

Gary McKinnon will not face UK charges - neilmiddleton
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20730627

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antidoh
"calculated to influence and affect the US government by intimidation and
coercion".

So we just make shit up now, to make things look as bad as possible and as
worth prosecution as possible?

~~~
chimeracoder
> So we just make shit up now, to make things look as bad as possible and as
> worth prosecution as possible?

Yes, though that mentality is unfortunately nothing new[1].

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods>

~~~
mtgx
Why do we have CIA again?

~~~
MiguelHudnandez
To collect intelligence about foreign nations so we are not taken by surprise.

It's relatively important.

~~~
tsotha
And yet we seem to be taken by surprise, well, almost every time. The nature
of the business is such that we just have to trust that they're actually doing
something besides sitting on their collective asses in Langley and counting
down the days to retirement.

I realize we need a foreign intelligence service, but I'm not sure we need
_this_ foreign intelligence service. There are 14 separate US government
agencies that collect intelligence in other countries as part of their
mission. We might be able to do without the CIA.

~~~
corin_
>. _And yet we seem to be taken by surprise, well, almost every time._

Don't forget about the possibility of the two following scenarios:

1.) The CIA succeeded and therefore the US Government weren't taken by
surprise - even if the general population were

2.) They knew about something and therefore prevented or countered it,
therefore the public never heard about it.

~~~
antidoh
3.) The CIA knew, and were ignored.

4.) The CIA knew, and didn't know that they knew.

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ditoa
I am very happy that this is finally over for Gary and his family. It was a
huge waste of time and money.

