Raise the Hammer

I hope that he is innocent of all the charges and if so gets his bail and then his freedom.

Security consultants are paid to find and fix problems in their customers security. Not in security networks in general. If you or I simply decide to find out how good the security at corner bank is. Then start trying to find a way in or around their network just to see how good it is, figuring we would tell them about it afterwords. Think maybe if the bank caught us doing this they might charge us? If you did it to my business I sure would.

That's what your friend did only instead of a bank he picked a bigger more paranoid entity, the feds. Not only did he decide to antagonize the feds he did so when they were at their highest state of alert and corresponding lowest sense of humour, with the whole world watching. As a citizen of this country I expect the feds to keep me and the rest of the populace safe from all kinds of threats in general and terrorism in particular. I expect them to arrest and detain anyone found to be trying to break into or through their security, for any reason. Makes me sleep easier at night knowing that they do.

A lot of protesters did things very similar to your friend. They went and antagonized the security forces to see what it would take to get arrested. They found out. Now a lot of them are complaining. The police were looking for someone to arrest, the protesters were looking to get arrested. Everybody got what they wanted, no reason to compain.

I think we all know that the state can and will detain suspected terrorists without bail and without conviction of any charges for a long time. I am sure that Mr. Sonne is not a stupid man. He knew full well that he was playing with fire, unfortunately for him he got burnt. Was that not inevitable considering all that was going on at the time?

Like I said earlier I hope he is innocent (homegrown terrorists are the worst) and that if he is this will all get cleared up. The ones I feel very bad for are his extended family. His parents and in-laws had their cottages searched simply because Byron had access to them and might have stored things there. If he were a terrorist that is exactly what I would expect the police to do, and possibley a whole lot more.

If you look back at the time and all that was happening here and around the world can you really imagine any other outcome to his actions? I sure cannot, and in fact I would be very upset if the police did not arrest someone who did all the things he did since he was in fact helping anyone who wanted to commit a terrorist act at the conference. At this point with all the time that has gone by I honestly believe that he is being used as an example to deter others from doing the things he did in the future. That to may not be a bad idea.

If you keep poking the dog you will get bit. Let us hope that he has learned his lesson and that he makes a complete recovery.