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bookmark_borderFiling my FOIA Lawsuit Today

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Over the last year or so, I’ve tried to get records regarding Operation Torpedo the predecessor to Operation Pacifier. I have my own highly suspect NIT Report & I made a simple request to receive the other 13 reports that solely supported the indictments. The DOJ and its component the FBI claims they couldn’t find these documents. My Lawsuit asserts that is bullshit.

Additionally, my lawsuit concerns the fact that the DOJ totally ignored my other request I made to the Criminal Investigations Unit (where Keith A Becker works) requesting all correspondence Becker sent and received from various parties relating to Operation Torpedo & Operation Pacifier.

I want that information because of an article written in a German news outlet (Tagesschau). They worked with a team of experts to examine some leaked Xkeyscore source code… they found that If you take certain steps to mask your identity online, the NSA will target you. That targeting is absolutely illegal and if it played any part in Operation Torpedo & Operation Pacifier then that’s a big problem. I’m hoping my lawsuit will prove Tagesschau’s suspicions.

bookmark_borderProsecutorial Discretion is a Menace to Society

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On July 8, 2013 in the Columbia Law Review, Glenn Reynolds declared: Prosecutorial discretion poses an increasing threat to justice. The threat has in fact grown more severe to the point of becoming a due process issue. He then proved his point by revealing a disgusting game played by zealots working in the Southern District of New York’s US Attorney’s Office, where they would name a famous person – Mother Teresa or John Lenon – and decide how he or she could be prosecuted.

It would then be up to the junior prosecutors to figure out a plausible crime for which to indict him or her. The crimes were not usually rape, murder or other crimes you’d see on [TV] but rather the incredibly broad yet obscure crimes that populate the U.S. Code…

Tim Wu – American Lawbreaking, Slate (October 14, 2007)

Which leads to the fact that Attorney General (and former Supreme Court Justice) Robert Jackson was correct when he envisioned that “If a prosecutor is obliged to choose his cases, it follows he can choose his defendants. This method results in the most dangerous power of the prosecutor, that [they] will pick people [they] think [they] should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted.” And that mentality has lead us to this:

The result of over criminalization is that prosecutors no longer need to wait for obvious signs of a crime. Instead of finding Professor Plum dead in the conservatory and launching an investigation, authorities can instead start an investigation of Colonel Mustard as soon as someone has suggested he is a shady character. And since, as the game Wu describes illustrates, everyone is a criminal if prosecutors look hard enough, they are guaranteed to find something eventually.

Glenn Reynolds – Ham Sandwich Nation: Due Process when Everything’s a Crime

And this is why surveillance is such a serious problem. As pointed out in We See It All our liberty is in serious jeopardy. And as my case proves, overzealous & unethical prosecutors (not the police) are a clear and present danger to society because ultimately police have no power, if the prosecutor drops the case that’s the end of it. So if prosecutors wants to stop police misconduct all they have to do is drop cases; however, there are currently very few checks on prosecutorial power and misconduct and we as a society need to address that fact.

bookmark_borderA Quote for Today

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As mentioned before on this blog, our criminal justice system is broken. And it’s mostly the “conservatives” fault. The Warren court gave us all of our cherished “rights” and the conservative courts since have embarked on a mission to take all of those cherished rights away.

Back in 1969, our justice system had just become more just (Again, thanks to the Warren Court). In Scott v United States, 135 US App DC 377; 419 F2d 264, 276 (1969) Chief Judge Bazelon opined:

The prosecutor clearly cannot have carte blanche to apply whatever tactics he wishes to induce a guilty plea. A policy of deliberately overcharging defendants with no intention of prosecuting on all counts simply in order to have chips at the bargaining table would, for example, constitute improper harassment fo the defendant.

See People v White, 390 Mich 245, 258-259 (1973)

Overcharging is just one of the many problems with our unjust system of justice.

bookmark_borderFOIA Litigation

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So, it looks like my requests will be heading to litigation in June. Complaints will be:

COUNT 1
Violation of 5 U.S.C § 552 for failure to produce 13 NIT Reports
Cottom hereby incorporates by reference all proceeding paragraphs in this complaint. By letter dated December 21, 2022; Cottom’s request for the NIT Reports was denied by the Defendant and in clear violation of FOIA law.
Mr. Hurd (in his role as administrative arbiter) declared that the the Defendant’s illegal response was “appropriate”. Therefore, with regards to COUNT 1, Cottom has exhausted his administrative remedies and is entitled to receive all responsive non-exempt documents from the Defendant immediately.

COUNT 2
Violation of 5 U.S.C § 552 for failure to produce Keith A. Becker’s communications. (Operation Torpedo & Operation Pacifier)
Cottom hereby incorporates by reference all proceeding paragraphs in this complaint. By letter dated February 1, 2023; Cottom requested documents from the FOIA/PA Unit – Department of Justice – Room 803, Keeney Building Washington, DC 20530-001.
To date, the DOJ has refused to acknowledge Cottom’s legally binding request for all correspondence (formal and informal) from DOJ Attorney Keith A. Becker (“Becker”) to FBI Special Agents, Foreign Law Enforcement Agents, Prosecution & Defense Attorneys and Prosecution & Defense Experts, regarding the Becker’s Operation Torpedo (2012 to 2015) & Operation Pacifier (2015 to 2018). In other words, it is indisputable that the DOJ is in possession of the requested correspondence and is legally required to acknowledge and answer the request.
Therefore, with regards to COUNT 2, Cottom has exhausted his administrative remedies and is entitled to receive all responsive non-exempt documents from the Defendant immediately.

bookmark_borderBitcoin is a Ponzi Scheme

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So on Bill Maher last night, this happened. The link takes you to a snippet video (on YouTube) of Bill’s guest saying what I’ve thought (known) about crypto currencies since their inception in roughly 2009 – they are a “kind” of “Ponzi scheme“. I say “kind of” because it’s not exactly a ponzi scheme but for lay people it’s the best way to describe what is happening with these “currencies”.

First, labeling these “things” (there not actually things, they are imaginary “securities“) as a currency is a bold face lie, these things are actually just “stocks” in an algorithm that are either mined via the rules of the algorithm or bought from an exchange and the records of all “owners” are recorded on a blockchain. (That isn’t really anonymous.)

Second, technically they should be labeled “securities” but they should be also marked as “junk status” securities. So, you’ve been warned.

bookmark_borderMcClinton v. United States

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So today’s post is about an obscure federal sentencing fact, that allows a federal court to base a criminal defendant’s sentence on conduct for which a jury has acquitted the defendant.

As you can see from the link, there is case – that has been in litigation for quite some time – and it appears that the SCOTUS is considering taking it, as a ton of preliminary briefs have been filed by the various concerned parties. This is a case to watch because the practice should be banned. For example: drug defendants have often complained about the problems of “ghost dope“.

Even though McClinton doesn’t deal directly with the problem of ghost dope, the SCOTUS might address it and the other troubling aspects of “relevant conduct” in sentencing. As the link explains: relevant conduct can include dismissed charges, uncharged conduct, and even acquitted conduct. Under certain circumstances, relevant conduct may further include conduct of coconspirators, and conduct beyond the offense of conviction.

Here’s hoping the SCOTUS will render relevant conduct unconstitutional. It looks like Gorsuch & Kavanaugh lean that way. But this highlights a greater problem with the “Justice System”, it’s a system that flows with the political winds. And as we saw this year with their “Dobbs” decision, settled law can become unsettled in a day. Given that our population is extremely ignorant of where most of our cherished rights come from (the Warren Court: 1953 – 1969) and that all Courts since have endeavored to erode those rights. Note that the Burger Court (1969 – 1986) gave us Roe; BUT, also gave us the nonsensical “good faith exception” to the exclusionary rule.

The bottom line is: all of the rights you think you have were given to you by the SCOTUS from 1953 until 1980 and the SCOTUS has been slowly limiting them or taking them away ever since… this case could reverse that trend.

UPDATE (August 15, 2023): The SCOTUS punted the issue, arguing that the Sentencing Commission is going to review the issue and “should” outlaw the practice.

bookmark_borderTypical American view of Surveillance

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The Typical American Citizen (TAC) thinks: “If you aren’t doing anything wrong, you shouldn’t worry about government surveillance.”

When the TAC is then informed that the government has illegally collected THEIR communications; they react with, “That is un-American. It is a clear abuse of MY privacy and it must be stopped; AND, Congress feels the same.

As I’m sure you’re probably well aware, I’m about to tell you that their view of surveillance is wrong. The FBI is not a benevolent organization. While note as bad as the KGB, it has the same mission as a new book entitled “The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover explains”.

I’ll assume that you’ve watched My Cousin Vinnie AND that you don’t understand this fact, that scenario plays out across this nation many times each year. That is, an innocent person stands accused of a crime they didn’t commit by a corrupt prosecutor. (The blame lies solely with the prosecutor, not the cops or the FBI). Unfortunately – for the vast majority of these defendants – their dilemma will end with an illegal conviction (usually for a lessor included offense) via a “plea deal” with the likely corrupt prosecutor.

The current season (2023) of The Accused on A&E shows this reality in dramatic – one hour crime drama – form. So to continue the “Vinnie” analogy, just think what would have happened had Vinnie not shown up in Alabama. It’s clear that their stuttering & inept public defender would have lost the case and Vinnie’s cousin and his friend would currently be on death row AND their only hope for exoneration would be the exoneration project, even though the evidence – when looked at accurately – proves their innocence.

Several biases are at work to keep our corrupt system of justice motion. The first is falsity that law enforcement officers are benevolent, they are not (and cannot be), simply because too much behavior is illegal. Like I explained before, EVERYONE has violated a federal or state law. (Speeding, Jaywalking, Sharing your Netflix password or eating a French Fry in the wrong location etc…) And in a surveillance (i.e police) state, the only thing stopping you being prosecuted for the many crimes you commit are the various prosecutor’s time & discretion and that should really, really scare you.

As I’ve explained – ad nauseam – on this site, I am the victim of a malicious prosecution by a corrupt prosecutor named Keith A. Becker, who teamed up with an FBI that has always practiced “the ends justifies the means” law enforcement. The Palmer Raids initiated the FBI’s illegal enforcement stance and it continues to this day even though Hoover is long gone…

This philosophy trickled down to every other law enforcement agency in the nation, under the guidance of the biggest piece of shit ever to be in federal employment, J. Edgar Hoover. Many books have been written about this closeted and ridiculously paranoid homosexual. (Again see the book mentioned above) So anyone who denies what a massive piece of shit he was is simply uninformed or completely dishonest, because his evilness is an objective statement of fact… In other words, claiming Hoover was great is akin to claiming Hitler was great and we know that’s absurd. LOL

Americans need to face the facts head on and to become a lot more skeptical of law enforcement methods and motives…

bookmark_borderParallel Construction in my case

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The overview of my “NIT” is this: The disclosed NIT source code consisted of gallery.php, gallery.swf & cornhusker.py. All of this code is parallel construction. And it’s “normal” for two sites and “fabricated” for my case (TB2). Both types of parallel construction are serious Brady Violations.

Normal parallel construction consists of creating criminal cases against defendants that are based on illegal surveillance. They then conceal that original source with parallel construction that allows the prosecution to conceal the original illegal source of the evidence against the defendant, and pretend that they found the suspect through legal investigation techniques. Fabricated parallel construction consists of concealing the original illegal source of the evidence with a totally fabricated parallel source.

Parallel Construction is a serious problem in the United States because as Mark Rumold, a staff attorney at the EFF, put it: “It does a disservice to our criminal justice system when the government hides the techniques of investigations from the public and criminal defendants. Oftentimes, the reason they do this is because the technique is of questionable legality or might raise questions in the public’s mind about why they were doing it. While it’s common for them to do this, I don’t think it benefits anyone.” Because “we cannot have a world where a government is allowed to use black box of technology” to prosecute criminal defendants.

The parallel construction in my case was ridiculously egregious. It likely emanated from an XSS attack on a “is Tor working site”. So here is what probably happened on November 18, 2012 @ 8:12 and 8:15PM; for unknown reasons, Becker’s minions attacked my Rekonq browser with an XSS attack on the “is Tor working” website I visited. (It was a website that inspected your browser’s configuration and then made various recommendations) It told me to turn off javascript and turn off the cache. (Note: they may have also installed a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) at this time.)

Anyway, the XSS attack loaded those two pages in the IP Activity table in a hidden iframe (located on the “is Tor working” site). That hidden iframe then loaded another hidden iframe that loaded “gallery.php”. Galley.php (located on TB2) then populated the IP Activity table with falsified data, BUT it needed Javascript to load the flash app, so that stopped working when I turned Javascript off.

The reason they had to plant evidence on April 9, 2013 was because; 1) they knew that the cache was off (Rekonq reports that it’s off in its headers) and 2) they couldn’t arrest me without finding “something”. They weren’t able to finding anything during their first hour of triage because all the home directories were encrypted. So, after that first hour, they looked at my laptop’s lock screen and saw my picture next to the user named Adama. They then planted the evidence in Adama’s home directory on my linux computer, overwriting its encrypted folder.

This FBI misconduct was exposed by their own Tech when he made an image of the linux drive and booted it. The OS then locked Adama’s account in the shadow file because it detected an error with its home directory (its encryption link was missing). Had any defense expert examined that drive they would have found that it didn’t have any other files to indicate it had ever been used by a human because the triage agent just “dumped” the thumbnail files in it and nothing else. That’s why (I suspect) none of my experts actually examined the drive, and that’s why the FBI refuses to share any information about their X-ways logs of their triage on April 9, 2013. (X-ways has extensive logging capability, since it’s not uncommon for defendants to claim the FBI planted evidence they are required by DOJ policy to turn this logging on. I suspect they didn’t turn it on, because planting evidence is career ending and illegal so why would the triage agent make a log of his crime?)

There are many more technical problems, but the final one I’d like to address here is the implausibility of the NIT on TB2. Becker’s narrative and the provided “parallel construction” code, indicates that the flash app (downloaded to my computer) must have executed in less than 3 seconds (flash terminates after 3 seconds). Yet as you can see from comparing Figure I to Figure H, it took the 8:12PM flash 39 seconds to execute and the 8:15PM execution took 63 seconds. Those are ridiculously long execution times, when my experts (the shills) report that their flash ”testing” executions times were in milliseconds. Of course, the information that could clear up this anomaly was destroyed. Here is how the parallel construction code must have worked:

  • When my browser loaded those two html files at the designated times, gallery.php (running from a hidden iframe embedded in those html files) generated those two random “session ids”, populated a row of Figure I with falsified data & loaded gallery.swf (the flash app) in less than a second.
  • Gallery.swf made a DNS query for ridiculously-long-cipher-code.cpimagegallery.com in a fraction of a second
  • Cornhusker.py (allegedly running on the destroyed server) took forever to answer gallery.swf’s DNS query. It’s unclear how long flash will wait for a DNS response, so this is the only step where this time gap could occur because flash will only wait 3 seconds for the server (cornhusker.py) to give it permission to communicate. This presents another problem because this step isn’t necessary, if you know the IP of the server you just put that on. In other words, this is inefficient coding for an allegedly two week sting operation. The next two steps are also redundant because cornhusker records this DNS request along with the “session id” and the IP it came from, in a “clients” table. Flash just sends the same information again. Anyway, the clients table would answer the question about the long delay, but they destroyed it because it probably proves malfeasance.
  • At most, 36 and 60 seconds later cornhusker.py provides gallery.php an IP address to communicate with and it sends a request to that IP for permission to communicate. (Cornhusker has 3 seconds to respond or flash terminates).
  • For the first session id, flash communicates 39 seconds later and for the second id it communicates 63 seconds later. However, every expert knows that the second DNS query taking longer than the first is HUGE red flag – indicating the whole sting was based on fabricated parallel construction.

bookmark_borderParallel Construction is Real

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For example, see US v. Kurbanov… But, what is it?

First, The NSA “taps” the internet backbone and temporarily stores it (all the data) in a massive data center. (Currently located in Utah) then:

  • The FBI is allowed to search this massive data center for “selectors” they’re interested in. “Selectors” are e-mail addresses, IP addresses, Phone Numbers or several other identifiers that can differentiate certain data streams from others. (It is not clear if the FBI can ask the NSA to target a specific selector BUT the NSA can target a selector if it wishes. Targeting a selector results is “content” collection. For example, if the NSA targets phone number 555-555-1212 then their systems collect the content of all the communications associated with that number, including the apps the phone uses)
  • After the FBI searches the massive data center, it then uses that illegally obtained data to “re-obtain” it through legal subpoenas and warrants. (In other words, the FBI obtains those subpoenas and warrants with perjury.)
  • Federal Prosecutors then prosecute the FBI’s target BUT do not disclose the illegal methods used to obtain the indictment. That is an egregious Brady Violation.
  • Parallel Construction continues because no defendant is able to challenge it due to the egregious perjury the government commits to conceal it.

bookmark_borderThe Smoking Gun

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So, thanks to a PACER alternative, I now know Keith A. Becker (“Becker”) is absolutely guilty of prosecutorial misconduct in my case. In other words, I can now prove, with his closing argument from another case, that Becker knew he was lying in my case.

It’s important to understand exactly what misconduct occurred. First misconduct was obtaining a fraudulent search warrant for TB2 that was also void ad initio. (Void on its face because the magistrate wasn’t allowed to issue it on November 18, 2012.) This search warrant was fraudulently obtained because it based it’s “probable cause” on evidence Becker knew, or should have known didn’t exist. (As I explained in this post)

Second act of Becker misconduct concerns his use of that fraudulently obtained data to fraudulently obtain an indictment in Nebraska as explained in this post.

Third act of misconduct concerns his denial of malfeasance. As I explained extensively in this post, Becker knew he was caught in November of 2014 but instead of folding he doubled down.

Now, I’m trying to pin down the details of the conspiracy. As I noted in this post, the shills refuse to answer questions. None of the lawyers will answer my questions and the FBI is stonewalling.

I found this tidbit on the pacer alternative:

The judge has instructed you. It’s knowingly accessing with intent to view a computer disk of other material. What do we mean in this context? We mean [the] web server. That server was located here in Omaha. That sever had on it all the [contraband] images that were available on [the] website. That’s [what constitutes] the computer disk or other material.

And that the defendant knew that it contained [contraband]. Well, how do you know that? Well, you’ve seen the records of the defendant’s conduct. You’ve seen the screen shots of the site and what it looked like to its users and members. And you’ve seen what the defendant saw each day that he went and accessed these particular materials.

Now, again on the access with intent count [sic], ladies and gentlemen, you’ve got a guide. And your guide to these counts is [sic] Exhibits 5A through D and 6A though D…

5A through D are portions of that board data, the logs, that exist for the defendant’s conduct for November 18th until December 8th [2012]…

We’ve got a portion of Exhibit 5A broken up on the screen here. On the top part, we see the date and time. We’ve heard a lot about UTC, Universal Coordinated Time [sic]. It means the user took an action and that’s the time that the website recorded it…

We see the session identifier. Now remember the testimony of Special Agent Gordon, Special Agent Smith. A session ID is an individual, unique identifier for on particular session on the board.

What’s a session? Log-on to log off. One session, one unique series of characters just like you see on the screen.

Becker closing arguments 8:13CR105 Docket # 236 Pages 133 & 134

And I found this in my filing cabinet:

B. “Modified Tinyboard Application that Ran TB2” … 6. “TB2 servers apache access logs.” As we previously informed you via e-mail, Apache logs were not utilized to correlate website and NIT Data.”

Becker message to Howard on July 20, 2015

And I have this Becker quote from my withdrawal hearing:

And so the government was in control of the website TB2 and that means there are logs of activity from that website. That’s one batch of evidence. And some of the government’s evidence comes from those logs, including Apache logs which Special Agent Smith testified about at our last hearing. Then there is also information that is generated and collected via use of the NIT, and that’s a separate batch of information.

Becker statement on 12-16-2015

Now, combine those three quotes and compare them to the fact that Tinyboard doesn’t have any logs and you have a very easy perjury conviction. Now I’m trying to get exhibits 5A through 5D from the court and trying to get the shills to answer my questions (trying to hire a lawyer to ask them those questions on their stationary.

I’ll keep y’all informed…