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LulzSec's Sabu To Be Sentenced In New York
DavidGilbert99 writes "Two and a half years after he was arrested at his New York apartment by the FBI, LulzSEc member-turned-FBI informant Hector Monsegur (aka Sabu) is set to be sentenced in the South District of New York court at 4pm local time on Monday where he could face up to 124 years in jail. However, following his cooperation with the US authorities, Monsegur is likely to get a much reduced sentence and could avoid jail completely. His sentencing has been adjourned numerous times for unknown reasons, and if the FBI have any more use for him, then we could see it delayed again."
People that hide behind the internet to commit crimes need to be severely punished - it is dangerous precedent and only encourages their fantasies to do otherwise. Online crime = twice the time.
While I can't speak to Sabus conscience, I have to wonder if he now think cooperating was the best course of action. The FBI pretty much owns him. For all intents and purposes, he is their slave. And he still has yet to be sentenced. I don't know what a fitting punishment would have been for exposing HB Gary Federal and the other ilk, but like most other tech 'crimes', it would have been wholly unproportional.
That said, just how long can the FBI do this to someone? If they have him dead to rights, legally, open and shut case, can they legally just keep postponing sentencing like this? At what point does this become close, or even violations of the 4th and 14th amendments?
I have no love for the FBI, Sabu, or HB Gary Federal and those other scumbags out there, but what originally looked like tech caper lesson on what not to do as a 'hacker', is turning into a pristine example of how the Feds will strip away your life if you're, and use whatever there is left of you as an indentured servant.
If he's already helped enough to get from 124 years down to possibly "avoid jail completely", what will happen if they have "more use for him"? They should start paying him. A lot.
Just in from New York - Sabu's sentencing has been delayed once again without explanation http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/lulzsecs-sabu-be-sentenced-new-york-1432049
The sentencing is a formality, a boilerplate. It is to send a message to any other would-be ne'er do wells that should you cooperate and come quietly the government will absolve you of your sins. Lulzsec for all their antics were champions of the government transparency inherent in a democracy contrived by the people and for the people.
the lesson from this is that ideas never die. Next time if you want to be a hero, you need to take a good hard look at your life and decide "is it worth it?" in Sabus case his family and children were used as leverage against him by the government to help crush dissent. its something we americans are only accustomed to hearing when informed by our respective media channels of transgressions undertaken by this years "supreme evil dictatorship." Its also worth noting that what the government was threatening Sabu with was nothing short of torture; a lifetime of silence, discipline and remorse for a crime that took no lives.
Sabu gave us hope and he taught us lessons. Edward Snowden played a chessmasters game in his defection and for it our government is left to do nothing more but ensure negative propaganda against him is dissemenated appropriately to all media outlets and further steps taken to mitigate a repeat performance. The only difference between a soviet system, the one we feared for 20 years, and our system, is that every 4 years we're burdened with the task of shuffling off to a school or church to apply our endorsement for a party. there are normally only ever two however. Neither actually operates in the service of its citizenry.
the lesson the government misses is this: just because Lulzsec is gone doesnt mean a mission wasnt accomplished or a task wasnt set into motion. more disaffected citizens and netizens will take their place. Chelsea manning, Julian Assange, and countless others will have paved the road to the hill upon which the casket of imperialist fascism is laid to rest.
Good people go to bed earlier.
"You are charged with being smarter than us and exposing our corruption."
Aaron Swartz was offered a plea deal to serve 3 months.
Aaron Swartz was offered a plea deal to serve 3 months.
For admitting having committed a crime when he did something that he and many didn't consider being a crime, with the alternative offer being tens of years in jail if he dared fighting a career obsessed prosecutor. And while three months in jail isn't too bad, the consequences for your life when you come out are quite devastating.
The consequences for normal people going to jail are bad. Aaron Swartz would have been hailed as a hero and had his pick of jobs.
My point is that writing "he was going to prison for over two decades" is misleading at best. He was going to trial by choice. Even if he had gone to trial, realistically he would have gotten at most a year or two.
What crime - any crime - justly deserves 124 years in the gulag? The court apparatus has gotten badly out of control, to the point where it no longer seems interested in maintaining even the appearance of fairness or legitimacy.
Guaranteed, there are people trying to figure out how to give him a dirt-nap, or figuring out who they can pay to do it. With the sentencing delayed, it appears he is not through making lifelong enemies. I see some witness protection in his future, if not already to some degree (the monitored phone, computer, etc...) ...I am sure the feds would know instantly if something happened or he was on the move.
For admitting to a felony, a lifetime sentence of not being hired by anyone ever.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Don't do the crime if you don't wanna do the time.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
For admitting having committed a crime when he did something that he and many didn't consider being a crime,
The state does consider it a crime, and as theyre the ones who make that call...
And while three months in jail isn't too bad, the consequences for your life when you come out are quite devastating.
This is going to be super unpopular, but he probably shouldnt have broken the law then.
Not that I am happy with the way everything ended with Swartz, this is very true. He did something that was clearly against the law. It shouldn't have been, but factually it was. He would have been greeted with open arms once released, his pick of careers purely for the publicity.
That's the way the US "justice" system works. Half of my ex-wife's high school graduating class had prison sentences for "conspiracy to distribute cocaine" after Cahokia, IL's biggest dope dealer (who had been in that class) got busted. Most of them had never had anything to do with cocaine at all, some not drugs at all. The prosecution makes a deal and you get innocent people busted and spend half the time in the slammer.
What they did was have him call everyone he knew asking to borrow a thousand dollars for his bail and he'd pay it in a week with 100% interest -- but everyone knows he was a dealer. So everyone who loaned him that money went to prison twice as long as he did.
Everybody wins, my ass. It's disgusting.
Free Martian Whores!
When you do something like this you know the consequences. It is shameful that he turned on those he fought alongside. And if you don't agree with that, let him fry for breaking the law. Either way, neither side should consider him worthy of anything other than a long prison sentence for breaking the rules of their society.
1 in 30 people in the US are under the supervision of the correctional system in the US. We really need to decriminalize being human. There are too many laws and to many ways for people to get arrested and end up at the bar of justice in this country. You can break laws that you never ever imagined ever existed. Hell I probably broke a dozen or so just posting this stupid post...
Paul E. Bahre