
Eyes Everywhere: Encryption programmer Paul Le Roux and his commando kill squad - katiabachko
https://mastermind.atavist.com/eyes-everywhere
======
uiri
_Hunter earned both a National Defense Service Medal and a Global War on
Terrorism Medal._

I just want to point out that these medals just mean that he was a soldier at
some point between September 11, 2001 and now. Service medals are given out
just for showing up.

~~~
adolph
_[Hunter 's] home state named him a Kentucky Colonel, an honorific reserved
for Kentuckians “unwavering in devotion to faith, family, fellowman, and
country.”_

Wikipedia:

 _The honor has been given to a broad variety of notable people . . . . It has
also been bestowed upon various people who are not generally considered
especially notable – they have been people from "all walks of life". . . ._

 _Under Governor Steve Beshear in 2008, so many commissions were being issued
that state budget cuts led to a major change in the design of the commission
certificate. The certificate was downsized from the 10-by-15-inch (25 by 38
cm) size to 8.5 by 14 inches (22 by 36 cm)._

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky_colonel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky_colonel)

~~~
Eiriksmal
Plus, it comes with a sweet license plate design only you and your Colonel
fratnerity brethren can use.
[http://easypl8s.com/upnresize/pics/IMGm_800.jpg](http://easypl8s.com/upnresize/pics/IMGm_800.jpg)

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probablypat
I've met this guy. I used to live in Subic in the Philippines. I always
thought he was a drunk that was lying about his past. Teaches me...

~~~
tlack
Tell us more! That's very interesting. Little quotes and details are fine, no
long form journalism required :)

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r0muald
> After a two-year stint, he spent another year with a similar outfit, Triple
> Canopy.(The Panama Papers leak recently revealed that Triple Canopy, which
> has received more than a billion dollars in U.S. government contracts over
> the past decade, operated a series of shell companies overseas.)

This. One million times this is true journalism, making seemingly worthless
bits of information into an expanding web of knowledge, where 99% readers
would have no clue.

~~~
rurban
Normal CIA business. The author missed to make this hint.

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nibs
This is the best journalism I have read in a long time, and not just because
of how interesting the content is. Well done.

~~~
jonknee
Probably because it's more of a screenplay/novel than conventional journalism
(strictly style wise, it's a great story!). Entertaining, but very drawn out
for the amount of useful information provided.

~~~
6stringmerc
I like how it makes no affronts to being 'objective' and is quite clear that
the author doesn't expect to be believed outright due to the content and
story, but will go ahead and fill in the holes in time. That's some great
serial structuring. It's written very well, which, let's be honest, a lot of
journalists are not equipped to do. By nature, reporting wants prose to
service it, not the other way around (save for HST and "Gonzo" influence). It
is a very captivating subject indeed!

------
15thandwhatever
> _All of the teams’ email communications, with their macho posturing and
> detailed ops plans, were being simultaneously collected by the DEA’s Special
> Operations Division._

Would that be the same division here that was pooh-poohed for parallel
construction?

[http://www.reuters.com/article/us-dea-sod-
idUSBRE97409R20130...](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-dea-sod-
idUSBRE97409R20130805)

------
cvwright
This is fascinating. We live in the cyberpunk future that William Gibson and
others wrote about in the 1980's. The former US soldier in this article even
sounds a bit like Gibson's character Armitage from _Neuromancer_.

~~~
at-fates-hands
>> he former US soldier in this article even sounds a bit like Gibson's
character Armitage from _Neuromancer_.

I just started getting into Sci-Fi (particularly dytopian worlds) and my Dad
recommended this book as a "must read".

I'm halfway through it and love it so far.

~~~
justinclift
Another good "must read" is this:

    
    
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chasm_City
    

The entire "Revelation Space" series is excellent too, if that one grabs you.
:)

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altotrees
Another great installment. It is more mind-bending to me each week, the level
of planning, the number of ties Le Roux has to so many different places and
people with varied histories and interests. Even assuming conservatively that
only 50 percent of what is written is fact, it is still crazy to think about.

It is quite a story, Le Roux going from a gangly teenager hunched over his
computer to a man who is able to amass a small commando squad at a moments
notice...it seems as though Hollywood would struggle to come up with such a
plot.

~~~
at-fates-hands
I wonder if you could call this guy a kind of a criminal renaissance man. The
amount of criminal activity he was involved with and the things he did are
mind bendingly complex.

How you go from raising an army to invade a country, operating shady call
centers in a myriad of countries, and ordering hits on reporters and real
estate agents is anybody's guess. The crazy thing is he was running all of
this by himself. I'm still puzzled how he managed to do it for so long.

------
Worksheet
Really hoping the last part will shed some light on the closure of Truecrypt
and the full story of the authorship. What is the Czech connection?!.

------
6stringmerc
Glad to see this keep getting attention by way of this site. I saw Vice News
also has a long-form piece, and even interviewed and referenced the author and
the Atavist piece! This looks like the definitive write-up and account. I hope
the potential film rights are lucrative. However, if Thomas Lennon & Robert
Ben Garant's screenwriting bible is any indication, the Hollywood system will
most definitely find a way to monkey with the formula and deliver some kind of
mutated...thing...for us. Many compliments on the fine journalism!

~~~
celticninja
It's a 7 part series I believe,not sure if you were saying this article is the
definitive account, perhaps you meant the whole series.

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Arubis
I have been thoroughly enjoying this series; thanks for posting!

------
venomsnake
Couple of thoughts - I feel that those complicated stings are almost
entrapment. And cannot help but feel just sad about some of the guys. The
skills that they learn in the military are hardly marketable in the civil
society.

And the series fail to deliver - it started promising, but it lacks the big
crimes and operations outside of the pill business. It is serialized novel of
"Pivoting Bad with Mediocrity."

~~~
throwaway7767
> Couple of thoughts - I feel that those complicated stings are almost
> entrapment. And cannot help but feel just sad about some of the guys. The
> skills that they learn in the military are hardly marketable in the civil
> society.

They agreed to murder for money, and you feel sorry for them?

I agree that there are structural issues to address here - the conduit from
ex-military to mercenary work seems to be quite active, and it's not healthy
for society to allow that to continue. But these guys are accountable for
their actions just like any adult in a free society - the fact that they were
in the military does not absolve them of that responsibility.

~~~
venomsnake
We trained them to be killers. Two of the guys were there for the money for
the bills. Hunter was the psycho. Are they responsible - yes. Did society
failed them - absolutely.

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sametmax
The page makes my browser crash.

~~~
djsumdog
Mine too. Firefox, but only on my work machine. My home desktop is fine. I've
had weird Firefox issues whenever there's video (like that banner at the top)
and if I watch the output, it looks like GLX issues (my work laptop should
just be either Intel integrated ... I wonder if the driver is crashing)

~~~
TD-Linux
Check out about:crashes, you can submit a dump to the trace servers and get a
backtrace that will tell you where it's crashing, and make it easy to file a
bug report.

(if you're using a distro provided build, it might be more involved, see
[https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Mozilla/How_to_get_...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Mozilla/How_to_get_a_stacktrace_for_a_bug_report))

~~~
voltagex_
Will the trace still be captured if the application goes into "Not Responding"
mode under Windows and I have to kill it from Task Manager?

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prefixlen
I absolutely hat cliffhangers, so I told myself to wait until the series is
complete before reading. Is it done? Is this the last part?

~~~
katiabachko
last one is coming next week.

~~~
prefixlen
Thanks!

------
kobayashi
Super excited to read this - I've been waiting with bated breath for episode
6. Anybody know how many there are likely to be in total?

~~~
nicelynicely
One more to come.

------
acqq
Can anybody explain me if the online pharmacy business PLR had was legal or
not and if not, why? Why was DEA after him? Thanks.

~~~
21
Obviously it was not. You could get prescriptions from corrupt doctors without
actually seeing them or fulfilling the requirements for those drugs.

Basically you filled a form and they issued a prescription which then
affiliated pharmacies filled.

~~~
acqq
Why are doctors corrupt if they just fulfill the need of the clients? The
clients know what they need, but having a "big visit" to the doctor would cost
more. This is a compromise. The doctor spends less time, charges less but wins
on the volume.

If the clients use the medicines legally (e.g. for themselves) and know what
they need I don't see a problem.

~~~
MaulingMonkey
> The clients know what they need, but having a "big visit" to the doctor
> would cost more. This is a compromise.

That compromise exists! It's known as "over the counter" medications. They
require no prescription or doctor in the first place.

Doctors should fulfill the needs of their clients. The legislature has
realized that, for some drugs, people may need help to avoid addiction, or to
avoid killing themselves with overdoses, or to fully understand the risks and
possible complications, etcetera. To try and ensure these needs are met, they
passed laws to require doctors to meet these needs, compelling them to act as
a check against abuse, to perform due diligence in checking for possible
conflicts with other medication, and to ensure the risks of the medication
have been properly communicated (because let's face it - who reads the fine
print?)

A doctor acting as a rubber stamp is not performing any of these tasks, and is
_not_ helping fulfill the full needs of their clients.

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xenophonf
Is this for real?

~~~
monkeyshelli
feels like reading a script for an upcoming action based spy-movie. But I
guess truth is stranger than fiction

~~~
forgotpwtomain
The difference is that in spy movies it looks cool and glamorous, not a bunch
seedy dysfunctional ex-military types pretending life is like a james-bond
flick. Maybe if someone like Tarantino got their hands on this.

~~~
6stringmerc
Somebody coming from the documentary side of things - Alex Gibney would be my
pick - in order to 'nail' the grime and feel without resorting to lazy 70%
f-bomb script dialogue and using pastiche from other, better directors, which
is essentially Tarantino's calling card. Caveat: I think Michael Mann could
pull it off though.

~~~
ianhawes
Michael Mann is the ONLY director that could pull this off. Add in the twist
in the end that Le Roux turned state's evidence and you've got a decent film.

