Re: Hi! Our mailing
Subject: Re: Hi! Our mailing
From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Date: 8/9/11, 16:08
To: Britta Weddeling <b.weddeling@focus-magazin.de>

The anti-leader ethic was certainly a problem but that had gone on from the very beginning. There were several other reasons which I noted here shortly afterwards: http://blogs.computerworld.com/18307/face_of_anonymous_quits_exclusive_interview_with_barrett_brown.

To put it simply, the operations I was interested in pursuing aren't the sort that require the participation of hundreds of people, but rather just a few people with certain skills and sufficient work ethic, preferably operating in a "quiet" venue with few distractions. As such we were already tending to work outside of the major Anonymous venues like AnonOps, and since we didn't need anything else from Anonymous, there was no particular reason to continue to associate with it, and plenty of reason not to. Like a lot of people, I became involved with Anonymous at the beginning of the North Africa campaign because that seemed worth doing, and continued on through the HBGary incident as it had revealed crucial information that needed to be followed up on. But with OpSony, the AnonOps server attracted a great number of people who lacked any skills, maturity, or ethics, and meanwhile it was becoming more and more evident that actions would continue to be taken by Anonymous that many of us thought were either counterproductive or just silly. Since I had been viewed as a spokesperson for the group by the press and others, I had to publicly announce my departure so that I wouldn't have to answer for anything done that I might not want to answer for.

A lot of Anons came with me to Project PM to continue working on the investigation into the intelligence contracting industry; some of them consider themselves to no longer be Anons, some of them do consider themselves Anons. And several major Anonymous participants, such as the hacker Sabu, are present in our IRC channel. I'm also still involved in arranging legal defense for many of those who have been arrested in the course of their alleged work with Anonymous, and otherwise maintain my contacts with the movement, who provide us with information and documents that they or others acquire for us to analyze. There are other participants that were never really involved in Anonymous but who tended to support the movement. Altogether, most of us have complicated views on Anonymous, as Anonymous is complicated.

Our work consists mostly of going through the 70,000 e-mails taken from HBGary as well as other sources in order to acquire a better picture of the intelligence contracting industry and capabilities such as persona management. We use a variety of means to ensure that what we and others discover receives press coverage and public attention. Right now, we're waiting for the federal government to provide Aaron Swartz, an activist who was arrested a few weeks ago, with documents that he requested via the U.S. Freedom of Information Act pertaining to persona management, after which point he'll provide us with those documents and we'll analyze them, add that info to what we already have, and send leads to various journalists.

On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 4:25 AM, Britta Weddeling <b.weddeling@focus-magazin.de> wrote:
Hi Barrett, 

thank you so much for your detailed answer, that was just what I needed. 
Could you precise a bit why you left? Was it caused by this anti-leader-ethic which caused a lot of chaos?

You mention that you continued to work with some Anons, I don't assume that you still with Anonymous. So they are working for your project? 
Could you precise a bit what you do there? 

What I found interesting furthermore was you mentioned Ryan Cleary and the infight at AnonOps. Do you have any idea how I could contact him? Heard a rumor he's out of prison again?

All the best, 
Britta 


Am 08.08.2011 um 23:26 schrieb Barrett Brown:

There are good and bad reasons for Anons to go after someone who speaks to the press or exhibits some degree of leadership, depending on the situation. The problem is that many of them will go after such a person regardless of the circumstances. There is a belief among many Anons that the movement has always been without leaders of any sort, when in fact there have always been small groups of people who take initiative, conceive and launch operations, and ensure that necessary work is accomplished. But the majority of Anons don't see these things occur, as they happen outside of view. Many of them realize that such people are doing what needs to be done, but others assume - and sometimes they are correct to assume - that such "leaders" are merely out for their own gain, or are damaging the movement in some way. Still others don't care one way or the other and just want to harass someone who is more prominent than themselves, in the same way that many regular people enjoy seeing celebrities fall from grace. And all it takes is a few people such as that to disrupt operations. Ryan Cleary, for instance, considered himself to be a leader and said as much to myself and other people on several occasions, but when others who ran the AnonOps IRC server took away some of his control, he disrupted everything and claimed he was doing so in principled opposition to the secret leadership that those people were exerting. Obviously, his real reason was emotional - he had little life outside of Anonymous and clearly didn't care as much about activism as he did about feeling powerful.

This ties in to another problem with Anonymous, which is quality control. Some of the Anons I've worked with and continue to work with are extraordinarily talented, mature people who are willing to make sacrifices to fight for liberty. But in a movement that has little structure, there's no way to prevent people like Cleary from joining. I left Anonymous after that incident and instead began working from my own group, Project PM, which I'd set up in late 2009 for a different purpose but which now oversees our continuing investigation into the intelligence contracting industry, persona management, and advanced surveillance capabilities. As I can choose who joins, we're able to get work done without the distractions and infighting that one finds in Anonymous. Likewise, we don't have to be associated with every action that is taken in the name of Anonymous, some of which we disagree with.

I still think Anonymous is a necessary movement that prompts people to act and provides them with knowledge and training of the sort that is needed to act effectively. But as time goes on, more individuals will choose to start smaller groups with new sorts of organizing principles, and some of these will prove to be more effective than Anonymous by virtue of quality over quantity.

On Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 6:40 AM, Britta Weddeling <b.weddeling@focus-magazin.de> wrote:
Hi Barrett, 

I've got a few more questions concerning your time with Anonymous and the problem of leadership. 

As you probably know, the former German Minister of Defense zu Guttenberg fell under the power of the crowd: Lots of people in the web anatomized his dissertation and found, that he plagiarized most of it. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl-Theodor_zu_Guttenberg#Resignation_from_all_political_offices) 

A few weeks ago the guy who found this anonymous group named GuttenPlag and – after they shut down another politician – VroniPlag, 
gave an interview where he explaines what he did and why. This caused a lot of trouble for him, because other participants of VroniPlag claimed that he was kind of ego-fagg. 

This reminded me of the anti-leader-ethic of Anonymous. Was this kind of "the revenge of the crowd"?
Maybe you with your background could probably explain me this behavior a bit? 

What's the reason both Anonymous and GuttenPlag got this problem with leadership? 

I'd be glad to hear from you soon. 

Warm bests, 
Britta


----------------------------------------
Britta Weddeling
-Redakteurin-

Focus Magazin Verlag GmbH
Arabellastr. 23
81925 München
Tel.:  +49-89-9250-1136
Fax:  +49-89-9250-2973
b.weddeling@focus-magazin.de













Geschäftsführer: Burkhard Graßmann, Andreas Mayer
Handelsregister:  Amtsgericht München HRB 97887



--
Regards,

Barrett Brown
512-560-2302

----------------------------------------
Britta Weddeling
-Redakteurin-

Focus Magazin Verlag GmbH
Arabellastr. 23
81925 München
Tel.:  +49-89-9250-1136
Fax:  +49-89-9250-2973
b.weddeling@focus-magazin.de













Geschäftsführer: Burkhard Graßmann, Andreas Mayer
Handelsregister:  Amtsgericht München HRB 97887



--
Regards,

Barrett Brown
512-560-2302