RE: transcript

Here we go.... 5 parts (thanks again!)

1. To me I think it’s one of the biggest dangers we’re facing in the 21^st century. The information being so fundamental to everything else, this practice of basically making it impossible to determine where information is actually coming from, and the contacts we’ve seen of what governments and companies are willing to do with information and operations... you can extrapolate from that... look what’s already been done, and now look what they’re working on and what they’re capable of, it can drive you sick.

2. Fundamentally what we’re trying to do is minimise the effects of these capabilities, particularly of persona management on the public, and that entails first of all bring out info making the public aware that they exist.

3. We’re going through their emails afterwards, and there are 70,000 of them all together that we have, you can see the mentality that you find in this industry. You never see them turning down any project or questioning whether or not there will be any side effects or repercussions for anything they’re developing and putting into practice. They’re not thinking about how things like persona management provided to corporations might be corrosive to use by those institutions. That doesn’t even come up in a conversation.

4. These three companies have set about to provide mainly the same capabilities that they were providing to government, to a private corporation. And the exact proposal that was created for the bank of America involved attacks on Wikileaks’s infrastructure, it involved cyber attacks and information warfare. It was going to be extraordinarily damaging to the info flow in the US and elsewhere. You know the ability of private citizens to ensure that the information they’re getting is accurate, and to the extent that parties, such as the Bank of America or Government, had this capabilities, and are going to use them. They have a tremendous advantage, a really dishonest and dangerous advantage over not just their competitors but private citizens.

5. The real problem here is that first of all these things can’t be detected without knowing that they exist. The majority of people are unaware of this issue, even though we have documentation and couple of news orgs have reported it. You have capabilities that are increasing in stature without the public at the same time following what’s possible. That’s a serious problem, in so much as if you go around saying look there’s persona management with all these fake personas, the average person thinks that sounds whacky.

From: Barrett Brown [mailto:barriticus@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, 12 September 2011 1:14 PM
To: Hagar Cohen
Subject: Re: media enquiry - operation metal gear

No problem, I can do that tomorrow afternoon (my time) if need be, at any time after 3:00 pm Central Standard Time, U.S. The number is 214-520-9186. I might want to add a few more quick statements to the interview if there's any chance of them being used at this point; otherwise, we'll just redo my previous statements as planned.

On Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 10:07 PM, Hagar Cohen <Cohen.Hagar@abc.net.au> wrote:

Hi Barrett,

I hope you’re well.

Just a quick reminder, we spoke about a month ago about online astroturfing for a program I’m producing for Australian radio (ABC Radio National).

I have a slight problem with that recorded interview we did on skype... the sound engineer just told me that the sound quality is quite distorted, and not good enough for broadcast. I think it’s because the skype line we used that day was really poor. Anyway, the only way I can think of, to solve this issue, is if you agree to record an interview again, this time on a regular landline rather than skype. It won’t take long, because I transcribed the parts of your interview that I want to use in my program – and I can send the transcript for you to read when we record. The transcript is of course your words, I didn’t change it in any way. It should take only about 10 minutes.

I really apologise for having to do this. It’s really important that your comments are a part of the story, and that Australian listeners are aware of the level of online deception you guys have uncovered... and if listeners get distracted by the line quality, it will take away from the strength of your comments.

The program will go to air this Sunday, so it’ll be great if you have time to record it again sometime till Thursday. Any time is fine.

What do you think?

All best, Hagar

From: Barrett Brown [mailto:barriticus@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, 2 August 2011 4:41 AM
To: Hagar Cohen
Subject: Re: media enquiry - operation metal gear

Hi, Hagar-

We can talk over skype if you like; I'm at barrett.brown33. Or I can answer any questions via e-mail.

On Sun, Jul 31, 2011 at 9:51 PM, Hagar Cohen <Cohen.Hagar@abc.net.au> wrote:

Hello Barrett,

I hope this email finds you well.

I'm a journalist with the investigative radio program in Australia called Background Briefing (http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/ )

I'm doing a story about astroturfing on social media, and am very interested to have a chat to you about operation metal gear and the HGBary emails... what's the best way to get in touch?

Best, Hagar

Error! Filename not specified.

Hagar Cohen, Journalist
Background Briefing, ABC Radio National

P	+61 2 8333 2831

E	cohen.hagar@abc.net.au

Error! Filename not specified.

-- Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

The information contained in this email and any attachment is confidential and may contain legally privileged or copyright material. It is intended only for the use of the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you are not permitted to disseminate, distribute or copy this email or any attachments. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this email from your system. The ABC does not represent or warrant that this transmission is secure or virus free. Before opening any attachment you should check for viruses. The ABC's liability is limited to resupplying any email and attachments.

--
Regards,

Barrett Brown
512-560-2302