Anonymous responds to SOTU

http://pastebin.com/tK152hCB

Press Release

#RightToLink #FreeBB

Greetings world, We Are Anonymous.

Today Obama attacks the Right To Link in his State of the Union address. He aims to make it a felony to link to "unauthorized" information even if the information is already posted on a public website. This is our response. It's for political prisoner, journalist, and activist Barrett Brown, who is due to be sentenced on Thursday for the same thing--his mere sharing of the now taken-down hyperlink http://wikisend.com/download/597646/stratfor_full_b.txt.gz is nearly certain to be deemed "relevant conduct" for determining his sentence.

When the #AnonOps IRC channel was sharing information about the Anonymous hack of intelligence firm Stratfor in December 2011, a user posted this now taken-down link: http://wikisend.com/download/597646/stratfor_full_b.txt.gz Barrett, researching the hack for journalistic work, asked "What was in that?" and later copy-pasted it into his #ProjectPM channel to share with other researchers. The so-called Department of Justice, alleging the hyperlink led to credit card data of Stratfor subscribers (already canceled data), argues Barrett's copy-pasting means he committed identity theft. They themselves shared the link, putting it on the first page of his indictment. Barrett's supposed crime constituted the majority of the prison term the prosecutors sought: they wanted to lock him up for more than a century.

The link is an address. We must be able to post the addresses of information. Regarding the recent emails hacked out of Sony, the wastes-of-space at the New York Times chose to chicken-out from publishing first about them or linking to them at all, discouraging us from learning more about the topic or evaluating what reporting the paper did decide to do. Instead the NYT, as usual, expects us to take their authoritarian-apologist organization on faith. Barrett, in contrast, encourages everyone interested in the emails hacked out of Stratfor and "cybersecurity" firm HBGary to investigate trademark filings and state-held business registrations etc. and to share their findings online live for free.

The war against the Right To Link does not only affect journalists. It affects all of us.

With the Internet, humanity can now collaborate effectively enough to self-govern at global scale. But the authorities' best defense against our better future is to keep our imaginations clamped down. We can't envision building and defending radical alternatives for a just society when we're overwhelmed by the stock, sedating, and false media the corporate-controlled system blasts out. But by linking us to information we actually need, the Internet is breaking apart the system's shield of illusion. Barrett has been a pioneer of this righteous destruction. His gift has been not just to bring forth crucial news and analysis--answers about information warfare, "cybersecurity" contractors, mass spying--but also to do so with such passion and creativity that he continues, even from behind bars, to inspire us to join him and each other in resistance. That's why his prosecutors cite his leadership and anarchism as reasons to keep him locked up as long as possible. They know Internet activists are teaching us we don't need them.

However, our Internet is nothing without the Right To Link. "We've always been at war with Eastasia" unless links take us to the sources for such statements so we may inspect their value and decide to give support to, or subtract support from, those who made it. In this week's State of the Union address, unlawful enemy combatant Obama will promote new legislation to make it a felony to intentionally access "unauthorized" information even if it's already been posted on a public website. Posting links to such information would become "trafficking." Obama is trying to make more common what his Department of "Justice" has been doing to Barrett Brown.

The good news is, we know how to win this battle, because we've done it before. Remember the Streisand effect? Example: when AACS tried to make 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 (a hexademical key to crack HD-DVD copy protection) an illegal number, and people responded by posting it everywhere, making T-shirts of it, etc. News outlets published the number, everyone loved the number, AACS gave up.

So starting now and through Barrett's Thursday sentencing, we make http://wikisend.com/download/597646/stratfor_full_b.txt.gz a meme! The link has already been taken down, but the URL should become a strong symbol.

ACTIONS TO TAKE STARTING NOW AND THROUGH BARRETT'S SENTENCING (THURSDAY JANUARY 22):

1. Inject http://wikisend.com/download/597646/stratfor_full_b.txt.gz combined with the #RightToLink and #FreeBB hashtags into the State of the Union conversation by exploiting its hashtags such as #SOTU. You can also use liberal and conservative hashtags, #p2 and #tcot respectively, which are sure to be busy during Obama's address. Tweet ideas from this press release or your own ideas. You also can link to this pastebin.

2. Starting now, and on Wednesday and Thursday, tweet http://wikisend.com/download/597646/stratfor_full_b.txt.gz along with the hashtags #RightToLink and #FreeBB. Post the same three things together on Facebook, Tumblr, everywhere else. Don't just retweet or share others' posts; do it yourself to increase its visibility. (Retweeting/sharing is obviously good too!) Other ideas: Write your own reasons why we need to #FreeBB and defend the #RightToLink, re-publish this press release, post http://wikisend.com/download/597646/stratfor_full_b.txt.gz #RightToLink #FreeBB material into the comment sections of news articles about the State of the Union or Barrett's sentencing, etc.

3. Get creative! Tweet pictures of signs reading http://wikisend.com/download/597646/stratfor_full_b.txt.gz and #RightToLink #FreeBB. Make http://wikisend.com/download/597646/stratfor_full_b.txt.gz art and tweet it at mainstream politicos who are active on social media, or at @Stratfor, or at whomever. Whatever you can think of!

4. Persuade other people to join in. PM/DM/phone your friends, acquaintances, comrades, tell them what's up and get them to take part in this campaign.

5. If you are media reading this, it is in your interest to publish the full URL http://wikisend.com/download/597646/stratfor_full_b.txt.gz in your article about this Anonymous campaign. The link has already been taken down.

THE GOALS

In solidarity with Barrett Brown, the goals are to 1) show we will not be stopped from linking to information that's already publicly available, and 2) force discussion about Barrett's case and about defending the Right To Link against Obama and all the other authorities.

MORE INFO:

Obama State of the Union address to advocate making it a felony to link to "unauthorized" information:
http://www.wired.com/2015/01/president-obama-waging-war-hackers/

Department of "Justice" shares the link http://wikisend.com/download/597646/stratfor_full_b.txt.gz: http://freebarrettbrown.org/BB_indictment2.pdf

New York Times afraid of downloading or linking to emails hacked out of Sony:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/17/new-york-times-sony-emails_n_6340776.html

Statements and legal motions about the Right To Link:

Electronic Frontier Foundation statement on the #RightToLink: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/07/indictment-barrett-brown-threatens-right-link-could-criminalize-routine-journalism
Another Electronic Frontier Foundation statement about the #RightToLink: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/03/prosecution-barrett-brown-still-threatens-journalistic-freedom-us
Motion by Barrett Brown's defense to dismiss nearly all of the prosecution's ridiculous don't-you-dare-link indictment: http://freebarrettbrown.org/files/BB_motiontodismiss2.pdf
Electronic Frontier Foundation draft motion to dismiss the same: https://www.eff.org/files/2014/03/12/eff_barrett_brown_amicus_brief.pdf
Committee to Protect Journalists on the #RightToLink: https://www.cpj.org/internet/2013/09/journalist-barrett-brown-faces-jail-for-posting-hy.php
Article 19 on the #RightToLink: http://www.article19.org/resources.php/resource/37247/en/usa:-misguided-prosecution-of-investigative-journalist-barrett-brown-endangers-the-right-to-link

Learn more about Barrett Brown's case:
http://freebarrettbrown.org

Donate to Barrett's legal defense and get a copy of his book Keep Rootin' for Putin:
https://freebarrettbrown.org/donate/

Barrett's under-appreciated work:
https://freebarrettbrown.org/his-work/
http://wiki.project-pm.org

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 online riot:
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0

Streisand Effect:
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/streisand-effect

"We've always been at war with Eastasia"
http://msxnet.org/orwell/1984
http://everything2.com/title/Oceania+has+always+been+at+war+with+Eastasia

Jeffrey Sterling Trial

The true legacy of the Obama Administration is not known when leak investigation trials (and other national security trials) are not covered by the mainstream media.  While there are articles about the trial, video and audio are also very helpful in understanding what is happening in the case.

Op-ed News

Since Tuesday and continuing for the coming three weeks, an amazing trial is happening in U.S. District Court at 401 Courthouse Square in Alexandria, Va. The trial is open to the public, and among the upcoming witnesses is Condoleezza Rice, but -- unlike the Chelsea Manning trial -- most of the seats at this somewhat similar event are empty.

continued

The CIA drew up plans for a key part of a nuclear bomb (what a CIA officer on Wednesday described in his testimony as "the crown jewels" of a nuclear weapons program), inserted flaws in the plans, and then had a Russian give those flawed plans to Iran.

During the trial on Wednesday morning, the prosecution's witnesses made clear both that aiding Iran in developing a part of a bomb would be illegal under U.S. export control laws, and that they were aware at the time that there was the possibility of what they were doing constituting just such aid.

The trial is being covered here at ExposeFacts. (Many nes articles are just reprints of these blog posts).

Some of the case files are here at FAS, and Cryptome has exhibits, and Marcy Wheeler has some documents, like the CIA response.

Over at POLITICO is Josh Gerstein's Under the Radar blog, see here and here and other articles as well.

CourthouseNews is also covering the trial.

Ray McGovern wrote about MERLIN here and why the case is so important.

The federal government claims it is prosecuting former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling for leaking information to a journalist about a risky covert operation in which the spy agency funneled flawed nuclear-bomb schematics to Iran. But the opening days of the trial suggest that the government may be using the case more to overcome its reputation for shoddy intelligence work.

continued

the real subtext of the Sterling case is how the politicization of the CIA’s analytical division over the past several decades has contributed to multiple intelligence failures, especially efforts to “prove” that targeted regimes in the Middle East were amassing weapons of mass destruction.

continued

the two issues – the bogus Iraq-WMD intelligence and the pressure to create another casus belli on Iran – are inextricably linked, as Risen himself explained in his affidavit submitted in connection with the Sterling case.

Risen wrote, “I believe I performed a vitally important public service by exposing the reckless and badly mismanaged nature of intelligence on Iran’s efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction, so that the nation would not go to war once again based on flawed intelligence, as it had in Iraq.”

continued

The most definitive study of a post-Iraq “uncorroborated, contradicted, or even non-existent” nuclear weapons program, this time in Iran, is presented in Gareth Porter’s Manufactured Crisis published a year ago (and viewed as untouchable by reviewers in the fawning corporate media). Porter brings together the results of his many years of research into the issue, including numerous interviews with former insiders.

emphasis mine

He shows that the origins of the Iran nuclear “crisis” were not in an Iranian urge to obtain nuclear weapons but, rather, in a sustained effort by the United States and its allies to deny Iran its right, as guaranteed in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to have any nuclear program at all.

Here is Iran's news agency PressTV's quick report.

The State Department said in its daily brief on Thursday that the trial isn't affecting continuing bilateral talks, because no one there seems to be following the trial.

QUESTION: We’re watching the Jeffrey Sterling trial on the – in that trial that’s going to come out about CIA Operation Merlin, where they were trying to give, essentially, incomplete nuclear weapon plans to Iran to kind of slow down their development of a nuclear weapon. Could the information coming out in this trial at all affect the ongoing talks between Kerry and Iran?
MS. HARF: Well, given I’m not familiar with the specifics of that trial, and I’m not sure our team that’s talking right now in Geneva is either, look --
QUESTION: It’s just kind of out in the public.
MS. HARF: We’re --
QUESTION: Anyone can pick it up, and I just (inaudible).
MS. HARF: Yeah. Well, so look, I’ll check with our folks. But broadly speaking, we are moving forward with these nuclear negotiations, with the P5+1, and with us, with our partners. Their teams are meeting right now with Wendy Sherman and the other negotiators for a couple days of bilateral talks, and then with the rest of the P5+1. That process is moving forward, and hopefully we can continue making progress. Obviously, there’s a lot of history here. We all are well aware of that. What we’re focused on now is what happens going forward.

While they seem not to be aware of the Jeffrey Sterling/James Risen trial, they are aware of the journalist that Iran has in prison, Jason Rezaian.

QUESTION: Can I go back to Iran?
MS. HARF: Yeah, and then I’m going to go to you. Yes, we can.
QUESTION: The case of Jason Rezaian.
MS. HARF: Yes.
QUESTION: Do you have any more information about what he’s been charged with? Have the Swiss been able to meet with him? Does he have a lawyer? What’s – what is his situation right now?
MS. HARF: Well, during the meetings yesterday, Secretary Kerry raised U.S. citizen Jason Rezaian’s case. They discussed the report stating that his case had been referred to a court. The Secretary reiterated our call for his immediate release, as well as for the immediate release of detained U.S. citizens, Saeed Abedini and Amir Hekmati, and of course, for the Iranian Government to work cooperatively with us in locating Robert Levinson, as we always do.
This is a discussion we have with them very frequently. I don’t have many more details than that. Of course, we continue to monitor the situation closely and are seeking further information about what might come out of this move to refer the case to the court. I know The Washington Post – one of their editors also said they hope this is a way the judicial process can be moved forward and Jason can be returned to his family. We certainly share that sentiment.
QUESTION: But you’re not aware of whether there have been any contacts between Jason and Swiss officials?
MS. HARF: I can check. I’m not aware of any, but I’m happy to check for you.

Reporters without Borders is relieved to see that James Risen will not be called to testify at the trial, and even The Intercept reports that DOJ is pulling back (a little bit) from its attacks on journalists and whistle-blowers, revising its media guidelines policy on gathering information from journalists.

Many news outlets covered Condoleezza Rice's testimony where she said that publishing the story could have endangered Americans' lives, which made some of us laugh out loud at the irony of that statement.

@emptywheel that's funny because one is just reporting how the other one is really making the world a more dangerous place @JamesRisen
— BiasedReporter (@biasedreporter) January 16, 2015

That's especially nice coming from Condi Rice, who is a world class expert on making the world a more dangerous place.
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) January 16, 2015

Here is the Google News RSS feed for "Jeffrey Sterling" if you want to keep up with future articles.

And now for the Youtube.

(YouTube)

(YouTube)