Over a year ago, it was revealed that the federal contractors HBGary
Federal, Palantir, Berico, and Endgame Systems had combined forces to create
a sort of cyber-offense unit called Team Themis. With the assistance of the
law firm Hunton & Williams, they went about collecting potential clients,
including two institutions which desired to go on the offensive against
certain activist groups. One of these institutions, the Chamber of Commerce,
provided them with the names of various individuals believed to be involved
with groups that opposed their policies, and asked them to come up with a
plan by which to discredit them. This was one of the options that Team
Themis came up:
Create a false document, perhaps highlighting periodical financial
information, and monitor to see if U.S. Chamber Watch acquires it.
Afterward, present explicit evidence that such transactions never occurred.
Also, create a fake insider persona and generate communications with CtW.
Afterward, release the actual documents at a specified time and explain the
activity as a CtW contrived operation. Both instances will prove that
Chamber Watch cannot be trusted with information and/or tell the truth.
In the eyes of the Justice Department, this sort of thing does not
constitute even probable cause of criminal activity on the part of any of
the individuals involved, or their companies, or the various other employees
who viewed these kinds proposals. I say this because no one involved has had
their apartment door knocked down and their equipment and notes seized by
the FBI, as I have. The fact that Team Themis also discussed the option of
hacking the servers of Wikileaks, and engaging in a campaign of intimidation
against the journalist Glenn Greenwald due to his support of the
organization, does not seem to generate much activity over at the DoJ or
FBI, either. Perhaps this is because these latter measures were proposed for
another of Team Themis' prospective clients, Bank of America, and that Bank
of America first got in touch with Team Themis and Hunton & Williams after
they were recommended to them by the Justice Department itself.
The call for a Congressional inquiry into this matter was shot down by
Rep. Lamar Smith. His reasoning was that the Justice Department is best
equipped to decide if any investigation is warranted in this instance. I
would tend to disagree with that insomuch as that they helped to put these
activities in motion.
At any rate, the FBI is now searching through my belongings for
information on HBGary, Endgame Systems, and the website that my group
Project PM maintains for the purpose of disseminating info on such firms as
these, Echelon2.org. They will find quite a bit of information on all of
these things. They will also find further evidence of wrongdoing on the part
of other "security contractors" who posted pictures of what they believed
to be my apartment so that, as one of them put it, the Zeta drug cartel
would know which house I lived in (http://twicsy.com/i/6dHfX). They will
find the name of the contractor in question; they will find screen shots
showing that he has ties to the former CEO of HBGary Federal.
But they will not choose to investigate those sorts of things. The state
has friends, and the state has enemies.
On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 3:18 PM, Michael Hastings <mhastings@gmail.com>
wrote:
Great, thanks very much.
On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 4:11 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
wrote:
Yep, you can do so. Let me provide a statement to go along with them,
I'll send in a second.
On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 3:09 PM, Michael Hastings <mhastings@gmail.com>
wrote:
Hey man--can we say we are publishing these as an exclusive.
Holy shit. The feds aren't fucking around, hunh?
On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 4:02 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
wrote:
Here are the search warrants that I was provided by the FBI when they
raided my apartment and then my mother's residence. If you do run them,
please block out the addresses.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tom Mills <tmills@millsandwilliams.com>
Date: Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 2:57 PM
Subject: docs I have
To: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Cc: Tom Mills <tmills@millsandwilliams.com>
--
Regards,
Barrett Brown
940-735-9748
--
Michael Hastings
BuzzFeed Correspondent 2012
Rolling Stone Contributing Editor
mhastings@gmail.com
Office: 646-388-1062
International Mobile: +1-212-945-8073
--
Regards,
Barrett Brown
940-735-9748
--
Michael Hastings
BuzzFeed Correspondent 2012
Rolling Stone Contributing Editor
mhastings@gmail.com
Office: 646-388-1062
International Mobile: +1-212-945-8073
--
Regards,
Barrett Brown
940-735-9748