It remains to be seen if there is censorship. Impounding material evidence is not necessarily suppression. Its not clear that the researcher is the target, he may merely possess evidence that would make some black hat less anonymous. It premature to claim "kill the messenger" using any definition of that phrase.

As for the "definition". In a region where a generation or two ago "kill the messenger" was literal not figurative, the figurative definition doesn't work.

The desired "evidence" may be unreported information. For example things that make otherwise anonymous people less anonymous. Again, the researcher is not necessarily the target.

Well we did have many centuries of land and sea transportation before oil. Admittedly the long range transportation usually involved more important stuff. The less important and simpler stuff coming from more local sources, unlike today where even this comes from the other side of the world. Our society has alternative, historical and modern. The imperial society of Herbert's Dune had no alternative, they were interstellar not terrestrial. The absence of melange meant planetary isolation with the loss of instantaneous travel (folding space, even better than light/warp speed). By comparison our strategic resource is a convenience.

In the US seizing material evidence of a crime and arresting a person are also two different things. The evidence may be of some third person's criminal activities, something the person who possesses the evidence was not involved in.

In Lawrence's day the Arab leaders referred to such fundamentalism as a heresy for many of the reasons your co-worker states. A heretical intolerant only our beliefs is permissible fundamentalist islam. ISIS accurately represents some of these fundamentalist heretics, Lawrence was explicitly warned by Arab leaders of fanatics who would murder him for nothing more than being a christian in arab lands even with the permission of the Saudi king. And yes, to such fanatics slavery and murder are absolutely within their "religious beliefs" because those things are permissible when the victim is a non-believer and has been given the opportunity to convert; and these people consider non-believers to include moderate muslims. Anything short of their beliefs is a heresy and un-islamic to these fundamentalists and if you decline conversion you are fair game. Centuries of central and north african slave trade was founded upon this idea that a non-believer was fair game.

In a region with a history of actual political assassinations (body found) and dissapearances (body not found), no that does not qualify. Such things happened as recently as the 1980s. About 10 years ago the Argentine Congress established a "Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice" for such victims. Having to buy a new computer and restore from backups is not in the same league.

Because the next messenger would be smart enough to realize that if they have any electronic data more valuable than school assignment, video game save game files, selfies and letters to grandma then they should have offsite backups. Whether your data burns up in a fire, gets destroyed in a flood, gets stolen by non-government agents or impounded by government agents does not really matter; except that in the impounding case you might get it back. Back it up and there is much less to fear.

And perhaps this first messenger has a backup too.

If the researcher is not being arrested its not "kill the messenger". Impounding his equipment, the "evidence", is just a very rude way of getting his data on vulnerabilities and attacks. They could have asked. Then again perhaps they feared the "evidence" being tampered with, confidential sources and all that sort of thing. Again, rude, but a plausible path if such concerns were warranted.

FWIW I read it on a kindle and the OCR errors are frequent and the editing/corrections seem non-existent. The arabic names of people and places obviously not part of the OCR software's training. Some day when I do a second reading I will probably use a book.

Clearly Red Dwarf is a documentary and they eventually time travel and visit Nostradamus and the BBC.

Well the war on drugs does fit better in the sense that "melange" would be a controlled substance subject to government regulation. Its production, processing, distribution and use government controlled. Much like medicinal opioids made from the same poppies as heroin. Cocaine and THC (marijuana) have their approved medicinal uses too. Referring to THC at the federal level, not state deregulation of medicinal marijuana.

Perhaps in the Saudi palace but not over the countryside he once roamed. The cultural understanding and respect and the diplomacy of Lawrence would not help him much in an environment where being a local moderate muslim can be a death sentence. Re-read your Seven Pillars. The fundamentalist herecies that periodically occurred were normally put down by the local moderates before they caused much trouble. Plus the protection of the Saudi king doesn't carry the weight it used to in the region. Things are completely different today in so many ways.

One major difference between then and now is that according to the Arab leaders of the day who explained things to Lawrence, a fundamentalist movement arose once or twice a century for many centuries. And when these fundamentalists became troublesome the moderate majority would rise up against them, from the mosque to the street and everything in between. But the Arab leaders added that such fundamentalists are always lurking somewhere so it will be best to travel in native clothing and with a native guard in the desert.

Perhaps I am mistaken but I think the fundamentalists becoming troublesome refers to something far less than what we are seeing today. The cultural understanding and respect and the diplomacy of Lawrence would not help him much in an environment where being a local moderate muslim can be a death sentence.

T. E. Lawrence is missing from many places, especially the reading lists of the politicians and diplomats who tried to manage the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. That said, Lawrence is also absent from the reading lists of many who criticize the US' anti-terrorist efforts. Regardless of your opinions regarding the wars, US policy, etc Lawrence's "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" is an absolutely informative and insightful book and "both" sides of the issue will learn from it.

Yeah Herbert's "Shaddam" is similar to "Saddam", like Nostradamus' "Hister" was similar to "Hitler". Next season the "History Channel" will be running shows discussing possible extraterrestrial influences on Herbert's writings. :-)