Hey Barrett,

Thanks for the email and apologies for the delay in responding. Can't seem to access your Project PM website. Is it down?

The fact that there's so much more to discover in this area makes the whole issue even more intriguing. Is there anything I can do to assist in the investigation related to Australia? I'm here, and willing and yes I'm aware of the Echelon program (and in touch with Nicky Hager about this and other matters).

I'm especially looking at intelligence outsourcing in US-occupied nations such as Iraq and Afghanistan - and the number of civilian deaths due to this process is shocking - and many of the same companies are also working on the US mainland.

My main question below related to your recent Guardian piece was about other media companies to whom you gave this information and their investigations. Has this progressed? You say not a lot yet so how do you see the progress moving from here?

Love to keep in touch. If you have an email list or regular mail-out, please put me on it.

Soon.

Thanks and best wishes,

Antony

On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 8:31 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi, Antony-

Thanks for getting in touch. Although nothing has come up vis a vis Australia, you may be aware that your country is among the five that oversee Echelon, which an informant whose identity we can't verify told us received a major update last month; as we have no documentation on the subject, we haven't discussed anything publicly. I've spoken a bit with Nicky Hagar of New Zealand, who revealed a great deal on Echelon back in the mid-90s and who will be looking more into some of the intelligence contractors with us when he finishes his current book.

Much of the material that's been uncovered can be found at our wiki, http://wiki.echelon2.org/wiki/Main_Page, which is an ongoing process. Having said that, there's still a great deal left to be found and/or analyzed in the 70,000 HBGary e-mails, which are still searchable at the Anonleaks site. My group works out of an irc server at irc.project-pm.org, which you should come by if you ever have questions about anything related to this.

You'll have to restate your question about the Guardian piece, as I'm not sure exactly what information you're looking for. Are you talking about Romas/COIN? If so, there hasn't been a lot of coverage since I released the report, although one of the people who works with us on this discovered that Pixar/Disney employs a former NSA technical director named Dr. Eric Haseltine whom Aaron Barr is referred to by someone with the Office of Secretary Defense in the e-mails. Let me know if you're asking for something more specific.

On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 12:17 AM, Antony Loewenstein <antloew@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey Barrett,

Antony Loewenstein here, independent journalist in Australia (http://antonyloewenstein.com/bio/).

Been following and admiring your work for some time, as I'm working on a book project on the privatisation/outsourcing of our societies, from prisons to private mercenaries in war and intelligence, your area of expertise.

Love to be kept in the loop about your investigations on these matters - now following you on Twitter - and know whether there has been any Australian connection of which you know. Also very keen to know whether I can be involved in some way in these investigations. My area of interest isn't just the fact that the US is using private companies to gather intelligence but how this has happened. Where does the trial lead? And in which countries?

I note in your Guardian piece in June that you talk about a variety of companies involved in these methods and media companies will soon be releasing more information. Where is that at?

Anyway, just wanted to get in contact and hope to begin a conversation. As I'm working on a book for the next years, the privatisation of intelligence and monitoring of social media could not be more relevant for my work but more importantly how I see the world.

Best wishes,

Antony

--
Antony Loewenstein
Independent Journalist and Author
Sydney, Australia
+61 402 893 690
http://antonyloewenstein.com/
http://twitter.com/#!/antloewenstein

--
Regards,

Barrett Brown
512-560-2302

--
Antony Loewenstein
Independent Journalist and Author
Sydney, Australia
+61 402 893 690
http://antonyloewenstein.com/
http://twitter.com/#!/antloewenstein