Anonymous Declares War on DOJ

Aaron founded Infogami and
co-authored RSS

Aaron Swartz, dead American patriot
who believed the internet should be free

When Taryn Simon, a photographer and artist, collaborated with the computer programmer Aaron Swartz last April, she noticed that the way he logged into his online accounts seemed exceptionally complex. “The length of time it took to enter his password conveyed a certain pressure that was upon him,” Simon told me. And indeed, he was facing criminal charges at the time, following his arrest in 2011 for illegally accessing Jstor, a private scholarly database. “There was this sense that something was closing in on him,” Simon added. “Something that needed to be guarded against.”

Despite the government’s case against him, Swartz, who committed suicide last week at the age of 26, was regarded by some as an Internet folk hero and a visionary activist devoted to making locked-up information of public interest freely available. Emily Bazelon, has written at Slate, where she’s an editor, that “the government’s ratcheting up of charges against Swartz reeks of the worst kind of prosecutorial intimidation.” (Bazelon has also written for the magazine.)

Simon and Swartz were paired together as part of the 2012 edition of Seven on Seven, an annual conference organized by Lauren Cornell at the New Museum where artists and technologists are given 24 hours to create a project together.

The result of Simon and Swartz’s collaboration was Image Atlas, a visual search engine that performs real-time queries in 17 different countries. Internet search results can vary depending on what part of the world they originate from — if you’re sitting in Paris Googling the words “Jew” or “Breaking Bad,” the results will be different than if you’re searching the same terms from, say, Tel Aviv. Image Atlas first translates any search term into the language corresponding to each country; it then uses each country’s most popular search engine to run an image search. The result is like Google Images with international context — it forces us to think about what we are and are not seeing when we browse online. (Try it for yourself).

Simon and Swartz were intrigued by the idea that Internet search results express a certain type of authority; people generally aren’t suspicious of a search-results page in and of itself. “We wanted to question the neutrality of statistical data,” she told me.

They also observed that people around the world are communicating more and more with one another through visual imagery rather than text. Image Atlas seems to suggest that visual thinking is far from universal and instead varies greatly across cultures (search “America” in Egypt and you’ll get the Statue of Liberty; in Iran, Taylor Swift; in Kenya, the Bank of America logo).

Simon, whose photographs of items confiscated by security at Kennedy Airport were featured in the magazine, remembers Swartz as being “astounding to watch” when he was coding something, a “wizardly court stenographer.” It took him just 10 minutes, Simon recalled, to create an early prototype of Image Atlas after the hours they spent brainstorming to conceptualize it.

Image Atlas served as inspiration for Simon’s latest project, “The Picture Collection,” which opened at the John Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco on Wednesday. The work is a series of photographs of the contents of an archive also called the Picture Collection, located in the New York Public Library. Founded in 1915, the archive consists of more than 12,000 folders, each labeled with a term like “happiness,” “veils” or “accident” and filled with clippings of related images. For years, before there was anything like Google Images, artists and designers went to the archive for inspiration. Simon photographed the contents of 44 folders from the Picture Collection for her project.

ooking ahead, Simon told me that she is planning to publish a book based on how Image Atlas results vary over time, as international events and moods change. “It is something Aaron would have been a part of,” she said.

Image Atlas will continue on as a Web site. Since the news of Swartz’s death, the site’s servers have at times become overloaded. “Normally, if the site would stop working, I would turn to Aaron in those moments,” Simon told me. “But now the wizard is gone.”

Patriots,

this is a very serious situation, Anonymous believes and I believe the Department of Justice (DOJ) murdered Aaron Swartz for hattacking the tyrannical U.S. government. Swartz was killed by our tyrannical government. He is one of the first casualties in this war. RIP young patriot.I am sure people inside the U.S. government are working 

late tonight to defuse and neutralize the Anonymous threat and attack. I hope and pray that the corrupt officials inside our Department of Justice (DOJ) are exposed and made to 

pay for their crimes.  

The jury is out on Anonymous but right now is seems they are acting as true patriots, however, what worries me is the fact that they use the term "legion" that is normally 

associated with satan.  I know this, Anonymous definitely wants some "pay back" for the murder of Aaron.

Below is information on the latest Anonymous threat.

Nearly two years ago, the hacktivist group Anonymous made waves around the fringes of financial media [11]by announcing "Operation Empire State Rebelion" whose goal was to "engage in a relentless campaign of non-violent, peaceful, civil disobedience until Ben Bernanke steps down and the Primary Dealers within the Federal Reserve banking system be broken up and held accountable for rigging markets and destroying the global economy effective immediately." Needless to say nothing came out of it, and OperationESR was promptly forgotten as Anonymous had apparently met its match in the face of the Fed and the Primary Dealers.

Now, in the aftermath of the Aaron Swartz suicide which has put the entire hacking community on high alert, Anonymous is back with yet another campaign, this one titled "Operation Last Resort", which was revealed to the public when Anonymous took control of the website for the the US Sentencing Commission [12] for nearly one full day from Friday afternoon until Saturday evening, using it as a venue from which to distribute a massive 1.3 GB encrypted file titled Warhead-US-DOJ-LEA-2013.AES256 which may contain secret information sourced from the Department of Justice (hence the files contained are named after SCOTUS justices) and which Anonymous threatens to release unless massive reforms take place at the DOJ - reforms which will certainly never see the light of day, meaning Anonymous will have no choice but to make the contents of said file public.

The contents of the AES256 encrypted "warhead" folder [13]contain nine files eacg named after a Supreme Court Justice as seen below:

md5sums:

14965755e21467d13ac807031f97e2bc     Alito.Warhead1
c243e81a44fc42bc8e6821e9b05650da     Breyer.Warhead1
26e93c731515b4941e10a400e402787c   Ginsburg.Warhead1
199cbbaacbad4e48152dc7d9da153674     Kagan.Warhead1
ee385def3e79c72ecbea42a287ec0396      Kennedy.Warhead1
29da80651797cf30a9594ec97901d8a6    Roberts.Warhead1
af5ab26b222be2c853ebc8460a533f61     Scalia.Warhead1
06917dfe9038640b76d2d83cb3661b3c    Sotomayor.Warhead1
1321fbd5d52d7ea270e50885b0fbf8ae     Thomas.Warhead1

In the defacement text, Anonymous also said it placed "multiple warheads" on "compromised systems" on various unnamed websites, and encouraged members to download the encrypted files from ussc.gov that are "primed, armed and quietly distributed to numerous mirrors."Anonymous called the launch of it new campaign a "warhead."Anonymous posted the following video to the site stating that this attack is the beginning of what it calls "Operation Last Resort."

In a verbose essay attached to the file, Anonymous itself says the following about the contents of the encrypted released file: The contents are various and we won’t ruin the speculation by revealing them. Suffice it to say, everyone has secrets, and some things are not meant to be public. At a regular interval commencing today, we will choose one media outlet and supply them with heavily redacted partial contents of the file. Any media outlets wishing to be eligible for this program must include within their reporting a means of secure communications. We have not taken this action lightly, nor without consideration of the possible consequences. Should we be forced to reveal the trigger-key to this warhead, we understand that there will be collateral damage. We appreciate that many who work within the justice system believe in those principles that it has lost, corrupted, or abandoned, that they do not bear the full responsibility for the damages caused by their occupation.

In other words, the file is, at least to Anonymous, the equivalent of a hostage. So what are their hostage release demands?

in order for there to be a peaceful resolution to this crisis, certain things need to happen. There must be reform of outdated and poorly-envisioned legislation, written to be so broadly applied as to make a felony crime out of violation of terms of service, creating in effect vast swathes of crimes, and allowing for selective punishment. There must be reform of mandatory minimum sentencing. There must be a return to proportionality of punishment with respect to actual harm caused, and consideration of motive and mens rea. The inalienable right to a presumption of innocence and the recourse to trial and possibility of exoneration must be returned to its sacred status, and not gambled away by pre-trial bargaining in the face of overwhelming sentences, unaffordable justice and disfavourable odds. Laws must be upheld unselectively, and not used as a weapon of government to make examples of those it deems threatening to its power. For good reason the statue of lady justice is blindfolded. No more should her innocence be besmirked, her scales tipped, nor her swordhand guided. Furthermore there must be a solemn commitment to freedom of the internet, this last great common space of humanity, and to the common ownership of information to further the common good.

Naturally, following the the past 4 years of gross dereliction of the US DOJ responsibilities, and this week's very demonstrative exit of US Assistant AG Lanny Breuer in the aftermath of the humiliating Frontline special on the "Untouchables", one can't help but feel sympathetic to Anonymous' quest, which at least superficially is attempting to restore some trace of justice in the USA. Anonymous ends its letter with a threat: We demand the government does not make the mistake of hoping that time will dampen its ringing, that they can ride out this wave of determination, that business as usual can continue after a sufficient period of lip-service and back-patting. 

Not this time. This time there will be change, or there will be chaos…

However, following the complete failure of previous grand plans by Anonymous to take on the highest echelons of US authority, one can't help but be skeptical that this time attempt to put the blindfold back on Lady Justice will too be a dud.

Here is the clip that Anonymous created to go alongside its "warhead" file release:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WaPni5O2YyI

Citizens of the world,

Anonymous has observed for some time now the trajectory of justice in the United States with growing concern. We have marked the departure of this system from the noble ideals in which it was born and enshrined. We have seen the erosion of due process, the dilution of constitutional rights, the usurpation of the rightful authority of courts by the “discretion” of prosecutors. We have seen how the law is wielded less and less to uphold justice, and more and more to exercise control, authority and power in the interests of oppression or personal gain.

We have been watching, and waiting.

Two weeks ago today, a line was crossed. Two weeks ago today, Aaron Swartz was killed. Killed because he faced an impossible choice. Killed because he was forced into playing a game he could not win — a twisted and distorted perversion of justice — a game where the only winning move was not to play.

 Anonymous immediately convened an emergency council to discuss our response to this tragedy. After much heavy-hearted discussion, the decision was upheld to engage the United States Department of Justice and its associated executive branches in a game of a similar nature, a game in which the only winning move is not to play.

Last year the Federal Bureau of Investigation revelled in porcine glee at its successful infiltration of certain elements of Anonymous. This infiltration was achieved through the use of the same tactics which lead to Aaron Swartz’ death. It would not have been possible were it not for the power of federal prosecutors to thoroughly destroy the lives of any hacktivists they apprehend through the very real threat of highly disproportionate sentencing.

As a result of the FBI’s infiltration and entrapment tactics, several more of our brethren now face similar disproportionate persecution, the balance of their lives hanging on the severely skewed scales of a broken justice system.

We have felt within our hearts a burning rage in reaction to these events, but we have not allowed ourselves to be drawn into a foolish and premature response. We have bidden our time, operating in the shadows, adapting our tactics and honing our abilities. We have allowed the FBI and its masters in government — both the puppet and the shadow government that controls it — to believe they had struck a crippling blow to our infrastructure, that they had demoralized us, paralyzed us with paranoia and fear. We have held our tongue and waited.

With Aaron’s death we can wait no longer. The time has come to show the United States Department of Justice and its affiliates the true meaning of infiltration. The time has come to give this system a taste of its own medicine. The time has come for them to feel the helplessness and fear that comes with being forced into a game where the odds are stacked against them.

This website was chosen due to the symbolic nature of its purpose — the federal sentencing guidelines which enable prosecutors to cheat citizens of their constitutionally-guaranteed right to a fair trial, by a jury of their peers — the federal sentencing guidelines which are in clear violation of the 8th amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishments. This website was also chosen due to the nature of its visitors. It is far from the only government asset we control, and we have exercised such control for quite some time…

There has been a lot of fuss recently in the technological media regarding such operations as Red October, the widespread use of vulnerable browsers and the availability of zero-day exploits for these browsers and their plugins. None of this comes of course as any surprise to us, but it is perhaps good that those within the information security industry are making the extent of these threats more widely understood.

Still there is nothing quite as educational as a well-conducted demonstration…

Through this websites and various others that will remain unnamed, we have been conducting our own infiltration. We did not restrict ourselves like the FBI to one high-profile compromise. We are far more ambitious, and far more capable. Over the last two weeks we have wound down this operation, removed all traces of leakware from the compromised systems, and taken down the injection apparatus used to detect and exploit vulnerable machines.

We have enough fissile material for multiple warheads. Today we are launching the first of these. Operation Last Resort has begun…

Warhead – U S – D O J – L E A – 2013 . A E E 256 is primed and armed. It has been quietly distributed to numerous mirrors over the last few days and is available for download from this website now. We encourage all Anonymous to syndicate this file as widely as possible.

The contents are various and we won’t ruin the speculation by revealing them. Suffice it to say, everyone has secrets, and some things are not meant to be public. At a regular interval commencing today, we will choose one media outlet and supply them with heavily redacted partial contents of the file. Any media outlets wishing to be eligible for this program must include within their reporting a means of secure communications.

We have not taken this action lightly, nor without consideration of the possible consequences. Should we be forced to reveal the trigger-key to this warhead, we understand that there will be collateral damage. We appreciate that many who work within the justice system believe in those principles that it has lost, corrupted, or abandoned, that they do not bear the full responsibility for the damages caused by their occupation.

It is our hope that this warhead need never be detonated.

However, in order for there to be a peaceful resolution to this crisis, certain things need to happen. There must be reform of outdated and poorly-envisioned legislation, written to be so broadly applied as to make a felony crime out of violation of terms of service, creating in effect vast swathes of crimes, and allowing for selective punishment. There must be reform of mandatory minimum sentencing. There must be a return to proportionality of punishment with respect to actual harm caused, and consideration of motive and mens rea. The inalienable right to a presumption of innocence and the recourse to trial and possibility of exoneration must be returned to its sacred status, and not gambled away by pre-trial bargaining in the face of overwhelming sentences, unaffordable justice and disfavourable odds. Laws must be upheld unselectively, and not used as a weapon of government to make examples of those it deems threatening to its power.

For good reason the statue of lady justice is blindfolded. No more should her innocence be besmirked, her scales tipped, nor her swordhand guided. Furthermore there must be a solemn commitment to freedom of the internet, this last great common space of humanity, and to the common ownership of information to further the common good.

We make this statement do not expect to be negotiated with; we do not desire to be negotiated with. We understand that due to the actions we take we exclude ourselves from the system within which solutions are found. There are others who serve that purpose, people far more respectable than us, people whose voices emerge from the light, and not the shadows. These voices are already making clear the reforms that have been necessary for some time, and are outright required now.

It is these people that the justice system, the government, and law enforcement must engage with. Their voices are already ringing strong with a chorus of determined resolution. We demand only that this chorus is not ignored. We demand the government does not make the mistake of hoping that time will dampen its ringing, that they can ride out this wave of determination, that business as usual can continue after a sufficient period of lip-service and back-patting.

Not this time. This time there will be change, or there will be chaos…

-Anonymous