home-grown terrorists it has always been waiting for.
People should be able to sue the DA for frivolous charges. Between this guy and Aaron Schwartz it is pretty clear that the DA/cops have so issue with just making up bullshit charges to harass and scare people. I would even go so far as to call it extortion in some cases. There should be consequences for doing this.
you don't want to be a prison snitch and if you do have to some hard time they will put on the same prison yard with all of the sex offenders.
but was granted a six-month breather back in August 2012 after the U.S. government asked the District Attorney to consider adjournment of Monsegur's trial 'in light of the defendant's ongoing cooperation with the Government.
Remember kids, you too can win six months of freedom at a time by selling your friends and your soul!
Uncle Sam wants you! To report terrorists that don't support $current_leading_party !
Isn't anyone else outraged that "aka" in the story title is badly capitalized?
Really...? You have real threats out there like APT1, and the most useful thing you can think to do is threaten 124 years of prison to try and shake out folks who are doxing, and ddosing??? US Gov: You're doing it wrong.
throw him in jail. hes the true anonymous coward, selling everyone out. fuck em
All humans are born self serving, narcissistic, assholes but some eventually grow out of it. A country is just an ideology with virtual borders and regardless of political ideology that fuels the government, eventually, it will fail due to corruption and human rights abuse. Well, people fight back.
Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Castro(filthy rich) were and 1 still is a pure Capitalist con artist who duped millions into a feudal system(pure capitalism) aka communism and socialism(far from the real socialist systems), turning the majority into serfs just like here in the U.S where the rest of us are living off the scraps the rich throw away or trickle down economics. Or what i like to call trickle down, pee pee on the people.
Was anybody ever prosecuted over the near economic collapse? Housing bubble crisis triggered by wall street, banks, Fannie Mae, which left 1.5 million without a home, 401k's destroyed? Was there an investigation on Bush's lies that lead to the Iraq and basically middle east invasion? Nope.
If you're not prepared to go to jail for 124 years then you shouldn't be involved in crime.
Exactly. It doesn't matter what that crime is - if you're not ready to accept a life sentence, you should be careful to obey every law. No speeding, which might be charged as attempted homicide by motor vehicle. No spitting on the sidewalk, which might be charged as distribution of a biological weapon for all the infectious agents.
The problem with this case, and with the US justice system in general, is the complete absence of any sense of proportionality. Sabu faces life in prison, but a drunk driver can run down schoolkids and face (on average, across states) 20 years. Sabu faces 124 years in prison for posting credit card numbers on the internet, but running a sex-slave trade is only good for 15 years.
So, by all means, obey all the laws. Make sure you're not one of the people committing three felonies a day. If you've pissed off someone in the prosecutor's office, breaking even one law can cost you your house, job, family, friends, and freedom.
Hacktivist heroes tend to go to prison. Some of them go to prison for a long time. He chose the path he was on when he knew the risks. When you take on the most powerful interests in the world you can't turn snitch.
Julian Assange shouldn't be surprised if he ends up in prison. Bradley Manning probably wasn't surprised to end up in prison. That is where you go when you get involved in vigilante action. But to claim to be a vigilante hero on one hand but then turn on other vigilante heroes out of fear of going to prison? That is a traitor, a snitch, and there is no point in making excuses for that.
You're right if you piss off the prosecutor or get involved in political protests you could be facing all of that. That is why immature kids shouldn't get involved in stuff without fully thinking it through. Sabu didn't think it through because he was a dumbass kid who got in over his head. If he would have taught it through then he would have known just by taking part in certain ops and being involved with certain groups, he had a higher probability of going to prison, a high probability of being the target of extrajudicial vigilantes, etc. You don't go pissing off large corporations, and expect never to get caught, never go to to jail, never to have your life or family attacked. Sabu knew and when it was his turn to take a sacrifice for his team he turned snitch.
Exactly. It doesn't matter what that crime is - if you're not ready to accept a life sentence, you should be careful to obey every law. No speeding, which might be charged as attempted homicide by motor vehicle. No spitting on the sidewalk, which might be charged as distribution of a biological weapon for all the infectious agents.
Damn, the ACs are out with good comments today. Just to strengthen his case, you may even know you are committing a crime. For example as we can learn from the "Don't talk to the police video" did you know possession of a lobster can be a crime. In fact policemen may show that you are a criminal just because you were confused.
Sabu claimed to be a vigilante hero. He claimed to be fighting for causes greater than himself. When shit hit the fan he was a complete fraud. There is no reason to ever respect Sabu in that context.
If you're a vigilante you're going to go to prison. It's something all vigilantes must know. It might be for 124 years or for months, but you'll be convicted of something eventually and you'll go to prison. If you're not prepared to go to prison then don't be a vigilante, it's damn simple.
If you're not prepared to go to jail for 124 years then you shouldn't be involved in crime.
The principle idea behind punishment proportional to the severity of the crime is that it gives criminals an incentive not to escalate:
Raising the punishment for 'stealing' or for 'threatening' (depending on how one interprets LulzSec's actions) to the same or even higher level than killing means the next group of crackers will make sure to erase their tracks, even if it means killing a few people here or there. It's not going to make punishment worse for them but increases their chance to get away.
And the US will finally have their home-grown terrorists it has always been waiting for.
If you're a real vigilante then you have to be prepared for anything the prosecution can dish out. Life in prison, accusations of crimes you never committed, being set up or framed, or just serving the time based on the vigilante actions you did. The point I have to make is, if you're willing to break the law because it's so politically important then you should be willing to go to prison for the same reason. You should not fear prison if you're serious about it.
And if you're not serious about it then you shouldn't be doing it and you shouldn't be encouraging kids to get involved. Sabu was not serious, and he encouraged kids who aren't serious to get involved in shit which was serious so that he could save himself from his own mistakes. He's a coward and snitch.
If you're not prepared to go to jail for 124 years then you shouldn't be involved in crime.
The principle idea behind punishment proportional to the severity of the crime is that it gives criminals an incentive not to escalate:
Raising the punishment for 'stealing' or for 'threatening' (depending on how one interprets LulzSec's actions) to the same or even higher level than killing means the next group of crackers will make sure to erase their tracks, even if it means killing a few people here or there. It's not going to make punishment worse for them but increases their chance to get away.
And the US will finally have their home-grown terrorists it has always been waiting for.
He didn't just hack for political reasons. Lulzsec was targeting innocent users, gamers, etc and trying to destroy their lives and put their account info out there for really bad hackers to exploit.