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Comment by zyxley | Hacker News Reader

I'm reminded of Hemingway, who was in the last years of his life accused of delusional paranoia, and in part because of that forcibly committed, given shock treatments, and repeatedly attempted suicide (and, sadly, eventually succeeded).

And then, decades later, it was revealed that the FBI actually was constantly watching him, following him, and tapping his phones and communications. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/02/opinion/02hotchner.html

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Interesting about Hemingway. A couple years ago, I remember the declassification of how FBI tried to convince MLK Jr. to kill himself quite disturbing

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/11/fbis-suicide-letter-dr...

With stuff like this going on, people who work on controversial (but important software like Tor) need support from the larger tech community

Yes, Hemingway was a big fan of Cuba. Isis is a contributor to Tor. The analogy here is profound.

> Isis is a contributor to Tor

Citation? A quick google search is split between "Isis uses Tor" and "Isis is waging war on Tor", with nothing specific to the above claim.

EDIT - never mind, didn't spot that the author's name is Isis. That makes more sense :)

I think they meant the authors name is Isis: https://blog.patternsinthevoid.net/author/isis-agora-lovecru...

I think Isis here refers to Isis Agora Lovecruft, the author of this post.

It would be nice if the blog post mentioned who the author was, I looked and didn't find it.

OK, the downvote made me take another look. I'm blind - disregard the above comment. I guess I was expecting to find it in a header or footer or sidebar, and when I didn't find it there I gave up too quickly.

Ouch. If ever there was a good reason to change your name...

... this would not be it.

I certainly wouldn't want to share a name with a terrorist group, and I know at least one company that used to be named Isis that ditched that name.

So I cannot agree with you.

What happens if the Men Against the Republic of Korea go on a massive killing spree?

What if the Dudes Against Vermont Equality start blowing up bombs all over Vermont?

Silly examples aside, giving up a part of yourself and your life because of terrorism only serves to demonstrate the effectiveness of terrorism, which then serves to encourage more of it.

It's true that it's a sad thing when names are ruined, but I doubt you'd find very many people willing to carry certain names any longer, such as Hitler.

Isis is the name of an Egyptian goddess, not a terrorist group. Go educate yourself, barbarian.

I'm well aware of the mythology, but I will ask that you be more polite in how you comment.

Oh, ok, so you're one of the media-brainwashed ones i referenced on other comment... Not sure how that helps your case, but ok...

About politeness, well, it's up to you to get offended. If the hat fits, and all...

The author's name is Isis.

Oh good grief. They're not really that dumb, are they? "Hey, we have some questions to ask you about this war you're apparently waging in the Middle East..."

It was theptip in the comments above who confused the author and the terrorist organization, not the FBI.

Bet you dollars to donuts that the author's name does, in fact, at least partially explain their interest. Remember that law enforcement was particularly interested in Aleynikov because he used subversion for VCS.

Isis is a relatively common name; among other things it's the name of an Egyptian god. Also, the Isis in question has had that name for well before the terrorist group was getting called by that name.

Edit: Sorry - I didn't realise that Isis is the name of the OP. I thought you were talking about the terrorist organisation

> Isis is a contributor to Tor

A 'political' entity making contributions to a project like Tor suggests they're making changes to benefit them. What changes would ISIS supposedly like from Tor?

Though Isis was referring to the name of the OP, not ISIS, this piqued my curiosity:

> What changes would ISIS supposedly like from Tor?

I wonder if there are examples of criminal/terrorist organizations supporting projects that could benefit them? (I know about Le Roux/TrueCrypt, but others?)

> A 'political' entity making contributions to a project like Tor suggests they're making changes to benefit them. What changes would ISIS supposedly like from Tor?

Isis here is the name of the author of the blog post, not the terrorist organisation.

And it's a bloody shame that the acronym for Islamic State has become so widespread that a properly capitalized given name is mistaken for their organization.

I'd always liked the name Isis, and would have named a daughter that (if that ever happens), but the name is now ruined for probably a century or more (much like the name Adolf, I'd imagine, though I wasn't around before that name was ruined).

A forum supposedly full of educated people thinks Isis, with this spelling, is a terrorist group... What a media brainwashed bunch we have here. Dear God... (shakes head)

hm, here the story is clear, as presented by the self declared "harassment victim": the FBI politely asked for a meeting (without making a time consuming investigation before that), several time, but still politely, and the "target" never was interested, had some anxiety attacks, and eventually made a paranoid blog post.

I would kindly advise some rest.

Given the FBI's inglorious history[1][2][3], I'd say that any time the FBI shows the slightest interest in you, you are totally justified in being paranoid. The FBI are not your friends, they're not your buddy, they are not on your side, and there's almost certainly little or no reason to talk to them, especially without an attorney present[4].

[1]: https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-releases-report-fbi-crusade-a...

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover

[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO

[4]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc

The federal law enforcement agency is trying to talk to someone and making it quite clear they don't want that person's lawyer present for the conversation nor even know the topic.

What exactly would it take to cross your threshold for paranoia?

That they actually search to take contact beyond a few phone calls.

> “But… if we happen to run into her on the street, we’re gonna be asking her some questions without you present.”

Doesn't sound particularly polite. Sounds borderline threatening.

"You should pay us protection money. If you don't, you might wish you had." isn't far removed from the above.

And how would one know they're not going to be arrested if they meet with the FBI? You'll end up in a lot of trouble if you trust every word the government says, especially when it's something as secretive as this. And of course there's no proof that she wasn't a suspect in some investigation, etc. The only thing we know is that the FBI is no longer as interested in meeting with her (which means very little on its own).

None of this makes what happened here "harassment".

Read the update on Isis' blog post!

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