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Spanish Judge Cites Use of Secure Email As a Potential Terrorist Indicator
An anonymous reader writes Is it possible that using secure email services can be construed as an indicator of being a terrorist? Although it's a ridiculous notion that using secure email implies criminal activities, a judge cited that reason to partially justify arrests in Spain. In December, as part of "an anti-terrorist initiative" Operation Pandora, over 400 cops raided 14 houses and social centers in Spain. They seized computers, books, and leaflets and arrested 11 people. Four were released under surveillance, but seven were "accused of undefined terrorism" and held in a Madrid prison. This led to "tens of thousands" participating in protests. As terrorism is alleged "without specifying concrete criminal acts," the attorney for those seven "anarchists" denounced the lack of transparency.
Our economic colonisator pushes us continuously in directions our real leaders don't want to. Even my own government is a bunch of puppets nowadays, controlled by money and fear.
Since governments tap and read everything; if they can't read it, according to them you must be hiding something.
If you are hiding something, you don't trust the government.
If you don't trust the government, you must be a terrorist.
Other people have nothing to hide in their eyes.
Will all potentially dangerous terrorists use secure mail: Yes, thanks to Snowden, they know that unsecured electronic communication will get them identified.
Do other people use secure mail: Yes, some of us have our reasons.
Do most people use secure mail: No. Most people don't care enough.
Does using secure mail automatically make one a terrorist in the eyes of a spanish judge: No, but it does let him quickly winnow out those who might need another look.
Is this a bullshit story: Yup, click-bait right up there with Timothy's usual confusion of correlation & causation.
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
Speaking as a European taxpayer seeing how the US saves and protects countries all over the world, I can cheerfully say that no matter how bad it gets, we can always rely on the US to meddle and make it worse.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Oh you are one of those thinking that USA won the war alone? Without any help from these awful russian communists for example. I rather believe that the Russians won that one... But again. USA won clearly the battle of propaganda.
This is why Europe is in permanent decline, and is basically turning into Latin America of the 80s.
The US didn't make this Judge say anything. It didn't lobby the Spanish government to actually do anything. It has absolutely nothing to do with the decision. Yet, instead of blaming the people you should blame (i.e.: the politicians the Spanish people chose to elect) you're blaming the US.
You aren't going to fix the problem by blaming it on a country thousands of miles away. That country is actually a) specifically designed to not care what you think (Swedes don't have votes in the Electoral College), and b) couldn't order Spanish Courts to play nice even if it wanted to (in cases where the US really wants the local Judiciary to play nice -- Syria and North Korea spring immediately to mind -- it does not work).
So congratulations, rather then fix the problem you're going to waste your time.
Is it possible that using secure email services can be construed as an indicator of being a terrorist?
When the question is posed like that, no. But it has been taken out of a context, and it is similar to saying 'is carrying a crowbar really a sign that you are going to burgle a house?' - you may be on the way home from the shop, intending to break some timber apart. On the other hand, if it is about 2AM and you are in a residential area far from your home, friends or family, and you can't offer a plausible explanation - perhaps it is reasonable to suspect that you are a burglar.
Terrorists look just like everybody else, at least until they blow themselves up or start shooting at the defenceless, so we have to use a complex set of indicators to try to guess who is likely to be plotting attacks; unfortunately they don't all use emails on 'terror.org' or whatever. If a number of factors come together, then perhaps using strongly encrypted email is worrying - you may have something legitimate to hide, but most people don't bother with encryption if they are just writing to their mum.