(no subject)

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

FBI To Cut Up Unabomber Papers

X-Acto knives in hand, FBI employees are poised to manually redact a mountain of documents--20,000 pages of which are handwritten--that were seized from the Montana cabin of Ted Kaczynski, the convicted Unabomber.

I can't read this at work so I don't know if the answer is in the article, but F-ing WHY!? What's to redact? It's not like he knew any state secrets that can't be revealed. Just because you don't like what he said or did doesn't mean you need to permanently destroy it. It's historically useful at a minimum. Frakkin' stupid gov't.

Comments

[kenderkin.livejournal.com]

This is such a waste of tax payers dollars.

Already almost 700 hours has been spent on these documents, according to the article, at how much an hour for each person going through these?

If you think about it, those man hours could have spent more productively helping the nation, or the money for those man hours spent for the restitution they're talking about.

~shakes head~

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with black markers like they usually do?

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

Well, my primary objection is to the loss of information, since I see the government's primary economic duty is to ensure maximal information to everyone about everything.

[jennem.livejournal.com]

Because you can see through a black marker using the proper equipment unless you're distributing a copy of the document (as opposed to the original).

[readherring.livejournal.com]

Very bold of the FBI to announce such a man-hour intensive and unnecessary project in the current atmosphere of criticism of needless government spending.

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

And all this to ensure that they can be sold to pay restitution to the families, to boot. Guess you gotta spend money to make money...

[readherring.livejournal.com]

Those documents would be worth more if they left in the really weird stuff.

[mijopo.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's being undertaken to protect the privacy of his victims?

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

And "how to catch bombers" stuff.

[blorky.livejournal.com]

Ohhh god, I can see the conspiracy theorists salivating now. "They're cutting out the part where Kaczynski implicated the Trilat Commission and the PLO in the suppression of Obama's birth certificate, dontcha know."

[dukexmachismo.livejournal.com]

Anything that keeps FBI agents busy is probably a Good Thing.

[mrsilence.livejournal.com]

However, before the Kaczynski material can be sold, FBI workers will have to manually cut out portions of the documents containing material that Burrell has ordered removed from the documents (such as the names of victims and their families, and bomb-making instructions).

I don't see anything wrong with that, particularly not for the reasons highlighted.

How would you like your name and details sold as part of restitution for a crime commited against you?

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

another government make-work project.

[mrsilence.livejournal.com]

Protecting the personal details of the Unabombers victims and their families is make-work?

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

such details are already out there. ever heard of the internet?

http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/unabomber/victims.htm

[mrsilence.livejournal.com]

Which details?

I don't see any home addresses, lists of families members including those who were unaffected, friends whom they're meeting, daily comings and goings or a host of other personal details which the unabomber probably would have recorded.

Are those details out there on this "internet" of which you speak? Are they really?

Look, a federal judge, familiar with the actual content of the documents has ordered it redacted in order to protect those affected and their associates. Is it possible some of that information is out there already? Of course. But obviously not so far as the judge knows, and so the action to remove that information is highly principled and reasonable under the circumstances.

How would you feel if the state knowingly sold all your most personal details and those of your family, as recorded by some bastard criminal who tried to blow you up? And then wanted to compensate you using the remuneration from their sale?

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

I don't see any home addresses, lists of families members including those who were unaffected, friends whom they're meeting, daily comings and goings or a host of other personal details which the unabomber probably would have recorded.

And why would those documents be sold in the first place?

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

These documents *are* being sold, they are just modified before they get sold, so that these facts are taken off them. Basically the Unabomber archive is auctioned away, minus restricted information that they contain - which is in agreement with archival law of confidentiality.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

Missing the point, you are.

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

well, if you wonder why they sell the documents whether they are "intact" or not, then I would say that the judge's reason is the only one (to collect money for the victim families), if you mean why the documents *are* being altered, then that would be the law (and the reasons for the law are plenty), if you think that there are documents that could merely be taken off the whole collection and not sold (instead of going in and altering a paper), then I would say the reason for FBI to do that would lie in the manner of which the Unabomber records were created. Usually, when restricted records are made public in this manner (cutting text), it is because names and personal information of victims are so weaved into the text, it would be the only way of releasing them, without either breaking the law, or not releasing them at all.

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

the fbi should just pay the survivors the amount of money they'd be wasting in lost man-hours and get back to doing fbi work.

[debergerac.livejournal.com]

are those details out there on this "internet" of which you speak? Are they really?

yes.

and the unabomber was holed up in a cabin. why would he need all those "personal details"? all he needed was a home or work address to mail his bombs.

[hannahsarah.livejournal.com]

Well, Obama DID say that more jobs were being created...

[mrsilence.livejournal.com]

Sure, I think whenever we sell documentary evidence we should leave all the victims most personal and intimate details in them for all the world to see and get a thrill out of.

[dreadfulpenny81.livejournal.com]

I think instead of redacting them and selling them, the FBI should have kept them on record. It would have been a great educational tool for future agents and a great resource for the government in future cases of domestic terrorism.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

I'm sure they'll have a copy of everything. Probably sans redactions even.

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

The agency has copies, but they are confidential. It is the actual act of selling the originals which prompts changes in the original collection, in order to follow archival legislation to classify victim information.

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

60 days of work for the FBI isn't much when it comes to following archival law, which is to protect victims and victim's families. It's actually standard procedure even for restricted files. If these are to be public papers, any democratic country with archival laws is bound to do such a thing.

These kinds of legal procedures have nothing to do with the Obama administration btw.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

These kinds of legal procedures have nothing to do with the Obama administration btw.

Did anyone say it did, or is this just a knee-jerk defense mechanism?

[sealwhiskers.livejournal.com]

Some of the comments implied it, I merely wanted to point out that these laws are part of an archival legislation which exists in most democracies.

It's a make-work program...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... for gumshoes.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

The archivist in me is bothered they would slice and dice up historical documents like this. Egads.