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