One would think that this action exposes ‘Anonymous’ to serious federal charges. We are at war, and they’re attacking our troops.
Barrett Brown, 29, calls himself senior strategy officer for the group. He recently was interviewed by MSNBC and explained why his group is looking to attack critical U.S. institutions. He states, “It’s a guerrilla cyberwar — that’s what I call it. It’s sort of an unconventional, asymmetrical act of warfare that we’ve involved in. And we didn’t necessarily start it. I mean, this fire has been burning.”
While the young man doesn’t have much experience in formal ethics theory, he is a fervent “propagandist” (in his own words) who preaches a philosophy of breaking the law to fight perceived injustices. He states, “Our people break laws, just like all people break laws. When we break laws, we do it in the service of civil disobedience. We do so ethically. We do it against targets that have asked for it.”
Mr. Brown’s latest effort is to personally attack and “harass” military personnel, law enforcement officials, and staff at the Quantico, Virginia military base where Bradley Manning is imprisoned. Anonymous members try to hack into the peoples’ personal accounts and attempt to post personal information and embarrassing details on internet message boards and other outlets.
The attacks are known as “doxing” to the group. They include trying to post details about the individuals’ families such as the names of their children and their home addresses.
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