

U.K. Government Thought Destroying Guardian Hard Drives Would Stop Stories - tippytop
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/08/19/u-k-government-thought-destroying-guardian-hard-drives-would-stop-snowden-stories/

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nwp90
I don't think there's any indication that they actually thought destroying the
hard drives would stop anything; seems more likely that:

1) They didn't want anyone else to get access to the material that the
Guardian had but would not end up publishing;

2) The rules said that that's what they had to do, so they did it;

3) That's all they could do on "their patch", so CYA;

4) A little intimidation would never go amiss, surely...

~~~
viraptor
Also, there was always a possibility that the guys in the guardian slipped
somewhere. Didn't have a copy of all the files, some password/key was stored
only on that drive, note/edited information that's easy to forget was only on
that drive, etc.

Backups are hard - if there was even a slight chance that they destroyed the
only copy of something, why not go ahead with it? They're not that stupid.

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firloop
Here's the original story at the Guardian, which is definitely worth a read.

[http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/19/david-m...](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/19/david-
miranda-schedule7-danger-reporters)

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boi_v2
Sounds quite similar to me.

"As Gestapo chief of operations and later (after 1939) its chief, Müller
played a leading role in the detection and suppression of all forms of
resistance to the Nazi regime.[12] Under his leadership, the Gestapo succeeded
in infiltrating and to a large extent destroying the underground networks of
the Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party by the end of 1935."

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_M%C3%BCller_%28Gestapo...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_M%C3%BCller_%28Gestapo%29)

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pinaceae
oh yes absolutely. just like the Gestapo. and the NKWD. i mean this is like a
photocopy. sending people to concentration camps/gulags, murdering families.
it is so 1:1 it is downright scary. you're so brave. so brave.

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jlgreco
boi_v2 noted a _similarity_ between _specific_ actions. No reasonably
intelligent adult could read his comment and come to the conclusion that he
thinks they are gassing Jews; the exaggeration is your own. Take your
"bravery" bullshit back to reddit.

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pinaceae
bullshit. you don't bring up the specific example of the gestapo for
comparison on how they filed their reports. his intent was to align the
current actions of the UK/US intelligence services with the Gestapo, conjuring
a very specific image.

which is laughable in the very redditesque way you just brought up.

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jlgreco
"Bullshit" yourself.

> _" sending people to concentration camps/gulags, murdering families."_

Those are things _you_ said, not him. _You_ uncharitably read an absurd
statement of equivalence where he merely made a comparison.

The refusal to see parallels or accept comparisons to dark periods in recent
history unless they are 100% equivalent is a disease that threatens our
ability to learn lessons from the past. If we only accept comparisons to the
Gestapo when they begin gassing people en-masse, then it is _too late_.

~~~
pinaceae
so if someone mentions the Gestapo they explicitely do _not_ mean to bring up
the overall context of the third reich, gotcha.

i am an austrian of polish decent. for me bringing up the fucking nazis in
this context is completely laughable.

the securitate? maybe. the stasi? same. but only internet nerd rage
immediately brings up nazis, fascism, etc. the whole discussion here at HN is
an exercise in hyperbolic bullshit.

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coldcode
Why bother to read to 1984 or Animal Farm anymore. We see in every bloody
story these days. This story is perfectly 1984 in a nutshell.

~~~
state
It seems to me that some people read those books and didn't understand them to
be cautionary.

~~~
coldcode
Yeah they think the are a roadmap.

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norswap
So private property is down too. Do these guys keep a todo-list?

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flaktrak
These people are dinosaurs. That is the most scary aspect. Imagine if
Dinosaurs still existed but new how to search internet databases to find their
targets!

~~~
ihsw
> These _legislators_ and _business leaders_ are dinosaurs.

This would more accurately portray the threat that they pose -- they're people
in charge of running the world, and their backwards notions of how the world
_should_ operate will lead us down a very dark hole of no return. They need to
be stopped quickly.

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ChrisAntaki
What goods or services could be boycotted, to protest these actions by the
British Gestapo?

Largest UK companies (that seemed recognizable): HSBC, Shell, BP, Royal Bank
of Scotland, Barclays, GlaxoSmithKline, Unilever, Vodafone, Anglo American
(thought the name was funny for a huge British company), Prudential, Coldplay

Edit: Added services

Edit 2: Added list of largest UK companies

Edit 3: Added Coldplay

~~~
beedogs
Does the UK actually make anything anymore? I thought they were like the US
and had become a "service-based" economy. I guess you could boycott visiting.

~~~
lostlogin
A shiite ton of military equipment - Britain is a big arms exporter.

Here is a story about exports to repressive regimes, this bit alone is
troubling, and a believe it's just a fraction of exports.
[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/blood-money-
uk...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/blood-money-uks-123bn-
arms-sales-to-repressive-states-8711794.html)

