Thanks for documenting this, Kevin. It’s a real shame that there was no stream of the hearing. I hope more video turns up. I’m just amazed that C-SPAN did not cover this and that there was no video documentation of the hearing.

There are still some topics that need to be probed, legitimately. That doesn’t say that Issa and the Rs aren’t playing politics. But some aspects of this story have legs and have not gotten any real attention yet, I believe. For instance, why did this attack happen? And some other things. Two guys who are former special ops wrote a small ebook on this, having interviewed people with close knowledge of it, and were motivated not by politics but because one of their friends was killed in the attack. Only the right-wing MSM has given them the time of day. As far as I know, not much coverage of their story in the MSM or left leaning news.

Is this “Maya”? If so, destroying the tapes is just another negative thing on her record. Wasn’t she also convicted for torture in Italian court and supposedly had a hand in losing track of two of the 9/11 hijackers in the U.S. because she would not let an FBI agent coworker pass that information along to the FBI?

Failing upward.

Aaron never identified the senator with the fiery red eyes who freaked out on him, saying that those people on the internet must.be.controlled, but it seemed to me that it was Dodd he was talking about.

I wish I was better at good comebacks and wise cracks. I’d love to jump into that twitter conversation. Unfortunately, I do think of the good comebacks sometimes, but not until, like, two days later.

Anyway, I haven’t heard the name “Moral Majority” in a long time. Brings back memories… not good ones. In some ways, things have gotten better. I guess they are smaller in number now but even crazier than in the Moral Majority days.

Are they anticipating a shortage of people or something?

Soylent green.

But Jon Corzine is considering starting a hedge fund. Free as a bird.

Gotta teach those mothers a lesson!

Hey, they’ve been going after mothers in other ways for quite awhile now. If your kids download music or video and you aren’t policing their every move, you might be the one they go after in court, and bankrupt you. I tell that to my kids all the time but find me a kid who hasn’t downloaded an MP3. Careful who uses your internet connection.

And let’s face it. When you look at cases like this, whistleblower cases, and look at Homeland Security buying all this military equipment and ammunition, small towns or counties with tanks, police departments with riot gear and clearly getting the same kinds of “crowd control” training, now these prosecutions, the flood of “cyberterrorism” stories in the media — how can you not draw a conclusion that they are trying to instill fear into the population by using these kinds of decimation techniques, picking people off to make examples of them?

Yep

I’m glad the lawyers filed the letter. I’m wondering is there is any other action that can be taken against Heymann and/or the US Atty office in Boston.

Sounds like, since two different organizations (SS and US Atty office) were pursuing Aaron, they had trouble keeping their investigations in synch. It still creeps me out that the SS was so involved, perhaps driving the case. Who was driving the SS? To waste taxpayer resources in such an elite agency like the SS on the minor offenses and doings of Aaron Swartz is ridiculous. It really says something about how paranoid the feds have become (not all, FBI didn’t even find it worthy of pursuing, IIRC) and I really wonder who, specifically, is driving things like this. They should lose their jobs, IMHO. Meanwhile, the bank criminals, torture criminals and other war criminals thrive.

But such paranoia about activists and protesters who are harmless to the public. Seriously, who are these people who sit in their offices every day and single out young activists like Aaron? Specifically, who are these people in the shadows? Secret Service also gets involved in banking crimes, right? Why are they not investigating and urging prosecution of banks that launder money for drug cartels and provide funding for terrorism organizations? This stuff is all coming to a head now. There are some powerful people organizing around that. But no doubt, they will never hold any of the shadowy law enforcement figures spending untold amounts of taxpayer $ on dissident paranoia. Will any of these guys (or the people driving them) lose their jobs? How far up does it go?

Holder… the man is such a puppet. Yes, I wonder, as DSWright implies, what IS his idea of prosecutorial misconduct, since his dept. seems to be engaged in it every single day.

30-50% kickback on the first day’s profits. I’ve never heard of that before. Amazing.

Tarpley’s take? I think I missed that story.

Great job with this story, Jeff. This is a really important investigative piece — one of the most important that I’ve seen in a long time. I’ve watched the documentary twice and am hoping that the Guardian has more planned for this. It could be a centerpiece for a lot more.