Anonymous activist and journalist Barrett Brown sentenced to 5 years

Barrett Brown

"So that others would have misunderstood." Probably, the American authorities want to bring this idea to the Internet community, which has recently posed a real threat to the established order. Internet activism, hacking of state secret services, political campaigns (as a result of such a campaign with the participation of Aaron Schwartz, the practically adopted SOPA bill was canceled) - this is not popular among conservative politicians.

35 years in prison for Bradley Manning. The threat of a death sentence to Julian Assange. The threat of 35 years in prison for Aaron Schwartz (suicide, as a result). All of this is part of a big campaign to intimidate the Internet community, which is hinted at transparently: guys, stay away from politics!
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Another victim of justice was journalist Barrett Brown, who wrote on information security topics in Vanity Fair, Huffington Post Guardian, and others. He is also the founder of Project PM project on crowdsourcing documents for investigative journalism.

The journalist studied the documents and mail correspondence received by Anonymous as a result of the hacking of the private firm Stratfor, which was engaged in foreign intelligence in Russia and other countries of the world.

As it turned out, Brown himself participates in the Anonymous movement.

Barrett Brown was sentenced to 63 months in prison , minus 31 months, which he had already served. In addition, he will have to pay $ 890,000 in fines and damages and spend two years after his release under supervision.

Barrett Brown Statement

"Good news!

Today, the US government decided: since I was doing my job so well at investigating the cyber-industrial complex, they will send me to study the prison-industrial complex. For the next 35 months, I will be provided with free food, clothing and housing, and I will look for and report misdemeanors to prison officials and staff, as well as report on news and cultural events of the world's largest prison system. I want to thank the US Department of Justice, which spent so much time and effort to ensure my trip. Thanks to them for not holding evil because of my two-year work, the purpose of which was to draw public attention to the campaign of the Justice Ministry to prosecute and discredit journalists like Glenn Greenwald. Instead, the ministry worked tirelessly to guarantee such a prestigious trip to me.

Wish me good luck!"

In the last word before the announcement of the verdict, Barrett Brown admitted his mistakes, including drug use and threats to the FBI agent (this was the reason for his detention). But despite these mistakes, he believes that the government has gone beyond the law in pursuit of it.

After the verdict was announced, an official statement was published by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

EFF lawyers list all the articles for which Brown was accused, and single out among them one of particular concern. After the hacking of Stratfor, the journalist spoke on the IRC channel with Anonymous activists. At some point, he copied a link to files with information about stolen credit cards on one IRC channel - and published it on another IRC channel. That is, he made the operation "copy-paste". As a result, he was accused of distributing stolen authentication functions (a three-digit code on the back of the card) and theft of personal data with aggravating circumstances .

EFF has long stated that the hyperlink charges "pose a serious threat to press freedom." Fortunately, in March 2014, the government removed 11 disputed points, and a month later, Brown signed an agreement, on which only three points of charge remained, and the term was reduced to a modest 5 years.

Of the 63 months of the sentence, only 15 months are connected with the burglary of Stratfor, and the remaining 48 months is the punishment for threats to the FBI agent.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation admits that the threat of violence to a public servant is an unacceptable act, but at the same time it draws attention to the fact that Brown’s deed is partly triggered by the pressure put on him by the state authorities who started persecuting the journalist.

In other words, as a result of pressure and the threat of imprisonment, he was forced to commit a misdemeanor, for which he received a real sentence. “This causes an unpleasant similarity to the disturbing story of Aaron Schwartz, who eventually committed suicide, faced with the threat of spending years in federal prison for violating Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“ CFAA ”),” writes EFF.