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Comment by jdironman | Hacker News Reader

I feel like the problem with proving his innocence lies within proving that the documents which were found unconditionally and legitimately belonged to the US government or anyone for that matter.

Why are such 'TOP SECRET' documents not hashed or otherwise? Anybody can Photoshop or even copy and paste an 'emblem' or 'indicia' as his original criminal complaint made by agent Jeremy Bucalo describes. Documents can be completely falsified especially if all that identifies it is a seal or marking and basic text.

I just feel like there is something more here.

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If your reaction to this news is "something more is going on here" then I think you need to take a step back and re-calibrate your bullshit detector.

Could there be more to this than meets the eye? Yeah. There could also be more to the moon landing than meets the eye.

It seems to me we all must, in our attempt to be rational, do our best to check our biases. For a lot of people on hackernews, that means second guessing your immediate "NSA cover-up" reaction to any item of news involving the NSA.

I think the most likely scenario here is that the government is making an example of this man. I don't think that's right, and I hope he gets off with as slight a punishment as possible, but it is a fact that governments have secrets and have enacted laws in order to try to keep them.

If we are to be rational, regarding anything at all which is to be truly understood, then all sides of an argument must be considered. Scrutinized, yes. Saying someone is just calling 'bullshit' and they need to rethink or re-calibrate their 'bullshit detectors' or initial thoughts is not in line with that.

I agree with you at the same time that they could simply be making an example of this man.

But, I believe they are 'making an example of him' to cover their own incompetence. I am not saying evidence has been planted, concocted, or otherwise. I am saying this just not seem like a cut and dried case of mishandling by a long term employee who should be more than aware of procedures and policies in place after 20 years.

I think they're likely making an example of him to send a message: "people with clearance and access to classified data, take this shit seriously."

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