Entries by Matt Hazel

12 May, 2015

Bangladeshi blogger hacked to death

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A blogger critical of Islam is hacked to death when four masked men attack him, hacking him to death with cleavers and machetes, as he left on his way to work at a bank. Ananta Bijoy Das’ death is at least the third known killing of someone posting online critical of Islam in India. In each case, the murder was committed in public on city streets.

11 May, 2015

Sentenced to three and a half years

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Sterling leaves courtSterling is sentenced to three-and-a-half years in federal prison for giving journalist classified information about an operation to retard Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Judge Brinkema says she was swayed  to reduce the sentence — which could have been between 19 years and seven months at the low end and 24 years and five months on the high end — due to Sterling’s accomplishments, but that he had caused particular damage by effectively revealing the identity of a man working with the CIA and that he deserved a harsher penalty than other recently accused leakers because he had not pleaded guilty and admitted wrongdoing.

If you do knowingly reveal these secrets, there’s going to be a price to be paid.

Sterling’s lawyers praise the sentence:

In some cases, the jury gets it wrong. That said, the judge today got it right.

Brinkema allows Sterling to remain out on bond untilprison officials determine when and where he will serve his sentence.

House panel subpoenas Justice Dept over bank prosecutions

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House Financial Services Committee Chairman Hensarling sends the Justice Department and the U.S. Treasury Department subpoenas requesting documents that will help the panel understand whether banks might still be too big to fail and if this affects decisions to prosecute them criminally. The panel is also seeking information from both departments on whether the government retaliated against Standard & Poor’s for its 2011 decision to downgrade the government’s credit rating.

A spokesman for the Treasury department says they are cooperating with the House Committee, but sees the subpoenas as “unfortunate”