Timeline History of Anonymous Activism
Protect Yourself from FBI Manipulation (w/attorney Harvey Silverglate)
Outing of Amanda Todd Bullies!! DOX’d by Anonymous!
Anon Action Groups, PLF, Par:AnoIA, AnonOps
Decrypting the Matrix Statement
Show Transcript
Introduction: What Is Anonymous?
Welcome to Decrypting The Matrix on Revealing Talk Radio. It’s October 23rd, 2012, and do we have an exciting episode lined up tonight. Anonymous — the internet’s immune system — is always up to something. Mostly good, sometimes chaos, always interesting. All kinds of stuff happening across the Anonymous landscape. We’ve got Anonymous denouncing a bomb threat from a hoax account. Anonymous is a nonviolent resistance movement. They do not plant bombs. This was an attempt to smear Anonymous by the enemy.
We’ve got a statement from Anonymous on Trapwire, what you need to know about facial recognition and advanced surveillance technology — those little cameras can soak up more than you think. Anonymous also outed Amanda Todd’s bullies. Amanda Todd was a young woman who took her life. Her personal pictures were leaking out online — a really sad situation. She was bullied from different sources, both within her school and online. She ended up taking her life because she couldn’t deal with it anymore. Careful, bullies — Anonymous might just dox you, drop your personal documents out there for everyone to see. So if you want to spread fear, anger, and negativity across the internet, watch out.
We’re tracking all kinds of Anonymous updates in real time on Twitter. But first, let’s kick off this episode with a track from B.E.A.S.T. 1333 — this is “Anonymous.”
How to Join Anonymous
So you want to join Anonymous? Well, some say that you cannot join Anonymous. No one can join Anonymous. Anonymous is not an organization. It is not a cult, a party, or even a movement. There is no charter, no manifesto, no membership fees. Anonymous has no leaders, no hierarchy, no ideologies. In fact, it does not even have a fixed ideology. All we are is people who travel a short distance together — much like commuters who meet on a bus or tram.
For a brief period of time we share a route, a common goal, purpose, or dislike. We journey together. We may chat, but no one can speak for all of us. Nobody can say you’re in or you’re out. So how do you still want to join Anonymous? Well — you already are. If you want to know how to get in touch with others, Anonymous has no centralized infrastructure. We use existing facilities on the internet, especially social networks, ready to hop on the next one if the current one is compromised or starts to bore us. At the time of this writing, Facebook, Twitter, and IRC host the most active congregations, but this may change in time. These are the best places to get started — look for terms like Anonymous, operations, and other keywords that might be connected.
How do you recognize other Anonymous members? They come from all places of society — students, workers, clerks, unemployed, young, old, male, female. Some are activists from all races, countries, and ethnicities. They are everywhere. They’re your neighbors, co-workers, hairdressers, bartenders, network administrators, the guy on the street with the suitcase. Many of us like to wear Guy Fawkes masks at demonstrations. Some of us even show them in profile pictures on social networks, to help recognize each other.
Have you been infiltrated? If you talk to another Anonymous member, you’ll never know who they really are. They may be a hacker, cracker, federal agent, provocateur, or just the guy next door — or his daughter. It is not illegal to be Anonymous, nor is it illegal to wear Guy Fawkes masks. Keep that in mind. If you personally have not been involved in illegal activities, you have nothing to worry about, no matter whom you talk to. If you have, it’s wise not to talk about it to anyone.
To protect your privacy, use an alias. Invent something, then register a mail account in that name with one of the big mail providers. Use this email address to register Twitter, Facebook, and other social accounts. Make sure to clear cookies before you start a new identity — or better yet, use a separate web browser for Anonymous and your other web activities. If you have higher needs for security, ask about encryption, VPNs, proxies. Many of us know how to use these, and we will always respect your need for privacy. Anonymous will never ask for your personal information. If they do, they don’t expect a truthful answer, and neither should you.
What is the right thing to do? The only person who can tell you what’s right is yourself. This is also the only person you should follow. Anonymous has no leaders. You are the only person responsible for your actions. Do what you think is right. Do not do what you think is wrong. How many Anonymous are there? We’re more than you think. We’re more than anyone thinks. We are many — and you are now one of us. Welcome to Anonymous.
A Brief History of Anonymous
So how did this all get started? The idea that is Anonymous sprung out of the imageboard called 4chan. Some would argue otherwise, but this is where it really gained the most momentum — the boards /b/ and such. The rise came about and suddenly started with a focus on Scientology, where the collective internet came together to expose Scientology. It was so effective that Anonymous really started evolving into an activist movement.
The rise of hacktivism really started January 5th, 2011 with Operation Tunisia. January 10th, 2011 — two thousand usernames and passwords were leaked for Fine Gael, the Irish political party. Then came Operation Egypt during the 2011 Egyptian revolution. Egyptian government websites, along with websites of the ruling National Democratic Party, were hacked and taken offline by Anonymous until President Hosni Mubarak stepped down.
Anonymous activists were also crucial in exposing Blue Coat Systems. Blue Coat, an American company, was using their servers and network detection technology to identify activists for oppressive governments — believed to be Syria in the case of Blue Coat. This became a massive operation to further expose contractors, both U.S. and international, who were supplying hardware and surveillance technology to oppressive regimes. Verified truth-tellers of any kind, any shape and size, were working at the risk of being tortured and killed. This is absolutely horrible stuff. Anonymous was crucial to saving lives during those uprisings.
Operations continued: Operation Venezuela, Operation HBGary — that’s where things really gained momentum. We saw the rise of Sabu, the media-proclaimed leader of Anonymous, though that characterization is debatable. He was involved with LulzSec, which was ultimately taken down.
Sony, George Hotz, and the Jailbreaking Debate
Anonymous activists were involved in the Sony PlayStation breach. Here’s how it started: George Hotz — GeoHot — exposed a way to jailbreak the PlayStation. Sony really didn’t like that. They went after him legally, made him take his exploit offline, patched the PlayStation with an update, and tried to make it illegal for anybody to override the jailbreak. Bad news for Sony — going after George Hotz for doing something that is technically legal. You buy a device, you buy the hardware, it becomes yours. When some company tells you that you can’t modify the software on a device that you purchased — no, no, no. I don’t think so. The internet’s immune system is going to have something to say about that.
The Supreme Court recently addressed this. These laws will likely change. This is also relevant to jailbreaking iPhones. You buy a device, you should have freedom to use it any way you see fit. We still have the Cydia app store for jailbroken iPhones, and we continue to have custom ROMs for Android devices — which is quite popular. You can swap out custom software, unlock your bootloader, load custom ROMs pretty easily, and swap in and out of different configurations.
Protecting Yourself from FBI Manipulation
Now here’s something really important. If you’re associated with Anonymous, you might just get that knock on the door. You want to be prepared for that knock.
Here’s what you need to know: the FBI intentionally does not record your conversations. When you’re being interviewed by the FBI, they will not record it. They use two agents — one will interview you, the other will take notes. Then they type up a form called an FD-302 to document what you said. But here’s the key: it’s based on their recollection, not yours. Their recollection of what you said becomes the official record via that FD-302.
It is not FBI policy — not official formal policy — for FBI agents to record interviews. There is no regulation requiring them to. So the agent sitting there taking notes types up a summary under poor conditions, which are subject to human error. Under United States Code Section 1001, which is the false statements statute, it is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison if someone knowingly makes false statements to a federal agent.
Here’s where it gets dangerous for you: anything you say to a federal agent — any government badge, pick one — if you lie to any of them during an interview, that’s up to five years in jail. Five years. Not even under oath. They come to your door, knock, and if you lie to them about anything — five years in jail.
The official record is whatever the agent typed up on that FD-302. Even if you didn’t say what they wrote, and even if you claim otherwise, what happens is they say you didn’t tell the truth. The agent’s typed notes become the record, and you could be charged with making false statements. Because the official record says you said something different from what you actually said, and there’s no visual or audio recording to prove otherwise.
So the best advice: if the FBI wants to speak with you, no matter what they say, the best thing to do is hand them a card and say “my lawyer will contact you.” Say nothing else. Lying — or even appearing to lie based on their notes — can get you in very serious trouble. They have a built-in way to make it look like you lied, because there is no actual recording. Don’t talk to the FBI without a lawyer.
Anonymous Operations and Recent Activity
Let’s continue with the timeline. After Operation HBGary, the leaked emails allowed Barrett Brown to create Project PM, which was an investigation into private intelligence contractors. Projects known as Romas/COIN were being pushed by companies like Endgame Systems, Palantir, HBGary, and Cubic. These contractors were enabling governments and power brokers to control web traffic, backdoor phones, spy on citizens, and sell surveillance technology to oppressive regimes.
Barrett Brown is in jail right now in a Texas prison. He may or may not have allegedly threatened a federal agent — definitely a big no-no. But he’s keeping his spirits high. He was a media-proclaimed former leader of Anonymous, though he never said that himself. He just happened to speak for them publicly at one point during the rise of the movement.
Anonymous came in during the Arab uprisings when governments were censoring the internet, shutting things down so people couldn’t get their message out, couldn’t get their YouTube videos uploaded while the military was shelling innocent civilians. Anonymous swooped in, set up telecommunications, provided proxies and VPNs to allow people to get their message out, connect to the internet, and reach social networks to broadcast the atrocities going on.
Operations continued: Bahrain, Operation Italy, Westboro Baptist Church — always a target. Anonymous was crucial to the uprising in Libya, keeping people safe. There were the Bank of America email leaks. Then back to Sony and George Hotz — Anonymous said “don’t worry George, we’ve got your back.” That led to further breaches of Sony. Anonymous kept at it, and what followed was a big headache for Sony.
Continuing into May 2011: Operation Iran, Operation Blitzkrieg, lots of action in the Middle East. Then in early June, LulzSec’s hacking spree took over the news for about a month — June 2nd through about June 26th. LulzSec officially disbanded after fifty days of chaos, hitting everything from the CIA website with denial-of-service attacks to News Corp, where they posted a fake article about Rupert Murdoch passing away. Absolutely hilarious.
Now here’s the twist: Sabu, the LulzSec leader, was acting under FBI direction. He had been converted sometime around early June. The AntiSec movement, which could very well have advanced the cyber security industry itself — they needed a resume threat in cyberspace, and Anonymous launching AntiSec served as the perfect one.
July 17th saw nineteen U.S. arrests of suspected Anonymous hackers. They arrested T-Flow, Topiary — aka Jake Davis — suspected members of LulzSec. Then there were the PayPal Fourteen — fourteen people who got wrapped up in the denial-of-service attacks against PayPal, Visa, and MasterCard. The internet was reacting to the financial war on WikiLeaks — PayPal, Visa, and MasterCard severed WikiLeaks’ funding methods. The PayPal Fourteen had participated in a protest against PayPal for cutting financial ties with WikiLeaks, which Icelandic courts later ruled was unconstitutional and illegal.
Recent Hacks, “We Are Legion,” and the Bigger Picture
What’s been happening on the Anonymous hack front recently? Check out Par-Anoia.net — they’ve got significant releases, breach packs, troves of information. If you’re corrupt and you’ve got files in a database somewhere, expect them to surface. Who’s been hacked recently? The Italian State Police — 1.35 gigabytes retrieved. The Chamber of Mines in South Africa, where horrid mining atrocities have miners fighting for straightforward, better working conditions. Anonymous dropped emails from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on October 11th — gaining access to servers and extracting 304 megabytes of documents containing details about deals with Russia and Ukraine. The New York Police Department had video footage from the 2011 Occupy Wall Street Zuccotti Park eviction breached. Six hundred megabytes of documents from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cambodia were released. The list goes on. And of course, the Apple unique device identifiers leak, sourced mostly from FBI data. Anonymous is always up to something.
The latest Anonymous documentary is called “We Are Legion.” You’ve got to check this out. It examines Anonymous as a group whose members are usually seen wearing Guy Fawkes masks — if they’re seen at all. Considering Anonymous began with retaliatory acts against websites run by corporations and the entertainment industry over the file-sharing site Megaupload being taken down, “We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists” could almost be mistaken for a ninety-three minute news segment. But like most news coverage of the group, the documentary contains genuine moments. Director Brian Knappenberger, who premiered it at the Slamdance Film Festival, compared it to the documentary about the Weather Underground that came out a few years ago — that one was made thirty years after they were blowing up buildings. This film is being made while Anonymous is still active. “We Are Legion” might be the first film to portray the group’s members as true revolutionaries. It could serve as a time capsule, as some of the tactics Anonymous has helped create become the new model for civil disobedience across the globe. For those who hadn’t heard of Anonymous before Occupy Wall Street, “We Are Legion” puts the group’s current incarnation in historical perspective.
The documentary traces the roots back to early hacker groups like the Cult of the Dead Cow and the Electronic Disturbance Theater before jumping into Anonymous origins. It goes deep, speaking to former Anonymous participants, journalists, and writers like Ryan Singel and Steven Levy, providing a thorough chronological account of Anonymous exploits up to the group’s current place at the forefront of online civil disobedience.
Decrypting the Matrix: A Personal Statement
In my years of investigative research, I’ve found that the larger picture is super clear once you think you can see everything going on. But there’s always a backside to the mirror that takes significant effort to see. I’d like to say at this point that I have a vague idea of what most will find on the backside of reality. It’s difficult to explain — more of those things are ones individuals have to find for themselves. It’ll be everything you can expect and then some. Truth is stranger than fiction.
Warriors. We don’t think of ourselves as warriors in the traditional sense. The warrior is not someone who fights to take another life. The warrior, for us, is one who sacrifices himself for the good of others — whose task is to take care of the elderly, the defenseless, those who cannot provide for themselves. A beautiful quote by Sitting Bull, the Native American leader.
Words and computer code only carry the information — or alternately, only the intent. That intent is either constructive, destructive, or a twisted combination of the two. Words can bring pain, suffering, fear, anxiety, excitement — a long list of emotions. Computer code can bring much the same through an alternate communication delivery mechanism. We are accountable for the use of these words and the resulting actions or events.
All we really have is each other as we navigate this reality from one moment to the next. Regardless of not knowing anything about each other, I know we share some key similarities. We woke up this morning, forced into a reality we didn’t agree to on a conscious level. Depending on geography, we probably share some really fundamental things in common — air and water that keep us alive. Since neither of us lives in the vacuum of space, it’s safe to say we’re relatives in this experience of birth and its delicate dance with our solar system.
This experience is harsh — daily inconveniences, frustrations, heartaches, and tragedy. For both of us, reality is complex and constantly changing, and we don’t have a firm answer as to why. A wise man once said, “All past, present, and future are created in the now.” Perhaps take a moment to reflect on that. The common denominator between us all is choice — the ability to make one.
The purpose of this statement is to speak only on behalf of myself, from my own direct experiences. I’ve taken the time to organize and formulate the delivery of this release such that it has the capability to immediately benefit your life, in the way in which you choose to approach this dynamic and ever-changing moment. My motivations are combined with my personal experience, informed by the collective hive mind that is Anonymous.
For the skeptics, please find it in your heart to at least make an effort to attempt to prove me wrong. The internet and its tributaries have brought other researchers’ life work closer than ever. With the expanse of resources available, chances are you can find someone who has dedicated their life to understanding virtually any subject. As a kid, I always wondered — what about those researchers who dedicated their lives to all these things we’re supposed to know? And what about the things we’re not supposed to know? When it comes to some topics, people get uncomfortable discussing them — because they don’t understand, or because they don’t want to understand. That never made sense to me.
Children have this boundless ability to think beyond limitation. So it made me question: where does the subconscious limitation actually come from? This is the octopus in the room. Conspiracy — a group plotting to do something unlawful or harmful. It shouldn’t seem unfamiliar. What’s lacking is its most common partner: theory. A long time ago, those two words were joined at the hip. Drug wars, insider trading, bailouts, assassinations, dictatorships, manufactured terrorism, political corruption, stolen elections, executive orders, constitutional violations, wiretapping, drone killings — this list goes on and on. Tune into the mainstream media for a few minutes and you’ll encounter one of these in a matter of minutes. Each individually would qualify as conspiracy, minus any theory. Perpetual conspiracy in our collective reality is not theory — it’s fact. Yet the masses are so quick to scoff at the idea of any overarching conspiracy linking them all together. That dismissal is actually designed, enabled, and promoted by the octopus itself.
“Money is the root of all evil” — I do not fully agree with that statement, though there is some truth in the metaphor. Consider that money equals options — nothing more, nothing less. Based on someone’s background, education, and motivations, these options will likely be leveraged in the best interest of the owner as a form of self-preservation. That owner is free to define what they feel is in their best interest and at what level to self-preserve. To be most correct, I would instead say: debt is the root of all evil. The concept of debt is nothing more than retained ownership — slavery. This control mechanism is connected to another key foundational understanding: the unified field. Some call it God, but it doesn’t matter what you call it, nor does it matter if you even believe in it. The one thing we know for sure is that there is a pervasive energy here that we do not fully understand. Perhaps we’re not allowed to understand, or maybe the true value is only gleaned when the answers are found within rather than provided by outside influence.
Fundamentalist religion has explained this in a way that promotes separation rather than the obvious unification and connectedness of all humanity. Many parts of this global conspiracy are linked to this circling idea of universal interconnectedness. Unfortunately, for most people the result is embedded programming that rejects these concepts before any application of legitimate critical thinking. As preposterous as it sounds, those who think they’re thinking for themselves often aren’t. Corporations rule the world. You think they want smarter, more educated consumers? No, they don’t.
