STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

The Suicide of Aaron Swartz: MIT-- Moral and Intellectual Integrity—at What Price? 

Conclusion: Fire President L. Rafael Reif and Massachusetts attorney Carmen M. Ortiz!!

For over thirty years, I have been extremely proud of having attended MIT Graduate School in Political Science/International Relations where I received my PhD. 

  At the time that I attended this incredibly innovative, progressive and intellectually rigorous institution [1971-74],  there was underlying moral code of conduct which inspired progressive thinking, analytical perspicacity and open dissension.  Rarely was a new idea or an aggressive approach to a new problem discarded or summarily dismissed. 

  At that time,  teachers and administrators were in tune with the elan vital of the MIT’s  ‘anything and everything goes’ as long as it presented intellectual and moral integrity as well as intellectual gravitas.  Ad hominem comments, supercilious attitudes and peremptory actions were severely discouraged, if not completely ostracized. 

But that was then, and now it appears that MIT has changed drastically in its moral code of ethics concerning openness, transparency, aggressive intellectual pursuit, defiance of conventional thinking and actions. 

  It’s  appears from the tenor of the mishandling of the Aaron Swartz case, that the President, L. Rafael Reif, an electrical engineer, born in Maracaibo, Venezuela to Eastern-European Jewish parent who spoke Yiddish and Spanish at home should be held accountable for the tragic events.

Why his heritage important in this case? 

Wait and see!  

  According to multiple media  reports, the suicide of Aaron Swartz,  a 26 year-old superstar of the cyberspace and it’s doppelganger, ‘hacking’ [whatever that really means], and ‘open access’ to cyber-information, ‘illegally hacked’ into the school’s computer networks to begin copying ‘millions of research articles belonging to JSTOR, the NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION THAT SELLS SUBSCRIPTION ACCESS TO UNIVERSITIES [my emphasis]. 

  So, in my simplistic mind,  Aaron’s greatest crime was to ‘break’ into an entrepreneurial entity  where he wanted to disseminate information that JSTOR would have SOLD.

 As far as I know, no one was killed!

 No planes crashed!

 No power grids went down!

 In fact, no LIVES WERE EVER IN DANGER!

  And for that the US Attorney in Boston, Carmen M. Ortiz [also a Hispanic minority] decided to press Federal Government charges on a local MIT school incident even after Aaron turned over his hard drives with 4.8million documents.  JSTOR declined to pursue the ‘tainted’ legal case in which possibly Aaron’s first and fourth Amendment rights were completely violated. 

  More importantly this case shocked many if not most of us proud MIT alumni for the following reasons best stated by Brewster Kahle, MIT graduate and founder of the digital library Internet Archive, where Aaron gave programming assistance: 

“When I was at MIT, if someone wanted to hack the system, say by downloading databases to play with them, might be called a hero,  get a degree, and start a company. But they called the cops on him.  COPS [my emphasis].”

Kahle is absolutely correct.

  When I first learned about the internet and social media in 1972 [Professor Ithiel de Sola Pool], I transformed that knowledge into developing a content company, TV, Movie and software companies by creating the  TOM CLANCY’S NET FORCE Series which included such anarchistic ideas as “CYBERNATION”, “CYBERTERRORISM”, “NET FORCE” etc. 

  In fact, if you carefully read these books they were a formula for the dissolution of the nation state and the imposition of FBI supervision, decades before it happened. 

 Was I arrested? 

 NO!

  As a matter of fact, I was embraced by like-minded, progressive thinker, in of all places,  the American military, who implemented and appreciated the ideas contained within the Realistic Novels. 

  It could have and would have been the same thing for Aaron Swartz if the over eager, insecure woman prosecutor had bided her time and did not get panicked by Michael Pickett, a Secret Service agent detailed to the crime scene. 

 Also if the President Reif had been a ‘mensch’ [man] and not the personification of the Peter’s Principle, Aaron would have still been alive. 

  So what have I concluded from this tragic occurrence?

  First, the death of Aaron Swartz is directly attributable to the egregious profit motives of JSTOR—whatever BS organization they are. 

  Then, there is no doubt that two Hispanic individuals acted plus catholique que le pope!

 More Catholic than the Pope!

 Why do I say Hispanics?

  Because as  a jewish Cuban of Polish origin, I have been fascinated to watch how my contemporaries have acted in different crises situations. 

And what I observed is that they lack maturity and judgment … which comes with experience and self-confidence. 

  In the case of President Reif, I know MIT extremely well, having both earned a degree and treated many of the MIT students in the MIT Student Health Center. 

  MIT is unusual because it attracts extremely bright, often socially awkward young people, usually men [at that time there were only men primarily] in a very, very  competitive environment. 

For the most part, a distinguished Engineering Professor in Micro electronics may be exceptional in his field but in no way does it qualify Reif to be an effective administrator of psychologically attuned to the dynamics of these students. 

  Because he is a minority himself, one would have expected Reif to give his Landsman [jew] a fair chance to explain himself [since Reif had been a Provost before]. 

However,  in my professional opinion, Reif was not the right candidate to lead MIT into the future, he panicked and failed miserably in his first but most revealing crisis when he said the following:

“It pains me to think that MIT played any role in a series of events that have ended in tragedy.”

  Well, Professor, you and your Hispanic colleague, Ms Ortiz have effectively done what Chavez could not do to you or our family and that is place a noose around Aaron Swartz’s head so that he could find the only reasonable solution out of his personal crisis that you both created needlessly---SUICIDE!

  Professor Reif and Ms Ortiz, as a fellow refugee and a psychiatrist who has been involved in PREVENTING MULTIPLE STUDENT SUICIDES AT MIT,  I urge you both to resign for the welfare of both MIT,  the State of Massachusetts and more importantly, the future welfare of our STUDENTS. 

 You both are a TRUE MENACE to our society when you act in an immature, pernicious, officious way because you want to be more of a ‘gringo’ than the Americans who founded that great institution.

You both have failed. 

Professor Reif, you failed as a President. 

You failed as a compassionate Professor

You failed by not showing “Rachmonis” – Compassion in Yiddish

And you failed as a human being. 

  Please go back to your schizoid world of nano technology and do something better for mankind before you kill another MIT student. 

  As for you Ms Ortiz, you represent the worst of American justice and I strongly suggest,  you leave the Prosecutors office ASAP before you kill another innocent victim. 

As for MIT—Shame on you!
  If you thought there was Chinese infiltration—Bullshit!  You have more Asia students who are de facto operatives from the PRC and other Asian countries whom you know are being actively recruited by our intelligence organization. 

  So there was no excuse for considering any intrusion to be illegal other than the most important concern for today—COMPROMISING YOUR MONEY FLOW.

  As for JSTOR , I don’t know anything about you. But from my point of view, there will be millions of ANONYMOUS HACKERS that will now find you as ‘grist for the mill’. 

  And as for you Secret Service man, Mr Pickett, go protect POTUS! 

Remember, POTUS surrounds himself with more guns than there are in one Walmart outlet.  So take good care of the Emperor while he espoused “GUN CONTROL”. 

Pickett, stay away from anything that requires maturity and legality.  Don’t forget, you, Secret Service Man, belongs to an organization of “Fornicators” who are so cheap that they refuse to pay their twenty five dollar hookers in Colombia while you were on POTUS’s protective detail. 

And also, Pickett,  why don’t you help your drunk friends in Miami who get busted by the Miami –Dade Police Department for miscreant behavior and are correctly placed in the Miami slammer. [I hope Ms Ortiz  that  you understand this!] 

  In short,  Mr Pickett, tell your boss, Mr Sullivan , another incompetent ‘choir boy’ to GET LOST! 

LEAVE OUR INNOCENT CIVILIANS ALONE!  

And as for the Board of Directors of MIT—we are all watching you!

 Soit-sage!!! Be wise!!