FBI Seeks Suspect's Web Game Records 446
wiredmikey writes "The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday asked the administrator of an Internet game to hand over records of communications by Jared Loughner, following a Wall Street Journal article describing disturbing messages the accused shooter wrote over a three-month period last year. In an interview, David McVittie, the administrator of the Web game Earth Empires, said he was contacted by the FBI, which requested the files, including 131 messages that Mr. Loughner wrote."
Re:This one makes some sense (Score:5, Informative)
Re:This one makes some sense (Score:4, Informative)
Amazing how many take what you said out of context. As for the content, that is exactly what I was thinking. This isn't a fishing exposition, this is gathering evidence to demonstrate forethought of his actions, which is necessary for this type of investigation. Not only is it acceptable, but obviously necessary for them to be exercising due diligence in prosecuting the case, assuming they have any suspicion that the logs will provide ANY insight into his actions.
Re:This one makes some sense (Score:5, Informative)
An insanity defense has nothing to do with whether it was pre-planned or not.
Insanity is about whether the defendant knew what he was doing was wrong. Not whether or not it was planned.
Re:This one makes some sense (Score:5, Informative)
Interviews with his friends say that he did not listen to talk radio, did not watch the news, was registered as an indepentant and did not vote. I cant recall the name of the video his friends said really set him off, but it was full of stuff on how christianity was a farce and 9/11 consiriacies. Nothing remotely points to him as a Tea Party member or a conservative, except for people that might have some political agenda to associate him with that.
Re:This one makes some sense (Score:5, Informative)
He is a registered independent and never registered Republican, nor has any affiliation with the Tea Party.
He is pro-pot, anti-religion, and pro-Communism. He certainly doesn't fall within the demographic of any Republican or Tea Party member that I know of. He did have a personal history of hatred with Giffords and that appears to be his motivation. But feel free to continue to invent lies at your leisure.
Re:This one makes some sense (Score:3, Informative)
Did you even *read* anything about it? Or are you just making things up as you go?
He had a *personal* thing with the congresswoman. He had asked her a question a few years ago and got a smoke up your ass answer. He took it personally. He asked her a question and she did not answer it. So somehow he took that to mean 'she must die'. I am sure he has a logic train here. You dont just go crazy. He was building up to this for a few years.
CLARIFICATION: Nothing was taken from "ingame" (Score:4, Informative)
I'm an administrator for earth empires, though I'm not the one mentioned by name in the summary. I'm posting AC for obvious reasons.
The FBI only wanted information from an alliance hosting site related to the game. I believe an appropriate equivalent would be a WoW guild setting up a forum to discuss strategy, organize raids, and things like that. Information was obtained from the forum, but not from the game itself.
The alliance hosting site in question happens to be run by one of the game's administrators. Providing information to the FBI did not violate the site's privacy policy in this case because the site's community manager had already leaked information to the WSJ. Even if we had wished to fight the subpoena, we do not have the legal resources to do so.
I hope that this provides a little more context and clarifies the situation.
Re:This one makes some sense (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, he's obviously guilty but his mental state and motive will come into play in the sentencing phase where any messages/postings may be relevant.