

Hacker Killed by Drone Was 'Secret Weapon' - Bud
http://www.wsj.com/articles/hacker-killed-by-drone-was-secret-weapon-1440718560

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frozenport
Can we flag this for being pay-walled? For all we know this is spam
encouraging me to buy the WSJ.

~~~
dangrossman
Here's a non-paywalled link:

[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB8QqQIwAGoVChMIkuXKjNbKxwIVBm4-Ch3cWgzN&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fhacker-
killed-by-drone-was-secret-weapon-1440718560&ei=nb_fVdKiJYbc-
QHctbHoDA&usg=AFQjCNG3WNw3DvdOkYfGmNQa02pgnjTGfw&sig2=4jsVPhW-hiWTSQEhZAH-SQ)

> Flagging an article that's otherwise good for HN, purely because it's behind
> one of these semi-paywalls, is not an ok use of flagging. We revoke flagging
> rights from accounts that do that.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10032121](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10032121)

> The HN guidelines explicitly call for original sources. We want the best,
> most substantive version of a story. Other things being equal, we all prefer
> non-paywalled articles, but when things are not equal, substance should win.
> When there are standard workarounds to read the content, paywalls are just
> an inconvenience. The more this comes up, the clearer it gets that we
> shouldn't ban paywalls.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9717733](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9717733)

~~~
JorgeGT
All the substance that I am able to access in this case is:

>Hacker Killed by Drone Was ‘Secret Weapon’

>Targeting of Islamic State’s electronics expert shows how digital warfare has
upset balance of power on modern battlefield

>By MARGARET COKER in London, DANNY YADRON in San Francisco and DAMIAN PALETTA
in Washington Aug. 27, 2015 7:36 p.m. ET

>U.S. and British officials decided earlier this year that a hacker needed to
die.

So I don't really understand what the 'Secret Weapon' the title of the post
means, or anything more than the fact that according to US and UK officials a
hacker needed to die and was indeed killed by a drone. Not much to hold a
meaningful discussion really.

~~~
dogma1138
>So I don't really understand what the 'Secret Weapon' the title of the post
means

It was his "hacker" callsign.

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dogma1138
While we can debate the effectiveness or 'legality' of drone strikes why is
this case any special? He's a member of a non-nation state militant
organization, he's clearly (as much as this can be in such cases, but ISIS
likes to take credit and not to hide it's footprint) responsible for multiple
acts of violence which resulted in deaths. What does it matter if it's an
extremist cleric who recruits, incites violence and supports ISIS, AQ, or any
other similar organizations through video tapes from a cave or a "hacker"
which uses twitter to do the same?

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click170
Is this being reported on by anyone other than WSJ? I don't like paywalls.

~~~
Buge
I bypassed the paywall by googling the url of the article, because they
whitelist google as a referer.

~~~
kuschku
Only for US IPs. If you are from Germany, even with a Google referer you don’t
get the article.

~~~
Aldo_MX
I could read the article from Mexico:

[https://www.google.com.mx/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=we...](https://www.google.com.mx/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB0QqQIwAGoVChMIma6LiN_KxwIVSJQeCh22iAEH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fhacker-
killed-by-drone-was-secret-
weapon-1440718560&ei=BMnfVZmcBsioeraRhjg&usg=AFQjCNG3WNw3DvdOkYfGmNQa02pgnjTGfw)

~~~
kuschku
Well, from Germany it seems to not work at all.

I archived it through archive.is using your link (which uses X-Forwarded-For
to allow wsj to see my IP), and the page looks like this:
[https://archive.is/HsIiC](https://archive.is/HsIiC)

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rhino369
He was an avowed member of ISIS, an army. He was a legitimate target. I'm glad
he is dead. He's complicit in the rape and murder of countless people.

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sarciszewski
Setting my referrer to Googlebot doesn't break the paywall. Uuuuuugh

