US Teen Pleads Guilty To Teaching ISIS About Bitcoin Via Twitter

jfruh writes: Ali Shukri Amin, a 17-year-old from Virginia, has pleaded guilty to charges that he aided ISIS by giving the group advice about using bitcoin. An odd and potentially troubling aspect of the charges is that this all took place in public — he Tweeted out links to an article on his blog about how bitcoin and Darknet could help jihadi groups, making it difficult to say whether he was publishing information protected under free speech or was directly advising the terrorist organization. Free speech qua speech isn't the only relevant charge, though: Amin "also admitted facilitating the travel of another teenager, 18-year-old Reza Niknejad, to Syria to join IS. Amin faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison if convicted."

Comments

Mixture

[SuperKendall]

The advising on use of bitcoin should be allowed under free speech, but aiding someone to become a fighter seems pretty far over the line as far as aid to a terrorist organization goes...

Re:Mixture

[ArcadeMan]

What worries me is that some asshole politician is going to try and use that as an argument against crypto-currencies, as if fiat money was any better.

Re:Mixture

[TheGavster]

I'm not sure that "giving a ride to the airport" is really what laws against "material support of terrorism" are supposed to be about. Heck, even flying to Syria isn't against the law (though the State Department has a two page explanation of how terrible an idea it is). It's more of a "teachable moment", if anything.

Brutal responses are what the terrorists want; this kid was misguided, but when the US government is done with him, he'll be radicalized.

Re:Mixture

[ShanghaiBill]

What worries me is that some asshole politician is going to try and use that as an argument against crypto-currencies

Free advice: Worry about problems that actually exist, of which there are many to choose from, rather than stuff that you made up.

Re:Mixture

[Anonymous Coward]

What, like the CIA and other government agencies do.....Train, Fund and supply "freedom fighters" who become next years terrorists.

The USA has had a LONG history of doing this.

Re:Mixture

[antiperimetaparalogo]

What worries me is that some asshole politician is going to try and use that as an argument against crypto-currencies, as if fiat money was any better.

Well, if "some [asshole or not] politician is going to try and use that as an argument against crypto-currencies"... he will have a point! Keep in mind that "fiat money" IS BETTER because some checks are in place already (that is why crypto-currencies are so popular among criminals/terrorists/"bad guys") - let's be honest!

Re:Mixture

[causality]

What, like the CIA and other government agencies do.....Train, Fund and supply "freedom fighters" who become next years terrorists.

The USA has had a LONG history of doing this.

Yes but the mass media conveniently keeps forgetting to mention this. That's ... strange, because one would think such an important part of understanding the Middle East would be newsworthy. Since the corporate media considers this subject taboo, it's known only to those who had the curiosity, initiative, and appreciation of truth to perform their own research.

Re:Mixture

[PopeRatzo]

Has the US declared war on ISIS/ISIL?

They don't have to. The authorization to use force after 9/11 (that was re-passed more recently) covers any foreign terrorist organizations.

It's a stretch IMO, but that's the way the law has been interpreted ever since.

If some random person in a Slashdot comment asks you how to use Bitcoin to transfer funds anonymously and you help him, that's not a crime. If you know the people you're helping out are ISIL then it's a different story. The Internet is not a magical place where laws don't apply.

Re:Mixture

[anagama]

It's a crime to support certain terrorist organizations and perfectly acceptable to support others -- which congress member was a supporter of the IRA? Oh yeah -- Peter King: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03...

I find it very disturbing that certain beliefs are so totally verboten that to speak of them at all seems to be a Federal crime, and worse than that, so many people don't even see it as a problem. What we have are random politicians or cabinet members declaring a group to be off limits -- no declaration of war, no trial with public evidence, just a bureaucratic determination. So what group is next? Model rocketeers? Certainly the Sierra Club. At the word of an official in DC you could basically be killed or imprisoned -- at least this kid got a show trial. God Bless America, Home of the Free [to think and speak in an approved manner].

Re:Mixture

[Pentium100]

I noticed that as time passes, there is smaller and smaller difference between the US and Russia. It almost looks like the US government is looking at Russia as a model of how to do things...

Re:Mixture

[amiga3D]

Just what kind of proof are you looking for? The fact they openly state their desire to destroy the US and kill Americans isn't enough for you? The videos they proudly make and distribute where they round up people because they don't believe as they do and then behead them is not enough proof? The fact they encourage Islamic citizens of the US to join their Jihad and kill their neighbors isn't enough? What the fuck more do you need? I'm pretty ambivalent about a lot of the shit coming out of Washington D.C. but I've got to pretty much admit that ISIS and it's followers seem like terrorists. Convince me I'm wrong if you can.

Re:Mixture

[Anonymous Coward]

ISIL is a "designated terror organization". It is a crime to support a designated terrorist organization.

Well, sure, but the underlying question is whether it should be a crime.

How much do you trust the government? Is this Western civilization fighting for its very survival or is this yet another banana republic situation of a small number of ultra-rich people in the USA exploiting poor people in a foreign country?

I'm not claiming ISIS are good guys. But bad guys often come to power in the context of a great underlying injustice. And unless you do something about the underlying injustice then you'll just be playing whack-a-mole with an endless series of bad guys that are continually created by the injustice.

Dick Cheney and his friends at Haliburton would like you to believe that this is all just Western civilization fighting for its survival. Do you trust him? Do you trust the assurances of the US government that it is a government of, by, and for the (ordinary) people?

Re:Mixture

[amiga3D]

Really? I watch and read every single day all kinds of objections to the way things are run in the USA. I've yet to see anyone sent off to rot in a prison for 20 years or so just for bitching about the government. I've seen miscarriages of justice but even these, once they get the light of public scrutiny shone on them generally get righted. Just because things aren't perfect hardly calls for such extreme accusations. In the old USSR, comrade, just the level of protest you've shown here would be enough for you to be interrogated about your crimes against the state.

Re:Mixture

[schnell]

Want to end terrorist Isalm, target the two originators Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Exactly, because ... Islamic terrorists ... like ... Israel ... and they are ... buddies and ... WHAT?

Perhaps you are arguing that Israel creates Islamic terror groups by its actions. While that is certainly an arguable issue, it is clearly not the sole root since Al Qaida explicitly cited the basing of US troops in Saudi Arabia as a motivation for the 9/11 attacks. Which had nothing to do with Israel, and was actually Islamic terror based on anger at Saudi Arabia ... which you say is the originator ... of ... WAIT, WHAT AGAIN?

So far the only government to tackle Saudi Arabia has been the Russian government with direct threats should any Saudi Arabian government led terrorists attack occur during the Russian Olympics. Shame Uncle Tom Obama the choom gang coward is such a god damned weasel

This seems like a reasonable argument that ... wait ... DAFUQ? How did this get to +3?

Congratulations Slashdot on hitting on a topic that somehow makes even init/SystemD discussions seam rational and well researched.

Great

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's put a 17 year old in prison for 15 years for writing forbidded sentences. He'll come out as a well adjusted 32 year old adult.

Re:Great

[Anonymous Coward]

Treason...

It's amazing how different the views can be on why the USA is mucking about in Iraq.

In one view, the US government (and, by extension all of Western civilization) is teetering on the brink of being overthrown by ISIS - and any assistance to ISIS is treason.

In another view, it's basically just a Banana Republic situation where some corporate fatcats with close ties to the US government saw an opportunity to make themselves a few extra bucks exploiting Iraq's oil - using the US military as their muscle to keep the locals in check.

Strategically speaking...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

The 'people from places you've heard of deciding to pay a visit to scenic Syria and fight for the caliphate' phenomenon has caused a lot of hand-wringing and talk about 'radicalization' and 'grooming' and so on(especially from the brits; but some here as well).

And I can see the reason for concern, from the perspective of a desire to see ISIS collapse sooner rather than later. The expats haven't, on the whole, been marked by particularly notable skills or anything; but unless they are out and out fuckups, they are presumably of some use.

On the other hand, though, there doesn't seem to be much attention being paid to the positive side: If going to some sandtrap hellhole to fight a meatgrinder land war in the service of the Caliph is something you'd do voluntarily; it seems fairly likely that you are not exactly liberal democracy's best buddy, or a strong candidate for 'most likely to get along just fine with the apostates and unbelievers'. Isn't having such people voluntarily decide to leave us to sin in peace and go travel far away to take substantial risks, up to and including fatal ones, rather convenient?

I've been surprised by the amount of chatter among various government talking heads about trying to prevent the would-be jihadis from traveling. Were I in their position; I'd be keeping a careful eye on anyone who tries to come back; but would be very much tempted to politely ignore anyone heading out for martyrdom and hope that they'll no longer be my problem.

ISIS is the bad guy?

[fustakrakich]

Yeah, and check out who the good guys are now. The charade can go on indefinitely...

Knowledge

[SuperKendall]

"Hey, I'm gong over to Syria to kill westerners and enslave Christians for the raping and whatnot. Give me a lift?"

How is that not aid?

If he didn't know, that would be one thing. But the Twitter stuff makes it seem pretty likely he did know why the guy was going...

Re:Knowledge

[chihowa]

Is imparting (academic, general) knowledge really "aid", though? And where do you draw the line?

"Hey, I'm going over to Syria to kill westerners and enslave Christians for the raping and whatnot..."

"but my car broke down Ms Librarian. Do you have a book on automotive repair?"

"but my car broke down Mr Mechanic. Can you point out the distributor for me?"

"but it costs money to get there. Do you have any investing advice?"

"but I have no idea where Syria is. Can you point me in the general direction?"

At some point, you can't be held for responsible for the intentions of others, even if they tell you what they are.

Re:Knowledge

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

Telling people how to do something, knowing they will use it in a crime, makes you a participant. It's legal to say that house over there sells cocaine, but not if I'm a roving salesman for them drumming up sales.

You don't want it to seem too appealing.

[Dzimas]

No, the government has to keep up pretenses - Make it challenging to slip of to join ISIS so that only the hardcore religious fanatics actually make it to Syria. The last thing you want is millions of people signing up as cannon fodder, because that might actually enable ISIS to destabilize the region more than it already is.

As a side note, extreme religious fanaticism has all the hallmarks of a mental illness -- delusional thinking, belief in the supernatural, a willingness to do horrific things to please an invisible master. It should be treated as such.