Anonymous Vandalizes US Prison Contractors' Site

By RAPHAEL SATTER Associated Press

LONDON February 24, 2012

The website of an international prison contractor was defaced by hackers who on Friday replaced the company's home page with a hip-hop homage devoted to former death row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal.

Hackers allied to the loose-knit Anonymous movement claimed responsibility for vandalizing the site of Boca Raton, Florida-based GEO Group Inc., which manages some 60 custodial facilities in Europe, North America, Australia and South Africa.

Anonymous said in a statement posted to the stricken website that its hack was "part of our ongoing efforts to dismantle the prison industrial complex."

Geo Group Inc. spokesman Pablo Paez said in an email to The Associated Press that no information on its staff or operations was accessed.

He said: "Our public website is hosted by an external offsite third-party vendor — therefore no such information was compromised."

Earlier Friday, Anonymous claimed credit for defacing the website of a Dayton, Ohio-based chapter of Infragard, a public-private partnership for critical infrastructure protection sponsored by the FBI. The group's site was replaced by a video of Coolio's 1995 rap hit, "Gangsta's Paradise."

The FBI declined to comment on that attack.

Anonymous, an amorphous collection of activists and Internet mischief-makers, has increasingly focused its energy on military, police and security companies in recent months. Among its most spectacular coups: The interception of a conference call between FBI and London police cyber-investigators working to track them down.

At least one element within the group has promised weekly attacks on government-linked targets.

Are We Troy Davis? - An Ⓐnonymous Message

Sept. 23, 2011 Anarchist News

On the street yesterday in my city I saw signs, held by people of many races, economic backgrounds and political affiliations, that said "Not In My Name" and "I Am Troy Davis".

I know, without a doubt, that this callous and unjust state-execution will not be in my name, but I also know, without a doubt, that I am not Troy Davis. I am not strong enough to claim that name. I do not weather incarceration on Death Row and I do not suffer under an unjust conviction. I do not face death with dignity and love and I do not answer people's letters with great care and concern, while the state tries methodically and repeatedly to kill me for something I did not do.

I am a white, I am male. I grew up with that privilege I am frantically trying to shed, but I cannot. I fancy myself an ally and a revolutionary, but I am neither of those, either. Not yet.

I admit, I write political prisoners as a hobby, of sorts. It gives me credibility in my mostly white, activist "community", and it makes me feel better about my privilege, about my inaction and about my cowardice. When I write these brave and resilient men and women, I never discuss their case, nor do I discuss my vanilla, above-ground activism. I never discuss politics, except in passing generalities, and I never mention the prison industrial complex. I feel that the recipients of my insipid letters do not need their attention drawn there, nor do I really know anything of it. They experience it everyday, and it would not only be stupid for me to presume that I have anything to tell them about oppression, their oppression, but an abstraction for me, but it would be rude to waste their time doing so even if I did. Instead, I write them about my life. I am aware that this is equally presumptuous of me, but it is my only truth, and the only thing I can communicate about without feeling disingenuous.

In my desk drawer, there are exactly two and one-third pages of handwriting that belong to Troy. He knew my mother's maiden name and where I grew up. He knew what seeds I collected and saved this year, and that I like to camp in the mountains. He knew the names of my ducks and he knew about my emotionally tumultuous summer, how bad it hurt, but also how transformative it was for me. He carefully read and responded to my letter detailing what happened, and he gave me support. I'm sure you can possibly imagine how conceited, selfish and undeserving that makes me feel tonight.

Troy's reality was radically different. Tonight, he died by lethal injection. He did not think of the handbuilt beehive I wrote him of, he did not wonder if I have decided to attend this term of school yet, nor did he think of our correspondence at all. He did not think of me, or you at all, because he could not. He did not think of us because we have failed him and we have forgotten and continue to forget.

Today, every single one of us who claims to care about ending imperialism and oppression have forgotten. Everyday, we fail those who are wrongfully imprisoned, convicted and enslaved in this nation under various systems of incarceration, control and coercion. We fail Mumia Abu-Jamal, journalist and former Black Panther, and we fail Leonard Peltier, writer and activist in the American Indiana Movement. In this, our bloated nation of disparity, injustice and shit, we forget Marie Mason and Eric McDavid, incarcerated for nothing but a discussion, and break our word to activist Tim DeChristopher, doomed to ten years in federal prison for making a faux-bid on some land in a last-ditch attempt to halt its destruction. We ignore Lynne Stewart, a lawyer of integrity, convicted for trying to get pertinent information to their client, regarding their defense. We fail them all and we forget them at our own peril.

But these names are mostly names we know, if we pay attention. We also fail the names you do not know, the names we are not allowed to know. We forget Puerto Rican independentistas like Dylcia Pagan, Alejandrina Torres and Carmen Valentin, who were railroaded in sham trials, trying to gain independence and fight U.S. occupation. We fail our Black revolutionary brother Sundiata Acoli, like we lie to our Black revolutionary sister, Janet Holloway Africa, when we call her "sister".

We also must not forget that we fail the names that we can never know. The people in Guantanamo Bay, and the secret prisons of the CIA, either held abroad in client states of the U.S. or on U.S. warships. We fail those who suffer extraordinary rendition. We forget those under drones strikes in Pakistan, and we fail those under repression in Columbia, corruption in Afghanistan, or starvation in Somalia. All over the world, we fail those who die at the hands of our consumerism and imperialism. We forget.

Tonight Troy Davis was scheduled to die by the state of Georgia and was killed. But if we continue to remain ignorant and forgetful about the dozens, hundreds and thousands of other unjustly imprisoned and incarcerated everywhere, we are not only decidedly not Troy Davis, and attaint his proud legacy of resistance, but we have forgotten ourselves as well, and forsake our potential, not only as activists and revolutionaries, but our heritage as people of the earth who live in light, truth and justice and instead become what we are disgusted by. We will become people who deserve no name at all, a people who do not deserve to be remembered, and a people who will die alone and forgotten.

I am not Troy Davis, nor could I ever be. But I can be myself again, and we can all be ourselves again by refusing to abide our criminal and corrupt corporate government and their mechanisms of control, deprivation and death. We can reclaim ourselves and become the activists, dissidents and revolutionaries we want to be, and claim we are, if we just refuse to forget ever again. Refuse to forget the revolutionary sacrifices and executions and refuse to let them keep occurring. Refuse to forget our planet, refuse to forgive the people who kill it with impunity for profit and refuse to forget one another in this struggle for liberation. We must refuse to let anyone, anywhere suffer alone.

We are not Troy Davis nor can we ever be. But all hope is not lost, because we can be ourselves again, if we refuse to forget. Until then, we will forgo our names and we will not use them. I will be Anonymous and so will you. Join us.

Today we can free Troy Davis, even though he is now already passed. We free him when we free his legacy. We will not forgive and we will not forget. Expect us.

September 21, 2011

—Ⓐnonymous

They Can’t Raid All of Us: An Explanation on How and Why to Resist Grand Juries

Feb. 3, 2011 Vanzetti's Ghost

“The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business.”-Clarence S Darrow

Earlier this week the FBI raided 40 members of anonymous in the US, serving them with subpoenas and taking all of their computers, phones and other technology that might have information regarding “Anonymous and/or 4chan”. The most troubling part being the revelation there is now a grand jury in the United States that is investigating the activities of anonymous…

Those of you who are familiar with grand juries already know most of what I’m about to say, but for those who don’t… Grand juries are unlike normal juries, are called to investigate whether or not someone should be charged with a crime. To decide this GJ has the power to subpoena physical evidence or witnesses to testify. From grandjuryresistance.org:

“How is a Grand Jury Different Than a Trial Jury?

Unlike the “petit” jury, which is used to determine guilt in a trial, a grand jury consists of 16 to 23 jurors who are not screened for bias. The purpose of the grand jury is not to determine guilt or innocence, but to decide whether there is probable cause to prosecute someone for a felony crime. The grand jury operates in secrecy and the normal rules of evidence do not apply. The prosecutor runs the proceedings and no judge is present. Defense lawyers are not allowed to be present in the grand jury room and cannot present evidence, but may be available outside the room to consult with witnesses. The prosecutor and the grand jury members may not reveal what occurred in the grand jury room and witnesses cannot obtain a transcript of their testimony.

How Has the Grand Jury Been Misused?

Because of their broad subpoena powers and secretive nature, grand juries have been used by the government to gather information on political movements and to disrupt those movements by causing fear and mistrust. The grand jury lends itself to being used for improper political investigation due in part to the prosecutor’s ability to question witnesses without regard for rules that prohibit irrelevant, unreliable or unlawfully obtained evidence. Those called before the grand jury may be compelled to answer any question, even those relating to lawful personal and political activities. That information has been used by the government as a basis to conduct further surveillance and disruption of political dissent. When used against political movements, the grand jury causes fear and mistrust because persons who refuse to answer questions about their First Amendment political activities, friends and associates may be jailed for the life of the grand jury: up to 18 months. If a witness asserts her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, she may be forced to accept immunity or go to jail for contempt. Even a witness who attempts to cooperate can be jailed if minor inconsistencies are found in her testimony. Such a perjury charge may stand even when the grand jury fails to hand down any indictment for what it was ostensibly investigating.”

For those too lazy to read that, here are the bullet points of why grand juries are the modern day equivalent of a kangaroo court and why they are worth resisting:

1) It’s not even a real fucking jury. You are not being questioned by a jury of your peers.

2) There is no judge. A prosecutor whose job relies on whether or not he can get convictions runs the thing.

3) You can get a lawyer but that lawyer can’t even be present in the room to advise you while you’re being questioned.

4) You can be thrown in jail for not talking and exercising your 5^th amendment right against self-incrimination. You’re technically not guilty of anything but “contempt of court” then, but its still jail and you could stay in jail for as long as the grand jury is in session, up to 18 months sometimes. Then, if you still don’t testify, they can bring a charge of criminal contempt against you, which apart from being an actual crime you’d be guilty of, has no maximum sentence. To top that all off, nowadays if you refuse to testify and the “jury” decides they are performing a terrorism investigation, you can be charged with a terrorism enhancement, something along the lines of obstructing an investigation into terrorism which brings an intense sentence. (One Palestinian activist and grand jury resister was charged with criminal contempt and obstruction of an investigation into terrorism. He received 135 months! WTF!)

5) There could still be an actual court case. Although a grand jury means the state is reaching for an excuse to disrupt activists, they have and will bring any and all charges against anyone even slightly involved with the movement.

Most importantly though, grand juries are notorious for investigating and disrupting social movements. The prosecutor has the power to subpoena anyone to testify or hand over any physical evidence they may have information pertaining their potential “charges”. They can ask any questions they want and you have to answer them or you get thrown in jail. It’s easy to see why the government would use the grand jury. It’s an old tactic, divide and conquer. By serving subpoenas to testify to people in a movement they can try and pit the participants against each other. Imagine you are ordered to testify in front of a grand jury. If you choose to testify on the hope of immunity (which may or may not keep you from being prosecuted) you’re betraying your friends in the movement, laying the way for other subpoenas and charges, you’re betraying the ideals or cause you worked for, and on top of all that, you could still incriminate yourself and end up in jail. And if you don’t talk and stay loyal to your beliefs and your friends you could still end up in jail while the grand jury is in. At worst you could end up with criminal contempt and a terrorism enhancement.

Steps to be taken immediately to beat this Grand Jury:

1) Get organized to defend yourself and those you care about immediately. We are still in the early stages of this GJ, considering they could convene for as long as 18 months. (And they could always call another grand jury later) The earlier you start the more effective your defense will be.

Time to stick together

2) As long as the affected are fighting the grand jury, it is imperative to support them in every way possible. If it’s known that there’s a strong network of support for those who are served with a subpoena, its better for everyone. Less people will be willing to cooperate, which will make the jury less effective, and make everyone safer. Remember, it might seem safer to distance yourself from someone who was served but in reality it isn’t. One’s person’s non-cooperation could be the difference between jail and freedom for a lot of people. The more evidence they get, the easier it is for them to file more subpoenas, and the easier it is to bring real charges later. The only way to protect yourself from grand juries in the long run is to protect the movement and stick together.

3) Immediately form at least one visible, open, and participatory defense committee. The first task is securing legal representation for those who don’t already have it. There are motions an experienced lawyer can file that will waste time and until the grand jury is over. You may even get a subpoena thrown out with the right motion (i.e. a motion to quash a subpoena). This committee can get in contact with others experienced in fighting grand juries to get a better idea of how to proceed. Education needs to happen on two fronts. The first: the education of those in the movement of their legal rights, of the existence of the grand jury and of the support network in place for those who may be subpoenaed. The second: publicize the situation as much as public for the general public. As many people as possible need to know the true nature of the grand juries, how they are unconstitutional, and their history of disrupting social movements. This education needs to happen in many ways, including interviews, production of educational materials, the organization of visible protests in support of those subpoenaed and against the grand jury, setting up a bail fund and whatever else is necessary. The more happening the better.

4) And to restate: Don’t Testify! Even if you have nothing to hide, your testimony can still get you thrown in jail for perjury for minor inconsistencies, and it can certainly hurt others.

The National Lawyers Guild said in their publication:

“For many political activists, the historic and principled way to avoid these dilemmas (informing, perjury) has been the invocation of absolute non-collaboration with grand jury investigations of political movements. While this has resulted in many instances with the witness’ incarceration for contempt, it has also discouraged the subpoenaing of further witnesses, and on some occasions, the withdrawal of all subpoenas.”

Important Common Sense Legal/Know Your Rights Info:

1) You have the right to remain silent. So shut the fuck up. You don’t have to talk to any police, FBI or investigator that comes through your door. Regardless of what they say, or threaten you with it is always better to remain silent until you talk to a lawyer. Expect anything you say to be used against you or someone you know in the future. If you’re being subpoenaed anything you say could be used as basis for further questioning and subpoenas which could lead to more charges.

2) Cops lie. All the time. You can’t trust cops. You can’t trust cops. Do not believe a word they say.

3) Never under any circumstances let anyone into your place without a warrant. And if they have a warrant, make sure they only search the place specified in the warrant. And while they’re searching take down officer’s names and badge numbers. Take notes about the search as well. And if they don’t have a warrant do not let them search your place, whatever they say. It could only hurt.

4) To recap, if the police come knocking, you say three things, “Do you have a warrant?” if not tell them to GTFO. And when they start asking you questions say “I do not want to speak to you, Talk to my lawyer”. And if you don’t have a lawyer you can just take down the investigators name, agency and phone # and tell them you’ll give them your lawyers phone number and name once you have one. That should work the same as “I want my lawyer”

Well that’s about it for now. I hope this info is of some use. I just want to say my heart goes out to those anon who got served with subpoenas. The only thing I can say is this thing has come this far, now is not the time to split apart. In reality it is possible to “crush” a grand jury as they say, and it has happened before… Solidarity to all the raided and accused! They’re grasping at straws here and we all know it…

P.S. Here’s a bunch of resources that will probably help, some of which I used to write this here article.

Useful Resources:

www.grandjuryresistance.org is a great site that has a bunch of info and useful links about grand juries and defending yourself from them. You go to the site and read detailed material about grand juries and how to resist them, and you can also read briefs from Josh Wolf’s grand jury hearings. Their statement: “The GJRP is a coalition of lawyers, activists, and individuals targeted by government harassment. The efforts of the GJRP include: public education and training, organizing demonstrations, utilizing the media, consolidating current grand jury information, and the development of affirmative legal responses. In addition, the GJRP assists in providing direct support and legal representation for those being politically targeted by grand juries. The GJRP works in the spirit that politically motivated attacks by the government demonstrate that people’s movements and direct action are effective and powerful tools against oppression. The GJRP seeks to support people’s resistance to intimidation and their continued action against exploitation and for social, environmental, and economic justice.” Hit them up at contact@grandjuryresistance.org

National Lawyers Guild (NLG): a network of lawyers that has a long history of defending activists and fighting surveillance. You can also get a lawyer referral from them. A statement from their website: “Rather than focusing on narrow areas of professional practice, the National Lawyers Guild sees that a wide range of social, political, and legal issues, such as racism, sexism, homophobia, environmental destruction, immigrant-bashing, labor issues, and voting rights, are intertwined with questions of economic justice and cannot be solved through focus on specific “legal practice” issues, or through the legal system alone. As a result, in addition to belonging to other professional organizations with a specific practice or professional focus, Guild lawyers, nonlawyers, students, academics, legislators, jurists, and activists from a wide range of law-related work find ways to make common cause, through the National Lawyers Guild.” www.nlg.org

http://boricuahumanrights.org/2008/02/01/grand-jury-resistance-post-911/ Info about terrorism enhancements being brought against grand jury resistors

http://zinelibrary.info/files/grandjuryzine.pdf A fantastic compilation of essays about grand juries and how to go about resisting them, how to talk to the cops, how to keep your movement together under pressure, all put out by No Compromise a publication of the animal liberation movement. I suggest checking out How to Crush a Grand Jury the No Compromise Way.

And to finish off a few sites of support groups/defense committees that have formed to deal with other grand juries: http://grandjuryresistance.org/recent.html

FBI serves 40 warrants in search of WikiLeaks 'hacktivists'

By Mark Seibel | McClatchy Newspapers Jan. 27, 2011

WASHINGTON — The FBI said Thursday that it had served more than 40 search
warrants throughout the United States as part of an investigation into
computer attacks on websites of businesses that stopped providing services
in December to WikiLeaks.

The FBI statement announcing the search warrants was the first indication
that the U.S. intends to prosecute the so-called "hacktivists" for their
actions in support of WikiLeaks.

The search warrants were executed on the same day authorities in Great
Britain announced that they had arrested five people in connection with
the attacks, which temporarily crippled the websites of Amazon.com,
PaylPal, MasterCard, Visa, the Swiss bank PostFinance and others.

FBI officials were unavailable for comment, and the statement did not say
who was served or where the searches were conducted. The statement noted
that attacks, known as distributed denial of service attacks and which use
easily available software to shutdown a computer network by flooding it
with millions of requests for information, violate federal law and are
punishable by a prison sentence of 10 years.

The statement noted that a group known as "Anonymous" had claimed credit
for the attacks. Anonymous is also believed responsible in recent days for
attacks on government websites in Tunisia and Egypt.

British news reports said three of the five arrested were teenagers, aged
15, 16 and 19, and that the others were 20 and 26 years old. Dutch police
last month arrested two teenagers suspected of involvement in the online
campaign.

The attacks were organized through social networking sites such as Twitter
in the days after WikiLeaks began publishing U.S. State Department cables
that apparently had been downloaded by an American Army private serving in
Iraq. Their first target was Amazon.com, which, at the behest of U.S. Sen.
Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., had stopped hosting the WikiLeaks website.

They spread to PayPal, MasterCard and Visa after those businesses declined
to process credit card payments destined to WikiLeaks.

PostFinance, a bank operated by Switzerland's postal service, also closed
an account that was registered to Julian Assange, WikiLeaks' founder. The
account number had been published on the WikiLeaks website with a
solicitation for donations. PostFinance said it closed the account because
Assange was not a resident of Switzerland, as Swiss law required.

The attacks did no long-term damage and in most cases only lasted a few
hours. But legitimate would-be users were unable to contact the sites
while the attacks were underway.

The FBI said it is working with several European governments and the
National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA) to identify the
source the attacks, which the FBI attributed to a type of software it
identified as "Low Orbit Ion Canon" tools. It said major anti-virus
programs had been updated to block such software.

Previously, the only known criminal investigation stemming from WikiLeaks'
publication of thousands of U.S. State Department cables was one that
seeks to tie WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange to Army Pfc. Bradley
Manning, who is suspected of providing the cables to the website. In
December, a federal magistrate in Alexandria, Va., issued a search warrant
to Twitter demanding the records of five of its users, including Assange
and Manning.

It was not known late Thursday whether those records had been surrendered.