Re:
Subject: Re:
From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Date: 2/9/12, 14:11
To: Daniel Conaway <dconaway@writershouse.com>
CC: Gregg Housh <greggatghc@gmail.com>, Stephen Barr <sbarr@writershouse.com>

Done; let me know if I missed anything.

Chapter One: Permanent Revolution

Our story begins the weekend of February 4, 2012, when Gregg awakens to find himself in for more activity than usual. It turns out that a couple of Anon's hackers had managed to sit in on a conference call between the FBI and Scotland Yard in which the two law enforcement bodies discuss their ongoing investigation of Anonymous. That recording has been leaked this morning.  Meanwhile, the military law firm that defended Frank Wuterich (the Marine who admitted involvement in the Haditha massacre) has been hacked by associates of Gregg’s, their website defaced, and these emails, too, are about to be leaked to the public. And the Syrian gov’t has been hacked as well, with another Anon team revealing internal communications by Assad's people in which they discuss their public relations strategy vis a vis western news outlets (this comes a few days after the massacre of hundreds of anti-Assad protesters). A dozen other operations are likewise becoming public; the reader thereby receives a glimpse of the confusing, interconnected drama that will be laid out with more clarity as the book continues. The press is going crazy; Gregg’s inbox and voicemail is full of desperate entreaties from journalists from around the world—yep, there’s one from CNN’s The Situation Room, on which he’ll have to appear in an hour. This dynamic — his juggling six plates with one hand while swallowing a sword and dealing a deck of cards with another, all while being shot out of a cannon—has become standard fare for Gregg in the past few years, since the time when he accidentally found himself at the center of the Anonymous revolution.

Chapter Two: Childhood to Prison

After reviewing a brief exchange between Gregg and a hostile CNN anchor in late 2010, we go back to Gregg’s childhood. After his father pursues a life of crime and vanishes shortly thereafter, he grows up poor, at least until such time as he manages to bilk an arcade out of thousands of dollars at the age of 13. Around the time he’s kicked out of high school, he gets a computer and finds that he’s natural programmer. This leads to a series of contracting jobs for major corporations starting at the age of 16 - as well as an after-hours hobby involving the dissemination of pirated software. His dad shows up at his apartment one day and moves in before eventually stealing several thousand dollars and Gregg’s car. Gregg continues to help streamline the piracy world until being raided by the FBI, which sparks several years of legal limbo followed by a short prison term. Having spent his sentence learning a new programming language and even writing a piece of software that his employer had requested, Gregg is back on the streets with plenty of prospects - but now he has to find a new, more legal hobby.

Chapter Three: The Cult of the Four-Pronged Leaf

With time on his hands again, Gregg spends more time following a sub-culture with which he’d been familiar in the past but which had now truly come into its own - the Chan/Encyclopedia Dramatica/Something Awful world, the centerpiece of which is the 4chan image board. Gregg recounts the origins, particularities, key events, and evolution of this bizarre underworld up until 2007, when the narrative continues. Afterwards we follow as the nascent Anonymous non-organization develops into something recognizable as such, with “trolls” from the original 4chan subculture increasingly acting under that particular “banner” in the course of imaginative raids against online targets ranging from MySpace to Second Life. Finally, one of many scattered pranks happens to involve a white supremacist radio host named Hal Turner, who attempts to publicly identify several of those involved; seeing an opportunity for amusement, thousands of people associated with 7chan, 4chan, and ED begin a campaign of revenge - one that is mistaken for a crusade against racism by many outsiders, some of whom subsequently join the Anonymous “cause.” Largely by accident, then, Anonymous begins to take on a slightly less nihilistic nature. But the transformation is still by no means complete; Gregg, like most others, is still more interested in pulling off epic pranks against larger and larger targets than the is in anything that might reek of activism, per se.

Chapter Four: Chanology

Sitting in one of the IRC networks that Anonymous participants now use to organize raids, Gregg learns of early attempts by several of them to disseminate a leaked video in which Tom Cruise addresses fellow Scientologists in a rambling, bizarre manner. Each time they try to put it up on YouTube, though, Church lawyers are able to get it taken down immediately via a DMCA notice. Gregg and others devise new ways to get around this but their efforts are consistently undone by a remarkably effective and swift-acting Scientology legal team. Gawker changes the dynamic by posting the clip to its own servers, front-paging it, and vowing to keep it up for all time; by now, Gregg is working with others in an attempt to launch a wider campaign against the Church. One of them writes a press release which quickly evolves into a video clip, which is posted that evening, along with directions to the IRC network from which they’re working. By the next day, the video - an electronic voice-over that lists Scientology’s past crimes and promises vengeance by Anonymous - has been viewed by more than 100,000 people, ten thousand of whom join the IRC. This massive change in volume requires the IRC to be altered and upgraded in numerous ways. Ultimately Gregg devises a strategy by which to divide this new army by region while still maintaining control of the situation. After deciding that near-simultaneous protests in front of Scientology centers around the world might work best, Gregg and several associates put out the word to those on the new IRC - and then to the public at large via another video. In the late evening, they’re able to watch via video feed to see if anyone shows up. They do, by the hundreds, in dozens of cities across the world. The chapter summarizes the campaign that follows, a summary that ends with Housh being identified - outed publicly - and taken to court by the Church.  From this point on, he is firmly established as the go-to guy both for curious reporters in need of information about the mysterious growing force that is Anonymous and ambitious fellow Anons who hope to launch similar campaigns. Finally, Gregg is contacted by Australian Anons who hope to establish a campaign against a proposed new internet censorship law; the campaign is a success and the bill is tabled.

Chapter Five: Wikileaks and Revolution Abroad

After a series of conflicts between Anonymous and the entertainment industry over copyright policy, many Anons shift their attention over to Wikileaks, which is about to release a quarter million U.S. diplomatic cables. Coordinated efforts by the U.S. government to prompt a financial embargo on Wikileaks prompts retaliation against corporate participants including Visa, MasterCard, and Paypal. We come back to the hostile CNN interview from Chapter 2 in which Gregg attempts to shoot down various claims about the DDOS attacks against those companies, which CNN falsely characterizes as having prevented millions from using their charge cards. The diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks contribute to street protests in Tunisia, and Anonymous (with Gregg at the fore) steps up to assist by a variety of means. As the revolution spreads across the region, Anonymous takes a larger and larger role, conducting direct attacks on the online infrastructure of the regimes themselves - sometimes to the chagrin of the U.S. gov’t, which counts several of these as strategic partners. Gregg and others work through the media to help ensure that the American public sees these revolts for what they truly are. On January 27th 2010, 40 U.S. Anons are raided by the FBI and five others are arrested in the U.K. in response to the PayPal DDOS; pro bono defense lawyers that have been prepared in secret by operatives working with Gregg are brought in the next day.

Chapter Six: The Contractors

A few days after the FBI raid, the CEO of a contracting firm called HBGary Federal, Aaron Barr, tells the Financial Times that he’s managed to infiltrate Anonymous and identify its “leadership.” But the examples he gives are wrong and sometimes hilariously so; Anonymous responds with a sarcastic press release. The next day, Gregg is informed by Topiary that he, Sabu, and Kayla - all high-profile Anons who have been introduced earlier in the book - have infiltrated HBGary’s servers in retaliation; Topiary lays out the particulars thus far so that Gregg can better handle the press coverage that they know will be coming. Among other things, they take 70,000 company e-mails and sabotage some of the firm’s assets. Gregg negotiates by phone with Barr and executives at the parent firm while also going through some of the e-mails, which reveal malice on their part. Once the e-mails are released to the public, a conspiracy by HBGary, several other firms, and the Justice Department against Wikileaks is revealed, leading to firings, resignations, and an aborted Congressional investigation. Gregg and others establish a new campaign, OpMetalGear, to pursue this and other issues that have been made apparent by the e-mails; dangerous new capabilities being developed and employed by secretive firms and portions of the U.S. intelligence community are revealed to the public as the fallout continues.

Chapter Seven: Revolution at Home

Dozens of government and corporate targets are hit by Anonymous and spin-off group Lulzsec over the course of several months, bringing victories but also new problems as “civil war” ensues among various parties within Anonymous; at the same time, more key Anons with whom Gregg has worked are arrested or go underground. Gregg travels to NYC where Anonymous operatives and others from the movement are hoping to pull off a protest campaign called Occupy Wall Street, which quickly turns into an unprecedented national revolt as police clash with protesters and various other parties - including many of Anonymous’ accumulated enemies - seek to undermine the successful new movement by covert means. At the same time, Anonymous activity increases across the board, prompting more serious responses from more governments and law enforcement bodies as Gregg struggles to contend with the vastly complex new world that he himself has had a hand in creating. We return to the weekend described in the first chapter, which itself brings together the various threads that began years ago.

Epilogue: Tomorrow

Short, expository explanation of the dynamics in play and what is likely for the future.


On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 8:07 AM, Daniel Conaway <dconaway@writershouse.com> wrote:
Barrett and Gregg,

Here are my notes on your chapter summaries.  GREGG:  your input is needed, and immediately, please!!!  Barrett, please be sure to go through that Ch 1 summary I drafted; and you still need to add whatever's in the epilogue.

Questions?

-Dan

________________________________
Dan Conaway
Literary Agent
Writers House



--
Regards,

Barrett Brown
512-560-2302