[Vision2020] Computer Seized in Idaho Had 9-11 Targets

[Joe Huffman]

Given the amount of information in the newspaper article I'm inclined to
agree with you about the pictures on the hard drive of the Saudi student.
But the case of Wen Ho Lee is completely different.  I too handle government
secrets in a national laboratory. I have a computer hard drive kept in a
safe.  It is EXCEEDINGLY clear that hard drive is not to leave the secure
area.  In addition to the yearly training on handling of classified
information we are required to sign in and out of the safe and the safe is
checked each night to make sure it is closed.  An armed guard checks it
again at random times.  We don't take this type of work home.

A colleague of mine talked to one of the investigators of Mr. Lee.  It was
exceedingly clear that it was not just "taking work home".  It was
espionage.  But they couldn't find "jury convincing" evidence.

-joe-
----
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http://www.modernballistics.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-admin@moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-admin@moscow.com]On
Behalf Of Bob Hoffmann
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 8:19 PM
To: vision2020@moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Computer Seized in Idaho Had 9-11 Targets


At 03:34 PM 3/11/2003 -0800, TEX wrote:
>BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Photographs in a computer used by a Saudi student
>arrested for alleged visa violations include shots of the World Trade
>Center before and after the 2001 terrorism attacks, an FBI agent testified
>Tuesday.

Sounds very incriminating.  Of course, I suspect the computers of most
people on this list have pictures on their hard drives of the World Trade
Center, before and after the attacks.  Those would be in our browsers'
caches, along with "thousands" of other photos.

The drawings of planes hitting buildings sounds a bit more incriminating,
but they could also conceivably be found in the same location on the hard
drive, the result of visiting news and other sites.  It seems to me that
the depictions are not so crucial as the location on the hard drive, and
any evidence about how they got there and how unique they are.  That's why
we have trials in this country, to sort through the prosecutor's
incriminating evidence and discovering whether or not that evidence stands
up to scrutiny by a vigorous defense.

I don't pretend to know whether Sami has terrorist ties or not.  But I do
know that a Chinese scientist at Los Alamos was accused of spying because
he had unauthorized contacts with the Chinese government, and he was found
to have taken top-secret scientific information home with him.  Wen Ho Lee
later pled guilty to one relatively minor charge of mishandling secrets (as
opposed to espionage).  Many of his colleagues no doubt mishandled secrets
in the same manner (it's called "taking work home") but were never charged,
and the FBI had to seriously backtrack on its accusations against Mr. Lee.

By releasing this information about Sami's computer, it seems to me that
the prosecution is trying to convict him in the court of public opinion,
which can ease a conviction in a court of law, whether that conviction is
deserved or not.  As an opinionated person, I am willing to convict a
person in my mind before a trial, but in this case, I'd need to see more
explicit evidence.

Bob Hoffmann
820 S. Logan St.
Moscow, ID  83843

Tel: 208 883-0642

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