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John McAfee's Belize Home Burns To Ground
Velcroman1 writes "The former island home of anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee burned down Thursday afternoon under circumstance he told FoxNews.com were 'suspicious.' It's an odd choice of words from a man whom the Belize police found suspicious, following the November 2012 murder of American expatriate Gregory Faull, a well-liked builder from Florida who was shot at his home in San Pedro Town on the island of Ambergris Caye. 'I believe that there are a select few with great power in Belize that will go to great lengths to harm me,' McAfee said. 'This fire was not just a strange coincidence.'" Watch for more from McAfee soon.
How about no?
I'd be willing to bet that McAfee had it burnt down himself to add to his story and keep his name in the press.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
John McAfee of all people should know that you should never rely 100% on your anti-virus software.
He should have installed a firewall ...
Could it burn to the sky?
'I believe that there are a select few with great power in Belize that will go to great lengths to harm me', McAfee said. 'This fire was not just a strange coincidence'.
'Somebody's cast a high level Firewall'.
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
I would not be surprised if the "suspicious" fire isnt just a cover up for the theft of the insides of the home. It is a standard procedure, even body officials do it all the time in 3rd countries like for instance a "fire" in the arms deposits to cover up traffic of weapons. meh
McAfee might be paranoid for no reason.
However, governments are well known for their targeting certain groups and individuals for persecution or extortion so a bit of paranoia can be a good thing.
Oh please, quit yer yapping. The story is good for page hits and advertizing dollars. And I'm sure that burning down the house was a good move, from a certain POV.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
BBC did a viddy on this in 1992.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AUvrPvV-KQo
Just paranoid, bullshit? Sponsored by the CIA and British intelligence, NATO operatives - under the false-front, operating as a "Marxist Terror Gang" kidnapped and murdered the Prime Minister of Italy in 1978.
This was just a single instance of organized para-national political violence including strings of European bombings and assassinations, beginning in the 1940's and continuing at least into the 1990's.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio
Then, after the cold war, there are no longer "Marxist Terror Gangs". They all just gave up and went home, I guess. Now, there are "Muslim Terror Gangs". Amazing.
PS. Don't look too closely at the Balkans.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Is he gonna hurt somebody?
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
Checked again: though my system says Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS, I still see "McAfee" everywhere...
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
McAfee's "security products" don't work?
Stop giving it to him
Looks like he forgot to enable his firewall! He should have at least uses APK's HOSTS file for some protection!
select few with great power in Belize that will go to great lengths to harm me
That, or it's another crazy chick. You know, the kind that would try to kill you.
"stay the fuck out of belize and keep your mouth shut john"
Altho a SMS would have been easier...
His compound is located here:
http://goo.gl/maps/EwSc3
The collection of blue roofed buildings witha pool and a dock are his place, as seen in a number of photographs in the press.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Didn't he start out in America? Whats wrong with America?
I'm pretty sure the order in which those two things occur is the other way around ;)
This is the first soap opera that I've ever followed. This guy's life is so weird and his ramblings are so amusing that I find myself looking forward to each new episode. Wait, this is real? :-)
"False hope is why we'll never run out of natural resources!" - Lewis Black
Then, after the cold war, there are no longer "Marxist Terror Gangs". They all just gave up and went home, I guess.
They're still around, just not in Europe anymore: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_India_(Maoist)
The man lived in the middle of the jungle in a third world nation. Of course it burned down. No doubt 50 squatters were living there when it did.
Seriously, does anybody give a shit about McAfee's little world?
Clearly, you've never spent much time out of the U.S. If you've never been pulled over by police in a hispanic country for being white, and threatened with jail time for no crime if you didn't bribe them away, you can't talk about conspiracies or paranoia.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
If you've never been pulled over by police in a hispanic country for being white, and threatened with jail time for no crime if you didn't bribe them away, you can't talk about conspiracies or paranoia.
I'm afraid this kind of talk isn't permitted on Slashdot.
It doesn't matter how much of a corrupt, despotic, oppressive hell-hole free of the rule of law you're talking about, according the rules of Slashdot the USA is ALWAYS worse than any other region or nation on the planet. ALWAYS. Once you understand that, browsing Slashdot will be much easier.
And no, I'm not American and I don't live in the USA.
Roadside bribery isn't a conspiracy. And there are many countries where the government employees are so underpaid that they get a sizeable portion of their take-home pay from abusing their position. In the US, we call them Congress.
Learn to love Alaska
But Belize is run by white people
It's an odd choice of words from a man whom the Belize police found suspicious
Police try to frame MCaffe, he escapes.
Next best thing - burn down his house.
I failed to see why this does not greatly support his narrative of what happened. He's not even there to burn it down himself...
I mean, lets say a corrupt government was after you. Why do you think it unlikely they would burn down your house after you crossed them?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Why in the world is everyone so fascinated about this little tiny person?
As someone who's raced sportbikes semi-professionally and tried most "extreme" sports, I'm no stranger to life on the edge. However, reading this mans exploits makes me feel like a shut-in spineless pussy.
Hats off to you John, for someone with as much brains as you, they're no match for your balls!
sung to the tune of "Tequila":
- ta da da-da da duh da daa
- ta da da-da da duh duh
"Mordida!"
- ta da da-da da duh da
etc, you get the point.
Puhlease... try to keep your "information" out of this. We're trying to run a fact-free discussion here!
Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
'I believe that there are a select few with great power in Belize that will go to great lengths to harm me,'
I can quite understand their desire.
McAffee is a grade-A dunderheaded prick.
the potential for some conspiratards to see themselves as they talk about "the government"
because it's all the same paranoid bullshit
if they really had anything on him for the murder, they would ask usa to extradite and the usa would extradite. if there's a tell that the accusations are phony it's that they're unable to prove them without beating him up(yay gitmo!).
it's an interesting story about 3rd world politics and gangland rules by local cops in 3rd world countries, that has little to do with conspiracy theories - but much more about why doing legit business in some countries is pretty hard since you can't just look the local mob(police) rules up from a book. part of those rules is that the establishment(local coppers, mob, whoever) has to keep the natives from getting any funny ideas that they wouldn't need to bribe. if his property was torched on purpose to intimidate someone, it was done to intimidate the locals to not ask questions "hey, what about that murder? what was that all about?" rather than to screw with mcafee, since he is already far out of their radar.
bad thing is of course that building codes, zoning rules and openly planning city/society development go straight out of the window in areas governed like that. it's kinda stupid since if they just acted by the books they could get a lot of foreign investment and people to come - which is why some countries attract pensioners etc easier: because there they don't have to deal with the bullshit.
it's a common phenomena that usually happens just about everywhere if public officials have low official pay, so low that stinging money out of favelas even makes sense - and officers have so low pay as well that they ask the lower level coppers for part of the bribes - exactly like a mob racket with protection money that flows up the organization. over the russian border here it's the same thing, so much that people are instructed to not carry their actual passports around when going sightseeing so that they don't have to bribe police, random soldiers or whoever happens to take it without reason. it's also the reason why many russian logistic centers are situated on this side of the border: because on the other side you never know what's going to happen, the local governor might just give the land contracted to your logistics center to someone else who paid him personally rather than the city... it's really sad because it hampers trade and makes living for the law abiding normal people pretty complicated - would be a lot simpler to just increase taxes and have better, more honest coppers and officials(since the bribing amounts to an extra tax anyways).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
If you read the last Q&A with McAfee, he describes what essentially amounts to a 30k$ roadside bribe, followed by a whole bunch of bullshit and charges filed by vengeful local policemen that didn't get the money they wanted.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
This nutcase basically had close contacts with local gangs to supply his drug addiction. Then in drunken frenzy he killed his neighbor which didn't get cleaned up by his gang friends and got in trouble with the local law on the level he couldn't fix with money.
Next you'll start calling drug smugglers on Afghanistan-Iran border "political prisoners".
You're an idiot. Never dealt with people bigger than yourself obviously.
This is untrue. Belize is a former British colony and as such is in some ways a lot more like the ex-British Carribbean islands than it is like Latin America. However,m the population of those islands and Belize is mostly black. You can easily go to Wikipedia and find a picture of the prime minister of Belize. He's black. A white person would certainly be very visible to any local thugs and would not be considered a member of the ruling class.
The "local gang" in this case is the police in Belize.
Perhaps John McAfee should do us all a favor and stay in his libertarian paradise with no fire department and police force to protect him.
How does the house burning fit in to that?
Pity he didn't have time to sell however. Ah well, the insurance should be a nice pay day.
SETTING: SOMEWHERE OFF THE COAST OF BELIZE
After stowing away on a SEAL training flight, John exited the aircraft at 50,000 feet. His H.A.L.O. insertion going to plan, he landed 50 nautical miles in the blue waters off the coast of Belize. As luck would have it, there was a submarine, a Russian boomer, on the surface, which John quickly boarded. After killing the captain with his own sidearm, John took command of the sub. Setting course for his island lair, the Russian sub was intercepted by an American fast attack sub with Alec Baldwin on board coaching the crew.
Several "Crazy Ivan's" later, the US sub dodging Russian torpedoes all the while, the Russian sub was struck by its own torpedo, fatally damaging the vessel. By this time, the majority of the crew had committed suicide, opting for that fate rather than listen to John regale them with his witty anecdotes of his worldly exploits. As the sub was sinking, John managed to escape to the surface using a deep water escape gadget, which, as the inventor, he owns the patent on.
Armed only with his trusty knife, he fought off several Great White sharks, and met up with a pod of Pacific spotted dolphins who, recognizing him, agreed to help him reach his island stronghold. Knowing both the CIA and members of the former KGB were closing on his location, John set about arming the charges he had built into the foundation of his house and laboratory.
Laughing maniacally, John set off the charges as he slowly walked away from his compound, huge explosions in the background. This ensuring nobody would ever get the secrets of his special formula female Viagra created with his own blend of freebase MDPV and rare jungle herbs.
CUE BOND MUSIC, FADE TO BLACK...
Never dealt with people bigger than yourself obviously.
So you are claiming that in the history of dealing with corrupt governments, people have not been killed and property not destroyed?
I'll let the reader decide which one of us is the idiot.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
With this drugged out loser?
Wow you have proof for this claim do you?
Yea, he might be more paranoid for no reason, but I think we can all agree that whether that is the case or not, paranoid people are WAY more fun to fuck with.
why is this insightful? it should be under funny..
There are a lot of people that are arrogant within the US, and the only thing they can vision is the US, when it comes to becoming the worst or greatest country.
But to say McAfee is being singled out because he is American, or White is laughable. There is no doubt that things such as ""Clearly, you've never spent much time out of the U.S. If you've never been pulled over by police in a hispanic country for being white, and threatened with jail time for no crime if you didn't bribe them away, you can't talk about conspiracies or paranoia"" happen. Usually to poor or middle class whites, in a foreign country.. How many rich white people also live in the area and do not get hounded?
Burn it down and then claim insurance. Much easier than trying to sell your house when the gov is after you in that country. McAfee is a smart guy.
If people criticise the US, it is because we still expect a higher standard from the US than from the "corrupt, despotic, oppressive hell-hole", not because the US is worse. Nobody expects rule of law in central Asia, but we still get upset when American 3-letter agencies or others can ignore the law with no consequences. Is that unfair? "But mom, China did it first!" is no excuse.
"Then, after the cold war, there are no longer "Marxist Terror Gangs". They all just gave up and went home, I guess. Now, there are "Muslim Terror Gangs". Amazing."
To be fair a lot of terror gangs gave up and went home and I think it'd be hard to suggest some of them were run by the security services. Some of the Palestinian organisations, some of the Japanese groups and so forth for example. There were far more terror groups in the 60s, 70s, and 80s than there were afterwards
I think it's a combination of the fact that policies not to negotiate with terrorists, combined with successful anti-terror operations that left the terrorists red faced (in more ways than one) combined with increase global stability (which let's face it, did happen after the cold war) coupled with greater global prosperity as a result decreased the impact of it.
In fact, you can see a pretty strong parallel between the decrease of poverty in places where these groups were from a decrease in prominence and existence of such groups so I'd frankly wager that it's more about that than anything.
I think the security services are given way too much credit. Given the sorts of absurd fuckups they're often responsible for I'm not really sure they have the competence to carry out the sort of conspiracies you suggest.
I wish that mis-modding was a little less unavoidable.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
Pissed off gang members don't burn down houses or practice other methods of vengeance against those who essentially told them to fuck off and pretended to be clean in US?
You seem to be mistaking me for a prosecutor.
All lies and not true, Jeremiah. What say you?
my first thought is he is unable to sell it at ridiculous price and tired of upkeep and high taxes so he torches it to collect insurance.
They might search your vehicle in response to that but no seizure of property will occur unless they actually find drugs, and alot of them at that. Alot of my friends were busted for pot growing up and none to my knowledge had anything seized. The closest I have seen to a seizure was a 1 month impoundment of a car for street racing. boo hoo
You seem to be acting like one.
Just remember, it's not paranoia if they are actually out to get you.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Don't kid yourself, the absurd fuckups are the low hanging fruit you hear about.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
I think sjames (or someone he/she knows) had a bad experience and has decided every cop is like that.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
A 30k$ roadside bribe? That's a pretty stupid policeman. That's "shoot me" territory. He should be happy he got away with not getting what he wanted.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
On my recent trip to Belize I noticed the first thing while landing that there were random small fires everywhere. The place across the hotel from where we stayed had a fire one day in their yard for hours making a lot of smoke. The fire department came with their engine to put it out because it apparently had gotten a little out of control.
I asked a local what was up with all the fires and he said it's due to spontaneous combustion from the "heat" but I know exactly what it is, people burning their trash!
As for the jungle house, one of his houses was right by river where you take the boat to Lamanai. Not sure if it's that one that burned down but there is a lot of tourist traffic around it and the guides were joking that it's half off. I guess it's just land cost now...
McAfee might be paranoid for no reason.
However, governments are well known for their targeting certain groups and individuals for persecution or extortion so a bit of paranoia can be a good thing.
Yes, killing your neighbor does make the government go after you in almost all countries.
...that make me seriously doubt that this was a fire deliberately set by Belize officials:
1) Fox News. 'Nuff said.
2) John McAfee. Unintelligent, paranoid moonbat ramblings from somebody who could have murdered another person and did what could be best described as a Beer Run from the authorities but replace the word "Beer" with "Coke and Heroin" and replace "Run" with "Higher than a fucking kite"...
Yeah... Totally trustworthy person worth my trust.
Sure, governments are all corrupt. Sure, McAfee isn't the world's greatest human. Sure, no one here can possibly deduce what is truth and what is fiction. But sure, many here will offer their feeling-based opinion.
-Ultimate Stickman Game Developer Infinite World Puzzler
Then you should stop taking whatever psychidelic chemicals you're taking. Or go to a court and take a look at how actual prosecutors act.
who is this builder well-liked by, ... his mum?
For example.
You should read up on some other places in the U.S. where it happens frequently. For one thing, since you said growing up, I'm going to guess they just didn't have the sort of property a cop might covet.
You should google civil forfieture and read a few of the hits, you might be surprised.
I bet they were trying to install a... firewall. :-)
Was it that psycho chick mentioned in the Wired magazine article?