In my previous post I questioned why the secret service was involved in the Aaron Schwarz downloading case. Looks like we have an answer on that. Empty Wheel has a great timeline of events that led to the Secret Service searching Mr. Schwartz Apartment alledgely related to the MIT download arrest.
In summary, on 12/27/10 Aaron Schwarz filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for videos of Bradley Manning describing his harsh (and illegal) treatment while in prison. On January 6, Schwartz was arrested on Jan 6, 2011 for unauthorized downloading from the MIT database. On February 9th, 2011, the Wall St Journal reported that the governments case against Bradley Manning was falling apart. The same day, the government obtained warrants to search Schwartz’s house (purportedly related to the MIT case), and on Febrary 11th they search Schwartz’s house and office (though they did not search the hardware implicated in the MIT case).
So it all comes back to Wikileaks. Not coincidentally, Wikileaks now divulges Aaron Schwartz was likely a source of information:
http://allthingsd.com/20130120/wikileaks-alleges-relationship-with-web-activist-aaron-swartz/
So, what I want to know is, what information did Wikileaks get that has the government going to such great lengths to disregard the rule of law and civil liberties? What secrets does the government not want us to know? Thanks much to Empty Wheel for being one of the few organizations to follow this story.
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