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US Arrests Son of Russian MP In Maldives For Hacking
First time accepted submitter ugen (93902) writes "The son of a Russian lawmaker has been arrested by the U.S. on charges of selling credit card information he stole by hacking into the computers of American retailers. Roman Seleznev, 30, was arrested overseas by the U.S. Secret Service on July 5 and was ordered detained today during a hearing in federal court in Guam, the Justice Department said in a statement."
There's about a third of the globe between the two...
--- Nick, hard at work
Surely it would have their place to make the arrest.
Since when did the US got power to arrest people in Maldives? Does that mean they can just go into arbitrary countries and arrest people arbitrarily?
When I had heard that the Russians were calling this kidnapping, I was doubtful -- but now, not so sure. We really do exact our justice anywhere we want to, don't we?
What happened to extradition treaties and such? When did it become "stuff them in a van and drive!"?
My reality check bounced.
What in the hell are the US police doing arresting anyone in a foreign country? Is the Maldives part of the empire now?
And, yes, the Russians are totally correct in calling this kidnapping. Look for some poor American tourist or businessman to be nabbed in a tit-for-tat.
I understand that he did something wrong, but begin arrested overseas by the U.S. Secret Service? The U.S.A. is acting like the mafia these days, no country is off-limits and frontiers don't exist.
Next up: the U.S. Secret Service arrests E.T. on his home planet for an unpaid long-distance call.
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The US Secret Service is chartered with two utterly unrelated duties:
1) Investigation of financial crimes such as counterfeiting and fraud.
2) Protection of the US protected class of untouchable leaders, as well as visiting foreign dignitaries.
I don't see violation of the rights of third party nationals in foreign lands anywhere in their charter. Surely there are normal cooperative channels to bring the case to the attention of the law enforcement agencies of the foreign lands and also the third party governments.
Violation of the sovereignty of the US by attacking it or its citizens does not seem to be a part of this case.
This story pits dueling Slashdot hot-button knee-jerk outrage topics head-to-head: 1) Evil US oligarchy (I had to throw that one in as it is the new "hot" word to use), in a show if Imperialism kidnaps Russian citizen from foreign country, or 2) criminal is able to avoid arrest for five years due to his ties to government (oligarchical) power that allows Russia to stonewall their end of a bi-lateral agreement.
Which will it be? Evil Imperialism or special treatment for those in power? Where will the outrage be? Early signs suggest Imperialism, probably due to the spin the story has been given.
The USA has 51 states? How did that get past me?
So after the law about "web services must store data in Russia", next step will be a law "Russian MP must store children in Russia" ?
I hate to break it to you, but the phrase above remains true if you replace "Russians" with any country powerful enough to get away with this kind of behavior.
Well, don't go stealing Russian credit card numbers.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
The Secretary will disavow any knowledge of their actions.
See, extraordinary rendition is COOL, just like of teevee!
And the IMF are always the GOOD guys, so it's OK.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I'm pretty sure there's more to the story than we're getting out of either Russia or the US. And that goes double for what we're getting out of the Russian media (RT) and the US media. As sympathetic as I am to the Anonymous folks, their cries of "kidnapping" based only on what's coming out of Russia are a little premature. Does anyone here doubt that a Russian MP's son would be involved in a large-scale criminal enterprise stealing US credit card info? Is that really so improbable? I don't have a need for immediate information or immediate reaction on these things. We'll see what we see. Until then, I don't believe a damn thing in any of the reports. Both countries have very large, powerful and dishonest intelligence services who are expert at this crap. They had more than half a century of Cold War practice after all. And I've learned to tread lightly when it comes to RT or the US media.
You are welcome on my lawn.
It would be a shame if your son comes to harm in some foreign jail, perhaps we can come to some arrangement about Owd Sneedon?
Korma: Good
I wonder if this is the same guy who was supposed to have been leading the Russian Business Network. There were/are a lot of rumors that his father was someone well-connected inside of the Russian government. It would explain how they've operated with impunity how long they have.
this was also submitted to the firehose as "US Kidnaps Son of Russian MP", where the post alleges that the US extradited him to Guam under false pretenses.
Wonder which spin is the correct one?
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
I guess we will be seeing Snowden back in the US as soon as his current asylum offer expires...
My guess is that US will try to exchange this guy for Edward Snowden. Typical for gangster states as United States of A.
FYI, MP = Member of Parliament (MP) . ttyl
-- Each tock of the Planck clock is a new world and here we are still life. --
"Since when did the US got power to arrest people in Maldives? Does that mean they can just go into arbitrary countries and arrest people arbitrarily?
You must be new to international law. The U.S. has had an extradition treaty with Maldives."
An extradition treaty allows the police of the local country to arrest someone on their own soil for a crime allegedly committed against another country, and hand them over to that country.
Normally, the local country goes through a process of checking whether there is prima facie evidence against the arrestee which would warrant an arrest if the crime had been carried out locally. But the UK has signed up to a variation of the extradition treaty, whereby if the US says they want someone, the UK government provides him with no evidence or just cause required, while if the UK government wants a US citizen, they can whistle for him...
We did not indict him for being a politician's son. We indicted him for committing crimes. Personally, I find it ridiculous that diplomats get blanket immunity from prosecution but I fully understand the reasoning behind it. Now we have people suggesting that not only do accredited diplomats get immunity, but any politician? Seriously?
But what he did were also crimes in Russia and were partially committed within the US.
That article doesn't discuss this scenario at all. It neither supports nor refutes the GP.
Since we are so keen on going after foreigners breaking our laws outside of our jurisdiction, we lose the option of being outraged when another country does the same.
...
Russians kidnap Ukrainians from Ukrainian soil for 'trial' in Russia. See film director Oleg Sentsov who was kidnapped from Cirmea. See Nadia Savchenko, a Ukrainian military officer, who was captured by separatist fighters and moved to Russia.
The US actively threatens countries with military invasion if they engage in certain forms of international law enforcement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...