Why the case against “Dread Pirate Roberts” will fall flat.
None of the trumped up charges can possibly stick
Reuters has claimed that the American government, the same one that is bankrupt and shut down, has used its “FBI” to raid alleged on-line drug market Silk Road, and has arrested its owner, “Dread Pirate Roberts”.
This case will fall for several reasons.
U.S. law enforcement authorities raided an Internet site that served as a marketplace for illegal drugs, including heroin and cocaine, and arrested its owner, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Wednesday.
The Silk Road site was essentially a forum for people to meet, where they could exchange plants for Bitcoin, the new way of sending secure tokens in lieu of money over the internet.
Dread Pirate Roberts has a right to run a site where people post pictures and text. Period. What people post is their business. What they talk about and choose to sell is entirely their private business.
The FBI arrested Ross William Ulbricht, known as “Dread Pirate Roberts,” in San Francisco on Tuesday, according to court filings. Federal prosecutors charged Ulbricht with one count each of narcotics trafficking conspiracy, computer hacking conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, according to a court filing.
OK, here we go, pay attention:
1/ Dread Pirate Roberts was not a narcotics trafficker. He ran a website; running websites is not trafficking. << CHARGE FAILS.
2/ Running a forum and eCommerce site is not “computer hacking” by any stretch of the imagination. << CHARGE FAILS.
3/ Bitcoin is not money, and that is the only thing people used in exchange for goods on the Silk Road. There was no money involved at Silk Road at all. << CHARGE FAILS.
Note how the Federal Government is not charging this man with supplying narcotics, manufacturing narcotics, mail fraud, wire fraud, structuring, or any other of the myriad faux crimes they come up with when they apply these 21st Century Prohibition crimes to innocent people.
Because he was simply engaging in a First Amendment protected act, taking no money (Bitcoin), the bankrupt Federal Government’s options to charge DPR are extremely limited.
Lets hope that the government shut-down continues to such an extent that this sick, un-American show trial and all the other ones on the dockets in courts in the USA are all cancelled. Permanently.
