Gestapo harasses John Young, appeals to patriotism, told to fuck off

John Young jya at pipeline.com
Sat Nov 15 15:05:05 PST 2003


Matt wrote:

>Why open the door to them? I have a few friends who as a matter of principle 
>do not open their doors to people they do not know. Letting a Fedgoon in is 
>akin to inviting a vampire into your house.

I was expecting someone else at about the same time. True, I could
have refused entry after the agent showed his ID. However, it
seemed too good an opportunity to pass up: it is pretty common
for Cryptome to get unexpected contributions. We try to remain
open lines of communication to unknown sources, if not a goodly
amount of info would never come out way.

For all I knew, and now know, the Special Agents were frauds,
of which Cryptome gets a taste regularly, perhaps more than
we know. As discussed here, spoofing is trivial to do.

Toward the end of the visit I asked SA Kelly to see his ID up close
and he displayed a wallet with a brass badge on the left and a
two-leaf ID on the right: flip left, then flip up. Was it real?

The two-leaf ID looked like the version SA Renner showed at
the door.

Trim haircuts and dark suits, healthy-looking young Caucasians,
no facial hair, shined shoes, clean teeth, no noticeable mouth 
or body odor, no obvious weapon bulges, polite, actually not
polite all the time: there were a few instances when mild
friction occurred, low-key warnings sent my way about
inadvertent threats to the nation with too much information
like that on Cryptome.

SA Renner was cooler than Kelly during questioning -- Kelly 
slightly bristled when I made a comment about free flowing 
information making the US stronger, the agent saying, yes, 
but information can be misused. He bristled a lot more when
I said I would publish their names, "make them famous." At
the word "famous" Kelly said, smiling "really, I haven't had 
that before."

Renner was quieter on naming names, knowing that there
was a CNN story out about him. But he too mildly protested
with the "hazard to the family" shtick.

Kelly said, "you know we can be found by knowing our
names, get shot for what we do." That reminded me of
Jeff Gordon, but I didn't snort.

Kelly leaned forward in his wing-back chair, slightly aggressive, 
whereas Renner sat upright at a table, case file in front, posing 
most of the questions to me.

Now, if I had refused the agents entry could I be telling this
dinky inside story? Perhaps better will be the second visit, or 
door-busting and marching downstairs in handcuffs, or 
dark-van-snatch on the street, or my family and customers
and friends questioned and warned, my assets seized
and listed in the New York Times, gosh, what notoriety
being a questionable patriot can lead to -- maybe right
up there at the foot soles of the Special Agents, real or 
fraudulent.

Confirming the allegation about idiot witnesses, I am
sure I would not recognize either agent if I saw them
again. The IDs yes, and the questions, but not the
bland biometrics.





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