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