Independent Journalists, Activists Politically Targeted in Criminal Hacking Campaign

by Jason Robinson
posted from 21st Century Wire

Now criminal hacking activity has drifted into the grass-roots political arena…

The digital realm has never been more politicized as it is today. Never has the discourse in news and information been so diverse and expansive. Readers are happy, content consumers are happy. Many see this as progress for society as a whole, but unfortunately, others do not – and they are even prepared to go to extreme criminal lengths in an attempt to shutdown freedom of speech and expression online.

There’s high-brow hacking – like when Anonymous takes down a transnational corporation’s website, or a government department (most of the time to a cheering public). Then there’s low-brow hacking: criminal malware, phishing scams and malicious hacking – mainly confined to privacy invasions, and perhaps more serious felony crimes like identity theft, and credit card theft. All these have become part and parcel of life on the internet.

Well, there is now an even lower, type of gutter-brow category, where hackers are being deployed to attack… political dissenters, free speech advocates and independent journalists.

In the last six months, a string of criminal hacking scams has been exposed, ones that are targeting individuals (watch their videos below) from highly successful alternative media outlets, including Stuart Rhodes founder of the organization Oath Keepers, Dan Johnson of PANDA (People Against the NDAA), Luke Rudkowski of WeAreChange.org, and most recently, Aaron Dykes and Melissa Melton of TruthStream Media – to name only a few who have been targeted so far.

In each instance, hackers used fake email with various file attachments, most likely in an attempt to plant illicit pornographic material onto activist and journalists’ hard drives. Once infected, hackers would be expected to break into the infected computer, take screen shots of the planted material along with other ID documents, and then post these online – in an attempt to frame their ‘target’ in the court of internet opinion.

A similar such attack was also exposed recently, where hackers unsuccessfully attempted to frame one prominent internet talk radio host as being “an FBI informant” by hacking his eFAX account and sending a forged FAX to an FBI office in California, then posting it online, alongside his social security card, marriage certificate, phone library contacts and personal family photos.

Watch these three videos below, explaining the politically targeted, malicious hacking scam:

Alinsky Tactics?

This latest string of attacks is sophisticated and organized, but aside from obvious malicious attempts to slander activists and journalists, there is likely a larger, political intent at play here: to disrupt, and destroy organizations and alternative media coalitions from within. Students of ‘Saul Alinsky Techniques’ will quickly see how such targeted campaigns are straight out of the “Rules for Radicals” playbook. Sabotage, scare, intimidate – all techniques proven in the field of radicalism.

It’s sophisticated Cointel Pro, and not dissimilar to the types of operations carried out overseas when intelligence agencies work to increase divisions in tribes, labor unions, communities, before softening them up and preparing a region for an election, regime change, or even a foreign invasion.

Even if hackers perpetrating these crimes may be working autonomously, you cannot rule out the possibility that they are being managed in some way by a third party, be it gov’t or corporate. This is evident by the overt political nature of these related attacks.

In addition to alternative media attacks, similar malicious attacks have also been used to target activist campaigns. According to McAfee Mobile Security, hackers attempted to disrupt and derail the Oct26 Driving campaign in Saudi Arabia which aimed at winning the right for women to drive in that country. McAfee explains:

“After numerous attempts to sabotage the Oct26 Driving Campaign online, by repeated hacking of sites/accounts as well as defacing of websites which included the official website for the campaign hxxp://www.Oct26driving.com twice in a span of a few days. Additional attempts to derail the movement are now coming to light. Hacker(s) not deterred by just the act of defacing sites have also created and released malware to spread their message.”

Are they working alone?

These are just a few examples of organized criminal hacking activities that are clearly targeting political, or ideological opponents who oppose state policies, and mainstream media failures. It’s difficult to physically prove whether or not these attacks have been sanctioned, or are being managed government agencies, or corporate intelligence departments, but there should be no room for doubt that they are all operations carried out with the ultimate goal of shutting down political discourse.

Lawlessness and double standards are fast becoming the order of the day. In the post-Snowden world the public have also been privy to the lengths that governments, particularly those in North America and Europe, are prepared to go in terms of spying and collecting data on their own citizens. It’s a disturbing trend for sure, but more than anything, it signals a kind of vacuum of ethics at the government level, as mandarins attempt to rewrite what passes for legal in the digital age. The fundamental problem here is that if the public lose faith in the state’s own ability to conduct its affairs in a moral fashion at the government level, then history tells us that what tends to follow is a complete breakdown of morals and ethics down the social chain.

The war for free speech
It’s no longer a secret that government bodies and certain corporations have a burning desire to regulate, control, and eventually shut-down the free internet as we know it today. Elite social engineers and media monopolists are scared of how successful and well-organized alternative media has become, not to mention the incredible stories which online, independent outlets are breaking to the public on a daily basis. Does that mean dirty tricks campaigns will be unleashed? It depends how desperate they are shut up dissenting voices.

Ultimately, a ‘divide and rule’ scenario would be needed before any sweeping regulations could be successfully implemented.

Sound familiar? Look at your history books.

21st Century Wire

 

 

Note from Moderator:

A former alternative media activist named Brian D. Hill of USWGO Alternative News has been framed with child porn and railroaded by his public defender/pretender into a criminal conviction and is currently serving as a Sex Offender. He has filed more and more evidence with the Court proving he is not guilty and that the evidence may be fraudulent. He plans to take it back to a New Jury Trial or Habeas Corpus proceeding. So more are being targeted by the criminal hacking groups with child porn set ups as well as corrupt law enforcement officers and corrupt judicial officials.

 

Navy Recruiter Harasses and Threatens Young Woman & Her Cancer Stricken Grandmother With Arrest for Choosing Not To Join

(CN) – A Texas grandmother can push ahead with her emotional-distress complaint alleging that a Navy recruiter added her name to Homeland Security’s terrorist watch list, a federal judge ruled.
In a pro se federal lawsuit filed in October 2010, Vivian Chisholm asked the Southern District of Texas to declare “that she is not a terrorist” and remove her name from Homeland Security’s terrorist watch list.
The complaint primarily attributes Chisholm’s distress to the actions of Humble, Texas-based recruiter Petty Officer Lancelot Coley, but Coley is not named as a defendant.
She claimed her granddaughter, Maigan Brewer, joined the Navy’s Delayed Entry Program in high school but requested an entry-level separation from the program five months later, as was her right to do.
In response to the student’s request for the separation, Petty Officer Coley yelled “vulgar remarks” at Brewer, according to the complaint. He allegedly threatened to alter Brewer’s Social Security card to limit where she could work, arrest her for breach of government contract and report her as AWOL.
Brewer became frightened and asked her cancer-stricken mother to intercede, but Coley simply responded with more “verbal threats, yelling and hostile screaming,” according to the complaint. Chisholm said that is when she stepped in.
After confirming her granddaughter’s right to a separation with the office of state Sen. Glenn Hager, Chisholm said she called the petty officer. Coley “became very irate,” called Chisholm a liar, and began “yelling verbal threats that he was going to file dishonorable discharge, charges of failure to fulfill a governmental contract, and would disable plaintiff’s granddaughter from working in any field and blemish her record for life,” according to the complaint.
Chisholm said she tried to speak to Coley’s supervisor when the petty officer called her daughter on her cellphone during cancer treatments and yelled some more.
“Plaintiff got down on her knees and fervently begged Petty Officer Lancelot C. Coley for his supervisor’s name and phone number for several minutes,” the complaint says, noting that Coley “provided plaintiff with the requested information only after his ego was satisfied.”
But the supervisor, Chief Petty Officer Steve Crawford, was also “vulgar, rude, and disrespectful,” according to the complaint.
After Chisholm tried to reach Crawford’s supervisor, Coley allegedly threatened to involve the Humble Police Department and the Montgomery Sheriff’s Department, and to have Homeland Security arrest the grandmother as a terrorist.
Chisholm said she made calls to the Navy’s offices in Austin and San Antonio, while Coley repeatedly insisted that her name was on the terrorist watch list.
The Naval Inspector General eventually sent Chisholm a letter confirming that it verified her claims and had taken corrective actions, according to the complaint.
Chisholm said she has “nightmares of being arrested by Homeland Security and placed in a cell with actual terrorists.” She lists this among numerous other symptoms that plague her in a 12-page complaint.
The United States moved for summary judgment, but U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon refused on Aug. 12.
Tasked with the burden of demonstrating that Chisholm’s complaint lacked a genuine issue of material fact, the United States came up short, according to the eight-page ruling.
“Chisholm alleges Officer Coley threatened to ruin Maigan’s career,” Harmon wrote. “He threatened to have Chisholm arrested by the Humble Police Department, threatened to have the Montgomery Sheriff’s Department issue a warrant for her arrest, and claimed to have placed her on Homeland Security’s terrorist watchlist.”
“The United States does not deny these allegations,” she added.
“The court finds that, in a post-September 11th world, a naval officer’s unreasonable threat to place a private person on Homeland Security’s terrorist watchlist may be considered extreme and outrageous, exceeding ‘all possible bounds of decency,’” Harmon wrote.
“Chisholm maintains she suffers depression, anxiety, fear of going to airports, and short term memory loss,” Harmon wrote. “Chisholm’s fear is directly connected to Officer Coley’s threat to place her on the terrorist watchlist.”
“Drawing all reasonable inferences in Chisholm’s favor, the court finds the United States has failed to meet its burden of showing that there is no genuine issue of material fact for trial,” Harmon concluded.
Chisholm is now represented by Stephen Schechter of Boerne, Texas.  

http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/08/17/39069.htm

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