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Comment by toast0 | Hacker News Reader

If that were the requirement, documents would not be made public/declassified unless the entire document was considered safe to release.

In many cases, a partial public document is better than no public document.

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A) a lot of what is censored ends up being publicly-known information already, so it's not a matter of safety but rather public image (imo), and B) this creates a perverse incentive to associate national security (...or other sources of unsafety) with unrelated topics to avoid having to hold yourself accountable for your work.

Plus, there's little way of knowing for the documents for which we haven't seen the uncensored version if they aren't just censoring arbitrary things.

It may be reality, but it's still pretty bad for any government that pretends to value transparency.

The people who generate the documents /cannot/ be the people who decide if they're safe to release. There needs to be independent oversight. These are not agency documents they belong to the public. They may be classified but the moment they're no longer _objectively_ worth classifying they are absolutely public domain material.

It's also extremely offensive to see the names of AUSA's (Assistant US Attourneys) and SA's (FBI Special Agents) redacted. They had personal involvement in this case so I genuinely don't understand why their names cannot or should not be a part of this document. They're public figures in a public role.

I completely disagree. In this case, it is clear there wouldn‘t be a reprisal but in many case law enforcement agents and prosecution teams get involved in might involve serious reprisal threat for them or their loved ones. Their names should never be revealed.

I think you possibly haven't read very many court documents. When these cases actually get tried much of this becomes public anyways. In particular this document details agents Mitnick _himself_ spoke with. Are you really suggesting their redactions here are to prevent reprisals? How could that possibly work?

It's one thing if Kevin Motnick knows and the other if all of the internet knows and it's indexable

So he goes on a blog and types it.

Are we not at square one again?

And did Mitnick ever know Motnick? Am I experiencing the Mandala effect here?

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