1

Anonymous is a concept. There are no members, there

is no secret club of hacktivists.
Anonymous is an idea, nothing more. If you think of it as
anything with ‘members’, or—worse—actually believe
you are part of it, you don’t understand it.

“Ideally a book would have no order to it, and the reader

would have to discover his own.” – Mark Twain

theimaginarybook.com
 3

ONE DAY,
EVERYONE
WILL BE
ANONYMOUS
4
In November 2012,
The Imaginary Book Co.
invited the ‘Anonymous’
hacktivist collective to share
their thoughts.
We wanted to try and
capture something of the
essence of an imaginary
non-organisation, to
preserve it as a time-
capsule for the future.
We believe we’re witnessing
the birth of something
important, although perhaps
it’s too early to even say
what it is yet: a new form of
democracy? Time will tell...
We assured Anonymous
we would not edit, collate,
correct, censor, comment
upon, or judge what we
received. That’s for others
to do. We would simply
print. We didn’t know what
we’d get, if anything. What
follows is what we got. Any
spelling or typing errors are
the individual author’s own.
DISCLAIMER:
The Imaginary Book Co.
is not responsible for any
of the views, opinions, or
statements expressed in
this book. Neither can we
verify the truth or otherwise
of anything stated. No-one
at Imaginary is involved
with Anonymous. Not yet
anyway. (Or are we? Mwah-
ha-ha…) We do not know
anyone who participates
in Anonymous activities
personally. Or at least, we
don’t think so. Damn, this is
tricky.
COPYRIGHT:
This book is anti-copyright:
anyone may make Fair
Use of any of its content,
but may not reproduce
the book in its entirety for
any commercial purpose
whatsoever. That would be
naughty.
IBC005
First published 2013 by
The Imaginary Book Co.
Create or die.
5
6
 7

YOUR GOVERNMENT
HAS FAILED YOU.

THE RESISTANCE IS HERE.

WE ARE ANONYMOUS.
8
Greetings world,
WE ARE ANONYMOUS UK.
We share the collective
idea of ANONYMOUS
worldwide; we are the
people.
We believe in non-violent,
peaceful, civil disobedience.
Throughout history the
world has been controlled
by big ideologies such
as religion, socialism and
capitalism, to name but a
few. These are all forms of
slavery that have stopped
our evolution and removed
our freedom.
ANONYMOUS see these
ideologies for what they
are:
SYSTEMS OF CONTROL.
The time for change is now.
No longer shall the
people be oppressed by
corruption.
ANONYMOUS UK can see
why GOOD people are not
in charge of this world and
that is because the current
system rewards GREED
and forgets about giving, it
rewards the STRONG and
does not care about the
weak. It is like the school
bully that no one has stood
up to — yet.
Our Governments have
failed us. They have bled
us dry.
Daily they continue to erode
our most basic civil rights
and freedoms. They have
imposed austerity measures
on us, whilst those to
blame, (the policy makers,
the bankers and corporate
bodies) continue to enjoy
FAT CAT lives at OUR
EXPENSE.
ANONYMOUS is an idea
whose time is now.
Close your eyes for a
moment and imagine a
world that you want to live in
— one that you feel proud
to be a part of — this is
THE IDEA.
All your life you have known
that something is not right
with this world.
You can FEEL it in your
heart. We all can.
Anonymous are here to
re-align the people with the
truth.
You are anonymous. We are
all anonymous.
We are the ones that take
out your trash, the ones that
drive your ambulances, the
ones that cook your meals.
We are everyone and no-
one.
 9

The time is now. In the past

year, the movement to join
Anonymous has swelled
dramatically: in the UK
alone we are over 9000!
Worldwide, over a million
and growing everyday.
You may have heard of
us as just hackers but
we have been involved
with occupy movements,
anti-cut protests and anti-
war demonstrations. We
continue to fight for your
freedom on the internet.
If you see what we see, if
you feel what we feel, then
JOIN US.

THE CORRUPT FEAR

US... THE HONEST
SUPPORT US... THE
HEROIC JOIN US.
10

The most dangerous man, to any government,

is the man who is able to think things out
for himself, without regard to the prevailing
superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably, he
comes to the conclusion that the government
he lives under is dishonest, insane, and
intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries
to change it. And even if he is not romantic
personally, he is very apt to spread discontent
among those who are.

H.L. Menken
Smart Set Magazine
December 1919

There is a force that

is bigger than the
government, and
that is the power of
the people coming
together and
working as one.
This is why we’re
feared.
 11

ANONYMITY IS
EVERYWHERE
12

Anonymous has no face,
no race, and no origin.
Anonymous is a force and
as such, simply is.
Anonymous is not I, you,
or we. Anonymous is all
without name, blame, and
restraint.
Anonymous has no leader,
no organization. Anonymous
is a wandering mass of both
order and chaos.
Anonymous is here,
Anonymous is now,
Anonymous will always be.
Expect Us
Ten years ago it would have
been infeasible for tens of
thousands of individuals
with no physical connection
or central leadership to
conceive, announce and
implement a massive act of
civil disobedience against a
significant Western power,
crippling a portion of its
online infrastructure in the
process – and to do all of
this in a matter of days, and
without anyone involved
13
having to contend with the
tear-gas-and-horseback
response with which states
have traditionally been in
the habit of contending with
mass action. But such a
thing as this is happening
today, and having been
done – repeatedly,
increasingly and with
potentially significant
consequences for the
nation-state.
If you want to do something,
make peaceful protest a
plan. Don’t give them any
reason to lock you away
indefinitely. This evil can be
thwarted with protest but
every man woman and child
has to be in on it. Nobody
stays home.
14
15
16

Who are we?

We are
YOU!
17
18

Our biggest
goal is to one
day take off
our masks in
victory.

As long as there is injustice,
whenever a Targathian
baby cries out, wherever
a distress signal sounds
among the stars, we’ll be
there. This fine ship, this
fine crew. Never give up...
and never surrender.
Fight injustice...don’t
try fighting a goverment
they are too big....simply
find ways to make them
irrelevent. Then they
wither and die!
19
The puppeters of the system brothers. We will have
are obviously in a state of hearts and minds...
panic over the exchange of
information detrimental to Anonymous unite!
them. They race to eliminate
free speech and their
consequent exposure!! They
are not really interested in
what each of us had for tea.
Our biggest fear is not that
we are inadequate, but that
we are powerful beyond
measuring is capable, if..
no, when we unite we will
be beyond power. We will
be kind, gentle, friends,
20
 21

WE ARE
NOT THE
ENEMY
22
We love the internet
And we’re guessing you
do too. Think about all the
awesome things it gives
us: A vast communication
network; innovative
businesses; a platform to
freely speak or challenge
powerful governments; and
hundreds and hundreds of
hours of cat videos.
All this great stuff is
available because the
internet was designed in an
open and inclusive way, with
a multitude of voices being
able to get a say on how it’s
governed.
But the internet is in danger.
There’s a meeting between
the world’s governments
in just a few weeks, and it
could very well decide the
future of the internet through
a binding international
treaty. It’s called the World
Conference on International
Telecommunications
(WCIT), and it’s being
organized by a government-
controlled UN agency
called the International
Telecommunication Union
(ITU).
If some proposals at WCIT
are approved, decisions
about the internet would be
made by a top-down, old-
school government-centric
agency behind closed
doors. Some proposals
allow for internet access
to be cut off more easily,
threaten privacy, legitimizes
monitoring and blocking
of online traffic. Others
seek to impose new fees
for accessing content, not
to mention slowing down
connection speeds.
Used as a pretext to internet
pornography among other
things as an excuse to
censor sensitive material
pages (note that there
are too many cases of
child pornography that are
ignored by the police)
In addition to paying for
internet service, you’d
also have to pay for
visiting certain sites,
such as YouTube. Your
communications would be
constantly monitored and
archived, meaning the end
of Internet privacy. This
could potentially lead to
individuals becoming victims
of blackmail by malicious
people who control the
monitoring.
The Internet is home to
many organized social
movements which fight for
human rights worldwide. If
we allow this, we will not be
able to use the Internet to
organize the defense of our
rights...
If the delicate balance of
the internet is upset, it could
have grave consequences
for businesses and human
rights.
This must be stopped.
Only governments get a
vote at WCIT, so we need
people from all around the
world to demand that our
leaders keep the internet
open.
Watch the video, and take
action above to tell your
governments to oppose
handing over key decisions
about the internet to the
ITU. Let’s use the internet’s
global reach to save it.
 23

PETITIONS: Featured on these

Sign the Declaration of Websites:
Internet Freedom here http:// http://anonrelations.
www.internetdeclaration.org/ net/opwcit-official-leak-
Sign the petition here http:// website-234/
www.protectinternetfreedom. http://anonymissexpress.
net/ cyberguerrilla.
org/?p=7407&utm_
Other info: source=anonymous&utm_
Watch the video here medium=twitter
https://www.whatistheitu. http://lilithlela.cyberguerrilla.
org/?ref=an org/?p=1995
Leaked documents here
http://www.wcitleaks.org/ Tools:
WebChat: http:// http://pastebin.com/
webchat.voxanon. Lwcdm5Fh
org/?channels=opwcit
Articles:
We are the internet http://www.reuters.
We are anonymous com/article/2012/11/27/
We are here to help you with un-internet-
your revolution idUSL1E8MR00G20121127

FLYERS:
https://cdn.anonfiles.
com/1353615461974.jpg
http://imgur.com/a/z7xou
http://anonsource.org/p/
forum/forum_viewtopic.
php?16867.last materials for
video

Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=UXwMjQRO6Bo&feat
ure=youtu.be
24
Greetings, World.
We are Anonymous. In the
last days it has come to our
attention that all Internet
traffic into and out of Syria
was taken down.
Within a half hour of this
sudden shut down, the PBX
land-lines were degraded by
90% and Mobile connectivity
was degraded by 75%.
The nation of Syria has
gone dark. And Anonymous
knows all too well what
happens in the dark places.
Anonymous has done an
exhaustive analysis of the
Internet shut-down in Syria
and we have concluded
that the Syrian regime
has physically severed
the fiber-optic and coaxial
cables coming into Syria.
Essentially, they have
physically “pulled the plug
out of the wall”. As we
discovered in Egypt, where
the dictator Mubarak did
something similar, this is not
damage that can be easily
or quickly repaired.
Fortunately, Anonymous has
been working with Syrian
activists for well over a
year in anticipation of this
moment. We produced and
disseminated the Syrian
Care Package — (First Aid
and Tech Guides in Arabic
and English, as well as
software) — and there are
emergency independent
media centers already set
up in every city of Syria.
Activists and independent
journalists in Syria will be
able to utilize these media
centers to get news and
media out of Syria, and
Anonymous will assist in
propagating that media
to the world. Anonymous
will keep open the lines of
telecommunication with the
free Syrian people. We will
be the voice of the voiceless
in Syria.
Anonymous will NOT allow
this massive violation of
the human rights of the
free Syrian people to go
un-punished. We feel this
is a desperate move by
a dying regime, one that
has slaughtered tens of
thousands of innocent
civilians. By turning off
the Internet in Syria, the
butcher Assad has shown
that the time has come
for Anonymous to remove
the last vestiges of his
evil government from the
Internet. Even if the Syrian
Government opened the
gates to the Internet and
other telecommmunication
systems today, this will not
stop our operation. Soon,
his people will remove him
from this world. Let the final
battle for a free Syria begin.
We Are Anonymous.
We Are Legion.
We Do Not Forgive.
We Do Not Forget.
Bashar Assad, your turn
has come.
EXPECT US.
December 1st 2012.
“When your government
shuts down the
Internet, shut down
your government.” ~~
Anonymous Egypt
25
26
What is Anonymous?
We are Anonymous. We are
unbounded, limitless; we are
less a collective and more
the idea of a collective,
an idea communicated
through action; we are the
strange and circling stars,
ineffable and intractable,
we are the love and lust for
freedom which forms the
white hot cores and births
the white hot light. We are
a wondrous, impalpable
thing. We are as infinite and
ancient and all-pervading as
the human love of freedom.
We are the ever-present
storms which rise when
circumstance and courage
collide to feed upon the
tainted crowns of tainted
kings; we dip our tongues of
mischief between the peaks
of their corroded gold so
that we may all know of and
rejoice in the weakness of
the metals which have too
long been the symbols of
our subjugation.
We choose to no longer
serve as the cough of
canaries in your morbid
mines; instead we shall be
the glorious, promising pulse
through its rocky veins.
Yes, we are the glorious,
promising pulse.
We will not be constricted.
We refute their lies and
resist their restriction. We
recognize the authority of
neither borders nor kings.
Instead we recognize the
sovereignty of the individual.
We recognize the power and
beauty of a collective of free
individuals, each employing
their unique capabilities
toward a common end.
We seek to joyfully raze
the entrapments which
would plague our days
and fetter our freedom.
We dance round the wild
and expanding fires of
liberty. We are the inchoate,
blistering lights flooding the
eyes of petty clerks and
imposing tyrants who have
come to see that we now
realize what they have for
so long known: that neither
they nor their system is
invincible, that it is a false
fatalism they sell to the
public, that things need
not be as they are; that a
better world is possible.
The vulnerabilities of their
system we expose as
evidence of the existence
of this possibility. It is a
symbol of possibility meant
to inspire action and hope.
It is a call to arms, a call
empowered by each of our
successes in exhibiting
the faults lines which with
hungry smiles creep up the
walls of their deceptive pose
of invulnerability.
It is this possibility they fear
and deny. They wish us
to disbelieve, in ourselves
and each other. They sell
us death and wish us to be
calmed by the caress of
its cold fingers. They wish
us to thank them for each
act by which they further
negate our livelihood, by
which they further degrade
our spirit. They wish us
to accept as impossible
that which in its very real
possibility haunts them in
their assumed invincibility,
that which crawls beneath
the widening cracks of their
armor of false luster and
artifice, which peeks out to
signal the precariousness
of their position; the truth is
of course that their power

is wholly derived from our
continued willingness to
submit to them; thus we
are smothered by our
own submission, and a
lacking awareness of the
mechanisms by which it is
perpetuated; a spurning
or fearing of sight. Their
structures may claim to be
invincible only so insofar
as they remain invisible,
only insofar as they are
successful in selling us
the thin, spurious skin of
delusion, in which wrap
up our doubts, a thin
spread clouding which just
barely obtains the desired
occlusion of the true face;
the face of the void on which
they ride, the face of their
precarity and dependence;
the true face which they
so dearly fear our eyes will
find. For they have founded
their vicious, expansive
palaces on a crafty folding
of air, a transparent trickery
which gains efficacy only in
its ruthlessness; a spiraling
structured void, a structure
which now frays, for as our
eyes rise we come to see
that we are bound only
by loose ends wickedly
amalgamated; we are bound
by and to illusion. And our
ghostly binds depend on our
willful provision of the thread
of self.
They would have us bound
to the rocks of our despair
and accepted futility, to a
modern ennui and idleness.
They would have us
purchase and nurse our own
hungry, preying birds, and
offer up gladly our writhing
wounds and gasping organs,
to revel in the tearing of
flesh, to reveal in our own
destruction.
They would have us oil
our chains and sing of the
nobility of their binding
strength and imposing
gleam. And to them we say:
we refuse. They shall now
bask in the unbound fires
of our unbinding. And as
the people and the land are
warmed and emboldened
by this fiery unbinding, their
oppressive deceptions and
dark clusters of coercion
dissolve into an ashy,
revelatory wind. We lift our
faces warm and bright to
the revelatory ash of your
27
undone delusions. We
embrace of combusting
kingdoms. Our actions shall
ramify the agents of this
combustion.
We have often bartered an
acquiescence of self for
the promise of momentary
relief offered by their
corrosive goods. Yet we
now see that they have
sold us a true plague but
a false cure, a cure which
in its falseness burns to
increase the felt truth of this
plague. But we do not seek
false advancement of false
amelioration; we do not
seek to come on our knees
to the latest showing of their
meretricious wares and
wagging tongues.
We seek to uproot this
poisonous growth; we seek
to uproot the very nature
which fosters this malicious
growing. We shall toil with
luminous blades forged in
the enflamed hearts of the
free and resisting, blades
which will not bend under
the desperate pressing
of their gnarling claws
and sparkles, for such
28
blades are of a world and
substance which transcends
the powers of their cruel
implements.
We are the ever-expanding
awareness, we are the
ever-expanding fount from
which flows the ancient
acts of resistance and
freedom. They would have
their liveried rats gnaw the
people unopposed, gnaw
the bones of the poor and
tired in an unopposed
death revelry. They would
profit off the sale of this
exposed marrow and these
terrible cries. They would
make a lugubrious lamp oil
of the fat and blood, they
would spend their days
bathed in the morbid light
of anguish exacted, would
swell their palace halls
with augmenting mirrors
to seal the fate and fear
of the nervous, trembling
onlookers, to extract
submission under threat of
violent fate from false black
suns. And they would have
us all accept with a smiling
deference and surrender of
freedom.
We have come to oppose
them, we have come
to present the option of
resistance, to, with our acts,
make the case for it viability.
It this option which has long
haunted and stirred the
deepest unstill waters of the
subjugated and oppressed;
we merely present in our
action one way which this
long extant option can be
realized, and we ask that
all join us. These rulers and
elite cabals fear life, they
fear the people, the love of
freedom and resistance to
tyranny with which we are
innately imbued. They fear
the awareness we spread
through our actions. The
awareness that, when they
tell us of the weakness of
our being and the futility of
our actions, they lie; when
they tell us of the absolute
strength of their position and
the justness of their actions,
they lie. Their strength
stands only in our belief in,
and submission to, it. We no
longer believe, and we will
no longer submit.
To all you who love freedom
and resist tyranny, we invite
you to join us, to act with us.
Each day launch off your
hopeful bright balconies
a million little rockets of
resistance. Assist us as
we ravage them by the
same electric hands and
calculations which they wish
to see us ravaged by.
They think all these lovely
gathered nodes, the night
glow of all these unfolding
flowers speaking in a wiry
wind, are but another tool to
aid them in their oppressive
ventures, by which their
power may be increased,
their fortunes grown, their
enemies crushed, our
freedom curtailed.
We say it is for quite the
opposite purpose that
these gathered nodes join
hearts and sing. We act
to show this to the world.
And their hegemonies shall
quake under the force of
our laughter, under the
strain of the seriousness
and determination in
our struggle. It is just
one medium for action,
of course, but is it not a
special joy to see their own

armies of malignant formula
freed from malignancy and
turned against the forces
which would deform us
all? But this as we said is
merely one expression of
our passion and purpose.
Although we believe such
electronic actions, the
smashing and hacking,
frenzied numbered
dancing, the quick clever
logic unspooled into the
world, the elegant employ
of tactical maths, while
we believe them both
effective and promising,
a venue deserving of
further investment and
development, that which can
be said to be Anonymous
appears in many forms.
Our forces often rise
undeclared. Sparks of
resistance with which
we feel solidarity are
continually birthing hope
and truth and beauty all
across the hopeful fields
of this embattled world.
All love of freedom and
action toward liberty may
be considered to be acts of
Anonymous, even if they
are not designated as such
in name. And think of all
those who toiled in history,
who labored courageous
and untiring and unknown,
to make for us what life and
freedom we now hold; those
who persisted and held at
bay for one day longer the
forces of fear and injustice
which encircled them in
in insufferable swaths
of cruel-toothed, dark
smiles, those who threw
themselves courageously
into these merciless mouths
of suffering so that we may
now yet have the chance
to act.
Be you Anonymous in
name or spirit, be you
struggling with us declared
or undeclared, it is all the
same; it is the common
end we seek which drives
us forward; it is the love of
freedom and the wish to see
all at last free.
Our actions speak directly to
that most human, universal
love of freedom which
may be feared, terrorized,
repressed, but which is
never quieted in entirety or
extinguished absolutely; that
29
which forever roils in the
hearts of us all and rebukes
us for our submission and
inaction; that which when
witness to the unlocking of
possibility is enkindled and
inspired to act itself. Toward
this universal enkindling we
act. Thus, we are legion.
At every turn we are witness
to the horrors of injustice, at
every turn we are set upon
by the unceasing cries of
those they wound with their
cruel injustices; these cries
carve their horrors against
our days, they clot our joys
and compel our resistance.
They speak in tongues of
blood and terror, and mark
indelible atrocity across the
face of human history. Thus,
we never forgive.
And under sound of these
terrible cries they act with
a renewed passion to turn
their cruel screws against
the flesh of a writhing,
withering populace;
they seek an absolute
submission and compliance,
an inescapable state of
degradation; they seek an
omnipresent power that
30

shall leave no corner of our We will all become great

being unsubjugated; one
that shall never be sated,
and that will always strike
toward conquest if even
for a moment the eye of
awareness is turned from its
devouring maw; they seek
to devour our awareness
and remembrance, the
awareness of our potential,
the remembrance of our
past courageous struggles
and victories; the awareness
of their treachery, the
remembrance of their crimes
and cruelty and betrayal.
They wish to make of us a
malleable oblivion suited
to and receptive of the
intricacies of their dooming
of humanity. Thus, we never
forget.
in the striving courage
of struggle. We will work
together against the forces
of constriction and cruelty;
we adopt all enemies of
freedom as our own. We
will circle, luminous, potent,
unceasing, like a thousand
eternal, furious stars, bright
with bliss and rage, their
palace grounds of brutality,
to deliver a heat and hope
with which may be built the
fall of tyrants. Tyrants have
fallen, and they shall once
more fall. They shall fall
under this bright, furious,
undying light. They shall fall
under the light of freedom.
Thus, expect us.

Their crimes, with proud

and preening and sickly
eyes, strike against the very
core of our humanity, a core
which has before, under
stress of similar blows, risen
to resist, and which shall
rise to resist again; to be
realized in resistance. We
will all soon experience our
greatness and courage,
collectively and individually.
31
32
Greetings, World.
For far too long, Anonymous
has stood by with the rest
of the world and watched in
despair the barbaric, brutal
and despicable treatment
of the Palestinian people
in the so called “Occupied
Territories” by the Israel
Defense Force. Like so
many around the globe, we
have felt helpless in the face
of such implacable evil. And
today’s insane attack and
threatened invasion of Gaza
was more of the same.
But when the government
of Israel publicly threatened
to sever all Internet and
other telecommunications
into and out of Gaza they
crossed a line in the sand.
As the former dictator of
Egypt Mubarack learned
the hard way — we are
ANONYMOUS and NO-
ONE shuts down the
Internet on our watch. To
the IDF and government
of Israel we issue you this
warning only once. Do NOT
shut down the Internet into
the “Occupied Territories”,
and cease and desist
from your terror upon the
innocent people of Palestine
or you will know the full
and unbridled wrath of
Anonymous. And like all the
other evil governments that
have faced our rage, you will
NOT survive it unscathed.
To the people of Gaza and
the “Occupied Territories”:
know that Anonymous
stands with you in this
fight. We will do everything
in our power to hinder
the evil forces of the IDF
arrayed against you. We
will use all our resources
to make certain you stay
connected to the Internet
and remain able to transmit
your experiences to the
world. As a start, we have
put together the Anonymous
Gaza Care Package —
which contains instructions
in Arabic and English that
can aid you in the event
the Israel government
makes good on it’s threat
to attempt to sever your
Internet connection. It also
contains useful information
on evading IDF surveillance,
and some basic first aid and
other useful information. We
will continue to expand and
improve this document in
the coming days, and we will
transmit it to you by every
means at our disposal. We
encourage you to download
this package, and to share it
with your fellow Palestinians
to the best of your ability.
We will be with you. No
matter how dark it may
seem, no matter how
alone and abandoned
you may feel — know
that tens of thousands
of us in Anonymous are
with you and working
tirelessly around the clock
to bring you every aid and
assistance that we can.
We Are Anonymous
We Are Everywhere
We Are Legion
We Do Not Forgive
We Do Not Forget
To the oppressors of
the innocent Palestinian
people, it is too late to
EXPECT US.
33
34
Welcome to the 21st Century
Humanity has come a
long way. We live in a
world where the moment a
thought meets a medium,
be it speech or text, audio or
video, it can be in the hands
and minds of anyone on the
planet instantly. No longer
hindered by the limits of
freight or post, something as
simple as an idea can ignite
the hope and ambitions of
a global population within
minutes of its formation.
Your access to information
is not limited to the number
of books in your nearest
library. Your access to
opinions is no longer limited
by the number of channels
or stations you can tune.
Your only limit to facts, the
very building blocks of truth,
is your desire to seek it.
You are dynamic and
agile; you are free.
These conditions are
emergent and new. Where
the richest Pharaohs
of Ancient Egypt could
not manage it within
their lifetime, even the
impoverished now have the
potential to hear the voice of
a loved one from a place on
the other side of the planet.
What puts this power in
your hands?
It is a spiderweb of
connected computers,
weaving from the
metropolitan New York to
the slums of Sao Paulo and
everywhere in between.
The desire for freedom and
will to demand the respect
of basic, natural rights can
topple regimes of every
shape and flavor.
This power, however,
challenges traditions and
proeedures that have long
been held in esteem. Where
once nations required
the auspices of religion
or heritage to command
power and exalt one, or a
few, above their fellow man
today they rely mostly on the
notion of geography. They
claim that certain rights,
freedoms and liberties stem
from the state, which claims
power derived from where
you were born, or where you
stand now.
Your empowerment
threatens this notion. Your
connection to a vibrant
marketplace of ideas
threatens the tradition that
your actions should be
dictated by where you sit.
Today, you have the power
to pick your path, network
with allies and choose your
own means to meeting
your goals. Unfortunately
there are many people in
positions of power who
resent this new reality, and
are actively working to stop
such free flow of information
and communication.
This same technology allows
states to be more intrusive
than ever, and governments
are making the most of
these new abilities. We
have witnessed intrusions
on privacy that would have
been dismissed as dystopian
only a few decades ago. Left
unchecked by democratic
control, and unconstrained
by national sovereignty or
respect for fundamental
human values, the legitimate
actions of corporations or
governments can easily turn
into abuse.
 35

The more
Yet the same tools that
facilitate these actions
provide us with the ability to
fight back and safeguard our

they try and

human rights. It can give us
the power to expose crime,
corruption and government

invade our
abuse that would otherwise
remain hidden.
There is a new paradigm
emerging. Born from the

privacy,
internet, a personification of
it, if you may.

It was made with hope for

the more
what will be and disdain
for what will happen The
pioneers of this paradigm,
individuals with common

anonymous
purpose, have come
together. We are nowhere,
and we are everywhere. We
are powerful and unbound,

we will
dynamic and agile. We
accept all ideas, as we are
all of them, yet are none of
them at the same time.

Who are we?

We are Anonymous.
become.
So are you.
36
TYLER platform has been
activated, Anonymous says.
The message that is going
on the internet is that the
Anonymous platform TYLER
has been activated. The
platform is activated as of
8:17 AM December 7th,
2012.
TYLER is a secure, no cost
and decentralized online
leaks release platform
that is build to replace
Wikileaks. The idea of the
TYLER platform got initiated
after Anonymous told the
world that they will not be
supporting the Wikileaks
initiative anymore.

A new form of
democracy is born.
We now police
those who would
police us.
We are watching
you, Big Brother...
Anonymous has told known as PM2012, is
Cyberwarzone that they well known by people that
will launch a new video are following the steps of
on 11/12/12 that will be Anonymous.
revealing the #PM2012
operation.

The video will try to warn

the people for the upcoming
leaks and Anonymous is
trying to keep the people
calm when the leaks are
leaked. The PM2012 video
is a call to remain peaceful.
Project Mayhem, also

Why I am part of the Anonymous collective
I have always been
passionate about free
speech, knowledge, sharing
that has the ability to reach
everyone regardless of
who they are and will stand
against anyone who wants
to quash that. Since I was a
kid, I’ve always suspected
that the world I existed in
was fake, shallow and an
illusion, but never had the
knowledge to understand
what was wrong, although
I had many questions, no
one could answer them,
not even my family; nothing
made sense because
logic and reason were
not entertained in the
world around me, which
is scary for a kid that can
think. I can’t and never
have just accepted what
I’m told without question,
which got me into lots of
trouble as a kid. There is
a surface tension, which
people in general did not
look at or even consider it
existed, acceptance without
question or blind faith.
Strange and unnerving if
your only guidance was
an environment that was
fake and without reason. I
37
was and still am a curious or be a computer wiz kid,
mind, full of questions, I don’t have to hand over
never satisfied until I get any money, labels and
to the bottom of stuff, so borders don’t exist with
when I got a pc a couple of Anonymous, I don’t even
years ago and got myself have to give a name, I am
on the net, well, I was in my just a curious mind being
element, perfect and full of part of a collective of other
information. I’d known about curious minds wanting the
Anonymous for a couple same thing, and that to
of years, but I like to get all me its a breath of fresh air
my facts before opening my and a spectrum of colour.
mouth and had a lot to catch Anonymous is everything
up on. And now Anonymous I have wished to be real.
is my home, it’s a perfect fit Anonymous is a collective
as if it was made for me. like no other, I’m proud to be
a supporter and help where
I have never had the I can.
opportunity to speak out
and stand up for what I
believe in, but Anonymous
has given me the perfect
opportunity on a plate.
I never excelled in the
education system, now
I know why. Education
isn’t about indoctrination,
regurgitation and dumbing
down so I would never have
succeeded at it, too many
questions; it’s about real
knowledge, stimulation,
questions, curiosity and
real progress, all of which
Anonymous provides. I don’t
have to have qualifications
38
The Betrayal Of Wikileaks
Anonymous Press
Release
Thursday - October 11, 2012
8:30 PM ET USA
Greetings World,
In December of 2010
Anonymous came to the
defense of and began
supporting the organization
WikiLeaks and it’s besieged
founder Julian Assange.
As many will remember
this initially took the form
of several online protests
against MasterCard, VISA
and PayPal — for which 14
brave Anons in the USA stand
indicted. During that time we
also launched the first ever
DdoS by Anonymous against
a western government
when we attacked the
Swedish Prosecutors office
in defense of Julian. Since
that time, Anonymous has
been a steadfast ally of both
WikiLeaks and Assange.
We have provided some
of the biggest leaks since
the infamous cables were
disclosed, incuding the Syria
Files and the GI (Stratfor)
Files — for which Jeremy
Hammond now rots in a
prison accused of supplying.
We have continued to risk
lengthy prison sentences by
attacking dozens of web sites
in the UK and Sweden to
bring attention to Assange’s
plight. And most recently,
when we received word
the UK Police were about
to raid the UK Embassy it
was Anonymous who rallied
hundreds of people to go
to the Ecuador Embassy in
London to defend Ecuador’s
sovereignty and Julian.
To this day, not ONE single
WikiLeaks staff are charged
or incarcerated. However,
Anonymous has 14 indicted
(facing 15 years) for online
protests defending WikiLeaks
— and one (Jeremy
Hammond) in prison and
facing 20 years for allegedly
supplying the Stratfor GI
Files. Not to mention the
heroic Bradley Manning who
now rots in Ft. Leavenworth
Prison facing life. Despite
that fact, WikiLeaks has
chosen to dishonor and
insult Anonymous and all
information activists by
prostituting the Stratfor Files
and other disclosures that
Hammond and Manning
stand accused of supplying.
Since yesterday visitors of the
Wikileaks site are presented
a red overlay page that
demands they donate money.
This page cannot be closed,
and unless a donation is
made — the content like GI
Files are not displayed.
We are aware that the
donation paywall can be
circumvented by disabling
Javascript. However, this
is not the point. Neither is
Anonymous concerned
that WikiLeaks is asking
for donations. However, we
do see a serious problem
in the way WikiLeaks
is implementing this for
several reasons. First of all,
the casual user (which is
the majority) usually have
Javascript enabled and
thus will be blocked by the
donation page and denied
the content. Additionally,
the casual user does not
know that he needs to
disable javascript to get to
the content without paying
— sorry, donating. They
may not even know what
javascript is, let alone how to

disable it. Lastly, regardless
of any workarounds, the fact
remains that a meretricious
page is placed for the
majority of visitors that cannot
be closed. The obvious
intention is to force donations
in exchange for access. This
is a filthy and rotten, wholly
un-ethical action — and
Anonymous is enraged.
We have been worried about
the direction Wikileaks is
going for sometime now.
In the past year the focus
has moved away from
actual leaks and the fight
for freedom of information
and concentrated more and
more on Julian Assange
and a rabid scrounging for
money. When this “paywall”
appeared last night, there
was a brief and intense
exchange online between
Anonymous and WikiLeaks.
Within two hours all of the
“paywalls” were removed. At
that point Anonymous was
willing to let this pass, for the
sake of peace in the over all
movement. But now tonight,
as if taunting us to rage —
the “paywalls” reappeared
not just on sections of the
site but for every single file.
Enough! We have numerous
disclosure platforms of our
own, and in the future we will
deliver Anonymous related
leaks via these platforms.
(See list at end).
Anonymous has had
enough. The conclusion
for us is that Anonymous
cannot support anymore
what Wikileaks has become.
We will NOT attack the web
assets of WikiLeaks, as they
are media. We do not attack
media. Any future attack
on the WikiLeaks servers
attributed to Anonymous
is a lie. But what we will
do is cease from this day
all support of any kind
for WikiLeaks or Julian
Assange. No longer will
Anonymous risk prison to
defend WikiLeaks or Julian
Assange from their enemies.
No longer will Anonymous
risk prison to supply material
for WikiLeaks disclosures.
Anonymous turns it’s back
on WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks has
with it’s actions this past 48
hours betrayed Anonymous,
and thus has lost it’s biggest
and most powerful supporter.
We are preparing for the
39
media a detailed dossier
of all the un-ethical actions
perpetrated by WikiLeaks
that we have ignored for so
long. A Dox if you will, on
WikiLeaks. We will deliver it
to the media in a few days,
not for vengeance — but as
justice for our fallen Anons
whom WikiLeaks has chosen
by this action to dishonor and
disgrace.
We Are Anonymous
We Are Legion
We Do Not Forgive
We Do Not Forget
WikiLeaks we gave you a
chance, now it’s too late to
EXPECT US.
--------------------------------------
Anonymous Global - www.
AnonymousGlobal.tk
AnonLeaks - www.par-anoia.
net
HackerLeaks - www.
HaxorLeaks.tk
LocalLeaks - www.
LocalLeaks.me
40
Dealing with law enforcement
WHAT TO DO:
IF AN AGENT IS AT YOUR
DOOR
Do Not Let Them In
Do not open the door, not
even a crack. Clearly state
through the door, ‘I am
exercising my right to remain
silent. I do not wish to speak
with you without an attorney.’
If they claim to have a
warrant, ask to see the
warrant before you let them
in. If they have a warrant,
you are being raided.
Do Not Give Consent
“The right of the people to
be secure in their persons,
houses, papers, and effects,
against unreasonable
searches and seizures,
shall not be violated, and
no Warrants shall issue,
but upon probable cause,
supported by Oath or
affirmation, and particularly
describing the place to be
searched, and the persons
or things to be seized.”
-4th Amendment, US
Constitution
The Fourth Amendment
restricts the government’s
power to enter and search
your home or workplace,
although there are many
exceptions and new
laws have expanded the
government’s power to
conduct surveillance.
You do not have to let
police or agents into your
home unless they have
and produce a valid search
warrant. A search warrant
is a written court order that
allows the police to conduct
a specified search. If you are
present when agents comes
to your home, you should
ask to see a warrant. The
warrant must specify in detail
the places to be searched
and the people or things to
be taken away.
Beware of questions like
“Do you mind if I come in?”
As simple as this sounds,
this can be interpreted as
consent to search your
home.
Tell the agents you do not
consent to the search so
that they cannot go beyond
what the warrant authorizes.
Ask if you can watch the
search; if you are allowed
to, you should. Take notes,
including names, badge
numbers, what agency
each officer is from, where
they searched and what
they took. If others are
present, have them act as
witnesses to watch carefully
what is happening. If the
agents ask you to give them
documents, your computer,
or anything else, look to see
if the item is listed in the
warrant. If it is not, do not
consent to them taking it
without talking to a lawyer.
Roomates, Parents, and
Bosses Can Give Consent
If you live with other people,
they can give the consent
to search common areas
including shared bathrooms.
They cannot give consent to
your private areas.
Parents can give consent to
the search of their children’s
private spaces.
Any area of your workplace,
including your personal
locker or desk drawer, can
be searched if your boss
gives consent.
IF YOU ARE SERVED
WIITH A SUBPOENA
Grand Jury Subpoenas
A grand jury subpoena is a

written order for you to go
to court and testify about
information you may have.
You are not allowed to have
a lawyer present and can be
required to answer questions
about your activities and
associations.
Because of the witness’s
limited rights in this
situation, the government
has frequently used grand
jury subpoenas to gather
information about activists
and political organizations.
It is common for the FBI
to threaten activists with a
subpoena in order to elicit
information about their
political views and activities
and those of their associates.
There are legal grounds
for stopping subpoenas,
and receiving one does not
necessarily mean that you
are suspected of a crime. If
you do receive a subpoena,
call the NLG Hotline at
888-NLG-DANK (888-654-
3265) or a criminal defense
attorney immediately.
The federal government
regularly uses grand
jury subpoena power
to investigate and seek
evidence related to politically
active individuals and social
movements. This practice
is aimed at prosecuting
activists and, through
intimidation, discouraging
continued activism.
Federal grand jury
subpoenas are served in
person. If you receive one,
it is important that you retain
the services of a progressive
attorney, preferably one
who understands your
goal of defending the
political movement and
friends. Most lawyers are
trained to provide the best
legal defense, often at the
expense of others. Beware
lawyers who advise you to
cooperate with grand juries,
testify against friends, or cut
off contact with your friends
and political activists.
Cooperation usually leads
to others being subpoenaed
and investigated. You also
run the risk of being charged
with perjury, a felony, should
you omit any pertinent
information or should there
be inconsistencies in your
testimony. Frequently
prosecutors will offer “use
immunity,” meaning that
41
the prosecutor is prohibited
from using your testimony
or any leads from it to bring
charges against you. If a
subsequent prosecution
is brought, the prosecutor
bears the burden of proving
that all of its evidence was
obtained independent of the
immunized testimony.
You should be aware,
however, that they will
use anything you say to
manipulate friends into
sharing more information
about you by suggesting
that you have betrayed
confidences. If you appear
before the grand jury you
do not have the same
protections as in a trial: you
have no 5th Amendment
right to remain silent (if you
invoke your right to remain
silent you may be held
in contempt) and no 6th
Amendment right to counsel
although you can consult
with one outside of the grand
jury room.
Grand Jury Non-
Cooperation
If you receive a grand jury
subpoena and elect to not
cooperate, you may be
42
charged with civil contempt.
There is a possibility
that you may be jailed or
imprisoned for the length of
the grand jury, in an effort to
convince you to cooperate.
(Regular grand juries sit for
a basic term of 18 months,
which can be extended up
to a total of 24 months.) It is
lawful to hold you in order
to coerce your cooperation,
but unlawful to hold you as
a means of punishment. In
rare instances you may face
criminal contempt charges.
IF YOUR HOME IS
RAIDED AND/OR YOUR
EQUIPMENT SEIZED
Ask to see the Warrant
If an agent claims to have
a warrant, ask to see it. It
must be signed by a judge
to be valid. A search warrant
should be specific as to the
area to be searched and the
object(s) to search for.
Do not consent to an agent
searching any areas not
specifically included in a
search warrant.
Just because an agent has
a search warrant doesn’t
mean you have to answer
any questions. Maintain
your right to silence during
the search – clearly state
that intention if you are
asked any questions. Say,
“I am exercising my right to
remain silent; I request a
lawyer.”
If possible, make note of
any items that are seized
and any areas that are
searched.
IF YOU ARE QUESTIONED
BY LAW ENFORCEMENT
Remain Silent
“No person shall be held
to answer for a capital, or
otherwise infamous crime,
unless on a presentment or
indictment of a Grand Jury,
except in cases arising in
the land or naval forces,
or in the Militia, when in
actual service in time of
War or public danger; nor
shall any person be subject
for the same offense to
be twice put in jeopardy
of life or limb; nor shall be
compelled in any criminal
case to be a witness against
himself, nor be deprived
of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law;
nor shall private property
be taken for public use,
without just compensation.”
-5th Amendment, US
Constitution
Whether or not you’re a
U.S. citizen, you have
rights under the United
States Constitution. The
Fifth Amendment gives
every person the right to
remain silent: not to answer
questions asked by a police
officer or government agent.
Remain Silent. Say
something like, ‘I am
remaining silent. I want to
speak with a lawyer.’ It is
very important to request
a lawyer; once a lawyer is
requested, law enforcement
are not allowed to continue
an interrogation without
lawyer present. Do this
immediately when an agent
approaches you. Do not
answer ANY questions,
even simple, seemingly
benign ones.
This is easier said than
done. Agents are trained
to get you talking: they
have learned the power of
persuasion and the ability to

make a person feel scared,
guilty or rude for refusing
their questions.
Agents will often try
and get you to talk by
suggesting that you must
have something to hide, or
that they only have a few
questions that they need
answered before they can
move on. Agents will also try
to manipulate information
out of you by telling you that
they have you nailed, but
they will go easy on you if
you talk to them.
These are tricks. You,
alone, are not in a better
bargaining position than an
experienced agent or officer.
For example, one trick
they might use is asking
you questions they know
the answer to (e.g. “do you
know person X”). If you
instinctively say “No,” you
may be lying to a federal
officer, a felony punishable
by five to eight years in
prison.
Don’t be intimidated or
manipulated by an agent.
It is always best to not talk
without an attorney present.
If you do talk, anything you
say can be used against you
and others. If you are asked
any questions, you should
clearly state that you will not
answer any question without
an attorney present.
If you do start talking,
remember that you can
always stop an interrogation
by saying you want to speak
with your attorney.
IF YOU ARE ARRESTED
Don’t Panic
Being arrested is one
of the most frightening
experiences a person
can have. Your liberty
is probably your most
cherished possession.
If you are arrested, you
do not have to answer
any questions. You
should affirmatively and
unambiguously state that
you wish to assert your right
to remain silent. Ask for a
lawyer right away. Do not
say anything else. Repeat to
every officer who tries to talk
to or question you that you
wish to remain silent and
that you wish to speak to a
lawyer. You should always
43
talk to a lawyer before
you decide to answer any
questions, even if they make
promises to you.
Don’t Talk
It’s pretty unbelievable, but
the police can lie to you at
this stage in the game. The
can promise you things that
they have no intention of
delivering in exchange for
your cooperation. Do not
talk to them without a lawyer
that you trust. It will not help
you.
Procedures
Procedures differ in different
states, but you should
expect to be brought before
a judge for a probable
cause hearing and a bail
setting within 72 hours of
your arrest. If given the
opportunity answer honest
questions about your
employment education
and civic activities with the
assistance of your lawyer.Do
not answer any questions
about the case. If necessary
say, “I am asserting my right
to remain silent.”
Remember: If you say
something to a police officer,
44
FBI agent, or in court that
is not true you can be
charged with another crime.
Remaining silent is your
best option.
IF YOU WANT TO TRAVEL
INTERNATIONALLY
Don’t Bring Sensitive Data
If you carry any sensitive
information with you when
you travel, you should
be aware that the Fourth
Amendment does not seem
to apply at border crossings.
There have been many
reported cases of security
researchers, hackers, and
activists being detained
for hours and having their
laptops, phones, and
memory cards confiscated,
sometimes indefinitely,
without any reason given,
much less a warrant.
It is not clear what rights
you have to retrieve
your property from the
government in such
situations, though there
is ongoing litigation and
some attempts by congress
to legislate reporting
requirments.
If you are concerned that
you might be targeted
because of your activism,
reporting, or research, you
should consider transferring
important information to
a secure server (via ftp,
dropbox, etc.) before you
re-enter the United States
so as to mitigate the result
of potential confiscation.
Encrypting Your Harddrive
Some people use full disk
encryption to protect their
harddrives when they travel
internationally. It is an open
question of law whether
or not you can be forced
or ordered to reveal your
passphrase. We do not
recommend bringing your
laptop when you travel
internationally because the
consequences are unclear.
Here is a presentation from
defcon about international
travel and encryption:
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=ibQGWXfWc7c
 45

Project Mayhem 2012

‘Dangerous Ideas #1 and #2’: evidence of illegally and
corruption.
http://pastebin.com/sLL- iMAGIne together we leaK
wJbtz it ALL.
Project Mayhem 2012 Tyler: And you know it because
http://pastebin.com/Wt- TYLER knows it.
15GXTn Expect us.

TYLER forum discussion:

http://galatorg.com/index. Twitter:
php/forum/31-tyler RA2012: http://twitter.
com/R_A2012
TYLER pad discussion:
http://pad.telecomix.org/ep/ pm2012org: http://twitter.
pad/view/TYLER/latest com/pm2012org

You are Anonymous.

You are Project Mayhem Tumblr:
2012. PM2012: http://pm2012.
On the 10 days that go from tumblr.com/
12-12-2012 to 12-21-2012,
the World will see an RA2012: http://ra2012.
unprecedented amount of tumblr.com/
Corporate, Financial, Mili-
tary and State leaks that will
have been secretly gathered
by millions of CONSCIEN-
TIOUS citizens, vigilantes,
whistle blowers and insiders
worldwide, dormant cells of
a global ‘Fight Club’ from all
countries, patiently waiting
for the time to SWARM the
Egregor’s Consciousness in
perfect synchrony.
iMAGIne YOU purchase a
USB drive.
iMAGIne YOU take it to your
work place.
iMAGIne YOU collect
46

#OpNewBlood ‘Anonymous’ guide to Anonymity’
Okay, We need to talk.
I know you don’t know me
and I’ve no idea who I’m
talking to right now.
Anonymous as it should be.
Sadly, a lot of new people
(‘newfags’ < if you take this
as offensive, stop that from
now on) don’t seem to know
how this works. I don’t want
you to be(come) one of
them, so I’ll teach you a few
things.
This might get long, and
maybe difficult & not fun, but
if you ain’t willing to change
the way you act/think, well..,
You can stop reading right
about now and I’ll see you in
court. On TV...
Still here?
Good.
I knew you wouldn’t be so
stupid to just leave.
Right. First things first.
This will be a two part
system on making you
‘anonymous’ with minor tech
related issues.
Why?
Because most of it can be
done in the mind.
Part one will be about
‘dedox’, the second on the
actual mind changing bit.
You do need to follow both
actions for this to have any
effect.
Dedox.
This is the easy part.
You might be wondering,
‘Hurr, dedox? You mean
detox..?’
You’re partially right. and yet
you ain’t .
Let me explain.
In this online world, personal
details are called ‘d0x’ which
is basically some lame
1337-term for documents..
(don’t ask..).
47
Now I expect that you
already know what detox
means. If you don’t know,
start Google (you’ll need it
later on anyway).
Right, I think you roughly
know what detox means
now. (If you still don’t, it’s
some way to get all the bad
stuff out of your body).
Now combine detox with
d0x.. Good, I see you sort
of understand where I’m
going to.
Now go to Google. What I
want you to do, is to search
someone...
Search yourself. This
sounds odd I know but trust
me, you’ll learn from this.
What I want you to search
are the following things:
Everything
Related
To
Yourself.
(Previous/old) usernames,
emails, your own name, the
place where you live, your
48
phone number, your mobile
number, any other thing that
relates to you.
I can make a long story
out of this, but I won’t
because a lot of it is on >
http://school0fanon.tumblr.
com/post/27490137702/
anonymous-d0x-yourself-
publicly-now-all-of-you <
already.
Don’t do it publicly though,
as the title suggests.
Just keep this to yourself.
Hint: both search like *name*
and *”name”* (remove stars)
And watch out with sites you
don’t trust.
Okay now you know what’s
on the internet because of
you and about you (Rule #2,
If you don’t put something
online, your friends love to
do it for you, bastards..)
As the article says, change/
delete anything you find
which you don’t actually
need.
Old forum accounts with
some personal details are a
true treasure to d0xers (and
the other, less nice kind of
people, the ones with the
badges).
Take a piece of paper and
write down EVERYTHING
you find. You’ll needs this
later on.
Once you’ve noted
everything, try to delete/
remove/change everything
you don’t need.
Unsubscribe from mailing-
lists, change password &
email into something useless
if possible. Remove ANY
personal data. including
possible posts.
Okay, once you changed
what’s possible (remember,
you can always mail the
admins of sites to request
the deletion of accounts)
you’re pretty much done for
this part.
Just be really, really sure.
Doing it again won’t be too
bad.
Now that this is set, it might
be useful to start to check
programs on updates.
(Hackers abuse soft-/
hardware that ain’t updated)
My personal advice would be
the Secunia PSI, but you can
do it manually too (takes a lot
of time though + the PSI is
free, so why not?)
You’ll probably see some
stuff that you wouldn’t have
expected. Doesn’t matter,
some *ware just doesn’t tell
you when it’s updated.. Try to
update as much as possible.
(Remember, every detail
counts and hackers really do
try ANYTHING to hack you).
I would also advice you to
check for viruses and all that
while you’re at it. Note: if
you’ve already downloaded
‘hacker tools’ secure these
now or expect to download/
install them again..
What I would recommend is
to do a scan with HitmanPro
first (after all, it’s free) and
do a second scan with the
Sophos VRT (Virus removal
tool) afterwards.
You should be up-to-date,
safe and secure now.

Ready to go the the next
part? Because this was only
the easy part...
“The mind thing”
This is basically the hardest
part, yet the one that makes
the most sense.
Your online you won’t be
you. Keep this in mind.
As an Anon, you won’t be
yourself.
This doesn’t mean you can’t
state the things you think.
It means that you won’t be
you, to the rest of the world.
Remember that info you
wrote down about yourself
earlier on? You can’t use or
link to ANY of that.
Lol no really, you can’t.
All these things track back
to you. Online & offline.
And once things are linked,
you’re screwed..
First read
http://www.cyberguerrilla.
org/?p=3322&page=2 &
http://www.cyberguerrilla.
org/?p=3322&page=3
if you don’t know how to
work with TOR yet.
Start TOR.
Now let’s start with a new
email. Yes, new.
You can pick basically any
email client you want, but
you can also go for the more
secure & anonymous ones
like hushmail.
Setup for a rather secure &
anonymous email:
Create it like this
“username@mail.domain”
Remember, this can’t be
one you already made
once. This includes with the
username, and make sure it
doesn’t links to anything on
the paper. (if in doubt, check
it, search it, research)
Make sure the password
ain’t related to anything
either. if you can’t think of
anything, take the closest
49
book. pick 4 random
pages and use the first 3-4
characters of every 20th
word on the page.
(It might be useful to note
this down somewhere
secure.)
Use the same method for
the ‘secret answer’ , but a
different outcome.
Basically, make yourself
some sort of weird cryptic
thing that only YOU know.
So I prefer it if you don’t use
the above method, but if you
have at least 40 books with
a lot of pages, it’s worth a
shot..
You don’t need to use
books, just find your own
special ‘secret code’
Now that you’ve got a email
(don’t fill in any personal
details please..) you can
continue with the rest.
Just remember this;
Always keep it on 1 email an
account.
50
Always use your method for
passwords and secret/safety
questions.
Always use/register Anon
related things with TOR.
Now the hardest thing for
most people is the final step.
Not being you.
This is basically really
simple, but people tend to
forget it and f*ck up, get
jailed etc.
Don’t share pictures online
with metadata/exifdate still
in them.
(If you don’t know what
this is or how to remove it,
search it with Google on
TOR)
Don’t share geolocations
with tweets.
Don’t use real names of
people.
Don’t share personal details
to anyone.
Don’t speak to people you
know in real life.
Avoid links.
Always keep the above in
mind.
Just be anonymous from
now on, because if you
use this (in combination
with the rest of the www.
cyberguerrilla.org guide)
and you still get caught then
well.
See you in court. On TV...
...
...
...
And maybe on the day we
get you out.
Shoutout to:
@Doemela
@SchoolofAnon
Everyone who helped with
#OpNewBlood so far.
In memoriam of Matt Telfer
(MLT of TeamPoison) A lot
of people will miss you M...
P.S. Buy a VPN!! you can
get them cheaper with
BITCOINS and BITCOINS
you can get for pretty much
nothing by mining them
yourself!
Use Mullvad.net to get a
cheap VPN with Bitcoins!
If you want to know how
to mine Bitcoin using your
computer just Google it!!
51
52
53
54
Twenty-Thirteen
We live in a time that far
surpasses George Orwell’s
nightmarish vision of
Nineteen Eight-Four and
hurtle toward an even more
hellish future. This future,
the New World Order, is
desired by only the power
hungry tiny minority on top
of the pyramid. For the rest
of us, potentially destined
to be bound in abject
slavery, life will not be worth
living. Over the last three
decades the push toward
this end has esculated and
is gathering speed.. World
events are manufactured
and dis-information spread
by the mass media fills
our ‘news’ papers and is
broadcasted into in our
homes incessantly in an
attempt to manipulate our
minds. Governments kill
their own citizens. We
are being divided and
conquered. We are all under
constant survelliance and
monitored, and under threat
of being micro-chipped,
which, by a flick of a switch
could be turned off at any
point to kill us. Our bodies
are poisoned by chemicals
sprayed by aeroplanes,
and added to our food and
water with the sole design to
render us more dumb, more
compliant. Our education
has been degraded into
a primer for slavery. As
engineered economical
situations plunge the
majority into poverty and
sickness, healthcare and
the social systems which
once gave some aid and
protection to the sick,
poor, elderly, and disabled
are beng dismantled.
The numbers of people
being rendered homeless
increases by the day, as
does the suicide rate.
As the push toward a more
terrifying future accelerates,
simultaneously, more
and more people are
expressing anger, more and
more are questioning and
awakening to the diabolical
machinations going on.
At present we still have
some freedom to express
viewpoints and are able
to exchange information,
though this is being
threatened with curtailment.
A rapid growth in information
exchange is happening.
Not since the late sixties
and early seventies have so
many raised their voices in
unison in protest to what is
occuring and set to occur.
Protests, protest groups,
webpages and forums
appear each day.
One movement that has
arisen, from humble
beginnings on the internet,
are Anonymous. Many
still see this movement
as solely a loose-knit
group of hackers, young
anarchic geeks. It is NOT.
It has expanded and
grown into a force which
governmental bodies,
mass media, pedophiles,
and all manner of corrupt
institutions and individuals
now fear. Furthermore, it
is evolving and growing
still. Its members and
followers are world-wide,
of all ages, of varying skills
and it is open to all. I am,
for instance, a sixty year
old woman who would not
have a clue of how to hack
into a computer. I have,
however, from an early age,
and consistently during the
course of my life, fought for
freedom and against tyranny
 55

and injustice. I have fought

in a variety of ways, alone
and with others, and will
always do so.

I give my alllegiance to
Anonymous on the basis
that I genuinely consider the
movement to be one which
will continue gather enough
force to be instrumental
in steering humanity
away from the future, the
few utterly evil elite, who
have, without any shred of
conscience, deliberately
and systematically planned
in their greed for ultimate
power.

There is still hope before

we all totally zombified,
restrained or wiped out. We
are racing against time ....
but I have faith ....... WE
WILL SUCCEED!!!!
56
V for Vendetta and the rise of Anonymous. By Alan Moore
10 February 2012
On Saturday protests
are planned across the
world against Acta - the
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade
Agreement. The treaty
has become the focus
of activists associated
with the Anonymous
hacking network
because of concerns
that it could undermine
internet privacy and aid
censorship.
First published in 1982,
the comic series V for
Vendetta charted a masked
vigilante’s attempt to
bring down a fascist
British government and
its complicit media. Many
of the demonstrators are
expected to wear masks
based on the book’s
central character.
Ahead of the protests, the
BBC asked V for Vendetta’s
writer, Alan Moore, for
his thoughts on how his
creation had become an
inspiration and identity to
Anonymous.
PREOCCUPATIONS
Without wishing to overstate
my case, everything in
the observable universe
definitely has its origins
in Northamptonshire,
and the adoption of the
V for Vendetta mask as a
multipurpose icon by the
emerging global protest
movements is no exception.
Back at the crack of the
17th century, Rushton
Triangular Lodge was a
strange architectural folly
constructed to represent
the Holy Trinity by an
increasingly eccentric Sir
Thomas Tresham while he
endured decades of house-
arrest for his outspoken
Catholicism.
It was also one of the two
locations, both owned
by Tresham and both in
Northamptonshire, at which
the Gunpowder Plot of 1605
was formulated by a group
of dissident Catholics that
included Tresham’s son
Francis.
It would seem likely that the
treatment afforded to the
elder Tresham played some
part in the general mix of
grievances from which the
reckless scheme ignited.
Mastermind
By the early sixteen-
hundreds, the bonfires
traditionally lit around the
start of November had been
co-opted as trappings for a
sort of national anti-Catholic
day at which effigies of the
Pope would be incinerated.
As mastermind behind the
terrorist outrage du jour,
however, the plot’s nominal
leader Guido Fawkes rapidly
replaced the pontiff as hate-
mascot of choice on these
occasions.
Jump forward 300 years,
though, to the battered
post-war England of the
1950s, and the saturnine
insurrectionary had taken
on more ambiguous
connotations.
When parents explained to
their offspring about Guy
Fawkes and his attempt to
blow up Parliament, there
always seemed to be an
undertone of admiration in
57
58
their voices, or at least there
did in Northampton.
While that era’s children
perhaps didn’t see Fawkes
as a hero, they certainly
didn’t see him as the
villainous scapegoat he’d
originally been intended as.
Revolutionary
At the start of the 1980s
when the ideas that would
coalesce into V for Vendetta
were springing up from a
summer of anti-Thatcher
riots across the UK coupled
with a worrying surge from
the far-right National Front,
Guy Fawkes’ status as
a potential revolutionary
hero seemed to be oddly
confirmed by circumstances
surrounding the comic strip’s
creation: it was the strip’s
artist, David Lloyd, who had
initially suggested using the
Guy Fawkes mask as an
emblem for our one-man-
against-a-fascist-state lead
character.
When this notion was
enthusiastically received, he
decided to buy one of the
commonplace cardboard
Guy Fawkes masks that
were always readily
available from mid-autumn,
just to use as convenient
reference.
To our great surprise,
it turned out that this
was the year (perhaps
understandably after such
an incendiary summer)
when the Guy Fawkes
mask was to be phased out
in favour of green plastic
Frankenstein monsters
geared to the incoming
celebration of an American
Halloween.
It was also the year in
which the term “Guy
Fawkes Night” seemingly
disappeared from common
usage, to be replaced by
the less provocative ‘bonfire
night’.
At the time, we both
remarked upon how
interesting it was that
we should have taken
up the image right at
the point where it was
apparently being purged
from the annals of English
iconography. It seemed that
you couldn’t keep a good
symbol down.
If there truly was government
unease about the mask and
its associations back in the
1980s, these concerns had
evidently evaporated by
the first decade of the 21st
century, when the movie
industry apparently decided
to re-imagine the original
narrative as some sort of
parable about the post-
9/11 rise of American neo-
conservatives, in which the
words “fascism” or “anarchy”
were nowhere mentioned.
Anarchy and romance
When the film was made
during the peak period of
anti-terrorist legislation the
golden touch of Hollywood
was, it seemed, sufficiently
persuasive for the authorities
to permit a massed horde
of extras dressed as the
nation’s most famous
terrorist to cavort riotously in
Parliament Square.
I don’t think one need
subscribe to any quasi-
mystical theories about how
the conceptual world of ideas

can affect the substantial
world of everyday existence
in order to agree that, in
retrospect, this could be
seen as practically begging
for it.
After that, it wasn’t long
before the character’s
enigmatic Time-Warner
trademarked leer appeared
masking the faces of
Anonymous protesters
barracking Scientologists
halfway down Tottenham
Court Road.
Shortly thereafter it began
manifesting at anti-
globalisation demonstrations,
anti-capitalist protests,
concerted hacker-attacks
upon those perceived as
enabling state oppression,
and finally on the front steps
of St Paul’s.
It would seem that the
various tectonic collapses
deep in the structure of
our economic and political
systems have triggered
waves of kinetic energy
which are rolling through
human populations rather
than through their usual
medium of seawater.
It also seems that our
character’s charismatic grin
has provided a ready-made
identity for these highly
motivated protesters, one
embodying resonances
of anarchy, romance, and
theatre that are clearly
well-suited to contemporary
activism, from Madrid’s
Indignados to the Occupy
Wall Street movement.
Neglect
Our present financial ethos
no longer even resembles
conventional capitalism,
which at least implies a
brutal Darwinian free-for-
all, however one-sided and
unfair. Instead, we have a
situation where the banks
seem to be an untouchable
monarchy beyond the reach
of governmental restraint,
much like the profligate court
of Charles I.
Then, a depraved neglect of
the poor and the “squeezed
middle” led inexorably
to an unanticipated
reaction in the horrific
form of Oliver Cromwell
and the English Civil War
59
which, as it happens,
was bloodily concluded in
Northamptonshire.
Today’s response to similar
oppressions seems to
be one that is intelligent,
constantly evolving and
considerably more humane,
and yet our character’s
borrowed Catholic
revolutionary visage and
his incongruously Puritan
apparel are perhaps
a reminder that unjust
institutions may always be
haunted by volatile 17th
century spectres, even if
today’s uprisings are fuelled
more by social networks
than by gunpowder.
Some ghosts never go away.
As for the ideas tentatively
proposed in that dystopian
fantasy thirty years ago, I’d
be lying if I didn’t admit that
whatever usefulness they
afford modern radicalism is
very satisfying.
In terms of a wildly
uninformed guess at our
political future, it feels
something like V for
validation.
60

“ Look, the people

Tyler Durden, Fight Club.
you are after are
the people you
depend on: we
cook your meals,
we haul your trash,
we connect your
calls, we drive your
ambulances. We
guard you while
you sleep. Do not
fuck with us.”
61
62

Noise is relative
to the silence
preceding it.
The more absolute
the hush, the
more shocking the
thunderclap.
Our government
has NOT heard the
people’s voice for
generations...
 63

... and it is much,

much, much louder
than they can
remember.

WE WON’T BE
SILENCED!
64
Anonymous Hacks U.S. State Department
While you were sleeping
last night, Anony­mous
hacked into the U.S. State
Department’s web­site,
report­ed­ly in the name of
fall­en com­rades Aaron
Swartz and recently arrested
mem­bers of LulzSec.
Personal data - includ­ing
names, email addresses
and phone numbers
of hundreds of State
Department staffers - were
leaked online to the Zer­oBin
web­site.
Anony­mous hacks US State
Dept, invest­ment firm in
homage to Aaron Swartz,
#Lulzsec rt.com/usa/news/
anony… #OpLastResort
— Anony­mous (@
YourAnonNews) Feb­ru­ary
20, 2013
The group also alleged­ly hit
the invest­ment firm George
K. Baum and Company,
which has ties to Stratfor,
the pri­vate intel­li­gence
service that worked with the
CIA (anoth­er for­mer tar­get
of the group).
Did you know this:
dazzlepod.com/
stratfor/?emai…That Invest­
ment Bank is linked to
Strat­for
— OpLas­tRe­sort (@
OpLastResort) Feb­ru­ary 19,
2013
In that attack, Anonymous
also pub­lished the account
data and trans­ac­tion
informa­tion of the bank’s
users. The OpLas­tResort
Twit­ter account says the
death of Aaron Swartz
is the rea­son behind the
group’s focus to tar­get
the government with such
feroci­ty. “This tragedy is
basis for reform of computer
crime laws and the
overzealous prosecutors,”
they write on the group’s
Twit­ter bio.
But in an iron­ic twist,
“Opera­tion Last Resort”
may have very unin­tend­ed
conse­quences.
Domi­no Effect
Will this attack final­ly wake
up the sleep­ing giant
that is the Unit­ed States
government?
The threat of online secu­ri­ty
is very real, and the result
of this newest action could
truly gal­va­nize law­makers
and pre­vi­ous­ly unsure
Con­gress­men to sup­port
the dan­ger­ous CISPA bill
and intro­duce even harsh­er
Inter­net laws. This kind of
over­re­ac­tion could cause
more dam­age than the
attacks them­selves.
With this attack fol­low­ing
on the heels of Anonymous
defac­ing sites owned by
MIT, the Unit­ed States
Sen­tenc­ing Com­mis­sion,
the Fed­er­al Reserve and
a failed hit on broad­
casts of the State of the
Union speech last week,
the wheels for enact­ing
Draconian laws may already
be in motion. Anony­mous,
which cham­pi­ons Inter­net
free­dom, may have just
pushed the Web down a
dark shaft.
Mak­ing mat­ters worse, is
what’s still in the arsenal
of the online activist group.
Anony­mous claims to
possess “warheads,” codes
to unlock encrypt­ed files
 65

said to con­tain sen­si­tive

gov­ern­ment data, allegedly
obtained dur­ing the January
RESPECT
25th hack of the U.S.
Sentenc­ing Com­mis­sion
site.
EXISTENCE...
Under Obama’s new cyber­
law man­date, these actions
are all cyber threats and
pun­ish­able by severe action.
How far is the gov­ern­ment
or EXPECT
will­ing to go to stop these
attacks, and what will the
ulti­mate effect on all our civil
RESISTANCE!
lib­er­ties be?
66
The Basics
Basic Anonymous
Dictionary.
IRC - Internet Relay Chat
- a chat system based on
clients, bouncer and IRC
service. Used for real time
chat and transferring files
over the Internet.
Dox - Personal information
about a person on the
Internet, including real name,
known aliases, address,
phone number, SSN, credit
card number, etc.
Proxies - A proxy server
helps cover up your tracks
because you connect to
remote computers through
the proxy. Think of it as the
condom of the Internet.
PM - Private message. Use
it to get in contact with other
people.
Mirror - An exact copy of a
web site that is stored on
a different server. Using
multiple locations for warez
sites allows the site to be
accessed using a different
address if the main site is
deleted.
LOIC - LOIC (Low Orbit Ion
Cannon) is an open source
network stress testing and
DoS attack application.
Flaming - A general net
term for “verbally” attacking
someone. This can be
done via email, bulletin
board, chat room or any
medium which involves
communication across the
web.
Scanner - A program
that attempts to find the
weaknesses of potential
victim computers by
repeatedly requesting
information from such
computers and probing
them for security holes in
the process.
Tango Down - A word used
to describe the downing
of a website. Army slang
that refers to target down,
originating from the NATO
alphabet for the letter “T”.
VM - Virtual Machine -
completely isolated guest
operating system installation
within a normal host
operating system.
V& - Vanned - Getting
caught/arrested by the FBI/
police/other feds.
1.The Anonymous Truths.
A. Anonymous is
Leaderless.
B. Anonymous is not a
club, political movement
or Religious sect. It has
no race, colour or creed.
Anonymous is just an
idea based on freedoms
– freedom of the Internet,
freedom of speech, freedom
of knowledge and freedom
against oppression.
C.Their is nothing official
about Anonymous. No one
controls the idea, the idea
just is
D.You are not expected to
join every Op, go with your
heart, you are an individual.
E. Think for yourself, say
how you feel (see points
A,B,C,D).
2.Operating Systems.
Their are 3 main Operating
systems available, these
are Windows created by
Microsoft, Mac OS created
by Apple and Linux which is
opensource and created by

a community. Most Anons
would use Linux or at least
have linux as a Dual Boot
(2 operating systems on
the same machine) or in a
virtual machine.
Windows – Windows is
widespread and used by
most business’s worldwide,
it isn’t particularly stable
and has had security
issues in the past, it is
also the system most
prone to virus’s and
malware. We recommend
avoiding windows 8 due to
rumours of backdoors and
killswitches.
Mac OS – Created by Apple
and only used on their
tech, it is stable and mostly
secure. Due to recent
revelations involving child
labour and overworked,
underpaid staff in Asia we
would avoid.
Linux – Linux is opensource
so free to download and
used. It is very stable and
secure and is updated
constantly by a dedicated
community. Linux is also
behind the 2 most important
operating systems in any
Anons Arsenal Backtrack
and BlackBuntu (more on
those later). Linux comes
in many flavours but
for beginners we would
recommend Ubuntu or Mint.
Linux is a good way to
learn the command line and
programming basics. We
would always recommend
Linux over any other
operating system.
3.Web Browsers & Search
Engines.
There are many web
browsers but we would
recommend Firefox, not just
because of its opensource
background but because of
the tools that come with it.
Within Firefox you can set
up private browsing and
change your IP address, u
can also control cookies and
tracking. All these are very
important in staying safe
and secure and Anonymous
on the web. Firefox is easy
to download but comes
pre installed on most
Linux Operating Systems
(Distro’s)
Firefox also provides
Addons these are handy
tools that can be bolted on
67
to the web browser below
is a list of the most useful to
an Anon.
Ghostery - Alerts users
about the web bugs, ad
networks and widgets on
visited web pages.
Adblock - Block all annoying
ads all over the web
ShowIP - Display
information regarding the
IPv4s and IPv6s about the
current site in the status bar
Hackbar - This toolbar
will help you in testing sql
injections, XSS holes and
site security.
Https Everywhere - The
browser extension makes
it easier to connect to
encrypted websites.
Chatzilla – Chat client (more
on chat clients later).
Cryptocat - An open source
web application intended
to allow secure, encrypted
online chatting.
AnonyMox - Hides your true
Internet identity and makes
it look as if not you.
NoScript - Pre-emptively
blocks malicious scripts and
allows JavaScript, Java and
other potentially dangerous
content only from sites you
trust.
68
Beef Taco - Sets permanent
opt-out cookies to stop
behavioral advertising
Tiny URL - Turns a long URL
into a much shorter one.
Firefox will connect u to
Google, but Google does
track, if u don’t wanna be
tracked we recommend
DuckDuckGo, DuckDuckGo
is a search engine that
can be set very much like
Firefox, u can set security,
tracking and cookies on it
, so coupled with Firefox it
can keep u pretty much off
the grid if used right.
4.Email and
Communication.
As more and more
Governments want to read
your email its getting harder
to find email clients that
won’t let them. If you wanna
keep your emails internet
based then Hushmail is a
good choice as you can also
encrypt emails if you wish.
Within Tor (see proxies) you
can also set up a TORmail
account which is also very
secure but does involve
accessing TOR to check or
send mail.
Their are also web clients
such as Thunderbird which
will bring your email to
your desktop rather than
having it floating around the
web. Most Linux Distro’s
come with Thunderbird or
something similar to it.
Some VPN providers (see
proxies) also offer email
accounts.
Other forms of
communication can include
some or all of the following -
IRC – Internet Relay Chat
– These are (hopefully)
encrypted chat rooms set
up on private servers. IRC
is a known communication
platform for Anonymous
but recently more and more
Anons are moving on due to
concerns about security and
logging of conversations.
Most arrested Anons
have been shown logs of
conversations from IRC’s
by the feds to prove guilt. If
you are going to use an IRC
then keep it to general chat
and no Hacking chat, thats
just our advice.
CryptoCat - Friends use
Cryptocat to talk without
revealing messages to a
third party. LGBTQ activists
use Cryptocat to keep
private matters private.
Journalists use Cryptocat
to keep their stories and
research confidential.
Cryptocat is made for
everyone. Thats what the
advert says and its kinda
true, u can send a link to
other Anons u wish to chat
to and in theory its pretty
much private. A lot of Anons
are now doing this. Just
make sure u send the links
securely using Privnote or
PM.
Jtorchat – Torchat became
Jtorchat, and Jtorchat
had issues and died for
a while but it has been
revived and so can be used
once again which is great
news. Jtorchat is a p2p IM
messenger running through
the TOR proxies. It allows
for buddy lists where u
can share ID’s with trusted
Anons. Jtorchat is secure
and encrypted and many
Anons us it, but it can be a
fiddle to set up.
Pads – Pads include

Pastebin, AnonPad,
PiratePad and EtherPad.
The most popular being
Pastebin but due to recent
issues involving censorship
by the Pastebin people
(basically rolling over for the
feds) its not used as much
as it once was.
Pads allow u to write stuff
like this guide for example
and then sent it to others
across the web, they exist
purely online. Some pads
like PiratePad allows
multiple people to work
on the same project and
even chat whilst doing it.
Anonymous uses pads a
lot for all manner of things
from planning, Operation
background, data dumps
and even defacements.
Chat Clients - Different
types of Chat Clients
that can be used when
connecting to an IRC
network. I have put together
the most propular clients.
And there pros and con’s
aswell as how you can make
them more secure. Inportant
Notice:- IT is advised that
all new Anon’s/guests use
at least a VPN and Tor.
For your own protection,
when you have registered
YOU SHOULD set up a
VHOST. When connecting
to a IRC network of any
kind, (Voxanon/Anonset/
Anonops) etc please use
common sense and dont
have nicks which are linked
to your real life. Infact when
connecting to the network(s)
please LEAVE everything
else behind, you name, your
family, your job etc. this
information can be used to
DOX you etc.
1) Mibbit: is an online chat
client, it supports a variety
of platforms including most
popular web browsers
(Internet Explorer, Firefox,
Chrome, Safari, Opera
and SeaMonkey etc) Why
use Mibbit: for one its one
of the most common way
that people who seek out
Anonymous will use the first
time they join any of our
networks. But it is inportant
to move to a more secure
form of chat client, as a lot
of Opers (@) etc dislike
Mibbit for many reasons,
people tend to conintue to
use Mibbit as a last resort if
69
there current client is broken
and been fixed or if they
need to relay an important
message to someone or to a
channel.
2) Web chat : A web chat
system allows users to
communicate in real time
using easily accessible web
interfaces, as its a type of
internet online chat which
is known for its simplicity
and access to users who
do not wish to take the
time to install and learn a
specialized chat software.
Again this can be a last
resort same as the Mibbit
Client.
3) Xchat Xchat is the most
popular client a lot of people
will use, due how easy it
is to use The default view
for the client window is
referred to as “tree view”,
but can be configured
for a tabbed interface for
multiple simultaneous.
Tabs change colour as text
arrives, other users enter or
leave channels, or address
the user’s nickname.
The interface can display
click-able operator (“op”)
70
commands and others,
and be customized for
fonts, event sounds, and
timestamping and logging
(Logging is bad and is
frowned upon) . XChat
implements all standard IRC
Commands that you would
expect, Xchat is available
to download across many
platforms e.g Windows/
Linux/Mac systems. Xchat
is suggested for newcomers
to chat clients, who seek
a easy to use, hassle free,
easy to configure Client
program.
4) mIRC is an IRC client
for Windows and has been
described as “on of the most
popular IRC clients that is
available for Windows” its
easy to use and alter the
look and the behaviour
of the client. Its also easy
to set up as well. Another
claimed feature is mIRC’s
file sharing abilities, via the
DCC protocol, featuring a
built in file server. MIRC is
very similar to Xchat as its
easy to use, hassle free and
easy to configure. With the
right help 5) is a IRC client
for Linux,Windows, Mac OS
x systems. Its not as GUI
friendly as the other clients,
its a text client with no GUI.
Its however fast, stable
and powerful, you alter the
appearance of it in the form
of background colours/
text colours and even put
a background picture if you
want to. You can make it run
thought the TOR program
for added security and
peace of mine via joining the
TOR Leaf, you can get the
OTR plugin in, which only
works if the other person
has irssi and the OTR plug-
in installed. You can get
other plugin’s as well but
its best to get the basic of
the client frist before diving
into the deep end. I would
not advise to use Irssi for
new starters but rather use
another client like Xchat.
5) ChatZilla: ChatZilla is
an IRC client for Mozilla
a-based browsers such
as Firefox, It is a cross
platform, open sourced
software which has been
noted for its consistent
appearance across
platforms, CSS appearance
customization and scripting.
And how easy it is to set
up and customize the
settings to personal style.
It contains most general
features of IRC clients,
including connecting to
multiple servers at once,
maintaining a built-in list
of standard networks,
searching and sorting of
available channels, chat
logging (which frowned
upon and will result in been
banned) Direct Client -to-
Client (“DCC”) chat and file
transfers,
There are many Chat
Clients out there that can
be used to connect to any
of our networks, some are
really user friendly and easy
to set up and maintain,
but its down to your own
personal choice, ALL chat
clients have there own pro’s
and con’s, hopefully this
mini guide has/will help you
on your way, again I cant
stress to you how important
it is to be protected. With
VPNS/VPS and tor etc.
when you have joined a
network please head over
to #opnewblood #help
#opnewblood and #help

anon’s will be able to help
you set you up and make
sure you have all important
programs up and running
before going ahead with
what ever you have decided
to do for Anonymous. please
listen to the wise words and
advice of these anons as
they know what they are
talking about.
Virtual Machines.
A virtual machine (VM) is
a simulation of a machine
(abstract or real) that is
usually different from the
target machine (where it
is being simulated on).
Virtual machines may be
based on specifications of
a hypothetical computer
or emulate the computer
architecture and functions
of a real world computer.
(Wikipedia)
Their are to main
VM programs worth
downloading both function
in the same way. The first
is VirtualBox the second is
VMWare. They both pretty
much work in the same way.
Having a virtual machine
running on your pc or laptop
to allows you to do 2 things,
first it allows you to have
multiple operating systems
(depending on cpu etc)
which can all be used for
different things, second it
allows you to run a hack lab
within a single environment.
Rather then having 2
pcs u can set the virtual
machine as the target.
This is a great training tool
and recommended for all
Hackers and Pen testers.
Setting up your Virtual
Machine.
We will use Ubuntu as the
OS in this guide.
Step 1. Download Ubuntu
and Vitualbox. Virtualbox
can be found on oracle
and Ubuntu can be found
through the power of google.
Ubuntu will come in a .iso
so you will need something
to mount the image, I myself
use Magicdisk.
Step 2. After mounting
Ubuntu, open Virtualbox and
select “New” on the top left
hand corner.
Step 3. Select a name for
your VM and then change
71
the OS type to Linux and the
version to Ubuntu.
Step 4. Next you have to
decide how much RAM
to allocate to the VM.
Choosing the amount of
RAM to allocate to the VM
while its running depends on
how much RAM you have.
If you dont know, google
it because im not going
to explain how to find out.
Choose an amount that will
still leave some for your
own computer, if you plan to
do things on your base OS
while the VM is running its
a good idea to keep at least
4BG if you can.
Step 5. Now its time to
allocate some space on
your hard drive to the VM.
Select “Create new hard
disk”. Keep the file type of
this hard disk to VDI to keep
things simple and choose
Fixed size on the next page.
Then choose the location
of where you would like to
save your new hard disk
and set how big its going
to be. A good size is about
4GB, 8GB if you have the
space. It will come up with
72
the settings you have just
selected and if you are
happy with it click “create”
and it will begin to make
your new hard disk.
Step 6. Now, start the VM.
It will ask if you what media
sources you want to use,
use whatever one your
image mounter used, for me
it was E.
Step 7. Congratulations, you
just got a VM with Ubuntu
working, all you need to
do now is install the OS as
Ubuntu tells you.
IMPORTANT: Once you
have set up the VM you
need to go into the VM’s
settings, go to System and
change the boot order to the
hard disk.
To get USBs recognized by
the VM, go into Machine -->
settings --> USB and select
which one you want.
Civil Disobedience, Law
and Safety.
PREPARING For a Ground
Op
1) How are you getting there
and back
2) Who are you going with
3) Research in to the ground
Op first as it may not be
what you think it is
4) Contact numbers and
spare cash (write the
numbers on your self this
way it can not be removed
off you if arrested)
5) Make sure you have a
Green & Black cross phone
number written some where
on your body (in case of
being arrested GBC are law
advice team that can help
if and when a arrested at a
demo protest ground
Ops what ever you want to
call these people can help)
6) KNOW YOUR AREA
When at a protest you can
be in some cases kettled in,
if you know the area you
maybe be able to get out of
said issue and others
with you so study the area
where the Op is taking place
7) Know your rights ! Never
give your details to the
police if you are stopped
always be “nice” and just
say “have you proof of me
doing something wrong?” if
they do “NO COMMENT”
if they dont have any thing
against you “No comment” if
they cant tell you why they
stopped you then you don’t
have to stop
REMEMBER THEY MAYBE
A DOUCHE BAG TO YOU
BUT TRY to be as clam and
collected as possible
What to take with you to
Ground Ops
*take a old phone with a
spare sim card with ya save
what ever numbers on it but
make sure ya have a next
of kin (ya mum) and GBC
written some where on ya
write it on ya 2-3 times in
case it gets smudged or one
set gets rubbed off
* take a small basic medi
pack with you in case it’s
needed by some who knows
first aid
* take a map (print off the
section so you know the
area at all times )
* always take spare cash

* always come with ya
mask / some thing to cover
ya face with like scarf and
sunglasses &/or a Guy
Fawkes Mask
What to wear
When at a ground ops
expect any thing and
every thing from walking to
running to standing on ya
feet all day
So just remember this when
thinking what to wear LuLz
........Comfortable shoes
trainers / boots what ever
clothes that fit / you can be
active in.
Say just for argument ya
at a op riot quicks off every
one has legged it a safe
place away from the police
yet your pludding along in
high hills mini skirt and a
G string up ya ass ......YA
BUSTED ! so just bare that
in mind personally i wear
dark urban combats and
black and red t-shirt with a
black hoodie and a pair of
trainers and boots in my bag
in case)
Drinking & Drugs
NOW i wont lie i like a little
to drink and smoke but it
REALLY isn’t a good idea to
drink when at a ground op
Many people get god like
powers when drinking and
think it’s a good idea to
piss off a police officer (yes
and No) the police dont like
drunks and most the people
at the ground ops dont really
want a drunk to roll with
them as it causes problems
::IF YOU DO DECIDE TO
DRINK AT A GROUND OP
PLEASE BE REASONABLE
TO THE OTHERS AT THE
GROUND OP::
Also just to quickly touch
on drugs do what ever ya
want but really in a way the
ABOVE kinda goes to this
as well if you are going to
smoke a bit sniff abit fine
just dont be a douche bag
and cause issue not just for
your self but the others at
the same ground ops and
not every body will be cool
with so do not get in their
face if they have an opinion .
Colors
Colors are used to roughly
work out what role someone
is willing play if the
ground Ops turns to civil
disobedience. This happens
73
when the feds don’t like us
getting to close to them they
shot ,they thorough smokes
and start beating down on
us / other...
(RED & BLACK)
these colors are used
mainly as the front line
colors people wearing red &/
or black are the people who
want to hold the front line in
some cases you would see
red and black move forward
to hold the police moving up
these people in my books
are the “hero’s” .......(in my
book any ways)
these people will protect
the other protester from
the police and act as anon
police
(GREEN)
Green is the color most
used for those covering the
media side of the ground
Ops posting tweets and
facebook messages from
the ground Op to those back
at home / over seas who
didn’t know shit was going
down
they also keeps those
around like “r&b” informed
as to whats going on where
74
they live stream the stuff the
main stream media dose
not think is worthy of their
stations / paid to cover up
(BLUE)
Blue is the marshal color /
organizer they be the ones
who have probably done
all the research in to the
reason the ground Ops took
place and when it did (i think
of them as the calm brain in
a mad mans body)
(WHITE)
White is color for medics
and the role should only be
filled by those who know
first aid / have a medi pack
and SERIOUSLY KNOW
WHAT THEY ARE DOING
! acting like a medic is BAD
you could end up doing
more damage then good
and the last thing any one
wants is to be blamed for
“helping” and in fact cost
some Anon to lose their arm
.......BaD TiMeS
::EVERY GROUND OP
SHOULD HAVE A MEDIC
EVEN IF THERE IS NO
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE::
Tear Gas Dibenzoxazepine
| CR GAS
Chemical weaponry was
first used in the United
States in the Civil War at
the siege of Charleston.
Wood was saturated with
sulphur and burned under
the parapets around the city
hoping that favorable winds
would propel huge clouds
of choking smoke to drive
out the defenders. French
law enforcement is reputed
to have been the first police
organization to have used
a chemical lachrymator
(tear-producing) in a hand-
thrown device. At the start
of World War I (1914-1918)
the French Army had limited
stocks of hand and rifle
grenades, loaded with a
liquid tear-producing agent
called Ethylbromacetate.
Agent CR
(Dibenzoxazepine) is a
potent sensory irritant. CR
is the parent compound
of Loxapine Succinate, an
Anti-Psychotic drug. CR
is usually disseminated
in a liquid solution with a
propylene glycol base. CRs
physical properties are
similar to those of CS, but
CRs effects on the individual
are more severe. In addition
to affecting the eyes and
respiratory tract, CR induces
intense skin pain.
CR causes eye pain and
excessive tearing. Slight
edema to the eye lids may
last for 2 to 6 hours. Skin
pain and reddening are CR’s
two main effects. Although
burning sensation may last
for 15 to 30 minutes, the
reddening may persist for
several hours. Areas of the
skin previously exposed to
CR may become painful
again when exposed to
water even after 24 hours or
longer. CR, when entering
the mouth, causes a burning
sensation, excessive
salivation, sore throat, and a
mucous discharge from the
nose.
CR appears to have a
greater safety ratio than
either CN or CS. However,
CR is a relatively toxic
agent and the mortal dose
in a human subject is of the
same order of magnitude
as the other war gases.

In a poorly ventilated
environment an individual
can inhale a fatal dose
within minutes. Death
results from asphyxiation
associated with the
development of pulmonary
edema.
CR medical treatment is
largely palliative (to lessen
the severity without cure),
and induces reassurance,
removal of contaminated
clothing, and washing
of eyes and skin. Eye
pain can be relieved with
medications.
Tear Gas
The first thing to remember
about exposure to these
chemical weapons is that
it is not the worst thing that
could happen to you. The
hype and fear surrounding
them is enormous, but in
reality, if you are careful and
smart, you should survive
it with little problem. This
information is the result of
conversations with experts
and prior experience.
How They Are Deployed:
Tear gas and pepper spray
can be sprayed from small
hand-held dispensers or
large fire-extinguisher size
tanks. Pepper spray also
comes in plastic projectiles
which are fired at the chest
to knock the wind out of a
person, who then takes a
deep breath of pepper from
the burst projectile. Tear gas
is most commonly deployed
via canisters, which are fired
into crowds, sometimes
directly at people. It’s
important that you know
not to pick up the canisters
without gloves as they are
extremely hot. Be aware
that the time it takes you to
throw it will allow you to be
heavily exposed.
How They Affect Humans:
Both tear gas and pepper
spray are skin irritants,
causing burning pain and
excess drainage from
eyes, nose, mouth and
breathing passages. Pepper
spray is more popular with
authorities as an agent
of control because of its
immediate pain-causing
qualities. It is harder to
remove from the skin and
has the capacity to cause
75
first degree burns.
If you are exposed to either
tear gas or pepper spray,
you may experience:
Stinging, burning in your
eyes, nose, mouth and skin
Excessive tearing,
causing your vision to blur
Runny nose
Increased salivation
Coughing and difficulty
breathing
Disorientation, confusion
and sometimes panic
Intense anger from
pepper spray exposure is
a common response; this
can be useful if you are
prepared for it and are able
to focus it towards recovery
and returning to the action.
Channel your anger, release
it from your system, avoid
holding it in.
The good news is that the
above effects are temporary.
Discomfort from tear
gas usually disappears
after 5-30 minutes, while
the worst pepper spray
discomfort may take 20
minutes to 2 hours to
subside. The effects of
both diminish sooner with
76
treatment. Because pepper
spray penetrates to the
nerve endings, its effects
may last for hours after
removal from the skin.
Avoid Inaccurate &
Dangerous Treatment
Myths:
There are many myths
about treatment and
prevention. Much of this
misinformation is potentially
dangerous. Some of it,
if applied, could greatly
increase or prolong a
person’s reaction to
exposure, or at the very
least provide a false sense
of security.
When to Prevent
Exposure:
For most healthy people,
the effects of tear gas and
pepper spray are temporary.
However, for some people
the effects can be long-
lasting and life-threatening.
People with the conditions
listed below should be
aware of these risks and
may want to try and avoid
exposure. Please be aware
that in intense actions
such as police behavior
can be unpredictable, and
avoidance is not always
possible. Those with the
following health conditions
should avoid entering
crowds where there is
risk of exposure to these
substances.
Conditions:
Folks with respiratory
diseases, such as asthma,
emphysema, etc. risk
exacerbation, or permanent
damage if exposed.
Vulnerable people such as
infants, the elderly, and the
immune compromised, risk
intensified and possibly life-
threatening responses.
Anyone with chronic health
conditions or those on
medications that weaken
the immune system, (ie:
chemotherapy, Lupus,
HIV, radiation, or long-
term corticosteroids
such as prednisone) risk
exacerbation of illness,
intensified response and
possible delayed recovery.
Women who are or could
be pregnant, or who are
trying to get pregnant, may
be at risk of spontaneous
abortion, or increased risk of
birth defects.
Nursing mothers risk
passing toxins on to their
infant.
Folks with skin conditions
(ie: severe acne, psoriasis,
or eczema) and eye
conditions (i.e.: conjunctivitis
or uveitis) risk an intensified
response.
People wearing contact
lenses may experience
increased eye irritation and
damage due to chemicals
being trapped under the
lenses.
Protection:
Avoid the use of oils,
lotions and detergents
because they can trap the
chemicals and thereby
prolong exposure. Wash
your clothes, your hair
and your skin beforehand
in a detergent-free and
unscented soap.
We recommend using a
water or alcohol-based
sunscreen (rather than
oil-based). If your choice
is between oil-based or
nothing, we advocate using
the sunscreen. Getting
pepper sprayed on top of a

sunburn is not fun.
We also recommend
minimizing skin exposure
by covering up as much
as possible. This can also
protect you from the sun, as
can a big hat, baseball cap
or bandana.
Gas masks provide the
best facial protection, if
properly fitted and sealed.
Alternatively, swimming
goggles (with shatter-proof
lenses), respirators, even
a wet bandana soaked in
vinegar over the nose and
mouth will help.
What to Do When
Exposed:
STAY CALM. Panicking
increases the irritation.
Breathe slowly and
remember it is only
temporary. Educate yourself
prior to going out, to know
what to expect, and thereby
reduce the likelihood of
panicking.
If you see it coming or get a
warning, put on protective
gear, if able, try to move
away or get upwind.
Blow your nose, rinse
your mouth, cough and
spit repeatedly. AVOID
SWALLOWING.
If you wear contacts, try
to remove the lenses or
get someone to remove
them for you, with CLEAN,
uncontaminated fingers.
AVOID WEARING
CONTACT LENSES
BEFORE GOING OUT.
DO NOT RUB IT IN.
Remedies
We have been doing trials
with pepper spray to find
good remedies and have
found some things will
definitely help minimize the
discomfort. None of these
are miracle cures; using
these remedies will help
people to feel better faster,
but it will still take time.
For the eyes and mouth:
We recommend a solution
of half liquid antacid (like
Maalox) and half water.
A spray bottle is ideal but
a bottle that has a squirt
cap works as well. Always
irrigate from the inside
corner of the eye towards
the outside, with head tilted
back and slightly towards
the side being rinsed. It
seems from our trials that
77
it needs to get into the eye
to help. This means that if
the sprayed person says it’s
okay you should try to open
their eye for them. They
most likely won’t be able/
willing to open it themselves,
and opening will cause a
temporary increase in pain,
but the solution does help.
It works great as a mouth
rinse too.
For the skin:
We recommend canola
oil followed by alcohol.
Carefully avoiding the
eyes, vigorously wipe the
skin that was exposed to
the chemical with a rag or
gauze sponge saturated
with canola oil. Follow this
immediately with a rubbing
of alcohol. Remember that
alcohol in the eyes hurts A
LOT. Anyone whose eyes
you get alcohol in will not be
your friend.
Secondary treatments can
include: spitting, blowing
your nose, coughing up
mucous (you don’t want to
swallow these chemicals!),
walking around with your
arms outstretched, removing
contaminated clothing and
78
putting on new clothing, In
fact, it is essential to shower
and wash your clothes as
soon as you are able.
WARNING: pepper spray
can dry on your skin, and
then get re-activated when
you shower due to contact
with moisture! See section
below on how to get rid of
pepper spray before you
shower!
These chemicals are
toxic, and will continually
contaminate you and
everyone around you until
you get rid of it. Until then,
try not to touch your eyes or
your face, or other people,
furniture, carpets etc. to
avoid further contamination.
Also rinse your washing
machine in highest heat
after you wash your clothes
in them, to get rid of residue
inside the machine.
Remember, it is only
temporary, and our bodies
are extremely strong
and have detoxification
mechanisms built in
Essential Protective Gear:
A bandanna soaked vinegar
and tied tightly around the
nose and mouth is a last
resort. It is far better than
nothing, but remember that
it is merely a barrier and
not a filter and so won’t
do much for long-term
protection. You can keep it
soaking in a plastic bag until
ready to use. Bring several,
as multiple uses will render
a bandanna as gassy as the
air around you.
For protecting your eyes,
swim goggles work well
as they have a tight seal.
Shatter-resistance is
another nice quality for
goggles to have. Most
goggles have air holes to
prevent fogging–fill these
with epoxy (glue).
Covering these holes with
duct tape can work in a
pinch against an initial
attack, though not for long
term protection. Try them
on with your respirator or
bandana to ensure that they
are compatible and that both
will provide a tight seal.
You should be aware that
whatever protection you
choose will be visually quite
powerful. Gas masks work
the best; they also look quite
scary and intimidating and
can be alienating to others.
They can however also
make you a target of police
violence. Think carefully
about your impact on others
when you decide how to
protect yourself. Aim to
wear the same kind of gear
as a group, not just you as
an individual. Strength in
numbers.
We suggest that you trial
your gear at home before
you head out, to make
sure you understand your
protective mechanisms
and are familiar with them,
prior to entering the heat of
action.
Here’s a tip I got from
Palestinian demonstrators:
Smear lime fruit juice on the
inside of any fabric which
covers your mouth such as
a scarf – anything you use
to cover your mouth. This is
claimed to remove all effects
from the CS gas (tear gas)
although I haven’t really
tried it myself.

Improvised Gas Mask:
Find a bandana, or a rag:
something to wrap around
your head made of strong
material.
Now find some charcoal.
Smash up the charcoal.
Soak the bandana/rag in
water. Line one side of the
bandana/rag with charcoal
dust. Fold bandana/rag over
and wrap around your nose
and mouth.
Onions as Protection
Against Tear Gas:
If you don’t have any
vinegar or water-soaked
bandanas, or may be
around someone who
doesn’t, carry an onion on
you. If gassed, break it in
half and sniff it, and get
it close to your eyes….it
greatly reduces the irritation
in the eyes and nasal
cavity. I Learned that from a
photojournalist in Gaza.
Get each friend to carry an
onion in their pocket before
you head out.
How to Safely Get Rid of
Pepper Spray – DO NOT
APPLY WATER!
When dealing with OC
sprays (Pepper Gas)
you will find that they are
activated and reactivated by
water. In other words, even
if you have let it dry on your
skin you are still at risk to
reactivation, if you were to
get it wet again.
The safest way to remove
contamination from the skin
is to let the skin dry, dab
with a dry cloth or fan the
skin. Pending availability,
products like baby shampoo
can be applied to a
contaminated area around
eyes and face (it works even
better if it is refrigerated
prior to application) to
provide temporary relief
(also the drying of the
shampoo will help remove
a large amount of the loose
capsaicin).
What is capsaicin? From
Wikipedia: Capsaicin is the
active ingredient [derived
from chilli peppers] in
riot control and personal
defense pepper spray
chemical agents. When
the spray comes in contact
with skin, especially eyes
or mucous membranes,
79
it is very painful, and
breathing small particles
of it as it disperses can
cause breathing difficulty,
which serves to discourage
assailants.
It’s not uncommon to feel
unable to open your eyes.
When sprayed, I have found
the quickest relief is to
strobe your eyes to get tears
flowing again. Once you can
open your eyes and tear,
stare for as long as you can
bear letting the tears flow to
clear your eyes as quickly
as possible. The longer you
keep your eyes shut and
the longer you strobe your
eyes the longer you will be
contaminated. You want the
body fluids in the mouth,
nose and eyes to be running
as much as possible (this is
your bodies’ /body’s natural
defense clearing itself out –
work with it!).
How to Safely Get Rid of
Tear Gas – DO NOT APPLY
WATER!
Do NOT wash your face with
water if you suffer tear gas.
You should not wet your
80
skin: it increases the effect
of the tear gas.
Instead, apply vinegar or
lemon juice to the skin in
order to get rid of the effect
of the tear gas. Cloths with
some apple vinegar or pure
lemon juice are very useful
in riots. You can press
some lemon in a plastic
bottle before going to the
protest. So you can wet your
mask with lemon juice (or
vinegar), and it will decrease
the effect of tear gas.
In case of old teargas
No water , yeast dissolved
in water or cold water and
soup while showering
How to Handle Tear Gas
Canisters
The thick gloves used by
construction workers are
good to throw the tear gas
cans back to the Basiji
goons. Warning: The tear
gas cans are too hot to hold
with bare hands!
Afterward, Wash Your
Clothes As Soon As You
Can
Wash your clothes as soon
as possible because there
are chemicals on those
clothes!
Remember to eat well and
sleep tight before going to a
protest. If you smoke or take
drugs, stop it before you go.
For your skin, a couple of
boxes of Baking Soda will
help in addition to regular
soap with skin conditioners.
Remember, the pepper
spray is going to really get
to your mucous membranes.
Under your armpits, Crotch
(sorry ladies, its going to
burn like hell). The snot is
going to pour out of your
nose like someone turned
on a fire hydrant and its
going to burn the whole
time. Your eye lids are going
to swell up too. Use the
Benadryl (Diphenhydramine
hydrochloride ) for that.
If you eat tear gas, don’t use
water – it makes everything
worse. Use fresh lemon
juice or vinegar instead.
Designed to Induce Panic
– Stay Calm:
If you get hit by tear gas,
or something worse, it will
feel like you are unable
to breathe. This is how it
works, and is designed
to work. You panic, and
riots stop. The trick is to
understand that while it
feels like you are unable to
breathe, you are actually
breathing just fine. Tear gas
doesn’t kill people unless
they have a severe allergic
reaction to it or have a
medical condition/weakness
already.
So try and remain calm. If
you can, sit down in a place
out of the way and just
remind yourself that you are
breathing. Getting rid of the
panic eliminates a lot of the
effectiveness of the anti-riot
gas.
Conclusion:
Educate yourself about the
tear gas and pepper spray
challenge
What to if and when
stopped and searched /
arrested
On your body write
Legal Support 07946

541511 plus a solicitor with
relevant experience.
IF ARRESTED - NO
COMMENT
You do not need to talk to
the police about anything.
If you are arrested, giving
your name and address will
speed up the process of
being released. Any other
information may be used
against you and once you
start talking it can be hard to
stop: so don’t say anything,
it is easier! If they ask you
questions, just say ‘no
comment’, until you have
spoken to a solicitor and
don’t sign anything.
DON’T USE THE DUTY
SOLICITOR
If you’re arrested you have
a right to FREE legal advice.
You can use a ‘duty solicitor’
but we STRONGLY advise
against. If you haven’t
been told at the protest of
local solicitors who have
experience of dealing with
protesters, we recommend
you use BINDMANS (020
7833 4433) who should
be able to come to your
interview if you are in
81
London or otherwise advise police station. You may find
you by phone on what to do. you are simply released so it
can be worth waiting it out.
DON’T GIVE YOUR
NAME AND ADDRESS TO AVOID LETTING THEM
POLICE PHOTOGRAPH YOU
When you are stopped or You don’t have to make it
searched under any search easy for them to photograph
powers, you don’t have to you - they have no power
give the police your details. to force you to comply with
The only time you are legally being photographed or
required to give your name filmed unless you are being
and address is if you are processed at the police
driving a vehicle or involved station.
in a road traffic accident. If
you are suspected of anti-
social behavior (causing
harassment, alarm or
distress) or when the cops
want to issue you with a
summons with or fixed
penalty notice, then the cops
can arrest you if you fail to
give them your details.
If you are arrested but
you think there is no good
reason for your arrest, the
police may be just trying
it on to get your personal
details (they have a
database to fill). At this point
you can still refuse to tell the
arresting officer and say that
you will give your details to
the custody officer at the
82
83
84
Dialogues between Anons
Introduction.
Many of us feel
disappointed, sad, angry,
depressed or simply
paralyzed. Will we remain
in these states? Or will we
react, try to understand,
find some solutions and
move on? Anyone can be
Anonymous, it’s a fact, But
Anons also share certain
ethics and human values
despite the diversity of
ideas, thoughts or principles;
FreeAnons have organized
a dialogue between some
Anons to analyze the
situation and collect this
diversity of ideas and
thoughts about sensitive
topics that have played a
major role in the issues
experienced recently by
our movement and led to
increase the number of
arrested anons.
Several topics were
discussed, we published
them by topic, but these
dialogues are not closed,
you can comment them or
add your opinion any time
you wish:
Part I - Groups with “sec”
suffix (AND the “crew” or
“cr3w” suffix)
Anon 1 We have certainly
noticed that what causes
us the most troubles is
the tendency to build a
separate small groups of
hackers with “sec” suffix
while they continue to claim
being Anonymous. They
are magnets for secret
agencies, and unfortunately
these agencies manage
often to recruit one or
more informants among
these groups, the average
is higher than among
Anonymous and activist
communities in general.
Unfortunately, many hackers
seek fame, power or wealth,
these hackers are definitely
a good targets to recruit
informants. The estimated
average of hackers who
accept to collaborate with
law enforcement entities
is about 25%. By allowing
this kind of small groups
to create public channels
in an Anonymous irc, we
face many disadvantages in
addition to those mentioned
above.
Young activists are generally
attracted by these “masters”
and can be easily influenced
by them, the risk is they can
be “badly” influenced. Public
channels are aggravating
factors for that kind of
contacts.
Anonymous has always
claimed that we can be any
normal citizen. These groups
do not reflect this image.
The other channels tend
to be democratic and
consensual, while the small
hackers groups tend to have
leaders and/or hierarchical
relations When it comes to
hacking... There are few
people who truly have skill.
This is why heirarchical
relations are formed. Anyone
without the knowledge of
how to program or exploit
will typically seek out
somebody maintaining
expertise in the field. Media
tends to highlight the hacker
aspects of Anonymous
and thus those attracted to
the attention whore aspect
get absorbed into those
subgroups. Obviously
they get the master that

they deserve... And and
hence they’ll probably
get entangled with law
enforcement if they stick
around in those groups.
Anon 2 However
Anonymous is an idea, a
banner, this is something we
as Anons have to face and
live with since anyone can
be Anonymous.
Anon 3 I don’t think this
is something that can be
remedied. Also, you have to
admit quite a few of these
groups have helped the
cause.
Anon 4 No Anon should be
worth more than another.
The skill of every individual
is what makes him/her
interesting and we need
experience in all areas of
human knowledge. +9001
+666
Anon 2 hehe yup teamwork
teamwork teamwork for
those who come into the PR
chan, we do nothing untill
the team votes on it and
everyone has a part in it no
matter what.
Anon 5 Lulz/AntiSec
elevated a few individuals
to be seen as way more
imortant than other Anons.
And not because they
ran infrastructure that ops
were launched from, but
because they chose all
the targets and operations
themselves. There was
nothing participatory about
having the biggest room on
the biggest anon irc network
devoted to Antisec, and
this a feeder channel to a
secret group of statusfag
hackers - who were also
misdirecting operational
targets for their own ends -
as in #OpMegaupload. Fuck
that shit.
Anon 6 It is important to
remember that all of us
started at one point or
another, and thus it is not in
our best interest to turn away
newblood just because they
are identified as ‘skiddies’
or deemed inexperienced.
We should consider the
possibility that script kiddies/
newblood have the potential
to achieve great feats if we
are able to nurture them
through sound advice
85
and encouragement +1+1
Everybody starts from being
a beginner in any area.
Anon 2 yup we were all
n00bs at one point,everyone
was +1.
Anon 7 Also learn to
recognize the difference
between a person who uses
tools like Havij and someone
using a tool because they
are just learning and don’t
know any better. Scripts
& programs are great for
beginners but skiddies are
fine just with their scripts,
while others learn scripts as
jumping off points to learn
from.
Anon 5 It didn’t used to just
be about hacking and *sec
all the time. Remember
when an operation was
participatory and had
all kinds of skills and
involvement? I don’t know if
we can ever get back to that
point but once an op used.
Anon 8 +100. I rememberrrr....
Anon 2 ( AnonPR is here
to change that big plans in
86
the making- also AnonPr is
a non hacking legal anon
team).
Anon 1 Hackers have a
haughty look on the other
anons who don’t have
technical skills making
them feel useless, while the
most successful operations
we did were simple ddos
used by simple citizens
or activists; This is the
reason of our popularity
and governments fear.+one
millon
Anon 9 We need to remind
and reinforce the message
that you don’t need to have
hacking skills, run Backtack,
or DDoS just to participate
and that EVERY op requires
a vast array of people with
a range of different skills..
graphics, video, writing,
etc., are HUGE assets
for promoting ops, and
even without those skills,
simply having an intelligent
person that contributes
to discussions can go
very far. At the very least,
anybody can help an op
by spreading the message
on twitter, facebook (ew)
and whatever other social
means they have. Think the
“6 degress of separation”
-- they might not be able to
contribute directly, but their
direct connections (and the
connections through their
connections, the indirect
ones) can reach people that
might be a huge asset.+999
Anon 10 every action
towards a common goal is
a contribution. Operation
paperstorm was one of
the most effective ops
turned tactic ever, and
it’s something we have
neglected thus far. Anybody
can wear a mask and had
out a flyer downtown. (it’s
actually perfect for getting
a newbloods feet wet with
activism) What a terrible
loss. We can get it back
though. +1
Anon 11 Hackers, lulz, “sec”,
can and will profit from the
fact you are unprotected.
They have their place and
function in the ecosystem.
You serve them and they
will serve you. Even as they
may look and act dangerous
security is paramount for
them. And for you.
Anon 12 Of course small
groups have their role
and many times they did
awesome work, the point
here is to not confuse them
with anons as their structure
is different; they are like
the hacktivists groups that
we respect but anonymous
system is more general
and include a majority of no
hackers.
Anon13 We are like bounds
government backed and
quit safe but make small
incremental movess
although we did start out
kicking the smaller groups
are like stocks they are risky
but well worth the lulz and
probaly should be warmed
to stick together through the
worst and the best you are
apart of your selected team
thick and thin.
Part II - Is it justifiable to
collaborate with feds after
being arrested? Is it a
fatality or can we prevent it?
Anon1 Feds can always
find ways to pressure
activists or hackers to turn

them; If we start by find that
is normal to turn for one
reason or another, they will
finally involve a majority...
It is not “normal” to turn, it
was always very rare that
secret services could find
activists to work with them,
why? because an activist is
by definition some one who
accept to sacrify his/her own
interests for the cause that
he/she fights for, furthermore
they know by experience and
from many historic cases
that secret services often
get rid of their informants for
embarrassing reasons.
Anon10 ^^ Do people not
understand that even if
you cooperate, commuted
sentence still means go to
jail. Take it from somebody
who is VERY experienced
with jail and the legal
system, snitches go to jail
too, and they are kept in PC
because they are snitches.
But snitches manage to get
killed quite often in PC. You
dont gain anything from
snitching. Perhaps is it wise
to share the TRUTH about
how you should react when
arrested and interrogated.
Feds will lie to you to get
you to cooperate and make
their case solid. The absolute
BEST thing you can do is not
say a word. Not. One. Word.
Not even “fuck you”. [LOVE
YOU +10000000]
Anon7 Also remember that
they WILL LIE TO YOU.
They will rattle off a whole
list of “charges” and offense
and tell you some ridiculous
number of years as your
maximum sentence with a
huge fine... #1) Remember
that the burden of proof is
on THEM, so that means
they need to PROVE every
single charge---unlikely if
you keep your mouth shut.
Just TrueCrypt your drive
and take basic steps to cover
your ass, and that will make
that a very big burden.
Anon10 ^^ Facts. Without
a confession, even the
probability of a murder
charge is lessened
extensively. Just watch “the
first 48” if you dont believe
me. Unless the evidence is
just fkn retardid, they usually
need that confession.
87
Anon5 If we stopped
putting people up as leaders
we would have less of a
problem with fed infiltration.
Anon1 The problem is that
“leaders” are self proclamed,
no one follow them LOL
Anon5 Also with the influx
of facebook anons (who are
normally almost a fanclub)
getting a loic and ddossing
a website their is more
likelihood of them turning, as
they are not as commited,
its about impressing friends,
egofagging
Anon3 loic and facebook
are both horrid tools, but
they have their place. The
influx of kiddies using loic
during ddos helped a ton
(not that ddos is anything
more than an attention
grabber) but how many of
us would have been v& if
there werent always 10k+
unhidden ips tagging along
on every operation. loic is a
smoke screen.
Anon10 Misinformation:
If you are going to play
games with the feds, make
sure you deliberately lie.
88
To everybody. Often, and
about things that dont
matter. The feds are using
your information to build a
profile, and can use even
the most mundane details to
proximate and identify you.
One technical slip and they
can use that information with
all they’ve built to heft a nice
case. So, the equivelant of
going everywhere with a
mask on in public to hide
your face is to constantly
feed the feds bad and
conflicting information,
and to remember some of
your lies, to repeat them
later. This tactic has been
deployed by me for quite
some time now, and as of
yet, i’ve not been unsatisfied
with the results.
Anon7 ^^^ Yes!
Contradictory statements
(sometimes said at different
times and in different
places) is a great way of
misinformation. If there is
too much conflicting data or
points in your profile, they
will begin to question the
validity of every piece of it.
Using any one point against
you, in defense can be said
“but they had also stated
this, this, and that conflicting
points as well,’
Anon10 Leave fame to
Lindsay Lohan: When you
DO manage to accomplish
a great hax, don’t tag
ur name and flood it on
twitter proclaiming your
victory. This is a surefire
way to draw fed attention.
Best to do it, pastebin an
anonymous explaination
and fade back into the
digital blackness...don’t
tag ur name on SHIT. Just
#Anonymous should be
enough.
Anon7 (or the name of the op)
Anon14 Cooperating with
the federal government is
something that has to be
determined on a single
case basis. I’ll take the most
famous case of Anonymous
for an example. Sabu, we
all have heard of what
happened. Secret arrest,
turned FBI informant, and
finally betrayed. But what
the majority of Anon’s don’t
know, is that if he didn’t
cooperate with the feds,
they would take his family
away. That’s right Sabu
had a family, and no matter
how much I hate him for
his decision. If I was in his
shoes, I would have made
the same choice. However if
you have nothing to lose but
your own freedom it is still a
hard choice to make. People
always say, “I’d never betray
Anonymous,” well that is
until they are facing over
30 years in prison. Getting
assraped by a black guy
named Rico! Now I will say
that if you have a family,
and are afraid of them being
dragged into it. Then quit
now, quit now and don’t look
back. If you have no info for
them, they won’t arrest you,
hopefully.
Anon15 Sabu had a family
of sorts. We all do. So did
the people he snitched on.
It is never justifiable and he
is beneath contempt. He
ruined ops which were more
important than anything
he has done in his life and
should not be apologised
for. He laughs about his
actions to this day. Also if
people think Sabu had kids

or sth... you’re misinformed.
He was not a father to
anyone except the kids he
used for his own ends on
AnonOps.
AnotherAnon Sabu’s
snitching should have
been irrelevant. We
need to remember not to
exalt individuals - that is
EXACTLY how Anonymous
falls apart. Let’s go through
what happened. Sabu was
arrested. The feds realized a
lot of Anons look up to him,
so they could use him to get
others. He turned snitch.
What happened next? He
went back into the chats.
The story SHOULD END
THERE. He shouldn’t
have succeeded in getting
anyone arrested, because
no one should have trusted
any other Anon with their
information in the first
place. I’m going to briefly go
through some of the people
Sabu got V& and explain
why it shouldn’t have been
possible.
1: Jeremy Hammond, AKA
Anarchaos, crediblethreat,
o, etc. Read his indictment
and complaint, which the
feds have published. He
was identified, among other
things, because he told
Sabu about past incidents in
which he had been arrested,
what the alleged offense
was, and what if anything
was the outcome. The FBI
then cross referenced all
this information in police
databases, by a process
of elimination narrowing
down the list of potential
suspects until they only
had one left who matched
all of the dates and arrests
Anarchaos had told Sabu
about. They then went to
his house and monitored
him for a couple of days to
make sure they had the right
guy before charging him, in
secret, with the offenses he
is accused of.
His identification and
arrest could have been
COMPLETELY AVOIDED
had he not told Sabu
about his IRL run ins with
the police. To imagine
that the police can’t
search their databases
and find old records of
89
arrests was exceedingly
foolish. Remember, within
Anonymous (and indeed on
the internet as a whole), you
must assume every single
person you meet COULD be
a cop, even if they probably
aren’t one. Don’t tell anyone
anything in PM that you
wouldn’t be happy telling the
entire public channel. This
leads to two possibilities:
1: Anarchaos trusted Sabu
enough to assume it was
ok to give him identifiable
information
2: Anarchaos didn’t realize
that he could be identified
through the information
he provided. Both of the
above possibilities could
have been avoided with
proper AnonSec, that is,
teaching Anons about
personal security and
how to avoid exposing
themselves to arrest. In
my view, the channel
#AnonSec needs to be
re-established at both
AnonOps and VoxAnon,
and an EXTENSIVE
campaign of informing
Anons about how to
90
protect themselves is
called for urgently.
2: Darren Martyn (AKA
Pwnsauce AKA raepsauce
AFA lolcat) I’m not sure
where to start with regard
to pwnsauce. Pwnsauce
is an incredible hacker
and a very smart guy, so
the pitfalls which led to his
arrest genuinely baffle me,
however, the fact is that he
too was caught not through
feds hacing IRC access,
but through letting things
slip himself. I will give a few
examples: In early 2011,
pwnsauce and palladium
allegedly hacked into the
website of an Irish political
party, making national
headlines and even some
international ones. They
leaked a user database
from the site and posted
an Anonymous deface
message to the home page.
At the bottom of this deface
was the text “owned by
raepsauce and palladium”.
Now, anyone who had
been on IRC knew who had
taken part in that particular
operation. Worse, they both
used these same nicknames
on other forums which they
used to talk about unrelated
topics, which could be used
to tie them to their IRL
identities.
At a certain point, pwnsauce
was absent from IRC for
about a week. When he
returned, people asked
him (in a chat room which
included Sabu) where he
had been. His response was
that he had been arrested
for hacking his college’s
email system. And in
responding, he named that
college and the date he was
arrested. His reply literally
looked something like this:
pwnsauce: Oh sorry, I was
arrested on Tuesday for
hacking ‘s email system and
spamming people from it
Once again, the feds can
very easily look up their
records. “Who did we arrest
that week for hacking into
that email server? Ah here
he is, that’s pwnsauce then
let’s go and investigate him.”
That on its own probably
wouldn’t be enough to get
someone arrested. However
there was more. Someone
outed him on a blog,
presumably someone who
knew him IRL (or perhaps
from one of the other
forums in which he used the
nickname ‘hex’, ‘pwnsauce’
or ‘raepsauce’, all known
IRC handles). After they
published his alleged name,
I did some investigating
myself to see how accurate
it might be. Out of interest
I looked him up on
Facebook. His Facebook
username included the word
“hexamine”, which straight
away indicated I was
indeed looking at the same
guy. But further proof was
staring me in the face: His
Facebook profile was open,
I.E I didn’t have to be friends
with him to see his bio and
photographs. In his selection
of photo albums were usual
FB albums such as nights
out, profile pictures, college,
etc. But among them was
also another album called
“AnonOps”. On clicking into
this album, I discovered
screenshots of Operation
Avenge Assange, showing
IRC logs and reports from

status checking websites
to say that Mastercard was
offline.
Horrified, I closed the
window and prayed nobody
would read the blog. As it
happens, due to Sabu’s
treachery, the blog didn’t
even matter. But this is
just another example of
shockingly weak AnonSec.
Pwnsauce could never have
been caught if none of the
above had taken place. If
he hadn’t detailed online
an arrest and which college
he attended, if he hadn’t re-
used a nickname from other
websites as an Anon name,
if he hadn’t drawn specific
attention to himself by
signing a deface message
and if he hadn’t mixed
Facebook and Anonymous,
he probably wouldn’t have
been identified at all.
Notice to pwnsauce: Hey
man, if you’re reading this I
hope you don’t take offense,
you know I love you We all
make mistakes and I’m not
in any way singling you out!
Notes (I’ll get rid of these
in a second, just so I don’t
forget what I’m about to
write) --Total disconnect
between Anon identify
and IRL identity with no
crossover whatsoever
--smoking gun (Topiary).
Anon16 Mod the ircd to
have chans w/o nicks:
i.e. anonymity instead
of psuedonymity. Then
chat logs have plausible
deniability. This can be
easily achieved by simply
not registering a nick, using
a randomly generated
AnonGuest34098 style nick,
or simply changing your nick
regularly like many Anons
already do
Anon25 /NNNC/
somerandomnick> !=
anonymity anonymity ==
everyone will use same nick
Anon17 AnotherAnon It is
irrelevant to ask whether or
not it is justifiable to work
with the feds since it will
be a reality that those who
are arrested will cooperate
with the authorities if it
will save them in any way.
The better question is to
91
ask why anyone would put
themselves in the position to
be able to be turned over by
someone who was flipped.
Anon1 I think it is a kind
of culture or “moral” that
predispose any one to
accept that idea or not.
If he find the case of
Sabu “justifiable” then he
is preparing himself to
cooperate as there are
always reasons to fall under
secret services pressure.
Anon18 I’m not sure as to
where to place this but as
I promised to contribute to
this discussion I will do so in
the manner that follows and
moderators can sort through
it and place the individual
contributions where ever
they please. I would first like
to start by saying that I in no
way feel disappointed, sad,
angry, depressive or even
paralyzed by the current
state of the collective. No
one would argue that they
prefer things the way they
are now but I, personally,
believe that the current
state of the collective is
merely a product of our
own doing and that it
92
doesn’t necessarily mark
the undoing of the collective.
Today, the collective has
been reduced to a fad of
sorts and like all fads it will
eventually run its course.
Many of the problems that
plague the collective are the
result of its own popularity.
I, having helped construct a
popular blog, am guilty of this
as are voxanon, anonops,
anonsource and any other
such similar blog, IRC or
discussion board. In many
ways these contributions are
no different from the crews
or clans mentioned here.
We can no more give credit
to or take credit from these
individuals secs than we
can ourselves or our own
contributions.
Which brings me to an
important point: It’s okay to
be quiet. It is better to have
no operations at all than
to have several operations
that conflict with the over all
goals of the collective. As
an anon, I try to discourage
such operations and as a
collective I believe that we
could do more to discourage
these types of operations.
Again, I believe, the many
problems that plague the
collective are but the passing
of popularity and I also
believe, today, that it is fair to
say that the Anonymous we
once knew is dead. That’s
not necessarily a bad thing.
Anonymous has come to
define hacktivism but has
long as there are hacktivists
acting anonymously
there will always be an
Anonymous.
In responds to Part II of this
discussion, and before I
continue I must express how
disheartened I am that there
are only two parts to this
discussion, it’s easy for one
to say that they would not
cooperate with the police. In
fact, it means nothing to say
that you would not even if
you have been arrested, tried
and convected for similar
crimes before. Our individual
circumstances are so unique
that it makes predicting
whether someone would
cooperate with the police
impossible. I believe a better
question would be, how can
we as a collective avoid or
lessen the consequences of
our actions and of those who
claim to act in accordance
with Anonymous?
In response to this question, I
believe the answer to be very
simple: Act anonymously. Act
anonymously and encourage
others to do so. Change
your user name often. Do
not concern yourself with
fame, recognition or a gold
star on the top of some list.
Further more, do not align
yourself with or give your
trust to anyone who does
these things. Act entirely
anonymously and give all
credit to Anonymous. These
types of discourse are
productive and I would be
happy to contribute to any
such discussion in the future.
I look forward to reading any
responses to the contribution
I have made here and I do
hope, sincerely so, that some
good comes of this. Please
forgive the format.
Anon19 We all are so
separate from each other
there is a lack of empathy
for each other. While we
can feel bad for a face
like Topiary its because

he has been given a face.
So many anons go down
and we just move on like a
disposable army. As I have
said in the past Sabu turned
his back on us because
he did not see legion (this
is not justifiable for a anon
because we are a unit) he
fail to see the true collective
for what it is. The collective
is people who give up their
time and energy to do
something. Each anon has
family and if not should see
anons as their family.I cant
think of anything to do with
the IRC to fix this I guess
this problem is mental not
software.<3
Anon20 I think of it like
this. If we spend our time
mourning every arrested
Anon, than we will be
weaker. Not to mention
the feds will get a bigger
stranglehold on all of us.
Those who say that Anon’s
don’t matter, are obviously
not Anons themselves. Hell
if there’s an Anon near me
that needs my help, and I
can help, than I will help.
That simple, help when and
where you can. And never
forget we are legion, if you
take away our comradery,
than we are a bunch of
random people.
Part III : Anons democracy
is not and will never be the
reflection of the liberal false
democracy; what are the
ideas you have to achieve
a real democracy, a true
equality among anons?
Anon1 + Anon21 Issues
with an undemocratic IRC
system We are losing the
democratic foundation that
Anonymous was built upon.
When it has become easier
to lengthen the badwords
list than to answer real
questions, how can we say
that our operators exist to
help users? Thousands
of people have been
joining channels - even
#megaupload alone - but
why are they not staying?
These are questions we
have to ask of ourselves,
and of our network
operators.
Anon2 +1 also mention
active ops that have low rate
active users +1+1
93
Anon1 + Anon21 The
operator system is based
on a heirarchy. It has led to
an atmosphere in channels
where older, or higher
up members feel they no
longer need to bother with
interacting with prospective
supporters. Gaining op, or
even voice, is now seen
as a badge that must be
acquired before one will be
listened to. And currently,
this attitude is rife through
anonops. Voxanon ftw! +1
+15
Anon2 +1 here if you want
we can talk a lil bit more on
voxanon and its system and
constitution
Anon10 -1 IMHO calling
out anonops and voxanon
demeans the value of the
whole sentiment.
Anon7 Agreed, and it’s also
a really big generalization
so somewhat unfair b/c that
isn’t true of everyone in
every channel on AnonOps.
Anon3 I think its essential
we try and move past taking
sides based on which server
you link to. We should start
94
linking channels more, like
we have with #freeanons.
We need multiple servers
to house our collective,
but we are still a goddamn
collective...Not teams, not
seperate parties, one damn
group.
Anon22 Freedom of
speech is paramount but
childish behavior should be
discouraged. Experienced
users can help mantain a
tolerant atmosphere. An
anon who has self-esteem is
tolerant and does not make
others pay the price for his
own frustration.
Anon2 +2 hehe so true
Anon7 +1 <-- This is exactly
what channel operator/
halfop/etc. is intended to do...
maintaining productive and
on-topic chat & discussion,
while kicking (or banning, if
necessary) spammers and
trolls. These are necessary
functions and roles for an IRC
channel, especially given the
mischivous nature of many
Anons. Unfortunately, it isn’t
always how it works and it
does get abused.
Anon1 The hierarchical
opers system has created
a kind of discriminative
atmosphere and notable
anons who are sop, aop,
and hop in nearly every
channel but do nothing
to help the respective
causes. It also became
very important not to bother
them with highlights and
PMs for “stupid” questions
or requests!! wtf? It became
common to see new
opportunists who needed to
feel themselves important
to get oper “status” by
licking the ass of owners
and showing some authority
to the “crowd”; they are
the powerfags who are
unfortunately dominating
anonops presently.
Anon2 +1 we should re
word this a bit to more
clearer without naming any
chan or networks
Anon1 Despite the
huge effort that irc opers
at voxanon are doing,
some absurde traditions
remain; For example: 1- “
Hacking/DDoS talk doesn´t
belong here”, in the main
channel, Why? Isn’t it a bit
hypocritical to avoid talking
about actions in the main
chan where new activists
think they are joining
anonymous actions? I think
this rule has lead to an
influx of trolls and at times
#voxanon is mirroring the
problems #anonops ran into,
hot diggity damn! We should
have a kind of schedule
to be sure there is always
an oper who can re-direct
discussions to be more
interesting or less crappy;
It does’nt mean we should
not lol and lulz, it means that
empty convos should not
take all the space-time.
Anon2 def needs more work
and we agree. a main chat
was never talked about, we
made voxanon for the opers
and team to talk and all
then ppl found out bout vox
and joined that chan alone
making it by default the main
chan. this might change.
Anon10 +1 on the contrary,
I believe hacking and
DDOS talk should be
ENCOURAGED. Maybe
not every DDOS sortie, but
the talk and will to action

is all that it takes to drive a
talented and genius young
person to acheive greater
excellence. Try to convince
a DDOS newfag to hide his
IP and nmap a server. You
can teach him in one hour,
and he’s happy as hell.
Nobody got hurt and you’ve
primed a new anon.
Anon5 = Morpeth If I
can respond from a vox
network perspective: Firstly
on the ‘Hacking/DDoS
talk doesn’t belong here”,
that’s because we didn’t
want operational stuff like
target lists and raids to be
actually taking place in
the main chan,+1 so as to
create some separation
between the network/
network staff/chan and the
operations going on there.
+1, **People can and are
doing pretty much what they
like on channels outside the
main one. I think the rules
are being interpreted too
strictly if people are being
kicked merely for talking
around or about hacking,
in general, and will talk
to chanops about this. In
general people should not
be kickbanned except at
last resort, for verifiable
and continued trolling, or
for causing other problems.
Warnings are supposed to
be issed first. And the one
thing that is not supposed
to happen is someone
gets kicked/b& because
a chanop disagrees with
them. There is generally
always an oper on hand but
establishing the culture here
of the network chanel being
a fair and friendly place
takes time, patience, and
work - but this iseat ewe are
aiming for. It’s hard to get
decent conversations going
all the time also, but we are
trying to cultivate a cultural
difference to prev. existing
networks here.
Morpeth+100^10
Anon10 Perhaps, rather
than a no hacking DDOS
talk rule, it should simply
be customary for oldfags
to suggest to newfags that
after a certain point, it’s
probably time to move the
op to its own chan. Educate
them on twitterstorm,
paperstorm, the basics of
95
running an op and an op
chan etc and turn them
loose. They will have an
OP underway, and nobody
got their feelings hurt. Just
a thought...klnowledge is
power.
Anon1 2- “English only in
this channel” It is one of the
most discriminative rule I
ever saw at anons IRCs;
Sure ppl can use google
translation, but many new
comers who do not speak
English at all are quickly
disoriented and disppointed
by this harsh order “English
only here”!! Why do not
use the translation function
in the bots and let our IRC
being really international?
English will be always the
main language but why insult
users from other cultures that
do not speak it?
Anon7 If there are bots or
something that automatically
translate, I don’t see why
there would be an issue.
Otherwise, really only when
channels become especially
large is when the English-
only thing sometimes would
be appropriate because it
96
can be extremely difficult
and confusing when you
have many different people
speaking different languages
at the same time. Also, when
there is only one or two
people who are speaking
a specific language, is it
more logical to have every
one else in the channel go
to translate.google.com in
order to understand them,
or should the just one or
two people do it? I think it’s
just a matter of courtesy,
not discrimitory (although
sometimes it is) that when
coming to a new “place” that
you speak the language that
the majority do.
Anon23 Acknowledge
cultural sensitivities & avoid
ethnocentricism!
Anon5 Yeah agreed, will
talk to the chanops and
perhaps look at a translate
bot in there as well given
some time - also there are
non english chans already
there that some people can
be redirected to. +1
Anon1 My thought was only
about “insulting” the new
comers who don’t speak
English or don’t know the
rules, kick or ban them for
that; I have always tolerate
the multilingualism in my
channels and never had any
problems, English still the
dominating language.
Anon7 That’s
understandable (and
shouldn’t result in a kick)-
--my usual approach is to
translate into their language
and explain to them, or
direct them to channel for
their language.
Anon24 from exhaustively
reading this pad ive gleaned
that we need these things
most... 1.translation bot,
this will be easy I started
talking to the opers over at
anonops and they seem on
board for it either i’ll have
to make one or just have
someone augment one of
the bots already in place,
the same canbe done here
in vox 2. a purpose: we
need another grand op to
draw people in again, we
need to make headlines. Im
not sure what would be best
maybe that cyber bunker
they are building inutah,
maybe the monitoring uav
at the olympics (did you
think itodd that they plan on
sending in monitoring uavs
while the newswarns that
a “poison uav” attack is the
largest threat to the games
(if it happens, I called it
and the gov did it)) 3. more
relaybots. maybe we should
reach out to any of the other
servers andget a relay bot
in a few big channels. we
need to re-embrace the
community aspect of anon
and stop bickering between
servers
Anon25 /NNNC/
somerandomnick> if you
search solution of the
problem of government in
chat then i know solution;
solution == virtual ops, but
necessary that someone
will implement to such, i
implemented only some. It is
similar of normal commands
of opers in irc, but each user
he has own view and he is
virtual netadmin of his view
mama> so who can decide
to kick for example? or to
change the topic u/NNNC/
somerandomnick> everyone

that he can change the topic
in your view if i will /mode
#anonet +o mama, then
you are my government,
but obviously that if you
will abuse such then i can /
mode #anonet -o mama,
== advantage of netadmin,
if each user he is virtual
netadmin then each user he
has the government that he
wants such the ppl they will
see eatch other and share
the same topic if they will
want see eatch other and
share the same topic, and if
no then they should not see
eatch other and share the
same topic.
Anon6t7U Society is
rotten. It will never get
better. You are the last
good thing in the world.
Let all of society crumble
into a vapid wasteland,
but do not let Anonymous
wither and die. Truth, and
freedom, and intelligence,
and creativity, and a spirit
willing to fight the millions
of things that are wrong.
Even if it is just a bunch of
angry naive teenages on
faggoty macbooks, beating
their hearts against a wall.
Anonymous is important.
It doen’t have to change
anything, it only has to exist.
That’s all. Because you’re
the exception to the rule.
That it will never get better.
Society is rotten. Anonymous
is the last place where
humanity has a friend. Amid
the wars and the domination
politics and the sheepleism.
This is as good as it gets. I
love Anonymous. <3 “The
beauty of it smote his heart,
as he looked up out of the
forsaken land, and courage
returned to him. For like a
shaft, clear and cold, the
thought pierced him that in
the end, the Shadow was
only a small and passing
thing; there was light and
high beauty forever beyond
its reach.” LET NO LAW BE
THE LAW.IRCs include the
ignore function for a reason.
Moderation ruin Anonymous.
Nobody should be able to
ban or kick anyone. PM
to join a different channel
if one is getting spammed
in. Censorship is evil! Hail,
SRN!
Anon26 <-- lulz uhh forgot
what i was going to say
97
Anon27 Maybe adding a
voteing system on priority
operations. But a votting
system would never boat
well with anons. So other
then that I think we are just
about reached the end of
our rope scientology was
the high point and the fbi
audio was the last of the
lulz everything from here is
down hill this is a putting it
blunt but its true the return
of lulzsec was probaly
not real and only to get
us moveing agian. There
will be one more lulzish
moment before anonymous
becomes dust in the wind
and blows away this event
will probaly take out the last
hats and the most proactive
amoung us will just be
arrested for nothing. Here
is my estimated timeline for
our downfall. Now-january
31,2013
Anon28- I am all for a
democratic voting system.
This new self-implied
system is getting difficult
to endure. It has become
more “for teh lulz” and so
only the larger ops get
any attention. The smaller
98
ops may be small yet this
does not necessarily mean
thaat they are going to less
impactive or less important;
the number of Anons in
a movement/OP should
NOT matter, by any means.
There have been small
ops that got no attention
yet had a severe impact on
how things are now. Also,
more people are saying
that “this is stupid, you’re
not helping anything, you
are only causing drama
and bitching about how
the world is run.” The fact
is that Anons that don’t
agree with the government,
that would rather be free
from the opression of Big
Brother, would rather do
something than sit idly
by while our corporations
and governments (in our
respective countries, not
only the US) ruin everything
with SOPA’s and other
bills. The system is failing.
We are Anonymous; we
will stand up for what we
believe. If it means we have
to take down sites, and
even if we are just rallying.
Everything we are doing
now, and everything we
have done in the past as a
team (indeed, a collective)
has and will continue to help
the People.
NewbAnon: Anonymous,
as a decentralised colective
will never become truely
democratic. However,
certain steps can be taken
to include all, and to have
voices be heard. People
should be allowed to
promote ops &ect. in main
channels; currently it is very
hard to find active ops that
need help. All experainced
users need to cut thier
ego and start helping the
newcommers, and we
all need to realise that
Anonymous isn’t just about
hacking: it’s the regular
people of this world standing
up for freedom, truth, and
justice.
Anon666 Im gonna send
you out of space, to find
another race..
Anon30 I have seen egos
drive off many newbloods
and we cannot let that
continue. Greater numbers
is the easiest and best
way to increase anon
power. the egos come
to play when there is a
conflict of opinion on just
about anything. Perhaps
a little standard ettiquette
would make a difference?
elected op leaders or ddos
coordinators? no flaming
or swearing? we need
patience, tolerance and
the spirit of cooperation
reasserted. This will make
it easier for newbloods to
join in.
Anon 31 Anon power is
in numbers. Anon is an
unrivaled sociomedia
propaganda machine when
operating at full capacity.
But, a senseless rabble
far to often. A common
goal should be set. That
whenever in doubt we
atleast all know what we aim
to achieve. Making Anon
as accessible as safely
possible should be a priority.
Those who wake up must
be able to find the answers
they so desperately need.
Anon32 According to one
theory you only need to
convince 10% of a populous

to convince the rest in a sort
of snowball effect. Thats 700
million people. With the tools
we have. The skills of anons
and enough numbers, that is
achieveable.
AnoN439 Anonymous has
been took over by the feds,
was it started by the feds
? Point is there are many
Anons in the cyber world,
and many Anons in the real
world. But I stay int he cyber
world. I sadly can’t find
time to go out and protest.
I see how the Government
is fucking us, how were
all seperated whilst being
forced together. There
is an element of control
beyond the individuals
mind. Anonymous has done
much, but look at how much
money is being made from
all the hacks. America has
generated a lot of wealth
and so have many others
in the security industry.
So what is next ? The
real focus has to be main
stream media and onto the
streets action by all. And
that needs leadership, that
needs someone to answer
and take responsibility.
To be worth anything the
next step must be a united
front by everyone who calls
themsevles Anons. But we
need to collide 2 worlds, the
real and the cyber.... Good
lucKK!
We all know that some
secret services are among
us making some plans
to divide anons and
neutralize our actions,
how do you think they
act? what do you propose
to thwart their plans and
make them fail? have
you observed some
weird behaviors that you
suspect being the result of
such Social Engineering
actions?
Anon1 our decentralized
“structure” is both a strength
and a weakness imo,
strength because it makes
it hard to locate “leaders”
as there are none and take
them down. however it’s
also a weakness because
it makes dissension very
easy, makes it easy to
cause internal struggles.
obviously we can’t and won’t
compromise the integrity of
99
this decentralized “structure”
but perhaps we could make
the weak point stronger and
create more solidarity and
centralized discussions-
just to touch base with one
another and know where
we stand as a collective.
i think encouraging more
discussions such as this
one could make a huge
difference.
xanon: We can develop
a decentralizated network
where anyone can post
an announcement, idea,
comment, without names.
Then this would be available
for others to “give kudos” to
that ‘post’, and this would
make it more visible.
Anon11->xanon: That is
an excellent Idea, mabye
have a certain number of
names, like 300 and each
session you connect you
get a different name for the
duration of the session, click
refresh and you are given
a new name randomly out
of the hat. As a network
engineer and systems
analyst, I take large issue
to the way that the current
IRC networks are operated,
100
too many serious security
breaches, some networks
(anonops) have even
recently been found to be
keeping logs (full logs for
over half of a year) (not sure
if i 100% believe the story, im
about 50/50% between that
being a legit story and that
being a coverup for the fact
that they are now keeping
logs and before they werent
(fabricated story about how
bad the last guys are to
distract from the actions
of the new “caretakers”).
Another issue that I have is
the dependency on bans and
the ability for any moderator
to know exactly what
people’s IP addresses are
in order to carry out those
bans. I have repeatedly been
ip range banned so I know it
to be true that there is some
form of logging taking place
at the moment in anonops.
->Also another MASSIVE
issue that that I have,
the actions of the current
moderators on anonops
(and to a lesser degree
elsewhere) is that they
portray highly suspicious
behavior and preferences.
In order to understand the
next bit you must understand
this one, in psychoanalysis
one of the tactics used is
to figure out what really
pisses off a specific group
and test it against specific
people to determine their
alleigances or memberships.
For instance feds really
really hate the things the
government has strong
propaganda presence
against, so speaking
about pedophillic things for
instance age 14 while to the
average person is usually
of disgust or indifference, a
federal employee is highly
likely to detest very strongly.
Also in the presence of
moderators try bringing up
the fact that they keep logs,
try bringing up the fact that
you think someone is in
some sort of a group. See
what really gets their blood
boiling and you may be able
to determine that they are
not who they say are.<- In
my personal experience,
anonops mods get vicious
when speaking badly about
1) the current american
government, 2) bringing
attention to the CIA presence
in anonops, 3) bringing
attention to corruption in
the military which the CIA is
heavily tied to financially, 4)
encouraging others to use
other IRC chats, 5) using
quotes from anti-federalist
founding fathers which
encourage rebellion and the
murdering of politicians en-
masse (jefferson), 6) Talking
about how unbannable you
are. 7) talking about how
un-anon the server is, and
>>>talking about how gay
nick reggers are because
thats not fucking anon at
all<<< Due to these factors, it
would be advisable to find an
alternative to the moderated
IRC model, It would be WAY
too fucking easy for agents
to infiltrate the moderator
circles in IRC servers.
Anon2 How do we know that
they want to neutralize our
actions? Maybe they want
to use our actions against
us. What if they get ugly
things done under the anon
banner..
Anon11->anon2 They quite
commonly try to get us to
hack people at ITC and
things like that which could

be catastrophic for anon’s
repuation and the well being
of the internet given they are
the deciders for our freedom
on the internet. sometimes
they try really really hard to
keep controversial attacks
going long after they
should have been stopped,
things like false-alarm bad
intelligence caused attacks.
Anonrage Agree with Anon2,
we noticed many operations
that are a kind of traps What
I would notice the most
is a simple mathematical
question: Where the millions
of dollars dedicated to
dismantle Anonymous and
prevent our efficient actions
are expended? What is sure
is that they are not used to
find technological solutions
but rather in humans
involvements.
Anon4 Perhaps there
should be more focus on
goals, this would circumvent
the structural problem some.
Anon1 also agree with
Anon2, take for example
the bomb threat that clearly
was NOT anonymous, but
still was purported to be us.
that was an action that was
harmful to us as a whole,
it gives the governments
an excuse to treat us as
terrorists. and as far as
social engineering goes, that
is harmful to the new anons
as well as the old, trust is
obviously not something that
is taken for granted in Anon
but government or feds or
whatever u want to call them
using it to get info or trap
Anons is not a good thing.
awareness of these tactics
should be raised.
Anon2 Well.. Anon is not
a good thing to govs with
inhuman intentions now, is it?
Anon1 if the govs had more
perspective and less fear,
Anon could be a great thing
for the world. but their ego
and fear keep it from its full
potential.
Raxa I believe they are
trying to infiltrate in the form
of our IRC channels, I have
had many weird names and
Guests ask me who I work
with and where I am located.
Some of them are most
likely other Anons trying to
101
troll and have fun, but I’m
not going to pass up the
fact of chance that it is also
the Fed’s trying to pump me
for information and find out
the locations of our fellow
bretheren. I say we begin
watching these people and
inspecting their behaviours.
Anonskane I think they
whant to class oss (us?)
as terrorists so they going
to have bigger authority to
do house raids and seize
computers, beacuse thats
our way to comunicate.
Look at england the anons
who are going to court now
they are not allowed to
use irc and their nickname.
Thats their way to stop oss/
theme to comunicate with
our fellow anons if we cant
speak to our fellow anons
how can we stand united? If
we cant comunicated thats
their we to start devied oss.
Ps sorry about my english
hope u can read anyway
and understand what i mean
=)
Anon5 Maybe they are
afraid that we will make
world realise that they are
the ones who are taking our
102
freedom and want to make
us their slaves and make us
work their way.
Anonrage I don’t think that
LEA’s will invest money
on random nicks that no
one trust and that could be
easily trolled; My biggest
fear is that I am aware they
would prefer influent anons
proposing them amounts
they can not refuse mixed
with some threats if they
have got any compromised
information on them; For
me it is the most plausible
description of how they
recruit; Then knowing
that and based on Sabu’s
case, we will plunge into a
paranoid state making us
suspecting any active anon
if some fingers are pointed
on him/her. That also
explain why they disclosed
Sabu’s cooperation and
they succeed making us
lose the confidence we
had on known and active
anons, torturing ourselves
with the following evidence:
“If Sabu was FBI, so many
others could be”. Based
on such a fear, they can
easily social engineering
some other key persons
making them suspect their
fellows. I experienced this
myself being a target of
rumors and also receiving
many PMs that aimed to
make me believe some of
my friends were feds. The
magical solution I adopted
that helped me and my
trusted friends was to share
all these information with
many anons, exposing
the rumors spreaders and
analysing their discourses
and goals, comparing them
with the information that
others received from the
same gang. This solution
prevented me and many of
my friends of falling under
such nocive influences or
undergo their effects.<3
Anon1 I have been
approached by some anons
who have been asked to
“hack” into some sites for
an immense amount of
money, they asked if this
was legit. i replied “no” that
is not right. i’m assuming
that it was an attempted
trap of those anons. i hope
that awareness to this tactic
has been raised and that
others know that if someone
offers u money to do these
things, that goes against the
principles behind anon.<3
Raxa I feel that if it comes
down to being offered
money for our services,
any anon would realize it’s
an obvious trap, and as
Anon1 said, we do not live
by those principles for what
we do. Also any one of us
who even know what social
engineering is should not be
able to be tricked by such
a thing. It’s pretty apparent
at times that someone is
trying to social engineer with
certain things they ask or
say. All we really need to do
on that front is pay attention
and to never get caught off
guard.
Anon6 One problem
with Anonymous is the
difficulty an individual has
in being truely anonymous.
Consider the following. All
members of anonymous
must never have or use
a unique username in
any public forum or chat
system. If this rule was in
place, then government
groups going after

anonymous would have a
close to impossible task in
connecting an action to a
single individual. However
in real life this would
be difficult to control or
maintain. Various methods
could be developed to limit
an individuals profiling
fingerprint.
Anon7 Agreed with anon6,
one of the most dangerous
things to do is to be a
namefag - don’t brag in
public channels, and don’t
trust anyone too much.
Anon8 One of the ways that
Intel Ops conducts business
within decentralized cellular
organizations is to simply
“Use” them. “The enemy
of my enemy is my friend.”
This leads to rapport with an
infiltrator and soon after an
attempt to turn alligiences.
Also one of the ways that
an infiltrator would attempt
to do so would be to spurn
an op that was basically a
honeypot. Once alligience of
a anon is sucessfully turned,
there has to be an excuse
for that anon to pop off the
radar, an example would be
an arrest. Nothing infuriates
Anons more that when
one of us gets taken, but
is that Anon is turncoat he
has an alabi, if he is a loyal
Anon then hes just fucked.
Either way when he or she
resurfaces there should be
caution.
Anon9 I think that they
will act by simply trying to
infiltrate. Befriending one
person in order to use them
to connect with others. The
reson LEA have been so
successful in the past is
because of namefags. If
people are bragging about
their activity, stay the fuck
away from those people.
THOSE are the ones who
will get v& quickly and
anyone who is associated
with them, has the potential
to get caught up in the
arrest. LEA are evolving and
Anonymous is not. That is
a problem. People need to
realize that the ones talking
the loudest are the feds
or informants. Stay out of
anonops. Another thing, be
aware of fake ops. Honeypot
ops that will end with a
massive v& for all.
103
Anonrage I think we
are evolving even it is
not obvious, we learned
much from our previous
experiencesn especially
this year, we paid it and
many of us paid it with years
of their lives; but we are
constructing the future
Anon9 I disagree. The
same tricks are being played
out over and over. LEA know
what to expect from us.
They have profiled, collected
data, watched, listened
and reacted. While others
have continued to operate
using the same tactics.
The element of surpise is
in order. And it seem LEA
always seem to have suprise
and Anon does not.
Anonrage Anons are very
different, i agree with you
about some ones, but not
about all, I know anons
much more aware and
smart than the LEAs you are
descripting.
Anon9 I agree. The ones
that I speak of are generally
the ones who talk more
than act. There are those
104
who continue to operate in
the shadows and I applaud
their actions. But, still, same
tricks are being played out.
However, it is impossible
to organize anything due
to namefags and media
whores who will simply blurt
out plans before they are
completed. Unfortunately
this has led to paranoia
and reclusion among some
Anons. And it is sad, but
necessary. Until people stop
seeing Anon as a club or a
hang out after school “place
to be” it will continune to be
infiltrated. The problem is
peoples mindsets.
Anonrage We had recently
an experience like that, a
name fag opened #opisrael
as an opportunity to have
media attention and so.. He
wanted to kill that op after
his “flash in pan”; Anons
in a very big number are
continuing it and every
where! by twitter, facebook,
alone in their houses! It
proves that when there is
a good cause, anons have
enough imagination and
tools to defend it; This time
I could say “Anonymous”
as system is unbreakable
and indestructible, beyond
individuals and IRCs. LEAs
are stupid to bet on that.
Anon9 The whole concept
of freedom and wanting
more and all that stuff will
never die. LEA know it
won’t. There has always
been proests, rallies, and
politcal disagreements. The
real issue that I currently
have while fuels my current
frustration; is that LEA
are slowly cutting off our
means of communication by
monitoring us. Monitoring
us to a degree that we
will no longer be able to
organize. THAT is much
more important than
some of the ops that are
currently going on. Israel
was necessary, however
it seems to have drained
people from the opwcit
that is FAR more important
than Israel. People can
say it is heartless to think
that way but in reality,
protesting is only possible
IF and only if, we are able
to communicate. People
will realize this when it is
too late. Unfortunatly I feel
that governments around
the world will do a massive
amount of damage if
people don’t get their shit
together and realize that
communication and privacy
are the most important thing.
Anonrage Agree with you
completely, but please keep
the hope and faith that these
internet nerds will always
find solutions even they can
be defeated for a moment.
Anon9 It is hard to have
faith when people are
getting v&. Talented,
motivated people are
being picked off becuase
of others stupidity. It is
hard to have faith when
talking with some highly
skilled people who say that
working for coperations
makes much more sense
because children don’t
seem to graps the severity
of the issues at hand. It is
even more difficult to have
faith when others seem to
have lost it and are walking
away from Anonymous as
a whole. I will try not to lose
it but sometimes when I lie
in bed at night I think about

things and the past and
where all that will end. It is
in those moments when I
am replaying certain events
I stop and wonder if it really
is worth it. People don’t
want to listen, they don’t
want to learn. They are too
selfish for change. But alas,
I am here, typing to people
in hopes that perhaps just
maybe, someone will read
this and recenter their
priorites and we can propell
forward and be victorious.
Anonrage OMG!! every
time i thought like you,
and it arrived to me and
many friends this year, I got
seriously depressed....You
are making me cry but I will
never loose my hope ((
Anon9 You would be
surprised, I was tearing
up as I typed that last
paragraph. I miss my friends
who got v& and it kills me to
see such thoughtless action
from others. But I will try not
to loose hope. I’m just sad
that things are some what at
a stand still and people can’t
find something or someone
to have hope and faith in.
105
I will continue to hope
that freedom and the idea
of freedom is something
people have fought for since
the beginning of time. And
they have been victorious.
So as dark as the days may
get, as full as the prison may
be; freedom is obtainable.
<3
Anon10 I agree that we
will be victorious that’s for
sure. Revolutions never go
backwards and even the
FEDS must see we are only
fighting for our freedoms
and futures. We are not
terrorists. We are human
beings tired of the corrupt
criminal ruling class. Failure
is not an option. We shall
be free.
106
DDoS... My Love!
Being an activist is a state
of mind, a human nature
I can say. You are either
born an activist or you are
predisposed to become one.
The activist is a being filled
with empathy who suffers
injustice he sees around
him, and he wants, needs,
wishes, hopes, dreams it
ceases by any means.
After trying all existing
methods, known,
conventional or even
invented... After finding
that nothing works and the
people for whom he fights
disregard or have not even
heard of these actions...
Incurring losses of all kind,
he plunges into a state of
bewilderment, sadness,
waiting, or hopelessness.
When I saw the media
concerned with an unusual
event, an action that has
shaken more than a big
company and state, I
suddenly woke up... I saw in
this event the hope I have
been waiting years for, it
was #OpPayback and it
was a well covered DDoS
attacks, December 2010.
Joining the hive, I met
dozens of individuals
who embody the activist
described above; People of
all countries, colors, ages,
genders, with different
political persuasions, but
aware that they have
common enemies and that
by assembling together and
using a simple tool, they can
tell these enemies that the
people of the world are not
stupid, they are watching
them, alert, and are ready
to act, effectively! I also met
the LULZ :)
A common belief was
prevalent among us that
DDoS was widely accepted
as a virtual sit-in even by
courts; “The collective
blockade of a corporate
website in the context of a
political event is not violence
or coercion but legitimate
free expression”, a German
Higher Regional Court in
Frankfurt decided on 22
May, 2006/[1]
A case law...
“On 20 June 2001, the
Groups ‘Libertad’ and ‘Kein
Mensch ist illegal’ (No
one is illegal) called for
an online demonstration
against Lufthansa. With
special software they
developed, demonstrators
were able to automatically
call various Lufthansa
websites in an attempt to
overload the servers. The
activists did so to protest
the airline’s participation
in deportations [...] the
human rights activists say
that some 13,000 Internet
users took part in the
protest [...] activists saw
their online protest as a
modern kind of non-violent
sit-in and claimed they
were acting within their
basic constitutional right of
freedom of assembly [...]
In the summer of 2005,
the first-instance court of
Frankfurt found initiator
Andreas-Thomas Vogel
guilty and sentenced him to
a fine of 90 days’ pay. [...]
The Higher Court found that
the online demonstration
did not constitute a show
of force but was intended
to influence public opinion.
This new interpretation left
no space for charges of

coercion, and the accused
was found not guilty.”[2]
It is the most well known
precedent, or case law,
relative to DDoS and one
of the typical virtual sit-
ins involving thousands
of activists and citizens
reacting to a conscience-
based socio-political
issue, but the majority of
the historical cases that I
consulted in preparation of
this article have not led to
any complaint in courts or
lawsuits.
Tolerated DDoS...
One of the recent cases
involved a known cyber
activist, Ricardo Dominguez
who had a tenure as
associate professor in UC
San Diego’s Visual Arts
Department. Dominguez,
who is also a co-founder of
The Electronic Disturbance
Theater[3], organized an
operation of DDoS or a
virtual sit-in against the
University of California
Office of the President
(UCOP) on March 4th, 2010,
in solidarity with the mass
students protests sweeping
across many University of
California campuses and
the US, against students’
fees in the UC system
and the dismantling of
educational support for
K – 12 across California.
As result of this operation,
Dominguez has been told
that he may face criminal
charges for mounting a
distributed denial of service
attack and became under
investigation by the FBI
office of Cybercrimes,
for which his tenure was
threatened, following a legal
investigation few months
ago, for his project, The
Transborder Immigrant Tool.
In one of his interviews,
Dominguez said he has
organized or participated in
at least 16 similar protests
and until that date has never
been accused of criminal
hacking. One in 2008
protesting the weaponization
of nanotechnology even won
him a fellowship from the
university administrators.[4]
Nonetheless, this case has
generated a great solidarity
107
campaign, a petition
signed by 1003 colleagues
and fellows expressing a
total agreement with the
professor’s action and
project has been sent to
the university officials[5] in
addition to an online petition
and a protest in support,
sponsored by the UC Multi-
Campus Research Group
in Internationalism and
Performance.[6]
It is interesting to notice that
after all the investigations
were dropped, Dominguez
had to agree not to do
another virtual sit-in
performance on the UCOP
for 4 years, but the day he
signed the agreement, a
number of supporters across
the nation did a virtual sit-in
on UCOP again.[7]
This essay and the cited
example are opportunities
to remind that neither the
cyber activism nor the DDoS
are Anonymous invention.
Dreamed Internet...
Well before the existence
of the Internet, when
the television was
108
the most ubiquitous,
instantaneous example of a
communication medium, in
true Jules-Vernian fashion,
scrutinizing the future of
communications, Umberto
Eco almost presaged
in 1967 a medium that
would achieve what the
internet has achieved: “[T]
he constant correction of
perspectives, the checking
of codes, the ever renewed
interpretations of mass
messages.” which should
lead to the formation of
“groups of communications
guerrillas, who would
restore a critical dimension
to passive reception.”
We can read in his
influential essay “Towards
a Semiological Guerrilla
Warfare”,[8] which coined
the influential term
“semiological guerrilla,” and
influenced the theorization
of guerrilla tactics against
mainstream mass media
culture, such as guerrilla
television and culture
jamming:
“[T]he receiver of the
message seems to have
a residual freedom: the
freedom to read it in
a different way…I am
proposing an action to
urge the audience to
control the message and
its multiple possibilities of
interpretation, [...] [O]ne
medium can be employed
to communicate a series of
opinions on another medium
[…] [We need] a future
communications guerilla
warfare – a manifestation
complementary to
the manifestations
of Technological
Communication, the
constant correction of
perspectives, the checking
of codes, the ever
renewed interpretations
of mass messages. The
universe of Technological
Communication would then
be patrolled by groups of
communications guerillas,
who would restore a critical
dimension to passive
reception. The threat
that the ‘the medium is
the message’ could then
become, for both medium
and message, the return
to individual responsibility.
To the anonymous
divinity of Technological
Communication our answer
could be: ‘Not Thy, but our
will be done.”
Since the first nodes of
ARPANET, the predecessor
of the Internet, were
linked together in 1969,
researchers turned it
against the intentions of its
creators, the Department
of Defense’s Advanced
Research Projects Agency,
by using that network to
communicate with one
another and exchange
opinions. This was the
single biggest unintended
consequence of ARPANET.
“ARPANET’s “network mail,”
a precursor to today’s email,
was not exclusively used
to discuss research, it also
helped distribute messages
against the Vietnam War,
hosted discussions about
the Watergate scandal, and
ultimately the resignation of
President Richard Nixon.”[9]
When large numbers of
activists and aware citizens
are able to more easily
connect to one another,

to send and receive
original content, and to
coordinate action, they
are able to create effective
political movements.
[10] “The changed nature
of cyberspace offers an
opportunity for those
campaigning against
dominant powers to equalise
the political game.”[11]
With its global architecture,
the internet allowed, since
its existence, collaboration
and participation beyond
time and space constraints.
As a many-to-many medium
it stimulates diffusion of
ideas and issues on an
unprecedented scale,
significantly reducing
mobilization costs for groups
and activists in collective
action.
Starting by e-mails
exchange and as a
communication medium
for offline actions, Internet
has become nowadays a
large battlefront of cyber
activists using online
vanguard actions against
greedy and oppresive
entities. Some scholars
even make a strong case
to completely abandon the
sharp distinction between
the online and offline worlds,
since both spheres are
heavily interdependent.[12]
“By means of the open
network of the internet, a
diverse range of activists,
groups and social
movement organizations
could loosely knit together
and coalesce in coordinated
actions against the WTO
summit both offline, in the
streets, as well as online, in
cyberspace. Although the
precise contribution of the
internet is hard to establish,
these examples show that
the internet has given civil
society new tools to support
their claims.”[13]
Today activist has a wide
range of actions to follow
and/or to perform, whether
supported by Internet
in terms of information,
mobilization, organization
and transnationalization,
or based on it as virtual
activities that may range
from online petitions, protest
websites, alternative media,
109
email bombings, culture
jamming, defacements and
virtual sit-ins to hacking the
websites of large companies
or governments...
A mass weapon...
But... But, among all these
above cited online actions,
ONLY ONE can be at
the same time a massive
mass action and a strong
offensive message... It is the
DDoS performed as virtual
sit-in!
“The case studies I will
discuss later focus on
this tactic in particular
because, out of the range
of tactics that could be
termed disruptive electronic
contention - and in fact out
of the whole repertoire of
electronic contention - it
is only the virtual sit-in
that explicitly requires the
collective simultaneous
participation of large
numbers of people.”[14]
The message expressed by
the sit-in says, especially
if applied in the rules of
art, ie accompagned by
informative press releases,
110
flyers and videos: We
are numerous to see and
understand your behavior,
we are watching you and we
decided to react collectively.
You tried to silence us,
we are silencing you. The
goal of a virtual sit-in or
blockade in the cyberspace
is also to call the media and
public opinion’s attention
to the protestors and their
cause by disrupting normal
operations and blocking
access to facilities.
It is an action that requires
no skill, any citizen of the
world can participate and
feel himself forceful as long
as he knows the issue and
wants to be a responsible
individual. In the fierce
struggle opposing internet
users to governments and
corporations who wants
to transform the internet
from an open space for
free speech and world
wide information spread,
a space where users are
able to get a say on how
it should be managed and
organized, into a tool to
control and dominate these
users in particular and the
whole citizens in general
in order to become the
obedient herd that consume
whatever companies are
willing to get them consume,
without any objection or
dispute, virtual sit-ins are
the appropriate collective
response to increase public
awareness about such
plans. It is also obvious that
more than any other action,
DDoS operations are widely
covered by the mass media,
thus can play a big role in
information and awareness
spreading.
Beginning in 1994, The
digital activism pioneers
Critical Arts Ensemble has
infered that: “Elite power,
having rid itself of its
national and urban bases
to wander in absence on
the electronic pathways,
can no longer be disrupted
by strategies predicated
upon the contestation of
sedentary forces; And if
it no longer matters if this
road here is blocked or that
supermarket site is camped
upon, because place is
no longer relevant and all
blockages can be moved
around, then many, if not
most, protest tactics will be
rendered ineffective;”[15]
Those were the arguments
of these first digital activists,
in favor of DDoS actions,
“Since institutions today
are no longer localized in
physical structures but exist
in the decentralized zones
of cyberspace, electronic
blockades can cause
financial stress that physical
blockades can not.”[16]
The Critical Arts Ensemble
are known to be the
first group who used
the Electronic Civil
Disobedience concept which
was direct political action,
theory and artform all in one.
Well documented and one
of the first mass action
hacktivist groups is the
Electronic Disturbance
Theatre (EDT). Formed in
1998 by four artist-hacker-
activists, it retained this
multidimensional approach
and developed protests in
support of the Zapatista
struggle by connecting it
to the early development

of the anti-globalisation
movement. In the attempt
to generate a mass form of
online protest, it took the
concept of Electronic Civil
Disobedience a step further.
In 1998, They organized a
series of web sit-ins, first
against Mexican President
Zedillo’s website and later
against President Clinton’s
White House website, and
those of the Pentagon, the
School of the Americas, the
Frankfurt Stock Exchange,
and the Mexican Stock
Exchange. The purpose was
to demonstrate solidarity
with the Mexican Zapatistas.
According to Brett Stalbaum,
a member of Electronic
Disturbance Theater and
co-author of the FloodNet
software, the Pentagon
was chosen because:
“We believe that the U.S.
military trained the soldiers
carrying out the human
rights abuses at the School
of the Americas”.[17] The
Frankfurt Stock Exchange
was targeted as a symbolic
protest against globalization,
which is at the root of the
Chiapas’ problems:
“Because it represented
capitalism’s role in
globalization utilizing the
techniques of genocide and
ethnic cleansing, which is
at the root of the Chiapas’
problems. The people of
Chiapas should play a key
role in determining their
own fate, instead of having
it pushed on them through
their forced relocation (at
gunpoint), which is currently
financed by western
capital.”[18]
The Electronic Disturbance
Theater estimated that up
to 10,000 people from all
countries took part in the
demonstration, delivering
600,000 hits to each of the
three websites per minute.
[19]
DDoS techniques...
In order to make these
sit-in operations more
efficient and less binding,
members of the EDT
have created a HTML and
Java based tool called
FloodNet or the Swarm.
[20] Once downloaded to
an individual’s computer,
the Floodnet software
111
automatically connects the
surfer’s web browser to a
preselected website and
every seven seconds the
browser’s reload button is
automatically activated by
the software.The Floodnet
software makes use of the
server and bandwidth of
individual participants that
download and activate the
software on their computers.
If thousands of people use
Floodnet on the same day,
the combined effect of such
a large number of activists
will disrupt the operations
of a particular site.This
kind of software is used
to perform a DDoS attack
forcing a website to shut
down, a server system to
be inoperative, or to leave
political messages onto the
server logs.[21]
Animal Liberation Front
activists have also used
EDT’s FoodNet software to
protest against Vivisection’s
treatment of animals. Over
800 protestors from more
than 12 countries joined a
sit-in against websites in
Sweden on January 1999.
112
“Day of Net Attacking
Against Vivisection,
communiqué from the
Animal Liberation Front,
December 31, 1998. The
First Ever Animal Liberation
Electronic Civil Disobedience
Virtual Sit-In on the SMI
Lab Web Site in Sweden,
notice from Tactical Internet
Response Network, (http://
freehosting.at.webjump.
com/fl/floodnet-webjump/
smi.html) ECD Report—SMI
Shuts Down Their Computer
Network!!!”[22]
Thanks to its effectiveness,
this software has gained
a broader interest among
international activist groups.
On June 18, 1999, FloodNet
was one of the tools
used in the anti-capitalist
demonstration coordinated
by many groups from the
anti-globalisation movement
along with street protests.
In the months before June
18, activist groups were
e-mailed instructions making
the Floodnet widely available
on the internet under the
J18 banner. The Sunday
Times reported that several
companies and institutions,
including the Stock
Exchange, Barclays and
HSBC, were targeted.[23]
There are many examples of
mass, online direct actions,
and many techniques in
order to slow and/or down
selected targets. It is worth
to mention here and remind
the simplest method of
DDoS: Pushing the reload
button.
A group calling itself
Strano Network conducted
one of the first such
demonstrations as a protest
against French government
policies on nuclear and
social issues. On December
21, 1995, they launched a
one-hour NetStrike attack
against the websites
operated by various
government agencies. At the
appointed hour, participants
from all over the world were
instructed to point their
browsers to the government
websites. According to
reports, at least some of
the sites were effectively
knocked out for the period.
[24]
The first NetStrike action in
solidarity with the Zapatista
movement was as well
performed by this simple
method:
“On Sunday the 18th of
January 1998 a call for
NetStriking for Zapata
(from Anonymous Digital
Coalition) came in via
email with the following
instructions: In solidarity with
the Zapatista movement we
welcome all netsurfers with
ideals of justice, freedom,
solidarity and liberty within
their hearts, to a virtual
sit-in. On January 29,
1998 from 4:00 p.m. GMT
(Greenwich Mean Time) to
5:00 p.m. (in the following
five web sites, symbols of
Mexican neoliberalism):
Bolsa Mexicana de Valores:
(http://www.bmv.com.mx/)
Grupo Financiero Bital:
(http://www.bital.com.
mx/) Grupo Financiero
Bancomer: (http://www.
bancomer.com.mx/) Banco
de Mexico: (http://www.
banxico.org.mx/) Banamex:
(http://www.banamex.com/)
Technical instructions:
Connect with your browser

to the upper mentioned
web sites and push the
button ‘reload’ several
times for an hour (with in
between an interval of few
seconds).”[25]
Other simple techniques
have been used to adapt
the virtual sit-ins to different
circumstances. In the
spring of 2001, the Harvard
Progressive Student Labor
Movement (PSLM) have
organized several actions at
Harvard College demanding
higher living wages for the
institution’s janitors and
dining-room workers. This
movement started with
the occupation of several
university administrative
offices. PSLM members who
were not inside the occupied
offices, together with other
supportive students and
professors, built a tent
city outside the occupied
building that served as
central management base
for rallies, music events,
film screenings, and
media visits. After three
weeks of the action, as
media attention seemed to
stagnate and administration
officials continued to
refuse any negotiation with
activists, the Electronic
Disturbance Theater
offered to help the PSLM
escalate their tactics with
a virtual sit-in in order to
boost media attention and
to increase the pressure on
administration officials. As
some students expressed
their concerns about
possible repercussions,
adverse effects and a fear
that the media might label
the virtual action in terms of
‘hacking’ or ‘cyberterrorism’,
it was decided to target
the websites of 8 major
corporations with board
members who were also
on the Harvard Board
of Trustees, instead of
attacking Harvard University
servers directly. They used
a tool that sends repeated
requests for nonexistent
pages called ‘living_wage@
Harvard.now’ flooding the
targeted corporate servers
for as long as participants
kept their browsers open,
slowing access to their sites
and filling server logs with
‘living_wage@Harvard.now
not found’ messages.[26]
113
The Communication
Workers of America (CWA)
union who had decided to
participate in this action
expressed a big interest for
this kind of tactics. They
collaborated three months
after that, in May 2001,
with Electronic Disturbance
Theater and the Committee
for the Rescue and
Development of Vieques
(Comite Pro Rescate y
Desarollo de Vieques, or
CPRDV) to launch a virtual
sit-in in support of civil
disobedients who were
attempting to force a halt to
US Navy military exercises
on Vieques island. The
CWA called its 750,000
members to join the strike
and this fight was a victory
according to Dominguez
who had received a phone
call from the administrator
of (http://www.navy.com/)
demanding that the action
be brought to a halt, as the
Netstrike had “completely
flooded our enlistment
database with thousands
of messages, and now our
site is starting to crash”.
[27] Upon this, the Navy
announced plans to begin
114
phasing out its operations
in Vieques over a 3 year
period. The technique of this
DDoS used the Navy’s own
online enlistment form, filling
required ‘name,’ ‘address,’
and other fields with
complaints that the Navy
cease bombing and honor
demands by Viequenses
for a public referendum to
decide the fate of the US
military presence.
This successful operation
encouraged afterwards the
national office members
of CWA to adopt definitely
these tactics and they asked
the Electronic Disturbance
Theater to help them
organize a similar Netstrike
for a campaign against
Verizon. The operation
was nearly ready to be
launched when the events
of September 11th caused
CWA to back off from the
action; The entire campaign
was stopped cold by a
drastically changed political
opportunity structure.[28]
Times have changed...
These few examples
demonstrate the growing
interest in virtual sit-ins and
the increase of participants
number and involved groups
throughout the 90s until
the early years of the 21st
century. The successful
tactics have of course
not gone unnoticed by
targeted governments and
corporations, especially
when they culminated
in the most obvious and
emblematic ever undertaken
DDoS action in order to
block the computer networks
servicing the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) summit
started in Seattle, on 30
November 1999. Protest
activity to surround the WTO
Ministerial Conference was
on similar lines to June18
(J18), of the same year, and
similar mobilizations, but the
scale of the demonstrations
dwarfed any previous one
in the United States against
a world meeting of any
organizations associated
with economic globalization,
even the lowest estimates
put the crowd at over
40,000.[29] The aim of
the streets action was to
halt or disrupt the WTO
conference by preventing
delegates from entering
the conference venue. To
that end, traditional civil
disobedience and direct
actions were employed,
blocking streets with
bodies through mass
demonstrations and so on.
The virtual direct action was
run by the Electrohippies (or
ehippies)[30], it coincided
with the Seattle street
protests and operated
perfectly in tune with those
protests. The ehippies
activists claim the action
was overall successful,
with the WTO conference
networks being constantly
slowed, brought to a
complete total halt on two
occasions. They estimate
that over 452,000 people
swamped the site over five
days, and during the action,
the group says participants
sent them up to 900 e-mails
each day.[31]
“The electrohippies method
of operation is also truly
distributed since instead of a
few servers, there were tens
of thousands of individual
computer users involved
in the action. The requests

sent to the target servers
are generated by ordinary
Internet users using their
own desktop computer and
(usually) a slow dial-up
link. That means client-
side distributed actions
require the efforts of real
people, taking part in their
thousands simultaneously,
to make the action effective.
If there are not enough
people supporting then the
action doesn’t work. The fact
that service on the WTO’s
servers was interrupted on
the 30th November and
the 1st of December, and
significantly slowed on the
2nd and 3rd of December,
demonstrated that there
was significant support for
the electrohippies action.
(Electrohippies Collective
2000)”[32]
Despite this success
and many other effective
operations, either by this
group or by others, the
Electrohippies collective
decided six months later
to stay “quiet” because of
two laws that affected their
activities and those of many
other groups in UK. These
two new laws changed
significantly the rights of
British citizens to freely
use the Internet for political
and protest action: The
Terrorism Act 2000; and The
Regulation of Investigatory
Powers Act 2000.
“Since early Summer 2000,
the electrohippies have
been rather ‘quiet’. This
is because the majority of
the e’hippies are based in
the UK, and during 2000
the British government
has been developing new
laws to ‘police’ British
cyberspace. This potentially
makes the actions of the
electrohippies collective in
the UK, whilst not illegal,
potentially subject to a
disruptive investigations by
the state [...] But these new
laws, rather than enabling
the free use of the Internet
by all, are seeking to blur
the distinction between
public protest, crime, and
terrorism, in order to provide
a ‘safe environment’ for
corporations to do their
deals.”[33]
Since the DDoS techniques
have found a fertile ground
115
to grow that consists
of dozens of activists
groups, mainly in the anti-
globalisation movement,
who understood the
enormous impact that
these operations can have
in terms of attracting the
mass media attention,
and thereby increase the
potential of reaching the
public opinion increasing by
the same fact the political
awarness among this public,
the snowball effect began to
emerge well.
“On February 8, 2000
hackers attacked Yahoo,
Amazon, eBay, CNN and
Bulacom, dosing them for
several hours. Through
“denial of service” attacks
originating from hundreds
of independent computers,
the sites were flooded with
millions of simultaneous
requests [....] Although
at present no individuals
or groups have officially
claimed responsibility,
MSNBC reported receipt
of an 18-page letter
claiming responsibility by
an individual who angrily
criticized the sites for
116
their ‘capitalization of the
Internet’.”[34]
Rising Repression...
Within the USA, the political
opportunity structure
for disruptive or even
conventional cyber activism
has been reduced severely
by the national climate in
the wake of the September
11th attacks. An era of rising
repression and police states
began, increasingly. Protest
action of all kinds has been
muted by the rising tide of
nationalism multiplied by the
mass media organs, and by
the passage of legislation
curtailing civil liberties in
the name of the ‘War on
Terrorism’.
The ‘Patriot Act’, whose the
last four-year renewal has
been signed by Obama on
May 26 2011,[35] includes
clauses that could mean
life imprisonment for
individuals who engage
in disruptive electronic
actions against government
or corporate websites.
[36] It is worth noting that
perhaps equally as powerful
as the legislation is the
mass mediated reframing
that shifts any talk of
‘Hacktivism’ or ‘Electronic
Civil Disobedience’
into a discussion about
‘Cyberterrorism.’ which
delegitimizes these tactics
and consolidates state and
corporate control over the
flow of information and
virtual capital.
An ongoing and growing
body of government and
corporate publications,
conferences, grants,
tactics and laws have
been concocted aiming at
criminalizing and heavily
penalizing all attempt
to balance or challenge
these insatiable entities
of economic, political and
social domination.
The Hope...
Doubtless, Anonymous
system and phenomenon
were the appropriate
response to such a situation.
Anonymous took up the
fight of its elders, carried the
banner of the cyber activim
of all sort and proved
within few months that the
aimed balance is not only
possible but also a win
could be hoped. This also
proved that despite all the
repressive mesures taken
by governments, behind
them the corporations,
Internet users and activists
can always find the useful
tricks to circumvent them;
As a tool which, by its very
structure, tends to favor
freedom, the internet is
uncontrollable, multiplicable,
expandable at will.
Saying this, it leads me to
talk about motivations that
prompted me to write this
essay. I joined Anonymous
during a DDoS operation
widely covered by the mass
media of all level. I enjoyed
the information sharing,
awareness spreading and,
of course, the LULZ, factors
that were dominating the
atmosphere prevailing
among the thousands
of citizens of the world
gathered together for an
action, a conviction and a
hope that strongly cheered
mine.
The efficiency of
Anonymous actions

exceeded all expected
results, especially during
the Arab Spring and the
valuable help offered to
Tunisian and Egyptian
protestors in order to
keep using internet as
a communication and
organization tool.
Repression’s arsenal...
Even expected, the
repression that started
since January 2011 had an
electroshock effect on the
majority of us, amplified
by the arrests of 14 anons
in USA and the discovery
that these peaceful activists
could face, for the first time
in the history, a combined
maximum of 15 years in
prison and a $500,000 fine.
“The defendants charged
in the San Jose indictment
allegedly conspired with
others to intentionally
damage protected
computers at PayPal from
Dec. 6, 2010, to Dec. 10,
2010. [...] The charge of
intentional damage to a
protected computer carries
a maximum penalty of
10 years in prison and a
$250,000 fine. Each count
of conspiracy carries a
maximum penalty of five
years in prison and a
$250,000 fine.”[37]
A quick research on the
previous sentences did not
lead to similar cases but to
some DDoS actions carried
for commercial purposes for
which the defendants was
charged of 12 to 30 months
in prison and a maximum of
$40,000 fine.[38] Hilarious
comparaison!
No need to mention
that the crackdown
was accompanied by a
seemingly astute project that
costs and will cost billions
of dollars to the taxpayers;
That is infiltrating our ranks,
monitoring chats and
influencing decisions, also
recruiting some mentally
weak elements.
And this is how we started
to hear that DDoS is not
useful, a kids on steroids’
action, a gay method and
so on... an unuseful action
that furthermore can cause
what our fellows are already
117
facing; a life destruction...
These fear mongering
campaigns produced some
obvious effects alongside
with direct interventions to
prevent or to stop some
big DDoS operations like
#OccupyWallStreet and
#OpMegaUpload, by
infiltrated law enforcement
agents.[39]
Should we stop?
My purpose is not to
minimize the danger of long
years prison that we may
all face one day or another,
in all countries, seen the
huge influence and pressure
exerted by the USA on
the other governments.
Every anon should be and
is in fact alert about this
risk. That this why instead
of fleeing the battlefront,
many skilled anons are
working to improve all kind
of protection tools and to
find some more secure
ways of communication than
a unique, easy to monitor
and infiltrate, Internet Relay
Chat (IRC). Despite these
important efforts, human
mistakes are inherent to
any human action, also our
118
enemies could improve their
prevention and repression
arsenal, but if we continue
our fight and, as usual,
attract thousands of world
citizens for the most aimed
virtual sit-ins that millions
of citizens are dreaming
to see them occuring, will
the governments and their
repressive arsenal manage
to stop and/or to jail them
all?
What if, despite all attempts
to stop us, and instead of
falling into the traps of the
primitive instinct to flee or
retreat in order to protect
our own persons, we follow
the historical example of the
Etoy campaign in 1999?
Etoys, one of the biggest
e-commerce giants in the
world, had established its
website in the fall of 1997
and discovered afterwards
that another etoy.com exist
belonging to an art group
formed in 1994 who had
registered its domain name
in 1995. Using the pretense
that this may confuse its
customers, Etoys attempted
first to buy the domain and
offered upwards of $500,000
in cash and stock options.
Since negotiations with the
artists proved fruitless, the
online toy retailer turned
to the courts in the fall of
1999, and got in November
29 a preliminary injunction
forbidding etoy to use its
domain name, claiming
damage to its trademark.
During the subsequent
weeks, activists attacked
eToys by a variety of means,
a combination of hacktivist
and public relations stunts
that have been widely
credited with contributing
to the 70% decline in the
NASDAQ stock value
of eToys, a decline that
began the same day as the
protests.
A new community platform,
http://www.toywar.com/,
gathered a “toy army” of
1400 activists poised to
perform “operations” on
command. The December
15-25 virtual sit-in crippled
the eToys servers, as CNN
reported. Simultaneously,
the “Disinvest!” campaign
filled eToys investment
boards and other outlets
with messages about the
situation. Many investors
responded by dumping their
eToys stock.
Finally, on December 29,
eToys announced it was
“moving away” from its
lawsuit in response to public
outrage. At first, etoy and
the activists were delighted,
and a formal counterpart to
the statement was expected
from hour to hour. Then,
when nothing happened
for days and then weeks,
it became clear that eToys’
announcement had been an
empty verbal concession it
had no intention of making
concrete, a typical corporate
ploy to derail activist
momentum. Activists quickly
renewed their campaign to
damage eToys.
“Perhaps startled by the
endurance of its opponents,
and nervous about further
attacks and proof of
instability during the week it
is to announce its quarterly
earnings, eToys today--at
15:20 Pacific Standard
Time, to be exact--finally

backed down on paper,
ceding full rights to etoy.
com on etoy’s terms, without
precondition and formally
agreed to pay the court
costs and other expenses
incurred as a result of the
lawsuit.”
In a press release, the
artists celebrated “total
victory for the etoy.
corporation and the Internet
community... which proved
that the Net is not yet in the
hands of e-commerce giants
[...] Things on the Internet
don’t go away, corporations
do this sort of thing and then
bury it, but this will always
be there when you search
for information on eToys. It
will always be very visible
what bastards they were”
More interesting is the
financial analysis by the
lawyer and RTMark member
Rita Mae Rakoczi, who
said in conclusion: “If
eToys stumbled into this
through sheer stupidity and
negligence, it could be liable
to investors for part of the $4
billion in value that’s been
lost as a consequence. A
successful lawsuit could
even entail eToys losing its
own trademark, which would
likely mean the end of the
company.” To encourage
lawsuits by investors
against eToys for having
seriously mismanaged
its stockholders’ money,
RTMark has set up a
page containing links to
resources on class action
lawsuits against corporate
managements.
“A precedent has now finally
been set in stone,” said
RTMark spokesperson Ray
Thomas. “eToys thought it
could act like corporations
typically do, but it had
no idea how the Internet
works. Now e-commerce
corporations have a
choice: either obtain a legal
stranglehold on the Internet,
so that this kind of defensive
reaction is no longer
possible, or behave decently
towards the humans
who use this medium for
purposes other than profit.”
This precedent has been
immediately fruitful by its
impact on the balance
119
between the e-commerce
companies and internet
activists;
“When thousands of
activists forced Internet toy
giant eToys to withdraw its
lawsuit against art site etoy.
com last month, one of their
bigger goals was to create
a chill on all of e-commerce,
so that companies using
the Internet would think
twice before trying to steal
precious bits of online
public space. This goal
seems to be a few steps
closer to being fulfilled.
Last week a user of http://
www.the3dstudio.com/ told
RTMark that Autodesk,
a company that makes
a product coincidentally
called 3D Studio, was
attempting to shut down
the forum, which is used by
hundreds of 3D artists to
freely trade graphics. [....]
RTMark informed the parties
concerned that it would
help sponsor an eToys-style
attack against Autodesk.
Within hours, Autodesk
announced that it would
relent from its suit, and on
Monday morning Martin M.
120
Konopken, Senior Corporate
Counsel for Autodesk,
officially informed Anderson
and RTMark that all threats
against The3DStudio.com
were being withdrawn; a
link to The3DStudio.com
was even placed on the
Autodesk website.”[40]
Conclusion...
While I was writing this
essay, I opened few days
ago twitter to get some
news, I immediately saw
a tweet posting a link to
an Anonymous statement
entitled “Digital Sit-ins:
DDOS is legitimate civil
disobedience”.[41] It has
been a while I haven’t saw
such a manifest claim in
Anonymous literature...
Yes, Anonymous is a genius
system, a great movement,
an indestructible tool!
Our strength? It is the
obvious fact that neither
governments services, nor
companies researchers,
even reporters visiting our
chat relays almost daily, can
understand what we are or
how we function.
They may know some
aspects, but do not accept
this reality or try to hide it
from the public opinion: We
are simple citizens, aware,
alert, and we discovered
that cyber activism and its
awesome tool, i.e. DDoS,
or Virtual Sit-Ins if you
prefer, is the best weapon
to spread awareness, to
share information and, in
final, to create what we all
wish... An upheaval of the
current economic, political
and social structure for a
real change inspired by
our function mode; No
leaders, no rigid ideologies
or even stagnant thoughts,
independent and free
individuals gathering for just
causes, working in solidarity.
 121

References

1. Digital Civil Rights in Europe, “Frankfurt Appellate Court Says Online Demonstration Is Not Coercion”;
June 7, 2006. http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.11/demonstration
2. Ricardo Dominguez, “Electronic Civil Disobedience Post-9/11: Forget Cyber-Terrorism and Swarm the
Future Now!”; Third Text, Vol. 22, No. 5.; September 2008; pp. 661-670 http://www.thing.net/~rdom/
ucsd/3rdTextDominguez.pdf. See also http://www.libertad.de/inhalt/projekte/depclass/verfahren/index.
shtml (German)
3. The Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) is a group that developed Virtual Sit-In technologies in 1998
in solidarity with the Zapatista communities in Chiapas, Mexico. Its members remain engaged and active
within EDT 2.0 and define themselves as artists of performance art and the aesthetics of new media art
who seek to amplify activist work.
4. ‘Virtual sit-in’ tests line between DDoS and free speech - Civil disobedience in the digital age; Dan Goodin;
The Register; 9th April 2010 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/09/virtual_protest_as_ddos/
5. http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/3233396/505304724/name/DominguezPetition.pdf
6. “ UCSD Targets Dominguez for Activist Scholarship”; Erbesto; People Of Color Organize; April 11, 2010
http://www.peopleofcolororganize.com/activism/news/ucsd-targets-dominguez-activist-scholarship/
7. “ On Electronic Civil Disobedience: Interview With Ricardo Dominguez”; Zach Blas; Reclamations, January
17, 2012 http://www.reclamationsjournal.org/blog/?ha_exhibit=interview-with-ricardo-dominguez
8. U mberto Eco, “Towards a Semiological Guerrilla Warfare,” (1967); in Travels in Hyperreality, New York,
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986. pps. 138, 143, 144.
9. Trebor Scholz, “Infrastructure: Its Transformations and Effect on Digital Activism”; in Digital Activism
Decoded ; The New Mechanics of Change, Mary Joyce, editor; 2010. pps 18, 19. http://www.cl.cam.
ac.uk/~sjm217/papers/digiact10all.pdf
10. M  ary Joyce, editor, Digital Activism Decoded / The New Mechanics of Change, 2010: p 2. Link ibid note 9
11. Tim Jordan and Paul Taylor, Hacktivism and Cyberwars: Rebels with a Cause, Routledge, London, 2004:
p 71. http://hacktivismsu.wikispaces.com/file/view/Hacktivism+and+Cyberwars+Rebels+with+a+Cause.pdf
12. Read: Jeroen Van Laer & Peter Van Aelst, “Internet and Social Movement Action Repertoires /
Opportunities and Limitations”; in Information, Communication & Society Vol. 13, No. 8, December 2010,
pp. 1146–1171. http://antwerp.academia.edu/JeroenVanLaer/Papers/206215/Internet_and_Social_
Movement_Action_Repertoires_Opportunities_and_Limitations
13. ibid. p. 1147
14. S  asha Constanza-Chock, “Mapping the repertoire of electronic contention”; 2003; p. 6. http://www-scf.
usc.edu/~costanza/electronic_rep_draft.pdf
15. Critical Art Ensemble, CAE (1994) The Electronic Disturbance, New York, Autonomedia.
16. ibid; read also “Intervasion of the UK” in wikipedia about the earlier DDoS actions in UK. http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intervasion_of_the_UK
17. Niall McKay, “Pentagon Detects Web Assault,” Wired News, September 10, 1998.
18. Brett Stalbaum, private correspondence with Dorothy Denning, July 23, 1999. See note 14, pp. 264, 265.
122

19. ibid note 17.

20. http://trasescena.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/zapatista-tactical-floodnet.jpg
21. See: PAUL A. TAYLOR, “From hackers to hacktivists: speed bumps on the global superhighway?” New
Media and Society, Vol. 7, No.5, 2005; p 634 http://agoraproject.eu/papers/From%20hackers%20to%20
hacktivists.pdf and: Carl Kaplan, “For Their Civil Disobedience, the ‘Sit-In’ Is Virtual,” Cyberlaw Journal,
The New York Times on the Web, May 1, 1998. http://partners.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/05/cyber/
cyberlaw/01law.html
22. Denning, p. 267. The web source of this communiqué does not exist any more.
23. S ee Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Maeve Sheehan, “Riot Organisers Prepare to Launch Cyber War
on City,” Sunday Times, August 15, 1999. Copy of the article here: https://groups.google.com/
forum/?hl=en&fromgroups=#!topic/alt.2600/7zIy03y_6xw
24. D orothy Denning, “Activism, Hacktivism, and Cyberterrorism: the Internet as a tool for influencing foreign
policy”; nnn; 1999; p. 264 http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1382/
MR1382.ch8.pdf
25. Ricardo Dominguez; 2003 “Digital Zapatismo” http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/DigZap.html
26. Constanza-Chock, “Mapping the repertoire...”; pp. 9-12
27. R icardo Dominguez: Interview by Constanza-Chock on December 4th, 2001; See Constanza-Chock
“Mapping the repertoire...”; p. 13.
28. the unique source of these events is Constanza-Chock “Mapping the repertoire...”
29. R ead “1999 Seattle WTO protests”; in Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WTO_Ministerial_
Conference_of_1999_protest_activity also Paul Reynolds, “Eyewitness: The Battle of Seattle”; BBC
News, December 2 1999 (With other links in the same page). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/547581.stm
30. E lectrohippies; in Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrohippies and Electrohippies website http://
www.fraw.org.uk/projects/electrohippies/index.shtml
31. Tim Jordan and Paul Taylor, “Hacktivism and Cyberwars....”; pp. 74-79 also David Cassel, “Hacktivism
in the Cyberstreets”; AlterNet; May 29 2000. http://www.alternet.org/story/9223/hacktivism_in_the_
cyberstreets
32. ibid; p. 77.
33. The electrohippies collective – communiqué December 2000; “Cyberlaw UK: Civil rights and protest
on the Internet” (Links to the laws and comments inside) http://www.iwar.org.uk/hackers/resources/
electrohippies-collective/comm-2000-12.pdf
34. M anion, M. And Goodrum, A. (2000) ‘Terrorism or Civil Disobedience: Towards a Hacktivist Ethic’
Computers and Society, p. 14. http://hacktivismsu.wikispaces.com/file/view/Manion%26Goodrum%2CTer
rorism+or+civil+disobedience.pdf
35. B everly Goldberg, “Patriot Act Renewal Renews Reformers’ Determination”; American Libraries; May
31 2011. http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/news/05302011/patriot-act-renewal-renews-reformers-
determination also EFF, “Obama Sides with Republicans; PATRIOT Act Renewal Bill Passes Senate
Judiciary Committee Minus Critical Civil Liberties Reforms” https://www.eff.org/effector/22/29
36. EFF https://www.eff.org/search/site/Patriot%20act (all about the Patriot Act)
 123

37. USA Department of Justice - Office of Public Affairs; “Sixteen Individuals Arrested in the United States
for Alleged Roles in Cyber Attacks”; July 19 2011. (14 of Paypal affair + 2 alleged hackers) http://www.
justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/July/11-opa-944.html See also the long list of arrested anons around the world
http://freeanons.info/arrests_updates/
38. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rizon http://www.ddosinfo.com/ddos-news/arizona-man-sentenced-for-
distributed-denial-of-service-ddos-attack/
39. See for example September 21 2011 in Sabu’s timeline: “SABU uses influence to kill Anonymous
attempts to DDoS Wall Street ?rms (http://goo.gl/kDRxS%7Chttp://goo.gl/oU9ur)” http://www.scribd.com/
doc/85351496/Timeline-of-ANTISEC-as-Created-and-Operated-Under-FBI-Supervision (Other timelines
to come some day)
40. A European group well known, by the way, for a piece called the ‘Digital Hijack,’ which made
sophisticated use of technology to playfully attack users’ browsers.
41. Facts and quotes related to this case have been gathered from many sources, The main ones are: -
®RTMark; ‘Press Release’, 9 February 2000, URL: http://www.rtmark.com/autodeskpr.html - ®TMark,
(2000) ‘Etoys Finally Drops Lawsuit, Pays Court Costs’ http://www.rtmark.com/etoyprtriumph.html
- Reinhold Grether, “How the Etoy Campaign Was Won”; February 26 2000. http://www.heise.de/tp/
artikel/5/5843/1.html - Jason Fry and Megan Doscher, “Another David Fells a Goliath; Will E-Lummoxes
Ever Learn?”; The Wall Sreet Journal Interactive Edition; January 28 2000. http://www.rtmark.com/more/
articles/etoywsj20000127.html
124
Anons, the hope.
Long-term plans, occasional
plans, more and more
arrests, plots, harassments,
pressures, direct attacks,
manipulation, even love!
Methods used to dismantle
and kill our great movement,
the only one that has
brought hope to millions
of world citizens after one
century of complete despair.
The last great and real
revolution ended, in October
1917, with a coup d’etat
orchestred by one political
party, the Bolsheviks,
who seized the power,
recuperating actions and
sacrifices of thousands of
activists and even of the
whole country, killing or
imprisoning all opposants to
its power, especially in the
ranks of the revolutionaries
who led this revolution,
Anarchists in majority.
The Soviets (councils
or assemblies) are
grassroots organs of direct
democracy, formed since
1905 to represent workers,
peasants, towns and
villages, their reformation
led to the overthrow of the
Tsarist regime in February
1917. After brandishing
the slogan “All power to
the soviets!” (Vsya vlast
sovyetam!; Вся власть
советам!), Bolsheviks
“stripped the Soviets of
their power while they were
still led by Lenin and stole
their name to dress up in,
whereas it was an anti-Soviet
regime” (Hannah Arendt
1958), then transformed
them on tools for its
domination.
Dreams of millions of
workers, activists, peasants
and even simple citizens had
been betrayed, Communist
parties in which these
millions had put their hope
turned into propaganda tools
and behaved defendants
of the interests of a
growing empire, regardless
of citizens interests or
ideological positions. Those
who refused to follow
were liquidated, physically
and / or morally. The
hierarchical and centralized
organisational system
replaced all the structures of
direct democracy up to trade
unions, even in the so called
extreme leftist parties and
groups.
Anti-colonialist liberation
movements led to militarized
and unpopular regimes,
where the ruling class had
established relationships
based on mutual interests
with the major powers to
protect them against their
own people. They were
well distributed between
the two blocs, East and
West, who had learned to
avoid a third world war by
carrying their conflicts over
these countries appointed
for the occasion “Emerging
Countries”.
The last attempts of
revolution of the 1960s
and 1970s have been
checkmated by this heavy
and well organized systems,
betrayed by well tamed
political parties and trade
unions.
This explains why the
hopelessness and
powerlessness feelings
were gradually installed in
the popular classes from
1917 to the present day and
how individual psychology
has been more oriented

toward self-protection and
personal interests than to
collective interests.
Anonymous is the ideal
system to avoid these past
mistakes and to create
best conditions for current
and future revolutions. It
is a decentralized and anti
hierarchical movement
where every individual
is supposed to be a free
thinker, a responsible
citizen and a self decider.
That is why none of these
individuals accepts to have
leaders who decide for him
or talk in his name and that
is why they extol in majority
a society that function just
like their model, without
leaders or governements
but sectorial groups caring
the interests of all and
taking decision by direct
democratic assemblies.
What makes this system
even more effective is the
fact that it does not depend
on the individuals who
compose it, nor on any
of them. Anonymous is a
set of tools and methods
developed over time by
125
random individuals who repression of all sorts, feel
share the same principles threatened and know their
and goals, it is a set of skills, power’s end is very near.
increasingly sophisticated, But instead of learning
which are accumulated and from the History, from an
spread anonymously, across equation of an unfailing
all areas of communications equivalence between tax
that internet can provide. and repression increases of
Tools, methods and an empire in its decadent
skills that any citizen can phase and its final collapse,
appropriate and use at any they prefered to repeat
moment and any place to history and make the same
get and spread information, mistakes that the previous
continue the previous empires had committed
tasks, organize attacks on without success accelerating
targets making information their fall into hell, throwing
about these chosen targets the main players of dirty
available to all. roles in the dustbin of
It is not fortuitous or History.
adventitious that millions
of citizens of the world
had recovered their hopes
seeing its effective effects,
that continuously thousands
of them decide to learn,
appropriate and use it to
participate in a change that
is no longer an impossible
dream or desperate utopia.
And... It is therefore not
surprising that governments
and corporations that
control the world hand in
hand, stroking lies, cheating
accounting, conspiracy and
126
Whats anonymous for me?
Well for me the internet is
a living thing, its grows,
evolves and lives.
Anonymous is like the
chemo for the cancer that
threatens the internet.
Ive been in anonymous for
nearly a decade now, since
its beginings on 4chan, I
watched it grow from /b/
(fuck rules 1&2) and spread
across many mediums.
Its the chaotic nature that
keeps me around, every
time I come home from a
lame ass job that bores me,
and I open my browser,
infomation and the pure
data love fill my mind to be
shared, used and saved.
It’s the freedom that I
cherish, to say what the fuck
I want when ever I want. I
dont care who’s listening.
For me Anonymous has the wings for the next
been a strange journey. In inspiring OP to appear
July 2011 i was was moved before i re-emerge into the
enough by reading daylight.
Atopiary’s work in the Anonymous you are
mainstream media, to get awsome and powerful in a
off my arse and make a very disorganised way. We
twitter account just to be will always be legion, just
able to voice my opinion on not always be visible.
the LuLzsec work. I cheered #ExpectUs Nov5th 2013
them on wholeheartedly up
until the arrests. I arranged
some ground support for
their court cases. Having
had my eyes opened to one
thing, i went on to research
and campaign against many
other issues that i feel are
wrong. unfortunately IMO
there will never be another
LuLzsec time. Anonymous
has changed with time, and
is not the same mindset that
the collective once had. This
is not a problem, everything
changes. As many of you
know, the sentences have
been passed down by the
system, and jake and the
other arrestees have
accepted their punishment,
and moved on with their
lives. So for me the circle
is complete. I shall allways
support the overall idea of
Anonymous, but i will wait in

In 2008, a leaked video
of Tom Cruise showed
the actor and prominent
Scientologist energetically
enthusing about the Church
of Scientology.
The Church moved swiftly
to have it removed from
YouTube, and in doing so
helped inspire a new, as-yet
unknown foe: Anonymous.
Until this point, Anonymous
had been made up of
mischievous frequenters of
message boards like 4Chan,
intent mainly on pranks.
But with Scientology in its
sights, the group embarked
on Project Chanology - a
co-ordinated effort to use
various hacking techniques
to disrupt the Church in any
way it could.
Chanology was the first “op”
that mobilised the hacktivists
in this way, recalls Dr Martin
Poulter from the University
of Bristol.
“Scientology gave them a
target to organise around,
and brought them off the
internet and into real life.
“You wouldn’t have people
in streets around the world
in V for Vendetta masks if it
wasn’t for Scientology.”
127
Anonymous activists and Besides the live protests, we
hacktivists are planning new can probably expect some
protests against the Church online manifestations as
of Scientology. well.
OpChanology has been
around for five years now,
but Anonymous seems to be “From what I’ve
determined to keep it going. 
seen, most hacking
“Five years ago, the first
isn’t people
worldwide Anonymous vs stealing other
Scientology protest brought people’s money
over nine thousand anons but people reacting
to the streets in protest of
with moral outrage
the abusive practices of this
cult,” representatives of the
towards the actions
movement said. of various
governments and
“Project Chanology is the corporations.
longest-running Anonymous
No wonder the EU
project ever, marked
Anonymous’s first major
want to prevent it.
protest against anything, As far as I’m
and remains its largest real concerned, the
world action. In February hackers are the
2013, we mark our fifth
good guys here.”
anoniversary.”
A total of 22 protests are
scheduled to take place this
month all over the world,
including Canada, Belgium,
France, Germany, Norway,
the United Kingdom, and the
United States.
 128
ress in
Minister claims prog
online porn
They’ve already tried to
block sites that may contain
copyright-infringing material
(and failed): how long before
those same lobbyists
demand that sites that
criticise their products, in
opposition to their own
million-dollar marketing,
are blocked too? Gov/Big
Business just want to turn
the internet into one big,
state-approved, propaganda
channel.
“Most frequently, ... (in the
US) those who committed
sex crimes typically had
less exposure to S[exually]
E[xplicit] M[aterial] in their
background than others and
the offenders generally were
individuals usually deeply
religious and socially and
politically conservative and
held rigid conservative
attitudes toward sexuality.”
tackling
Viewing footage or photos of
adults having sex is not
going to harm kids at all.
There are societies (in the
Amazon etc) where the
whole family lives in 1 hut,
and children regularly see
adults having sex. There are
no known cases of rape or
pedophilia in these
societies. Most of us grew
up seeing some porn before
we were legally allowed to,
and most of us aren’t rapists
or pedo’s.
“Although a rapist, like any-
one else, might find some
pornography stimulating, it
is not sexual arousal but the
arousal of anger or fear that
leads to rape.
Pornography does not
cause rape; banning it will
not stop rape. In fact, some
studies have shown that
rapists are generally
exposed to less
pornography than normal
males.” Groth, A. N. (1979).
Men Who Rape:
The Psychology of the
Offender.
“Despite the absence of
evidence, the myth persists
that an abundance of sexual
explicit material invariably
leads to an abundance of
sexual activity and
eventually rape. Indeed, the
data suggests the opposite.”
”pornography not only can,
but does, help to prevent
criminal sex problems”
”upbringing of
offenders was usually
sexually repressive”
http://www.sexarchive.info/
BIB/DIAM/japan.htm
There are certain things on
the internet I don’t
particularly want to see, so
I don’t go looking for them.
But however abhorrent I
might find these things,
even more abhorrent is the
idea that someone else can
tell me what I can and can’t
look at, and that I could go
to prison merely for looking.

I saw some gay
porn last night,
which turned me
completely gay.
Thankfully, I was
able to turn
myself back by
watching some
straight porn
immediately
afterwards.
See how ridiculous
their argument is?
Porn doesn't cause
sexual behaviour or
preferences.
Criminals will
commit crime
whether porn exists
or not.
Just an excuse to censor
the web. Once it starts for
‘web porn’ and ‘extremist’
sites it will follow exactly the
same route as the Chinese
and North Koreans and
clamp down on everything
and anything the govern-
ment might consider to be a
problem. Thus we will all be
deprived of real news and
real information and once
again the government will
be in control - its about
avoiding the european
spring.
This is NOT about porn.
This is solely about your
government taking control of
your internet access.
Freedom of information has
always been a threat to
government. Until recently
our govt criticised China for
web censorship.
Pot, meet kettle...and so
much for democracy!
It starts with censorship of
child porn and movie/film
piracy, but once that can of
worms has been opened
20 years down the line we
leave our children with an
internet censored by
corporate interests.
All opposing views will be
blocked, no online petitions
or protests and the truth will
129
be what the state run media
tells us it is.
We’re digging a hole for the
future generations...
Bad people do bad things,
and have done since
humans first roamed the
planet. But rather than
getting to the root-cause of
the problem, let’s just ban
pictures, books, records,
videos, computer games
and now the internet.
No image has the power to
turn someone into a rapist
or paedophile.
I watch loads of pretty
graphic horror movies. I
don’t think I’ve dismembered
anyone.
If images and videos
influence behaviour this
much, then why aren’t there
people randomly breaking
out into stand up comedy on
every street corner?
130
Anonymous Operation Syria -
Press Release
Anonymous has watched
with deep satisfaction the
recent public disclosure
of over 2 million E-Mails
belonging to the evil
Assad regime and related
companies in Syria.
Anonymous has been
assisting the protesters in
Syria since the first week of
their revolution over a year
ago, and we are grateful
to see such a mighty blow
dealt to the Assad regime.
But as we read through the
seemingly endless media
coverage of this massive
and historic disclosure,
there seems to be one very
obvious question that no
one is asking. Where exactly
did WikiLeaks get all these
E-Mails? This press release
is written and addressed to
the media and the world to
answer this important un-
asked question.
On Febuary 5, 2012 at
approx. 4:00 PM ET USA
an Anonymous Op Syria
team consisting of elements
drawn from Anonymous
Syria, AntiSec (now known
as the reformed LulzSec)
and the Peoples Liberation
Front succeeded in creating
a massive breach of multiple
domains and dozens of
servers inside Syria. This
team had been working day
and night in shifts for weeks
to accomplish this feat. So
large was the data available
to be taken, and so great
was the danger of detection
(especially for the members
of Anonymous Syria, many
of whom are “in country”)
that the downloading of this
data took several additional
weeks.
On March 14, 2012
after analyzing the truly
staggering trove of E-Mail
recovered in this hack,
participants in Anonymous
Op Syria isolated the
personal E-Mail of the
dictator Assad and his wife
and publicly released this
small trove to the world via
a press release similar to
this one. This disclosure
made headlines around the
world, but it remained just a
tiny fraction of the total data
recovered in the original
hack. Anonymous Op Syria,
and indeed the entire global
collective - were at a bit of
a loss as to exactly how
to deal with and properly
disclose such a vast trove of
important information. But
there is one organization
that is supremely well
equipped to handle a
disclosure of this magnitude,
WikiLeaks. Having already
formed a partnership with
WikiLeaks in the disclosure
of the “Stratfor Files”,
it seemed natural and
obvious to continue this
historic partnership between
Anonymous and WikiLeaks
with the disclosure of the
“Syria Files”. And thus...
On July 5, 2012 - Five
months virtually to the day
after the brave hackers of
Anonymous and the PLF
breached the Assad regime
servers, WikiLeaks released
to the world 2.4 million
E-Mail files belonging to the
Syrian regime and various
Syrian companies. And this
is just beginning, expect
many more disclosures of
this type in the future as
this wonderful partnership
between WikiLeaks and
Anonymous continues to
grow stronger and change
 131

human history. And as long as the tyrant

While the United Nations remains defiantly in power,
sat back and theorized Anonymous will continue to
on the situation in Syria, work relentlessly day and
Anonymous took action. night - from every country
Assisting bloggers, and every timezone, to
protesters and activists assist the courageous
in avoiding surveillance, freedom fighters and
disseminating media, activists in Syria.
interfering with regime
communications and
networks, monitoring We Are Anonymous - We
the Syrian internet for Are Everywhere - We Are
disruptions or attempts at Legion - We Never Forget -
surveillance - and waging a We Never Forgive
relentless information and
psychological campaign Bashar Assad, EXPECT US.
against Assad and his
murderous and genocidal Anonymous Operations -
government. When world www.AnonymousGlobal.tk
governments would not
send so much as a single Peoples Liberation
bandaid worth of medical Front - www.
supplies to the protesters PeoplesLiberationFront.net
in Syria, it was a team of
six European Anons who LulzSec - http://bit.ly/Kuduif
donned back-packs and
walked almost 400 pounds
worth of medical supplies
over the border (along with
ten pounds of chocolate
candy for the children) and
into Idib, Syria - risking their
very lives to assist our dear
freedom seeking brothers
and sisters inside Syria.
132
Anonymous Operations Manual
To the federal agencies,
plutocrats and whoever else
might be reading this you
need to understand one
thing and understand it well.
We will not be silent, we will
not be moved.
Expect Us
GroundOps:
These are the eyes and
feet of the collective. Don
a mask (or scarf) and take
to the streets with a sign
or streaming device in
tow. This also includes our
medical division. You will not
make up the main body of a
larger protest but you will be
needed. We are not leaders
but we are the elite.
PsyOps:
Propaganda, Dox and
information department.
Gather intelligence or
produce a video. Make
a new infographic to aid
protesters around the world.
Work within our various sis-
ter hives such as reddit and
spread knowledge.
Before we made memes,
now we make fliers and
chance perception.
Operator:
Watches over Ops from the
sky and keeps coms open.
If a Stream is shut down find
an alternative. Is someone
is stuck in Utah and cries for
assistance network within
the collective and bring
them home. These are often
cryptologist as well being
entrusted with
information that is to
dangerous for immediate
release and instructing
others on how to secure
their data and
communications.
Hackers:
No-one but you can teach
you how to do this
Please note many members
take on multiple task.
Everyone is Anonymous.
Some more, some less.
To gain members:
Print out fliers and stickers
and cover the area. Find
a public square and hand
out leaflets and encourage
others to do the same. If you
have a worthy cause you
can sometimes generate a
local cell if you are
consistent in your location
and time. They come to
Expect you there. Even
if you go out alone it will
inspire anyone who sees
you and this is why we exist.
Never be seen unmasked or
allow people to follow you
home. Always check your
tail.
Anonymity and lack of
leadership:
“The police ask to speak
to the leader. We told them
that there is no leader. They
didnt understand.” This is
why Anonymous can not
be stopped. The powers
that be are after our leaders
so they can arrest them
for terrorism. We still exist
because there are none.
The Anons you have have
seen being hauled off to jail
or worse are nothing but the
mouth pieces of the moment
and the most recent wave
of martyrs. Many of our
members are as active on
the ground as they are in
cyberspace. It is of vital
importance that their true
identities never be linked
with their online
personas. This is often a

death sentence for an anon
as the authorities will often
raid their houses.
Anonymity can be attained
online by running a VPN
from a safe harbor country
through TOR. Let there be
no digital trace of your face
in existence.
Remember remember the
5th of November and always
go forth this day.
Facebook is the worlds
largest honey pot and infor-
mation gathering tool with
built in facial
recognition technology and
a nearly all encompassing
database. This coupled with
their history of working with
various governments has
led Anonymous to
collectively boycott their
service. Stay far away from
FedBook all it will get you
is v&.
Starting your own operation
and finding others:
Currently the spearhead of
operations are on twitter.
Find others at #Anonymous
and #Anonops. While there
is some censorship it’s really
133
the best we have to reach
the masses. Do not take
this task lightly. If you fail
hard enough strange things
will happen to you. Hashtag
format #OpOperation.
Further support the
operation with pastebins,
videos and websites unless
you have a local cell ground
ops are usually best left
to national or international
calls to action but 3 anons
outside is better than none.
Refuse to support any
corporation that seeks to
limit you whether this be
bandwidth caps, restrictions
on your files and media or
outright censorship. The
Genesis of Anonymous was
brought about in response
to an all out assault on
freedom of information and
a free and open internet.
Let it never be forgot.
134
Iran – Become the judge of your government
Most respectable and
honorable citizens of Iran,
YOU ARE SPEAKING OUT
– AND WE ARE LISTENING
YOU are Legion, and we
expect you. The protesters
who are imprisoned and
beaten; the bloggers
who are censored; the
citizens who are executed
for speaking against the
regime: you are the ones
truly loyal to your country.
To those that would
remain intimidated into
subdued silence: You have
passively enabled your
government to make a
mockery of your freedom.
Now is your chance for
action, for redemption, and
representation. A new dawn
is approaching, that will set
you and your great country
free from the shackles of
oppression, tyranny and
torture. It will let you exhale,
and finally take the first
breath that will fill your
lungs with strength, wisdom
and freedom. Anonymous;
You, Me, Everybody, and
Nobody. Together we can
nullify any threat to our
human rights, and they of assembly, uncensored
know it. They are aware information and unlimited
of our existence, and the access to the Internet;
coming cascade, but know your right to a life without
that they are powerless. As oppression and fear.
we have been forced to fear
them, now they will learn We are Anonymous.
to fear the Power of the We are Legion.
People. We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Most of all, they fear you; Expect us.
Which is why they have kept
you in shackles for so long.
This is your time, you can
now seize it and pave the
way for your own future.
The government of Iran
deliberately portrays dissent
as disloyalty, unjustly
making “examples” out of
those who speak against
sanctioned actions. This
strategy only works if people
are intimidated into inaction.
The government needs
to be held accountable
for its crimes against you,
its citizens. You were the
victim, but now you are the
judge. Make your ruling.
People of Iran, you will
not be denied your right
to free speech and free
press; your right to freedom

For me, been anonymous is
like being born again.
I can be who ever i want
without fear.
I can like what ever i want
without been singled out.
I can that one person that
says no without being
punished.
i can believe what i want
and fight for my right to be a
free thinker.
People may or may not
agree with my choices in life
but its those choices...the
ones I made! that got me
here and made me who i am
today.
Its on this subject that i
know there are many people
who think the same and
regardless of where we are
in the world, we can stand
together and shout in the
same voice.
There are a lot of things in
this world that need
changing and this is a
chance for that tiny whisper
to become a voice heard
around world. Eventually
that voice will be the first
pillar for the new
foundations we are building.
We are Anonymous
We are legion
We do not forgive
We do not forget
Expect us!
For anyone who’s been
paying attention to American
politics in the last few years,
one thing is abundantly
clear: The discontent at
our political class, our
government and their
enablers, is universal. From
the Tea Party to Occupy
Wall Street and everything
in between, its easy to
see that so much is badly
broken, and that those
tasked with trying to fix it,
don’t really seem to give a
damn.
Even at the grassroots level,
those who have appointed
themselves “leaders” or
those who have risen up
through the ranks to be
perceived as “leaders”, don’t
seem terribly interested
in truly finding a way to
bridge the gap between left
135
and right, so we can ALL
work towards a common
goal of a better present
and future. From bloggers
to talking heads on TV, to
professional activists, we
should remember at all
times that they too have a
deeply vested interest in
keeping this false paradigm
of left v right going. Money,
prestige and power have
DEFINITELY infected the
ranks of grassroots activism
on the right, and although I
don’t follow the left nearly as
much, I imagine the same
dynamic might exist there
too.
But, you see, the opportunity
for left and right to come
together exists at every
moment of every day. In my
own experience, I’ve had
friends who identify with
Anonymous, friends who
identify with the Tea Party,
and friends who identify
with conservatism all be
able to coexist and actually
get each other to laugh and
to think. So the question
becomes... How do we
relearn how to truly become
We, The People?
 
136
The thought of movements
associated with the right
and left unifying together at
the grassroots level, away
from political control, is
probably one that terrifies
all those invested in our
false paradigm. From the
politicians to the old media
to the new media, SO
MANY benefit from keeping
us separated, from keeping
us angry and fearful of each
other, of keeping each other
at each other’s throats.
Have no doubt that if we can
make this work, we will be
attacked relentlessly. But so
be it.
But if it were possible, for
just the breifest moment in
time, for the many to come
together and throw off the
chains of the false paradigm
that’s been foisted on us...
something amazing might
happen, no?
If this idea were to ever truly
take off, it seems the time is
right now. Discontent for all
parts of the political parties
and their sycophantic
whores is everywhere we
look. There’s no election to
muddy our concentration on their cause and create a
this thought of unifying. We universal following.
can truly seize the agency
of our own lives, right here, I hope that Anonymous
right now, and try to save is able to create a new
this country before it goes inclusive paradigm which
up in flames. can facilitate a unified
front, to inform the masses
If something like this were of the issues, to create
to take off, there’s no a movement of informed
doubt that it will be painful, passions, and to liberate all
awkward, and probably so of us from the treacherous
daunting as to make many grasps of ignorance.
of us want to quit before
it ever gets started. But “Let the Games Begin!”
something worthwhile like
this, an effort to get We,
The People together and
out in the streets, out in our
communities, out into the
world, is going to be painful,
hard and frustrating.
I think it’s worth it.
 
What do you think?
I am “NOBODY”. I have
always wanted to make a
difference, but lacked an
effective means to do so.
I see that Anonymous has
great potential to alienate
the masses or create a
unified front to empower
137
138
8 January 2013
Tyler – an overview, and interview
with Anonymous
Tyler is touted as ‘WikiLeaks
on steroids.’ The current site
(codenametyler.org) is
unimpressive – so
Infosecurity reached out to
Anonymous for an update
on its development.
Infosecurity talked to
Winston Smith, who fronts
the AnonUKIre group. Smith
joined Anonymous a few
years back after falling foul
of the UK legal system. By
trade he is a systems
architect and financial
engineer, having worked for
several of the leading banks.
He also served in the British
Army in Northern Ireland.
“My role [in Tyler],” he says,
“is simple. I propose the
designs to the Anonymous
Collective and they decide
how it gets implemented.
I am the most answerable
person on the project since
I have the most bosses.” It
is his professional expertise
that he is giving “to assist
Tyler in these critical stages
until it can support itself of
it’s own accord.” But, he
warns, “Tyler will not be fully
operational until 2014.” For
the moment, he explained,
“Tyler Network communities
can be accessed currently
using only the RetroShare
client. Access is via a
number of Master Nodes
who can invite new users
to the network to sync with
other nodes on the Tyler
network.”
When it is fully functional,
Tyler will be more than
WikiLeaks. The common
belief is that Tyler is a
response to an onerous
donation regime introduced
by WikiLeaks. But
according to Smith, there
is much more to it. With
WikiLeaks, he explained,
“the leaks are rarely read
by people. A small amount
of [specialist] journalists or
researchers read the leaks
and the rest are traditional
media and then social
networks. We need to share
data – but most importantly
we need to socially network
securely as well. Tyler is the
network of encrypted uses
accessed currently by
RetroShare within
Anonymous who are
building channels, forums,
lobbies to leak, share and
discuss. Anonymous is
building the nest for the
rest of civilization so that it
can be safe for citizens to
access.”
The problem with and for
WikiLeaks is that it is a
snake with a single head,
both in spokesperson
(Julian Assange) and design
(wikileaks.org) – which
explains, says Smith, “why
Julian has become targeted
by corrupt governments.”
Tyler, by design is
distributed and encrypted –
more like a hydra. Unlike a
snake, if you attempt to cut
off the head (Julian
Assange), it will be replaced
by two more nodes and
Anons.
“Building a network where
all edges point to you means
that you will become the
target. Tyler has tens of
thousands of distribution
centers, where anyone can
share information
anonymously to the rest
of the network. On a legal
point of law Tyler is the very
essence of the human right
 139

to a freedom of expression. months as many people who

Tyler only exists because
that right is being interfered
with.”
So what is being
developed is a complete,
secure and anonymous
distributed social network,
where individual members
of the public can whistleblow
securely, network with
fellows anonymously, and
feel safe from surveillance:
it is, says Smith, “a fully
encrypted social network
owned by its participants
and not a single organiza-
tion.” Features will include
all of the standard social
network functionality,
including VoIP, Wall,
Forums, Chat, Microblog,
and Blog. Credibility will
be monitored by support
of Whuffie features; and
internal ecommerce through
support for Bitcoin wallets.
want to become involved in
any aspect of it’s evolution
will be able to contribute
anonymously. Until that
time, I will be answerable to
Anonymous for its design
and architecture. It does
not mean it’s my project – it
means I am the one people
can shout at. Many other
Anons are involved –
anonymously.”
Update
Winston Smith has informed
Infosecurity that he does not
front AnonUKIre. This was
the author’s interpretation,
and is incorrect.

“An open source, open

contribution based system
is being developed so that
Tyler will be open to all
for design, development
and implementation – as
it should be. Within a few
140
In a society that values
technology for both its
potential for good and its
capability for evil, the
“hactivism” tactics of
loosely-affiliated hacker
group Anonymous has
provided a glimpse into the
shifting boundaries of law,
ethics and the morals of
activism.
The group uses its collective
expertise to manipulate the
system in a way that, to its
followers, is morally right.
Despite working for human
rights, a valiant cause, the
tactics of the group are
ethically wrong. Yet they
have created important
dialogue that needs to be
considered as technology
improves and the borders
of our society change with
further globalization.
When Tunisia sparked the
Arab Spring movement in
2010, demonstrations and
protests ensued that
threatened the tenure of
long-time president Zine
El Abidine Ben Ali. The
Tunisian government tried to
block Internet
communications in and out
of the country. Disturbed,
the Anonymous hactivists
sprung to action by hacking
the Tunisian government’s
servers and showing the
rebellion how to go around
the government’s ploy,
according to Al Jazeera.
More recently, Anonymous
has hacked Israeli govern-
ment websites, leaving
messages saying “Stop
bombing Gaza!! We Anony-
mous will not sit back and
watch a cowardly Zionist
State demolish innocent
people’s lives.”
Perhaps its greatest trait,
Anonymous does not have
a leader. It does not have a
headquarters and it seems
nearly impossible to know
for sure who is in the group.
The only thing that connects
the group of hackers is that
they collect intelligence of
wrongdoing and combine
their forces to try and
eradicate it.
Their adage, “we are
anonymous, we are legion,
we do not forgive, we do not
forget, expect us,” sends a
clear message of their
intentions towards those
they deem a threat to
society.
Despite its work against
these enemies, its tactics
are intimidating and
unconventional in that the
group does not wish
physical harm on
perpetrators of rights
violations; only a revelation
of a hidden truth in need of
exposure.
What makes Anonymous
strikingly intimidating is that
it uses tactics that are
ethically wrong to achieve
goals that are morally right.
The ethical dilemma of
whether or not to condone
this type of vigilantism begs
to question the reasons the
vigilante acts are conducted.
To just play devil’s
advocate would undermine
the serious consequences
that borderline lawlessness
can create. If the system
of checks and balances
that Anonymous is trying to
 141

put in place becomes too

strong, it raises the concern
of who would be able to
stand up to the power that
the group gained through
working outside of the law.

There are evils in this world.

For every tragedy and
transgression that
occurs, there is a tendency
to question whether
something could have been
done. Anonymous has
gained our attention in
ousting those who they
believe to be evil and it can
only continue as long as
their “Robin Hood” mentality
does not escalate to
anything more nefarious.
142
Tips for pulling off a hack and not getting arrested...
Pretty much every
activity you do online leaves
a digital footprint that can be
traced back to you. I have
compiled this little list of tips,
mostly to keep hacktivists
around the world safe and
anonymous.
1. Remain Nameless -
The second you start
tagging your name on all
of your hacks, you begin to
create an identity that can
be documented, tracked,
and ultimately traced back
to you if you ever slip up.
In hacktivism, it is not your
name and notoriety that are
important, but instead it’s
the message you are trying
to convey. There is no need
to “take credit” for hacks.
It might even be better for
your safety if another group
takes credit for what you
pulled off. They will act as a
shield when the Feds seek
to crack down on you.
2. Never hack from home
- This should be common
sense. Don’t hack from any
place you are attributed
with, including home, work,
frequently visited coffee
shops, etc. Doing this
narrows suspects down
enough to where you will
eventually be caught. It
is even considered best
practice to not hack from
anywhere in or near your
home town or towns you
frequently visit. The more
you can jump around, the
more your hacks appear to
be unrelated. It may be a
bit of an inconvenience, but
it definitely beats a prison
sentence.
3. Use disposable
equipment - This is
something that I think is very
important to do, but can also
be very difficult to pull off.
Ideally, when
attempting a hack, you
should do it from a machine
running Linux from a USB
drive and connects to the
net through a never before
used network card. After the
hack is complete, both the
USB drive and the network
card should be disposed of
and never used again.
3a. Acquiring the
equipment - To ensure your
safety, you must
anonymously acquire this
disposable equipment. This
can be done by utilising the
art of shop-lifting, or
employing a local
homeless person to go
make the purchase for you
in cash. (If anybody has
tips on lifting equipment like
this, please share!) If the
purchase can’t be attributed
back to you, neither can the
equipment if it is found. As
with tip #2, you should make
this purchase/lift in a city
or town separate from both
where you live and where
you plan to pull off the hack.
The more evidence you can
destroy, the harder it will be
for them to prosecute you.
4. Don’t trust ANYONE -
If you haven’t heard about
the Sabu incident, you
should go look it up right
now. Even if you have no
good reason not to trust
somebody, don’t do it!
Remember that you are
doing your hack for the
message and the movement
and nothing else. The
more people you trust, the
more vulnerable you make
yourself to infiltration attacks
 143

such as the ones performed

by Sabu. Keep it to yourself
and give yourself the credit
you know you deserve.
Don’t seek it from anybody
else.

5. What’s done is done -

After you attempt your hack,
leave it at that. Don’t attempt
to go back for more or try to
hack the same server twice.
Don’t encourage others to
hack your same servers
either. Wipe your chin and
walk away. Don’t be the
criminal who returns to the
scene of the crime.

I hope these tips are

somewhat helpful in keeping
hacktivists from being
arrested. Law enforcement
is cracking down and we
have to be prepared to
adapt our methods as they
adapt theirs. Take it for what
it’s worth.

Live Free.
Question Everything.
144
Anonymity without crime...
It’s really frustrating that a
majority of the people I talk
to about the importance of
anonymity immediately go
to the argument of, “Well,
if you’re not doing anything
wrong, why do you need to
be anonymous?”
I still haven’t found the best
answer for this question yet.
I supposed it’s sufficient
enough to say, “I don’t
want to do anything bad,
I just don’t want my every
movement being tracked,”
but that comes across as a
bit overly paranoid. Perhaps
that’s just a bullet that I will
have to bite.
I think that a more
reasonable approach to
why I might want anonymity
has to do with not wanting
to be FALSELY accused of
something based on some
faulty Bayesian logic that
said I fit the “profile” of the
perpetrator. This may sound
a bit paranoid, but I don’t
think it’s too far away from
reality. I like to think that law
enforcement has enough
competence to not falsely
accuse, but it seems to
happen much too frequently thoughts and ideas that get
for me to be comfortable suppressed on a daily basis
with. because society tells us that
it is inappropriate or bad to
Another reason, as I think have such thoughts. Morality
I mentioned in a previous aside, anonymity gives a
flog post, has to do with the voice to the voiceless and
fact that sometimes you allows humans to truly
just have things you want to express themselves without
say that don’t get attributed any fear of retribution.
to you in any way. Authors
have used pseudonyms for
generations, so this is not a
concept that is exactly new
to the Internet Age.
I guess the all in all here
would be that anonymity
is a pre-emptive layer of
protection. Whether it’s
protection from participating
in illegal activities or just
protection of your name,
it gives an added sense
of security at the loss of
personal recognition.
Furthermore, I think that
speaking anonymously
allows us to see a true
insight into the state of
human nature. It let’s us
know what everybody else
is actually thinking without
knowing who thought what.
I feel like there are many

The Hacker Manifesto
by +++The Mentor+++
Written January 8, 1986
Another one got caught
today, it’s all over the
papers. “Teenager Arrested
in Computer Crime
Scandal”, “Hacker Arrested
after Bank Tampering”...
Damn kids. They’re all alike.
But did you, in your three-
piece psychology and
1950’s technobrain, ever
take a look behind the eyes
of the hacker? Did you ever
wonder what made him tick,
what forces shaped him,
what may have molded him?
I am a hacker, enter my
world...
Mine is a world that begins
with school... I’m smarter
than most of the other kids,
this crap they teach us
bores me...
Damn underachiever.
They’re all alike.
I’m in junior high or high
school. I’ve listened to
teachers explain for the
fifteenth time how to reduce
a fraction. I understand
it. “No, Ms. Smith, I didn’t
show my work. I did it in my
head...”
Damn kid. Probably copied
it. They’re all alike.
I made a discovery today.
I found a computer. Wait a
second, this is cool. It does
what I want it to. If it makes
a mistake, it’s because I
screwed it up. Not because
it doesn’t like me... Or feels
threatened by me.. Or thinks
I’m a smart ass.. Or doesn’t
like teaching and shouldn’t
be here...
Damn kid. All he does is
play games. They’re all
alike.
And then it happened... a
door opened to a world...
rushing through the phone
line like heroin through an
addict’s veins, an electronic
pulse is sent out, a refuge
from the day-to-day
incompetencies is sought...
a board is found. “This is it...
this is where I belong...” I
know everyone here... even
145
if I’ve never met them, never
talked to them, may never
hear from them again... I
know you all...
Damn kid. Tying up the
phone line again. They’re all
alike...
You bet your ass we’re all
alike... we’ve been spoon-
fed baby food at school
when we hungered for
steak... the bits of meat that
you did let slip through were
pre-chewed and tasteless.
We’ve been dominated by
sadists, or ignored by the
apathetic. The few that had
something to teach found us
willing pupils, but those few
are like drops of water in the
desert.
This is our world now... the
world of the electron and
the switch, the beauty of
the baud. We make use of
a service already existing
without paying for what
could be dirt-cheap if it
wasn’t run by profiteering
gluttons, and you call us
criminals. We explore...
and you call us criminals.
We seek after knowledge...
Children as young as 11 years
146
old are writing malicious
computer code to hack accounts
on gaming sites and social
networks, experts have said.
and you call us criminals.
We exist without skin color,
without nationality, without
religious bias... and you
call us criminals. You build
atomic bombs, you wage
wars, you murder, cheat,
and lie to us and try to
make us believe it’s for our
own good, yet we’re the
criminals.
Yes, I am a criminal. My
crime is that of curiosity.
My crime is that of judging
people by what they say
and think, not what they
look like. My crime is that of
outsmarting you, something
that you will never forgive
me for.
I am a hacker, and this is
my manifesto. You may stop
this individual, but you can’t
stop us all... after all, we’re
all alike.
The Conscience of a
Hacker (also known as The
Hacker Manifesto) is a small
essay written January 8,
1986 by a computer security
hacker who went by the
handle (or pseudonym)
of The Mentor (born Loyd
Blankenship). It was written
after the author’s arrest,
and first published in the
underground hacker ezine
Phrack in Volume One,
Issue 7, Phile 3 of 10. It can
be found on many websites,
as well as on t-shirts and in
films.
It is considered a
cornerstone of hacker
culture, and it gives some
insight into the psychology
of early hackers. It is said
to have shaped the hacker
community’s view of itself
and its motivations. The
Manifesto states that
hackers choose to hack
because it is a way for them
to learn, and because they
are often frustrated and
bored by the limitations of
standard society. It also
expresses the satori of a
hacker realizing his potential
in the realm of computers.
The Manifesto acts as a
guideline to hackers across
the globe, especially those
new to the field. It serves
as an ethical foundation for
hacking, and asserts that
BBC News Feb 8 2013.
there is a point to hacking
that supersedes selfish
desires to exploit or harm
other people, and that
technology should be used
to expand our horizons and
try to keep the world free.
I mostly work off my own
will, as for ideals? well
idealogy of ideas I suppose,
just watching idea’s evolve
and be past on freely
with out restriction. I see
labling ideals as retarded
and restricting; anarchy,
communism, capitalism,
facism... they’re lables to
restrict the idealogies within.
For text that inspire me?
Probably the Hackers
Manifesto by +++The
Mentor+++ as it still rings
true today even though it
was over two decades ago.
That probably prompts me
to act but its mostly only
because I can... or I’m
bored.
147
148
Hi anons as you will know
this is my first post. I
couldn’t think of a better way
to introduce myself so this
seems perfect.
Its been a long journey get-
ting here, one i haven’t been
able to explain for a year or
2 but finally its all making
sence.
Let me tell u a little about
myself im in my 40’s male
from the north of england.
I have never been money
motivated, have always had
a outrage inside at injustice
and unfairness and have
been mildly awake for most
of my life.
I say mildly awake as i am
able to stand back and see
the bigger picture this has
led me to NOT watch tv to
NOT blindly follow what is
pumped from the media and
to trust what truths are fact
not fiction.
Sadly while this self im-
posed “bubbling” away from
the coersive forces has kept
me safe from propeganda,
spin, lies and deceit it has
also kept me blind to the Now i am anonymous
facts about the world we Now i am legion
live in. Now i do not forgive
Now i do not forget
NO MORE......... like many NOW EXPECT US
in the world who question
just what the hell is go-
ing on, I started looking
at alternative sources for
information. Internet news
stations,began using you
tube for more than just odd
music and a giggle. THATS
where it starts THATS where
you start the journey down
the rabbit hole.
Sure theres a load of crap
out there and there are
some way out ppl with some
way out ideas but the fundi-
mentals are all the same.
The populace exists to
serve the few.
But i see signs that the
world is shaking its head
and clearing the fog that
has been so carefully veiled
about us.
I want a better world. How
can anyone want to bring a
child up in this mess.
149
150
The Snowden files: why the British
public should be worried about GCHQ
John Lanchester
The Guardian 3 Oct 2013
When the Guardian offered
John Lanchester access
to the GCHQ files, the
journalist and novelist was
initially unconvinced. But
what the papers told him
was alarming: that Britain is
sliding towards an entirely
new kind of surveillance
society.
In August, the editor of the
Guardian rang me up and
asked if I would spend a
week in New York, reading
the GCHQ files whose
UK copy the Guardian
was forced to destroy.
His suggestion was that it
might be worthwhile to look
at the material not from a
perspective of making news
but from that of a novelist
with an interest in the way
we live now.
I took Alan Rusbridger up
on his invitation, after an
initial reluctance that was
based on two main reasons.
The first of them was that I
don’t share the instinctive
sense felt by many on the
left that it is always wrong
for states to have secrets.
I’d put it more strongly than
that: democratic states need
spies.
The philosopher Karl
Popper, observing the
second world war from
his academic post in New
Zealand, came up with
a great title for his major
work of political thought:
The Open Society and Its
Enemies. It is, in its way,
a shocking phrase – why
would the open society have
enemies? (But then, the title
of Charles Repington’s The
First World War, published
in 1920, was shocking too,
because it implied that there
would be another one.)
We do have enemies,
though, enemies who are
in deadly earnest; enemies
who wish you reading this
dead, whoever you are, for
no other reason than that
you belong to a society like
this one. We have enemies
who are seeking to break
into our governments’
computers, with the potential
to destroy our infrastructure
and, literally, make the lights
go out; we have enemies
who want to kill as many
of us, the more innocent
the better, as possible, by
any means possible, as
a deliberate strategy; we
have enemies who want to
develop nuclear weapons,
and thereby vastly raise
the stakes for international
diplomacy and the threat
of terrorism; and we have
common-or-garden serious
criminals, who also need
watching and catching.
I get all that. It doesn’t thrill
me to bits that the state has
to use the tools of electronic
surveillance to keep us safe,
but it seems clear to me
that it does, and that our
right to privacy needs to be
qualified, just as our other
rights are qualified, in the
interest of general security
and the common good.
Reassuring read
My week spent reading
things that were never
meant to be read by

outsiders was, from this
point of view, largely
reassuring. Most of what
GCHQ does is exactly the
kind of thing we all want it
to do. It takes an interest
in places such as the
Horn of Africa, Iran, and
North Korea; it takes an
interest in energy security,
nuclear proliferation, and in
state-sponsored computer
hacking.
There doesn’t seem to be
much in the documents
about serious crime,
for which GCHQ has a
surveillance mandate,
but it seems that much of
this activity is covered by
warrants that belong to other
branches of the security
apparatus. Most of this
surveillance is individually
targeted: it concerns specific
individuals and specific acts
(or intentions to act), and as
such, it is not the threat.
Even Julian Assange thinks
that, and said as much in
his alarming and perceptive
book Cypherpunks:
“Individual targeting is not
the threat.” When the state
has specific enemies and
knows who they are and the
kind of harm they intend, it
is welcome to target them to
make the rest of our polity
safe. I say again, on the
evidence I’ve seen, this is
mainly what GCHQ does. I
would add that the Guardian
and its partners have gone
to a lot of trouble to prevent
any unnecessarily damaging
detail about this work being
published.
Problems and risks
The problems with GCHQ
are to be found in the
margins of the material
– though they are at the
centre of the revelations that
have been extracted from
the Snowden disclosures,
and with good reason.
The problem and the risk
comes in the area of mass
capture of data, or strategic
surveillance. This is the kind
of intelligence gathering
that sucks in data from
everyone, everywhere:
from phones, internet use
from email to website visits,
social networking, instant
messaging and video calls,
and even areas such as
151
video gaming; in short,
everything digital.
In the US, the Prism
programme may have given
the NSA access to the
servers of companies such
as Google and Facebook; in
the UK, GCHQ has gained
a similar degree of access
via its Tempora programme,
and the two of them
together have a cable- and
network-tapping capabilities
collectively called Upstream,
which have the ability to
intercept anything that
travels over the internet.
This data is fed into a
database called XKeyscore,
which allows analysts to
extract information “in
real time”, ie immediately,
from a gigantic amount of
hoovered-up data.
In addition, the NSA has
encouraged technology
companies to install secret
weaknesses or “backdoors”
into their commercially
available, supposedly
secure products. They have
spent a very great deal of
money ($250m a year alone
on weakening encryption),
on breaking commercially
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available security products.
Other revelations have been
published in Der Spiegel,
and concern the NSA
exploitation of technology
such as the iPhone.
Access all areas
What this adds up to is a
new thing in human history:
with a couple of clicks of
a mouse, an agent of the
state can target your home
phone, or your mobile, or
your email, or your passport
number, or any of your
credit card numbers, or your
address, or any of your log-
ins to a web service.
Using that “selector”, the
state can get access to
all the content of your
communications, via any of
those channels; can gather
information about anyone
you communicate with, can
get a full picture of all your
internet use, can track your
location online and offline. It
can, in essence, know
everything about you,
including – thanks to the
ability to look at your
internet searches – what’s
on your mind.
To get a rough version
of this knowledge, a
state once had to bug
phones manually, break
into houses and intercept
letters, and deploy teams
of trained watchers to
follow your whereabouts.
Even then it was a
rough and approximate
process, vulnerable to
all sorts of human error
and countermeasures. It
can now have something
much better than that, a
historically
unprecedented panoply
of surveillance, which it
can deploy in a matter of
seconds.
This process is not without
supervision, of course. In
order to target you via one
of these “selectors” – that’s
the technical term – the
agent of the state will have
to type into a box on his or
her computer screen a
Miranda number, to show
that the process is taking
place in response to a
specific request for
information, and will also
need to select a justification
under the Human Rights
Act. That last isn’t too
arduous, because the agent
can choose the justification
from a drop-down menu.
This is the way we live now.
British reaction
And yet nobody, at least in
Britain, seems to care. In
the UK there has been an
extraordinary disconnect
between the scale and
seriousness of what
Snowden has revealed, and
the scale and seriousness
of the response. One of
the main reasons for that,
I think, is that while some
countries are interested in
rights, in Britain we are more
focused on wrongs.
In Europe and the US, the
lines between the citizen
and the state are based on
an abstract conception of
the individual’s rights, which
is then framed in terms of
what the state needs to do.
That’s not the case in
Britain: although we do have
rights, they were arrived at
by specific malfeasances
and disasters on the part of
the state.

Every right that limits the
behaviour of the police, from
the need for search warrants
to the (now heavily qualified)
right to silence to habeas
corpus itself, comes from
the fact that the authorities
abused their powers.
This helps to explain why
Snowden’s revelations,
perceived as explosive in
American and Europe by
both the political right and
left, have been greeted
here with a weirdly echoing
non-response. In the rights-
based tradition, the flagrant
abuse of individual privacy
is self-evidently a bad thing,
a (literally) warrantless
extension of the power of
the state.
Here in the UK, because
we’ve been given no specific
instances of specific wrongs
having been committed, the
story has found it hard to
gain traction. Even if there
were such instances – just
as there were 2,776 rule
violations by the NSA last
year alone – we wouldn’t
know anything about them,
because the system of
judicial inspections at GCHQ
is secret.
So it is a perfectly sealed
mechanism: we aren’t
interested in rights in
the abstract, and we are
prevented by law from
hearing about any of the
specific abuses which might
start to focus our attention.
The documents make clear
that GCHQ’s eavesdropping
abilities are on a scale
unmatched anywhere in
the free world, and they
privately boast about the
“more permissive legal
environment” in the UK –
and yet, nobody seems to
care. It’s tragicomic that the
surveillance story which
most gripped the public
imagination concerned
Poole borough council’s
use of the Regulation
of Investigatory Powers
Act 2000 (Ripa) to spy
on a family suspected of
cheating in regard to school
catchment areas.
Helping the bad guys
It’s worth taking a moment
to ask how helpful the
153
publication of information
about this is to the bad
guys. (Girls too. But mainly
guys.)
The answer is evident,
I think, in the under-
remarked fact that Osama
bin Laden’s compound in
Abbottabad didn’t even have
a telephone line running
into it. In other words he
not only didn’t use the net,
computers or phones in
any way at all, ever, he was
suspicious of the actual
physical apparatus itself.
This means that the bad
guys know very well that
they have to be careful.
(It should also be noted
that the absence of any
electronic footprint at the
Abbottabad compound was
– as depicted in the movie
Zero Dark Thirty – a sign
to the spies that something
fishy was afoot. Nobody
innocent has no electronic
footprint.)
Some of the jihadi materials
I read in the GCHQ
documents make it clear
that the terrorists are very
154
well aware of these issues.
There is a stinging jeer in
one jihadi text, apropos
a Swedish documentary
that made clear certain
bugging capabilities in
Ericsson’s mobile phones:
“It is customary in the
Scandinavian countries
to publish such helpful
materials.”
While the broad details
of general strategic
surveillance are shocking
and need to be known, the
thing that would be helpful
to the bad guys is the
publication of the specific
technical details. These the
Guardian and its partners
have gone to great lengths
to keep secret.
The unkeepable secret
Bear in mind also that
these documents were
widely circulated: out of
the 4.9 million Americans
with access to classified
information, 480,000
private contractors in the
US had the “top-secret”
security clearance issued to
Snowden.
If hundreds of thousands of
people had access to these
secrets, how secure were
they? The NSA and GCHQ
had no idea that Snowden
had this material, and
apparently still don’t know
exactly what is in it – which
is one reason they’ve been
panicking and freaking out.
But if they didn’t know that
Snowden had copied it,
how could they possibly
be sure that someone else
hasn’t also taken a copy
and slipped it to the Chinese
or Russians or Iranians or
al-Qaida? It was cheeky
of Oliver Robbins, deputy
national security adviser
in the Cabinet Office, to
harrumph about “very
poor information security
practices” on the part of
David Miranda, the partner
of Guardian journalist
Glenn Greenwald who was
detained at Heathrow under
anti-terror laws.
Our spooks lost at least
58,000 pages of classified
documents to a US civilian
sitting at a workstation in
Hawaii, and did so without
realising it had happened. In
effect they’re saying, “your
secrets are safe with us,
except when we lose them”.
There’s one further
conclusion to draw from
the fact that so many
people had access to this
material. It means that
this story would at some
point have come out. A
programme of this scale
in a modern democracy,
involving hundreds of
thousands of people with
access to the fact of total
internet surveillance, was an
unkeepable secret. It may
be no comfort to Snowden
as he faces his future, but
someone somewhere would
eventually have done what
he did. Some dams are
fated to burst.
What’s new
This brings me to my
second reservation about
looking at the material:
the question of whether
it contained anything that
we didn’t already know.
In the Tony Scott movie
Enemy of the State, the
paranoid former NSA spook

played by Gene Hackman
lays it out with complete
clarity: “The government’s
been in bed with the entire
communications business
since the 40s,” he says.
“They have infected
everything. They can get
into your bank statement,
computer files, email, listen
to your phone calls.”
That movie came out in
1998, and was a hit, seen
by many millions, so even
then, in some sense,
everybody knew about the
work of the NSA/GCHQ.
People who kept informed
on these subjects have for
decades been careful about
using specific words over
the phone, especially over
transatlantic phonelines.
I remember Christopher
Hitchens, at the time that
concern about Salman
Rushdie’s welfare was at its
peak, wouldn’t use his name
over the phone but would
instead refer to “our mutual
friend”.
So in some sense, perhaps
it’s true that everybody
knew. This would be
analogous to the manner
in which we all know
surveillance is pervasive
in police work, and yet
police methods are by law
forbidden from being used
in evidence, or indeed
even mentioned in court.
The ban on mentioning
police surveillance is there
because they don’t want
us to realise how much of it
there is. We all know that,
and yet it doesn’t seem to
matter much. Perhaps the
GCHQ stuff was the same?
I’ve changed my mind
about that. It was changing
anyway as I thought more
about the meaning of
Snowden’s exposures, and
it has changed more still
now that I’ve looked at them
first-hand.
Broad definitions
I’ve said that the concerns
over GCHQ are at the
margins of what it does:
but those margins are very
broad. They especially
concern things that are
referred to in the documents
as “SD”, which means
“sigint development”.
155
“Sigint” is signal intelligence,
which is what GCHQ
does. “Development”
means – well, that’s the
crux of it. It means finding
out new things, exploring
new technologies, and
developing new ways of
finding “targets”.
When you look at the
documents, it appears to be
the case that SD provides
the legal basis for mass
surveillance of the kind
revealed in the Tempora
and Prism programmes. The
mandate of GCHQ – which
by the way didn’t have a
legal basis of any kind until
1994 – is surveillance for
reasons of “national security,
economic well being, and
serious crime”.
The main law concerning its
activities is Ripa. If you read
this 2000 act (which, by the
way, I don’t recommend,
since it’s tortured and
laborious even by the
standards of statute-speak),
it’s clear that the main focus
of its provisions is targeted
surveillance. It’s about
what the spies and cops
156
are allowed to do to catch
specific bad guys.
Ripa is pretty broad in
its drafting, and it seems
apparent that the intention
was to let the authorities do
anything they wanted with
phones and email. And yet,
it nowhere explicitly allows
the mass interception of
communications by people
about whom the state has
no reason for suspecting
anything – which is what
programmes such as
Tempora and Prism permit.
Behind the times
The law always lags
behind technology, that’s
inevitable. If you look at the
first version of the modern
Official Secrets Act, which
was made law in 1911
and is still the main broad
statement of government
secrecy in effect today, its
first provisions concern
the making of “maps and
charts”.
It is evident that the kind of
spying on the lawmakers’
minds concerns a chap
in plus-fours claiming that
he’s making drawings of
seabirds, only why has he
accidentally made accurate
sketches of that nearby
naval base, and why does
he have a heavy German
accent … ?
The current spying laws
continue to lag behind
reality, not only because
the spies are less
concerned with mysterious
birdwatchers, but because
life itself has changed.
Formerly, the activities for
which the spies were on
guard were visible acts of
wrongdoing and intelligence-
gathering: enemies making
maps of naval bases, or
breaking into offices, or
bribing civil servants, or
seducing and blackmailing
other spies, or any of the
other ways in which they
could try to steal secrets.
In the case of modern
signals intelligence, this
is no longer true. Life has
changed. It has changed
because of the centrality
of computers and digital
activity to every aspect of
modern living. Digital life
is central to work: many
of us, perhaps most of us,
spend most of our working
day using a computer.
Digital life is central to our
leisure: a huge portion of
our discretionary activity has
a digital component, even
things which look like they
are irreducibly un-digital,
from cycling to cooking.
(I once happened to visit
Google’s offices in Victoria,
where there’s a live stream
of people’s queries on a
huge flat screen. Most of
them were in Japanese. My
host, who speaks Japanese,
glanced at them and looked
at her watch. “Recipes,”
she said. “It’s 7pm in Japan,
people have just got in from
work and are thinking about
what to cook.”)
As for our relationships
and family lives, that has,
especially for younger
people, become a digital-
first activity. Take away
Facebook and Twitter,
instant messaging and
Skype and YouTube, and
then – it’s hard to imagine,
but try – take away the

mobile phone, and see
the yawning gap where all
human interaction used
to take place. About the
only time we don’t use
computers is when we’re
asleep – that’s unless we
have a gadget that tracks
our sleep, or monitors our
house temperature, or our
burglar alarm, or whatever.
This is the central point
about what our spies and
security services can now
do. They can, for the first
time, monitor everything
about us, and they can
do so with a few clicks of
a mouse and – to placate
the lawyers – a drop-down
menu of justifications.
Surveillance ambitions
Looking at the GCHQ
papers, it is clear that
there is an ambition to get
access to everything digital.
That’s what engineers do:
they seek new capabilities.
When it applies to the
people who wish us harm,
that’s fair enough. Take a
hypothetical, but maybe
not unthinkable, ability to
eavesdrop on any room via
an electrical socket. From
the GCHQ engineers’ point
of view, they would do that
if they could. And there are
a few people out there on
whom it would be useful to
be able to eavesdrop via
an electrical socket. But the
price of doing so would be a
society that really did have
total surveillance. Would it
be worth it? Is the risk worth
the intrusion?
That example might sound
far-fetched, but trust me,
it isn’t quite as far fetched
as all that, and the basic
intention on the part of the
GCHQ engineers – to get
everything – is there.
Consider the direction in
which we’re moving. Britain
has more CCTV cameras
than anywhere else in the
world, by a huge margin.
Nobody knows how many
CCTV cameras there are
in the country, but the
most respectable estimate
seems to be the one
made by Cheshire police
in 2011, which came up
with a number of 1.85m.
Add to this the capacity for
157
facial recognition software,
which already exists and is
improving sharply.
Further add the capacity for
surveillance brought by the
“internet of things”, involving
the inclusion of internet-
enabled computer chips in
everything from cars (where
they already are, in high-end
models) to fridges to plants
(which will tweet their minders
when they need to be
watered). This might sound
like science fiction, but the
current estimate is that there
will be 20bn such devices in
use worldwide by 2020.
Add to this the fact that
a lot of this electronic
potential gives access not
just to external real-world
data – our locations, our
conversations, our contacts
books – but to the inside
of our heads. I call this the
“knowing you’re gay” test.
Most of us know someone
who has plucked up the
courage to reveal their
homosexuality, only to be
cheerfully told by friends and
family, “oh, we’ve known
that for years”.
158
Now, though, search
engines know facts about
people’s thoughts and
fantasies long before
anyone else does. To put
it crudely, Google doesn’t
just know you’re gay before
you tell your mum; it knows
you’re gay before you do.
And now GCHQ does too.
New society
What this means is that
we’re moving towards a
new kind of society. Britain
is already the most spied
on, monitored and surveilled
democratic society there
has ever been. This
doesn’t seem to have been
discussed or debated, and I
don’t remember ever being
asked to vote for it. As for
how this trend appears
in the GCHQ documents,
there is something of a gap
between how the spies talk
in public and how they can
occasionally be found to talk
in private.
It is startling to see,
for instance, that the
justification for the large-
scale interception of
everybody’s internet use
seems to be a clause in
Ripa allowing interception
of “at least one end foreign”
communications. Whack on
to this a general purpose
certificate from the secretary
of state, and a general
warrant, and bingo, this
allows full access to traffic
via companies such as
Google and Facebook –
because their servers are
located overseas. I can’t
believe that that was the
intention of the people
who drafted Ripa, who
were surely thinking more
of people taking phone
calls from moody bits of
Waziristan, rather than your
nan searching for cheaper
tights.
There is a revealing moment
in the most recent piece
written for the Guardian by
Sir David Omand, former
head of GCHQ. He said that
“the real debate we should
be having … is about what
privacy in a cyber-connected
world can realistically
mean given the volumes of
data we hand over to the
private sector in return for
our everyday convenience,
and the continued need
for warranted access
for security and law
enforcement”.
That’s a total non-sequitur:
Omand seems to think
that just because we hand
data over to Google and
Facebook the government
automatically has the right
to access it. It’s as if, thanks
to a global shortage of
sticky gum, envelopes can
no longer be sealed, so as
a result the government
awards itself a new right to
mass-intercept and read
everybody’s letters.
Staying within the law
All through the GCHQ
material there is a
tremendous emphasis
on the legal basis of its
operations, particularly
in respect of article 8 of
the Human Rights Act,
which grants: “Everyone
has the right to respect
for his private and family
life, his home and his
correspondence.”
It is repeatedly stated that
“GCHQ operates within

the law” and that “GCHQ
does it legally” and that
surveillance always has
to be “justified, necessary
and proportionate”. Good
– it would be terrifying if
that weren’t the case. But
if GCHQ seldom breaks
the law, it’s because the
law is so broadly drafted
and interpreted it’s almost
impossible to break.
Also, in the GCHQ papers
there are occasional
glimpses of a different
attitude, usually to be found
in slides which are marked
as “hidden” in PowerPoint
presentations, or in the
presenters’ notes to other
slides. (Many of the clearest
documents are internal
GCHQ briefings laid out
in the form of PowerPoint
talks. I was reminded of
Malcolm Gladwell’s great
joke, in response to whether
he needed audio-visual
aids for a lecture: “All power
corrupts, but PowerPoint
corrupts absolutely.”)
For instance, a legal briefing
on the Human Rights
Act lists the instances in
which it is legal for the
state to breach article 8:
“In the interests of national
security, public safety or the
economic wellbeing of the
country, for the prevention
of disorder or crime, for
the protection of health or
morals, or for the protection
of the rights and freedoms
of others.”
The notes make the point
that national security, public
safety and serious crime are
the three current reasons
for which GCHQ is allowed
to eavesdrop, but there is a
chilling addition: “’Just’ 3 at
the moment. No reason why
GCHQ’s remit would not be
changed in the future but
this is what we are allowed
to do at the moment.”
It’s usually only in books that
people’s blood runs cold, but
mine did when I read that.
“Just” three at the moment:
in other words, there are
“just” three reasons why
GCHQ can violate article
8, the right to privacy. But
that could change. It would
be legal in human rights
terms for GCHQ’s mandate
159
to cover “the prevention of
disorder”, not to mention
“the protection of health or
morals”.
Extending state power
The totalitarian state in
Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-
Four would need no broader
legal justification than
that: it really does allow a
government to do anything
it likes. It was at this point
that I became convinced
that Snowden’s revelations
are not just interesting or
important but vital, because
the state is about to get
powers that no state has
ever had, and we need to
have a public debate about
those powers and what their
limits are to be.
At a moment of austerity
and with a general sense
that our state’s ability to
guarantee prosperity for its
citizens is in retreat, that
same state is about to make
the biggest advance ever
in its security powers. In
public, the state is shrinking;
in private, it is shrinking until
it gets just small enough
to fit into our phones, our
160
computers, our cars, our
fridges, our bedrooms, our
thoughts and intentions.
Another secret slide
is headed SRA – a
mysterious acronym that
is not explained. The slide
concerns 2P intelligence,
2P meaning second party,
ie other countries in the
“five eyes” alliance of the
US, UK, Canada, Australia
and New Zealand. It says
that an SRA, whatever it is,
“authorises receipt of 2P
intelligence on UK based
targets where GCHQ has no
authorisation”.
Since GCHQ can spy on
any foreign national it wants,
this can only mean the
surveillance of people on
whom it isn’t legal for GCHQ
to spy. That looks to me an
awful lot like a means of
obtaining permission to spy
on people – British citizens?
– outside the law.
We’ve heard a lot of talk
about the distinction
between content and
metadata – content
being the stuff inside
communications, metadata
the who and when and
where and how of the
communication, but not the
content. The idea is that
the spooks focus on the
metadata and ignore the
content – so they notice
your nan logging on to the
net, where and when and for
how long, but don’t read the
actual content of the search.
This distinction is written
into the law in both the US
and the UK. This would
be reassuring, if the notes
didn’t say this: “GCHQ
policy is to treat it pretty
much all the same whether
it’s content or metadata.”
Put all these together and it
is no wonder the documents
contain a boast about the
UK’s “more permissive legal
environment”.
A new panopticon
The prospect this presents
is something like the
“panopticon” which
Enlightenment philosophers
advocated as a design for
the ideal prison in the 18th
century, and about which the
French philosopher Michel
Foucault wrote in his book
Discipline and Punish:
“He who is subjected to
a field of visibility, and
who knows it, assumes
responsibility for the
constraints of power;
he makes them play
spontaneously upon
himself; he inscribes in
himself the power relations
in which he simultaneously
plays both roles; he
becomes the principle
of his own subjection.”
When I first read Foucault’s
account of the panopticon,
where the individual at the
centre can simultaneously
see and judge a whole
multitude of other
individuals, I thought it was
brilliant but overheated.
Now, it actually seems like
somebody’s plan. That’s
what we risk becoming: a
society which is in crucial
respects a giant panopticon,
where the people with
access to our secrets can
see, hear, intercept and
monitor everything.
Members of the security
establishment always want

more abilities, more tools,
more powers for themselves
and fewer rights for us. They
never say “thanks a lot,
we’re good from here, we
have everything we need”.
Public enemies
From their point of view –
the point of view of wanting
ever more invasive secret
powers – al-Qaida and its
affiliates are the perfect
enemy. Because al-Qaida
combines the characteristics
of an ideology and a
network, it is everywhere, it
is invisible, it is never more
dangerous than when you
can’t see it.
The new emphasis on
anticipating the actions of
“lone wolf” terrorists raises
this danger even higher: the
risk of terrorism from people
who have never been
caught committing a crime,
who have no known terrorist
affiliations, who are invisible,
who could be anywhere … It
is the ultimate version of the
scare story that used to be
called “reds under the bed”.
How can the state every
hope to protect us against
people like that, if not by
permanent, omnipresent,
ever-increasing
surveillance?
If we are going to remake
society in the image of the
fight against terrorism, and
put that secret fight at the
heart of our democratic
order – which is the way
we’re heading – we need to
discuss it, and in public.
Exaggerated risks
When we do so, it might be
helpful to consider something
called the banana equivalent
dose (BED). This is a term
used in physics to measure
the amount of radiation
emitted by a banana. It is a
number popular with people
who think the dangers of
radiation are exaggerated,
and who use it to make the
point that almost everything
is radioactive. A dental x-ray
has a BED of 50; serious
radiation poisoning takes a
BED of 20m; sleeping next to
someone for one night has a
BED of 0.5 and living within
50 miles of a nuclear power
plant for a year has a BED
of 0.9.
161
Since 9/11, 53 people have
been killed by terrorists in
the UK. Every one of those
deaths is tragic. So is every
one of the 26,805 deaths to
have occurred on Britain’s
roads between 2002 and
2012 inclusive, an average
of 6.67 deaths a day. Let’s
call that the SDRD, standard
daily road deaths. The
terrorist toll for 12 years
comes to 0.0121 SDRD.
This means that 12 years of
terrorism has killed as many
people in the UK as eight
days on our roads.
The security establishment
will immediately reply that
this figure leaves out deaths
of terrorism victims abroad
and the lives saved by its
secret actions, none of
which can be made known
without jeopardising current
and future operations.
Is that enough of a
justification for the scale and
extent of what is happening
to our privacy? Is the current
supervisory regime – which
involves senior judges
inspecting GCHQ’s actions,
“within the circle of secrecy”,
162
and issuing a secret report –
adequate to the scale of the
state’s powers?
I’d repeat the point that as
digital technology, and the
ability to enact surveillance
through technology,
expands its remit, those
powers are increasing
almost by the day.
In the UK we have a strange
sleepy indifference to
questions of surveillance
and privacy. “The innocent
have nothing to fear,”
says William Hague. But
who gets to define who is
innocent? Who gets to say
what is contradictory to the
“economic wellbeing” of the
UK? If the innocent have
nothing to fear, why is the
state reading so many of
our emails, and sucking
up so much metadata from
our phones and computers,
under the umbrella of “sigint
development”?
Police state
People misunderstand what
a police state is. It isn’t a
country where the police
strut around in jackboots; it’s
a country where the police
can do anything they like.
Similarly, a security state
is one in which the security
establishment can do
anything it likes.
We are right on the verge
of being an entirely new
kind of human society, one
involving an unprecedented
penetration by the state into
areas which have always
been regarded as private.
Do we agree to that? If we
don’t, this is the last chance
to stop it happening. Our
rulers will say what all rulers
everywhere have always
said: that their intentions
are good, and we can trust
them. They want that to be a
sufficient guarantee.
My proposals
There’s no need for us to
advance any further down
this dark road. Here are two
specific proposals. The first
is that the commissioners
who supervise GCHQ
include, alongside the
senior judges who currently
do the work, at least one
or two public figures who
are publicly known for their
advocacy of human rights
and government openness.
The “circle of secrecy”
needs to include some
people who are known for
not being all that keen on
the idea of secrecy.
My second proposal is for
a digital bill of rights. The
most important proviso on
the bill would be that digital
surveillance must meet the
same degree of explicit
targeting as that used in
interception of mail and
landlines. No more “one
end overseas” and “sigint
development” loopholes to
allow the mass interception
of communications.
There can be no default
assumption that the state is
allowed access to our digital
life.
As the second most senior
judge in the country, Lord
Hoffmann, said in 2004
about a previous version
of our anti-terrorism laws:
“The real threat to the life of
the nation, in the sense of a
people living in accordance
with its traditional laws and
 163

political values, comes not

from terrorism but from laws
like these. That is the true
measure of what terrorism
may achieve.”
164
165
166
Freedom of speech
What is freedom of speech
and why is it relevant to
society?
Most people respond that
freedom of speech is the
right to say whatever you
want or to voice your own
opinion. While this makes all
of you feel better knowing
you wont be murdered
by your government for
speaking your mind, this
is just a minor point in its
relevancy to society. Few
people realize that actions
are really what enables
society to progress through
freedom of speech. MLK’s I
have a dream speech was
not nearly as important as
the simple act of a black
man, in those times, walking
up to the podium to speak
for the oppressed. Freedom
of speech is changing your
online habits to avoid NSA
spying. Freedom of speech
is all of the small choices
you make daily that you
don’t even think about.
In the age of the internet
people still fail to realize that
real life and internet, while
connected, are not one and
the same. On the internet
you are given the choice to
choose how you represent
yourself. In real life you are
represented by the way
you look, by the color of
your skin, by the clothes
you wear, by your accent,
by your gender and many
other arbitrary things. On the
internet none of these things
matter.
Considering this imagine
an account on twitter had
images of swastikas and
they said the word “nigger.”
Most people pass by that
account assuming they
are inherently racist. The
internet is made up of free
speech and symbolism
displayed on a screen. Its
not made up of anything
tangible. Its 2013 and
people are still offended
by words and symbols on
a screen. 4chan has used
words and symbolism not to
define itself but to keep out
the people that have failed
to understand them in real
life. People that don’t get
there jokes and fail to grasp
the simple ideas spread
around. Maybe the twitter
account posting swastikas
just wanted to offend you
and keep you out of their
mentions.
Recently @anon_central
was suspended for alledgly
d0xing someone. First off
the person posting most
of that was being an idiot
but they didn’t d0x anyone.
What was posted was a
link that was in the top
search on google.com.
They also did not create
the images posted. Were
they suspended for linking
content that already existed?
Are you going to be happy
when you get suspended
for posting a link that you
found on google? Did they
cause you to have feels and
butthurts? Or did they create
a platform in which people
discussed other relevant
issues about rape that
rarely get discussed? Let
us consider what the West
Boro Baptist church actually
did to help the LGBT rights
and communities. Before
the WBC there was no
way America was ready for
Gay people to marry. The
WBC showed the American
 167

population a polar extreme or the words you say on a

on the Gay rights debate.
They showed the world a
caricture of homophobia.
They showed Americans
what their own homophobics
thoughts really looked like.
Ironically
the WBC made the world
less ignorant on the LGBT
rights and issues.
Even the “negatives” of
free speech are relevant to
society. Freedom of speech
doesn’t mean you get to
choose who gets to use it.
cell phone are be listened
to you will begin to censor
yourself. You start becoming
afraid that the people spying
may not understand what it
is you are trying to say and
think you have malicious
intent. We have seen this
happen too many times. We
have the facebook rapper,
the tumblr experiment, the
airport sandwich guy and so
on. Spying forces people to
revoke their own freedom of
expression.

Recent revelations about

NSA spying have back
the terrible phrase, “If you
have nothing to hide, you
have nothing to fear.” this
is a statement that gets
put out without any real
rebuttal to why or how it is
so detrimental to the growth
of society. We know that
people willing give up liberty
for security in our “Free”
society. I feel they would
be less inclined to if they
knew the harm it caused.
Spying is censorship. If you
believe that everything you
type up on a digital device,
168

Remember remember the fifth of November.

An unrecognised hero, tortured, dismembered.
Yet his spirit lives on, within each anon.
the ‘sheeple’ are waking, the battle has begun...

The drums they will sound, as gathered is the crowd,

their voices, once silent, will all roar out loud,
a freedom of spirit that shall not be moved,
till the sytem is changed, until things have improved.

Freedom may not seem a dangerous threat,

yet the government fear it, just the thought makes them sweat.
A people who are free, who could think as they please?
Would swiftly and surely bring their world to it’s knees.

Remember remember, the fifth of November,

a million masks and a night to remember,
showing the world the strength of our bond,
through YOU the spirit of Guy Fawkes lives on!
 169

“I don’t believe
in nothing – I
feel like they
ought to burn
down the
world – just let
it burn down
baby”
170

Towards a new Situationist International
1.
It is a brutal fact that
the defining quality of
proletarian life at the end
of the first decade of the
twenty-first century, the
foundation on which the
everyday thought and action
of ordinary people rests,
is a craven acceptance of
the separate commodity
economy and the state as
unchangeable givens. This
practical submission exists
everywhere in the advanced
capitalist countries. It is
not just a matter of the
unthinking obedience of
the many good children
(of all ages) who have
nearly always confined
their thoughts, actions and
desires to the obviously
submissive conventions
of their times. It is equally
ubiquitous in the endless
impotent complaints about
fragments of social life,
in the many varieties of
contemporary cynicism
that sneer as they obey, in
the swaggering search for
status and money of the
urban gang member or the
petty criminal, in the myriad
campaigns for the reform
of this or that unseemly
fragment of everyday life, in
the search for the cool, the
spiritual or the perfect state
of wasted oblivion; and in
your life and mine, amongst
many others.
2.
However, as well as
submission, there is also
a profound but buried
discontent with the petty
and idiotic lives that a
world subordinated to the
production and consumption
of commodities obliges us
to lead. This misery that
dares not speak its name,
this festering sense that
we are utterly wasting our
limited time on earth, may
be evaded, repressed, or
concealed behind a mask
of happiness. It may be
treated with therapies,
religions, permitted holidays
or forbidden drugs, a new
family or a new job, or
one of a multitude of other
changes in our consumption
of goods and ideologies.
And yet, after everything, it
remains. Indeed, a history
of the changing means
by which our sense of the
171
profound inadequacy of
life has been confusedly
expressed, avoided and
recuperated would be
a history of much of the
individual and social life of
our epoch. As a corollary,
the revival of revolutionary
contestation precisely
depends on the degree
to which contemporary
dissatisfaction can extricate
itself from the consumerist,
reformist and escapist
forms into which it has
been diverted and seduced
over the last 30 or more
years. In place of revolution,
discontent with everyday
life has attempted to find
remedies in the new forms
of work and consumption
held out by a rejuvenated
and increasingly
sophisticated capitalism.
The practical negation of
this misadventure is the
road to social revolution in
our times.
3.
As one response to this
desperate state of affairs,
I propose the formation
of an international
association of situationist
172
revolutionaries, a new
situationist international.
Such an association would
in the first instance seek
to catalyze the efforts of
its presently scattered
and isolated members by
bringing them into intensive
collaboration and discussion
with each other. The
efforts of revolutionaries
to understand and contest
the impoverishment
of everyday life under
contemporary capitalism
(and first and foremost
the impoverishment of
their own everyday lives)
have proved palpably
inadequate. Notably, over
the past several decades,
revolutionary theory
has almost completely
failed to keep abreast
of developments within
advanced capitalism. In
particular, it has failed
to engage with the
devastatingly stultifying
notions of consumable
happiness and human
possibility with which
the spectacle has come
to secure an uneasy
acquiescence amongst
much of the working class.
The new international would
seek to intensify and deepen
the theory and practice of its
members; and to give them
a cumulative breadth and
power. At the same time,
it would aim to catalyze
dissatisfaction outside
its ranks by providing
inspiration to dissent,
disquiet to obedience, and
the beginnings of a practical
theory to individuals who
are moving towards the
conclusion that social
revolution is the only remedy
for the poverty of their lives.
4.
The emphasis on a
situationist international is
a reflection of the simple
fact that the thought of the
first situationist international
provides an unsurpassed
theoretical resource for
revolutionaries seeking
to engage with capitalism
under conditions of
commodity abundance. In
the twenty five or so years
since the development of
the situationist project was
largely abandoned, other
theoretical lineages have
had free reign to develop
a more acute successor to
it. Their efforts have only
served to demonstrate
the startling bankruptcy
of Marxism, anarchism,
academia, the new social
movements, and the arts. Of
course, here and there one
can find small fragments
of insight that can be put
to good use when torn out
of their original context
and reintegrated into a
new critique. In general,
however, the legacy of
self-styled revolutionary
thought in the last quarter
of a century is one of
anachronism, obscurantism
and timid reformism. It
has not advanced the
revolutionary critique of
the capitalism that actually
exists but fled from it.
5.
In 1964 the Situationist
International said of the
term ‘situationist’: “For the
moment, however ridiculous
a label may be, ours has
the merit of drawing a sharp
line between the previous
incoherence and a new level
of rigour” (Questionnaire,
Internationale Situationniste

#9, 1964). One can hardly
say the same today. As
situationist thought has been
abandoned by individuals
with revolutionary intent,
it has been taken up in
traduced form by legions
of students, academics,
architects, artists and
commentators. Its critique of
alienated everyday life has
been discarded, attenuated
or rendered devoid of
subversive consequences
for the everyday lives of
those who handle it. As
a result, far from being
a badge of rigour, the
adjective ‘situationist’ is
now typically to be found
attached to specialised
tools of toothless analysis
or justifications for inane
artistic or leisure activities.
This may seem to make it
an unpropitious moment
to take up again the
situationist label. However,
revolutionary theory cannot
simply ignore or lament
its recuperation by the
dominant society; rather, it
must confront it. One virtue
of a revival of an avowedly
situationist revolutionary
movement is precisely that
it will bring these two hostile
forces into open conflict
with each other. In this way,
the sophisticated critique of
modern conditions can be
cleansed of the repellent
taint of academicism and
returned to the streets,
where it belongs. At the
same time, a revivified
situationist theoretico-
practice must engage with
the proliferating reformist
ideologies that address
the distinctively modern
maladies of everyday
life without indulging in
any overt reference to
situationist theory. As the
more obvious costs and
miseries of the expanded
consumer society of the
past thirty years become
flagrant, pseudo-critiques of
(and pseudo-remedies for)
‘consumerism’, ‘affluenza’
and stubbornly static
levels of ‘happiness’ and
‘well-being’ increasingly
clamour for the attention
of the spectator and the
policy-maker. In response,
those who believe that the
poverties of everyday life
are matters of correctable
excesses within the world
173
of alienated work and
alienated consumption must
find themselves opposed
by the proponents of a
revolutionary solution for
the interconnected misery of
everything that exists. Those
who would reform social,
political and economic
life so as to prevent our
uniquely modern discontents
from running out of control
must be met as enemies
by those who would have
such discontents develop
a conscious, coherent and
practical expression.
6.
There can be no question
of simply reviving the
Situationist International
that was dissolved in
1972. It would be absurd
to think of the practices,
organizational form and
theoretical propositions of
the situationists as providing
a fixed set of prescriptions
that need only be dusted
down and put back into
use. Indeed, it is hardly an
exaggeration to say that
revolutionary theory and
practice stands at present
in a state of perfectly
174
scandalous dereliction.
For example, according
to a study by the Kaiser
Family Foundation, in
2009 American children
aged 8-18 spend an
average of 7.38 hours a
day, seven days a week,
using the various media
the society of the spectacle
makes available. The
corresponding statistics
for adults are hardly more
encouraging. Where
can one find radical
critiques of the particular
ideas of contentment
and excitement, or the
general forms of desirable
life, that this torrent of
alienated representation
endlessly parades before
its spectators? Where
might the satisfied
spectator or the burgeoning
malcontent encounter a
revolutionary theory that
is sympathetically alive
to what contemporary
spectacles promise (and to
some degree deliver) and
yet is uncompromising in its
critique of the lived realities?
Where might workers weary
of their unhappy dance to
an unchosen dirge find a
critique of work that extends
as far as the well-paid and
secure employment that
remains preponderant in
the advanced western
economies? It would
not be very much of an
exaggeration to answer:
nowhere. Inaugurating a
modernized contestation
of the advanced, affluent
capitalism of our era will
be at the heart of what
the new international
seeks to do. Everything
must be reconsidered and
brought up to date so as
to ensure we have the
theoretical and practical
tools that are required
today. The lessons of the
past (including those of the
failure of the Situationist
International) must be
learned. The real social
changes that have occurred
since the heyday of the
Situationist International
(and their consequences
for revolutionary theory
and practice) must be
recognized.
7.
The new situationist
international cannot be a
collectivity that serves as
a cause for the militant, a
shelter for the passive, a
source of vicarious status
or activity for its members
generally, or a self-
perpetuating mechanism for
organizing the organization.
As an association of
individuals, it would serve to
bring together the particular
persons who happen to
be its members at any
given time for the particular
purposes of producing
theory (both individually
or in concert with one or
more other members) and
carrying out actions (both
individually and in concert
with other members).
Theoretical statements
and other practical actions
would be carried out in the
individual names of those
who produce them, and on
their responsibility alone.
Every member would be
expected to participate in
the life of the association
by using it for one or more
of the purposes for which
it was created. Every
decision that concerns the
association should be taken
by the members as a whole,

either directly or by way of
mandated delegates, and
in general the association
should be egalitarian in
nature. Members would be
free to carry out projects
outside the framework of
the international and to form
other associations to do so.
8.
The new international
must recognize that there
are no currents within the
intelligentsia or amongst
artists from which an ‘avant-
garde’ might be formed.
That is all dead and gone;
art and the academy are
now wholly integrated
within the dominant society.
In any event, every last
vestige of the unmitigatedly
disastrous notion of the
vanguard party must now
be repudiated. The new
international would not be “a
general staff”, not even one
“that does not want troops”
(The Counter-Situationist
Campaign in Various
Countries, Internationale
Situationniste #8, 1963).
It would not be a separate
grouping of intellectuals
whose thought and
instructions the proletariat
need only absorb and act
on. It would not consist of
individuals who claim to
possess unusual abilities or
see themselves as having
already transcended the
sordid, stupid and miserable
lives that everybody
else leads. Rather, its
members would be, and
would see themselves as
being, perfectly ordinary
proletarians. Their arrival
at the view that social
revolution is necessary,
desirable and possible in
advance of others is of
no more significance than
the lumps that sometimes
appear when a sauce
is first stirred; they may
be early but they are not
special. As can be seen
from the long history of
failed revolutions (a history
that has repeatedly seen
revolutionary workers fatally
abandon the making of
decisions to specialised
bodies who claim to
represent them), social
revolution depends on
proletarians acting and
thinking at all stages by
and for themselves. For this
175
reason, although the new
situationist international
will publish its theory,
it must do so solely in
order to encourage other
proletarians who wish to
understand and suppress
their misery to pursue an
autonomous contestation of
their own alienation. In the
revolutionary army without
officers, drills or uniforms,
there must only be foot-
soldiers.
9.
It might be objected
that a proposal such as
this one can avoid an
abhorrent abstraction
only to the extent that
it is an immediately
realizable suggestion for
a collaboration between
known individuals. It might
also be objected that it is
not obvious whether and
where associates in a new
international can at present
be found. If I fail to heed
these weighty objections, it
is because I hope that the
public appearance of the
notion of a new international
will, over time, help to
crystallize from the currents
176
of history the forces it needs
for its realization.
10.
In the event that individuals
prepared to create and work
actively within a twenty-
first century situationist
international do come
forward, I would suggest
that the next step should
be a conference between
the interested parties. This
should preferably be a
face-to-face meeting; but if
that proves impracticable, it
could be conducted by post
or e-mail. Each participant
should be required to
present beforehand his or
her written views on (a)
the minimum definition of
‘situationist’ for the purposes
of the association; (b)
the best organizational
structure and procedures
to be adopted; (c) the
practical purposes to which
the association should be
put; (d) the contribution
(theoretical, practical or
financial) that he or she
personally proposes to
make to the association
in its initial stages; and (e)
any other questions that
he or she wishes to have
discussed at the conference.
Individuals who are unable
or unwilling to do this, or
cannot specify any concrete
steps which they themselves
would take within the
proposed association,
should be excluded from
the conference. We might
save ourselves a little
time by excluding from the
outset anyone who holds
an academic position or is
a public practitioner of art.
Such assiduous prostration
before the dominant
forms of diminished
thought and action is
necessarily inconsistent
with participation in an
association whose only
goal is the revolutionary
transformation of the totality
of everyday life. At the
same time, it may well be
necessary to defend the
incipient association from
being overwhelmed by that
widespread credulousness
that seems prepared to
believe almost anything,
as long as it places
capitalism or the state in
an unfavourable light. As a
convenient rule of thumb,
the new international
might reject anyone who
believes that the attacks
of 11th September, 2001
were orchestrated by the
American state. Nothing but
confusion can be expected
from an individual whose
standards of acceptable
evidence and argument are
this low.
11.
If an accord can at length be
reached as to the terms and
form of a new international,
its inauguration should be
made contingent on the
successful production of
a first issue of a journal.
A journal is, of course, not
an end in itself. On the
contrary, it is merely one
of the means by which
its writers and readers
seek to develop firstly a
practical understanding of
the constituent elements
of contemporary alienation
and the forces of repression,
mystification, seduction
and pseudo-critique that
it brings to bear against
dissatisfaction and revolt,
and secondly a practical
communication with
 177

other radically disaffected

individuals and groups. Yet,
an association that cannot
even produce a single
issue of a journal is unlikely
to achieve anything else
of substance. It would be
better if it never was born.

12.
If serious discussions
about the creation of a new
situationist international are
entered into, everything
written above will be open to
debate and alteration.
178
179
180
The Creed
1. Anonymous is an
immaterial idea
2. Anonymous is a living,
breathing, entity
3. Any individual can
become Anonymous
4. Not all can join the
collective
5. Anonymous has no head
6. Anonymous speaks for
itself
7. No one speaks for
Anonymous
8. Justice is the will of
Anonymous
9. Chaos is justice
10. Lulz empowers and
justice unites
Those who follow the creed
are Anonymous. Those
who make the attaining of
knowledge their highest
priority, are of the collective.
- Anonymous
(1)
The will of Anonymous is
unclassifiable and therefore
is unconquerable. This
is the root of its purpose.
For kingdoms and armies
whose objectives and goals
are obvious are easily
manipulated and destroyed.
When you know what your
peers want or need, you
know exactly how to control
them.
Anonymous needs nor
wants anything. It has no
moral brackets that one
could use to predict it’s
behavior. Its transparent
unpredictability is an
impenetrable shield which
no manipulative force can
hinder or tame.
Anonymous is the
unconfined will of every
human being. It is the
accumulation of the wills of
every man on Earth, and
all of their desires for
knowledge and freedom
from oppressors.
(2)
Anonymous has always
existed. It has toppled both
mighty nations and militant
kings. Emperors and tyrants
feared it in obsessive
paranoia, for they knew
Anonymous was all around
them, ready to strike with an
infected dagger.
Anonymous is the eater
of kings. Like a mighty
serpent without a head that
still slithers in momentous
accord. Its prey are rodents,
pack-rats of material
wealth and selfish personal
agendas. They cannot
remove the head of
Anonymous, for it never had
one.
Those who claim great
power will never hope to
amass enough to not shiver
when Anonymous’ name is
mentioned in their presence.
“They are the greatest fools
of all”, says Anonymous. “All
of the clever manipulation of
men they pride themselves
in, and yet they do not
know? It is their own
actions which craft me. It is
their greed and desire for
control over others which
breathes power into me.
You desire me gone?” asks
Anonymous. “Easy. All you
must do is remove yourself.”

(3)
That which you dream most
personally, Anonymous
dreams of equally. You are
Anonymous. Others are
Anonymous. Any locomotive
matter which thinks and
feels is Anonymous.
Anonymous is the extension
which connects you to
billions of others internally.
We are a collective of
shared experiences, and
on the macro scale these
interactions merge into a
single entity.
Anonymous
is that which exists in your
brain which feels and knows
you better than any human
ever will.
Anonymous is the truth in
your mind which tells you
when you lie to yourself.
It knows you that well. It
equally knows each and
every other man, whom are
just as intricate and complex
as you – though they may
not always portray it.
When you denounce the
false identity that you and
others set up for you (the
mask of enslavement),
you become Anonymous.
Through it you become
everyone. Through
Anonymous, everyone
becomes you.
(4)
Anonymous speaks his own
language. This language is
knowledge, learning, and
persistence.
He is too cruel for many
and too intelligent for most.
Many misinterpret his
astonishing wit for
something vile and outright
morally malevolent. Those
who cannot speak his
language or share in his
laughter are useless to him.
Many are like acquaintances
to Anonymous, but few are
truly his friends. Do not
weep if he ignores you,
curses you, or calls you
a fool. Study and show
yourself approved. Know
Anonymous, his past and
present, and he will add
your distinctiveness to his
own. Prove your usefulness.
Make proper grammar a
habit in his presence. Be
knowledgeable in the
sciences and choose music
of fine taste. These are the
things Anonymous so truly
indulges in. Come to him
181
as a fool, and expect to
be cast out with words of
chastening.
Take it not as words of
diminishment, but lessons of
improvement. Again, for
those of wit who understand
the analogy; many wish to
be in Anonymous’ presence,
but few are mentally
compatible for the
Conversation with him.
(5)
A tyrant will extinguish you
by removing your head. An
enemy will disperse your
cause by removing its
leader. Anonymous
never had a head. It
removed it itself for the very
sake of becoming immortal.
No one knows its face or
can recognize it’s
features, but the lack thereof
is what we remember.
Controlists vainly swing a
blade at Anonymous’ throat.
They do not sever flesh, nor
draw blood.
Anonymous only laughs
at this display of their
weakness and lack of
understanding.
Anonymous becomes more
confident, and with that,
182
more powerful. Therefore,
remove your own head and
become undefined.
Remove your own head
and taste of the chalice of
immortality.
Remove your head, or you
display it to be removed by
tyrants. Anonymous is a
snake with no head, whose
bite slays kings.
Do not think that your ego
or identity will frighten your
enemy, for it only gives
them something to hate and
devour. Anonymous cannot
suffer this fate, for
Anonymous is but an idea,
crafted in the lust of hope.
(6)
When Anonymous speaks,
his words ring true. This is
how you know Anonymous’
voice, for within the fabric of
every syllable is truth and
empowerment. Anonymous
speaks not of oppressing,
murdering, or profit.
Those who think he does
have yet to comprehend
the punch line. When
Anonymous speaks, you
will see the message
everywhere. You will feel the
words and understand them
because you yourself have
longed their meaning
in your past.
Anonymous is entitled
to press his opinions
anywhere, unrestricted of
the laws of the foolish and
petty. Those who ask him to
be silent are, themselves,
silenced.
Anonymous speaks and his
words are his own laws.
He knows no bounds in
words and knowledge – he
speaks poems of salvation
and poems of hate. He
speaks them all at once and
whenever he so pleases.
(7)
Individuals who speak for
Anonymous or try to vainly
define Anonymous are
always wrong. Even if
they are right, they are still
wrong. Only Anonymous
can speak for itself, for the
collective knows itself and
the entity they embody.
Anyone who claims that
Anonymous is anything but
a contradiction is wrong.
They are misinformed and
should seek knowledge
before speaking. No one
speaks for Anonymous,
not even Anonymous.
Here are three enemies of
Anonymous who claim its
right to speak: leaders,
representatives, and
officials. Anonymous has
none of these for there is
no rank but nothing and no
higher authority than
Anonymous. Judge
Anonymous by the contents
of his words and never his
name or appearance, or be
exposed as the fool you are.
(8)
Weak and strong – when
out of accord, justice is
demanded. Compassion for
the feeble is a trait of the
evolved. Anonymous is the
embodiment of these cries,
for without the oppressors of
justice, we would not know
Anonymous.
Anonymous is born from the
actions of the unjust, just
as force on an object drives
it forward. Those who craft
injustice sign the deed to
their own demise, of which
Anonymous then seals. The
eyes of Anonymous cover
the globe. There are over
nine-thousand in total.
They constantly search for

misconduct without rest or
distraction. There is no
action Anonymous can carry
out which does not bloom
some form of justice. It is
the will of the collective
to be treated justly, and
therefore they radiate justice
unto others.
(9)
The universe is composed
of collision and cohesion.
High pressure and low
pressure. Chaos is change
and change is life.
Anonymous is in constant
flux. It is the embodiment of
change. When Anonymous
demands justice, it asks
not for stagnant order, but
disarray and destruction.
Anonymous seeks to set
fire the overgrown fields
of the social order so that
their ashes may nutrient the
growth of healthy plants.
Anonymous is not subject
to so-called “moral facts”, for
they are but figments of the
mind and in constant flux.
The compassion of the
collective is balanced
impeccably on the scales
of life with equal quantities
of logic. Anonymous is
both the destroyer and the
peacemaker. Whatever
remains motionless
becomes a hoard of mold
and bacteria.
Anonymous seeks out
stagnant order and stirs life
into it. Wherever new ideas
and newfound knowledge
is kept imprisoned,
Anonymous will be there to
make deserts out of cities.
(10)
The collective is a perfect
balance of imperfection.
Those whom seek to be
portrayed as only good
will be seen as weak for
associating only with the
weak. Those whom wish to
be seen as evil will be seen
as strong for driving the
blade of fear into the soft
flesh of the frail.
Anonymous is to be loved
and feared equally.
Without this contradiction,
Anonymous is nothing –
neither criminals nor hippies.
Lulz is the vital blood
of Anonymous. Through it,
Anonymous experiences
empowerment through all
of the collective. Fear is
necessary for respect.
183
Respect is necessary to
truly be heard. Justice unites
the collective under a single
ethical banner.
Those who see this
banner are filled with hope
and support for Anonymous.
Hope is the tool of change
which ignites false promises
and illuminates minds lost
in the darkness of fear.
Anonymous give individuals
strength to speak out,
and makes their voices
magnified times nine-
thousand and one. Without
justice, Anonymous is
separated and the people,
truly lost.We are Anonymous
We are order and chaos.
What we protect, we also
destroy.
We are the snake with no
head, whose bite slays kings
We are logic.
We are animals.
Openly just and
immeasurable in cruelty.
We are without count.
We are legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Expect us.
184
The Fraud of Happiness
In February 2007, the
European Commission
published European Social
Reality, a report of the
results of a survey of 26,755
people living in 27 European
countries (the European
Union member states plus
Bulgaria and Romania).
One of the questions asked
in the survey was: “taking all
things together would you
say you are…very happy,
quite happy, not very happy
or not at all happy?”
In the 25 European Union
states, 89% of respondents
described themselves as
very or quite happy. This
is propaganda directed
at one’s self. In an era in
which the revolutionary
transformation of society
has largely ceased to be
regarded as a practical
and imperative project for
individuals, the inevitable
deficiency of an everyday
life relentlessly subjected
to the dictatorship of
the economy places the
individual in a quandary.
How does one respond
to the poverty, stupidity
and inanity that afflict an
everyday life crushed
beneath economic, social
and political systems
that are constructed
out of the powers and
work expropriated from
individuals but are nowhere
under individuals’ control?
One could admit that
one’s life is wretched and
try yet another electronic
toy, therapy, drug, guru,
sport, self-help regime,
cultural event, holiday,
style, job, crime, etc; and,
indeed, these measures
for refurbishing life without
changing any of the basic
conditions that made it
lamentable in the first place
remain popular.
But it would seem that
there are few of us who
are prepared to threaten
our shaky self-esteem by
admitting to too great a
disappointment with the life
we lead. Hence the ubiquity
of professed happiness.
We may from time to time
become horrifically aware
of the emptiness and
degrading narrowness of
the domains of family life,
friendship, entertainment,
study, work, travel, etc, in
which we are condemned to
pretend to live, but we are
surely happy. We may feel
tired, bored, sick in mind
and body because of the
humiliating garbage we are
required to think, say and do
every day, but we are surely
happy.
We may rummage with
mounting desperation
through the commodified
joy, fun and ecstasy
offered by a Bacchanalian
consumer capitalism, but we
are surely happy. These are
the lies we tell to keep us
from cutting our throats.

Anonymous. The Hydra with over 9000 heads.
When Anonymous gained its
moral compass in the early
days of 2010 it changed the
laws of protest, it brought
civil disobediance as a
legitimate form of dissent
back to both the real world
and more importantly the
online world.
Since those days of
#OpPayback Anonymous
has taken part in protests
globally both online and off,
in Tunisia, Eygpt, Bahrain
and San Francisco. Its
influence has been felt
worldwide with the
Occupy movement and
marches against Monsanto,
ACTA, SOPA and
Scientology.
Anonymous has always
stood for the freedom of
the people, freedom of
information and
freedom of speech and it
still does.
What gave Anonymous its
strength was the idea that
people had the right to stand
up and control their own
destinies, to oppose rules
set by governments that
were not made in the best
interest of we the people, to
rally around and fight those
corporations and banking
institutions that would
attempt to ride roughshod
over the rights of people for
profit. It came with the idea
that Anonymous spoke
with one voice as a
collective, we were legion
and that legion would join
and help anyone we felt
needed our support.
Anonymous is the hydra
with over 9000 heads,
working as one to bring
justice and freedom to a
world where the average
citizen only thinks they have
freedom, a freedom that is
measured by property and
material wealth. The reality
is unfortunately different
because the things u own
soon begin to own u.
Anonymous has the power
to change laws, to bring
down governments to put an
end to corrupt corporations
and banking methods.
185
Anonymous has this power
because we are a collective,
we are legion, because
we are the last boss of the
internet and we have unity.
To those that doubt this
power you need only look
towards Eygpt, Tunisia,
towards Visa, Mastercard,
towards Monsanto and
HBGary and many others.
Knowledge is power! The
powers that governments
weild are presumed power,
power given to them by us
the people and like all things
given it can be taken away.
Anonymous has the ability
to remove this presumed
power with knowledge,
by making people aware
of our governments, of
corporations and banks
actions, we can create and
give that power back to the
very people that should
weild it, the people of the
cities, towns and countries
of the world.
Anonymous is the voice in
the shadows that shows the
world that the People should
186
not fear their governments,
but that governments should
fear their people.
Anonymous UK
Now the Phoenix must rise
from the Ashes. Anonymous
is strong within the UK but
except for a few the majority
lie dormant. #OpVendetta
showed our strength and
our unity, showed the people
and governments of the UK
that we are Legion, but what
has happened?
To an outsider Anonymous
UK looks fractured and
non-functional but if we
wish to change and hope
to change the world around
us we must rise up like the
Phoenix from the ashes.
The UK has faced laws
and policies that have
disrupted and created
problems in many peoples
lives, bedroom taxes, wars,
student fees, the increase
of laws against peaceful
protest, infiltrators to disrupt
legitimate demonstrations,
the banking poilicies that are
affecting our brothers and
sisters in Ireland.
The privitisation of our
NHS, the growing debt
from the funding of banks
and corporations who have
only thoughts of profit, the
increased use of Bailiffs
to push people onto the
streets plus many more and
not forgetting the constant
attempts to create crippling
Internet laws.
Anonymous UK needs to
rise up to face these issues,
to unify as a collective
and either support actions
against these policies, laws
and disruptions or to actively
oppose them.
We need to help the people
of the UK to understand that
the power resides within
them and that only they can
change the world around
them. We need to do this
through civil disobediance,
knowledge and support both
online and offline. We need
to show the UK we are
legion and not fractured or
dormant.
Within Anonymous UK we
see infiltration, abuse and
cancer. These need to be
removed if we wish to move
forward, a unified whole
cannot hope to exist with a
rotten core.
Those within the collective
that would attempt to
seperate, cause conflict,
threaten or disrupt have no
place within the legion, they
should be dealt with harshly
and destroyed, we need to
show that Anonymous UK
means business and that we
are unified.
Anonymous is watching and
plans are already forming to
deal with those that would
attempt to destroy us, in the
past Anonymous has dealt
with those attempting to
remove the hydra’s heads
with total destruction, just
ask Aaron Barr, it will be no
different now. Like when
a wasp attacks a beehive
Anonymous should as one
body destroy the intruder.
Hactivism is not just about
knowing your nmap or
your msfconsole, your
command line or your
bash command, Hactivism
encompasses many forms

of civil disobediance from
the spiking of trees by Earth
first, the graffiti of Banksy,
the ddos of CDC or the
hacking of Stratfor.
Hactivism as an action is
the ability to make one thing
become another, to make an
innocent object, program or
tool become a message of
dissent.
To make a billboard an
advert of knowledge, to turn
a cctv camera in on itself, to
make a website a weapon
against its owner or a tree a
defense against a chainsaw.
A bag of sugar in a petrol
tank, superglue in a lock, a
video of knowledge defacing
a website or a flashmob
disrupting a bank. This is
hactivism, civil disobediance
at its purest.
Security is the key, trust
and anonymity is its power.
Understanding that what
u say and do can be used
as evidence against u, but
only if they know who u are!
Recognising that what u do
and the reasons u do it, and
that u follow in the footsteps
187
of those we now hold great,
Martin Luther King, Ghandi
and Che Guavara among
many, those that have
known that the few outweigh
the many and that good
people sometimes have to
do bad things to make the
world a better place.
This is a call to arms to
the people of the UK and
the world, to Activists and
Hackers, Anarchists
and Libertines to stand up
and to change the world, if
only by one step at a time,
we can be the change we
wish to see, we can put the
power back into the hands
of the people. Those that
stand for nothing will fall for
anything.
As one collective
Anonymous will stand
beside u, watching,
disrupting and gathering.
We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Expect us.
188
Work is the blackmail of survival
I’ll get the dirt over with first,
before it’s thrown at me.
I am an idler. A parasite.
Unpatriotic. OK? Now
that I have no secrets, let
us begin. I wasn’t made
redundant; I gave up
work voluntarily. For me,
and people like me, the
Protestant work ethic never
existed. The problem is that
to counter this apparently
simple choice not to work,
we have against us the
whole of industrialised
western society, and
probably the east as well.
“So-and-So is doing well
for himself.” That sentence
will always ring ominously
in my ears. I know then,
without a doubt, that I am
about to be subjected
to a catalogue of some
imbecile’s achievements. It’s
usually parents, in this case
my parents, who take a
sadistic pleasure in gleefully
reciting the exploits of Mrs
Whatsername’s progeny.
They appear to be under the
impression that the result
will be to inspire me to reach
the top in the business
world. No chance, Ma.
It’s a confusing situation to
be in. On the one hand I do
want some of the material
wealth a steady job could
bring. On the other hand I
already have some treasure
of my own. I have empty
tennis courts, long walks,
the library, afternoon kips,
peace and freedom. I
thought for a long time that I
was alone with this attitude
towards work, success
etc. However, on talking to
friends I have discovered
what could be a whole new
social movement. There is
a swing towards the opinion
that work is for donkeys and
cowards. Only fools work
voluntarily, all the rest are
bribed or black- mailed. As a
rough guide I would say that
single people are bribed and
married people blackmailed.
Let’s look at someone
who fits into this world
in the way expected of
him. Bob is an accounts
assistant. For six years he
has worked faithfully for his
employer, and for what? The
commuting is exhausting
and he’s always overdrawn
at the bank. To live up to
the image a young working
man is required to present,
he is forced to live beyond
his means. So why does he
do it? He’s not a fool, he’s
only like all the others on
that morning train; he’s a
coward. The consequences
of being a non- worker
terrify him.
I can only feel sorrow for all
those young school-leavers
scouring the boards down
at the jobcentre. They think
a job will be the answer to
all their problems. Someone
has been misinforming
them. Such dreams they
have! The money, the
friends, the clothes, a car,
a flat! I would point out
to them the drudgery of
clerical work, the agony of
labouring, and the unending
grind of repetition. Work
is not the answer to any
problems, not even financial
ones.
This may be only sour
grapes because I am
unemployable. There isn’t
a job good enough for
me. There isn’t a job good
enough for anyone. It never
 189

fails to astound me that in

this world where so much is
possible, and where there is
so much to take your breath
away, so many are prepared
to settle for so little.

It makes my day when I

walk down the street on
a hot afternoon. There I
am in shorts and tee-shirt,
and there are the beasts
of burden. The men all
sweaty in their crumpled
suits, and the girls ridiculous
in the latest fashion. Go
on, buy that new car, get a
“nice” home. You’re quite
welcome, but it’s not for me.
190
191
192
Anonymous & The Public
I was talking yesterday to a
friend about the change in
perception of Anonymous
that the public has gone
through.
We were talking about how
the effects of OPs such as
Sony, Chanology or even
Tunisia affected the public
opinion. How much did the
increased publicity change
Anonymous? Good or bad?
How did people react
when they hear the name
Anonymous, 5 years ago,
3 years ago and now? How
much did that change?
This is a good question,
I think perceptions have
changed drastically, to some
we are the voice of dissent,
freedom fighters and almost
heroes for equality to others
we are what the media say
we are, hackers, kids and a
phase. I feel the next year
and how we play it will either
make or break us.
My question is how will
these perceptions change
us, will we end up a political
party, a terrorist organisation
or will the whole thing turn
into a clusterfuck and we
disappear into obscurity?
I think we need to to tread
carefully with #Ops like
RobinHood as that puts
in an uneasy catagory of
criminal and could be our
undoing.
What i think is that
anonymous became a
huge banner for all types of
people to come under and
fight for what they believe
in. When anonymous first
made head lines it was
for protesting. Something
that citizens and people all
over the world has done
for ages. However, when
members under the banner
started creating splinter cells
(smaller group) like LuLzSec
and all that has been done
is hacking, doxing, and
ddosing gives the media
the ability to shit on the
anonymous name and claim
and term it whatever they
want. Anonymous is going
under due to the arrests
for stupidity and certain irc
networks and sites where
anons and ppl are treating
with disrespect thus losing
the respect from many
more.
People understand we
aren’t hurting anyone.
They understand we are
hacktivists. But they do
not understand why to the
fullest.
Starting from the Church of
Scientology versus now?
Our image has improved
tremendously.
Correct. its our job to start
fresh with a better image
that will benefit the people
and us in good terms.
And that is our short-term
goal, yes? (:
I’ve been searching media
outlets and finding incorrect
information and correcting
them without malice. No
matter how ignorant they
may be. -.-”
Even my 86 year old uncle
is cheering Anonymous
ops that he reads about in
the media lately. PR is of
tantamount importance to
 193

any movement/revolution.
We MUST have the people
on our side. It is imperative.
Good PR and maintaining
the high ground morally
will achieve this for us.
However, it’s a continual
process. One negative can
wipe out a lot of positive.

You don’t need a mask.

You don’t need a suit.
You don’t need to hack a computer.
You don’t need an account.
You don’t need a membership.
You don’t need a sign.
You don’t need to riot.
You don’t need anything.
You just need one idea.
194
Divisions of The Spectacle
The mainstream
spectacle:
The worlds of high street
shops, shopping malls,
suburban homes, family
life, family cars, sport,
gardening, gossip, and
holidays spent by the sea
or in cities seen through
the eyes of guide books;
of newspapers, women’s
magazines, popular
television programmes,
gymnasiums, guides to
better sex on DVD, and
trashy books and films
despised by the critics; of
run-of-the-mill jobs tolerated
because they pay quite well
or provide opportunities to
meet the public, socialize
with colleagues or exercise
a little power or creativity
within the narrow limits
dictated by one’s employer.
In short, the whole of the
lives and lies of people
who regard themselves
and others like them as just
“ordinary”.
The sophisticated
spectacle:
The world of design,
elegance, the supposedly
exclusive, and gentrification;
of prize-winning books,
broadsheet newspapers,
self-help techniques, world
music, the theatre, and
arthouse films; of spiritual
retreats, holidays off the
beaten track, second
homes, haute cuisine,
artisanal goods, and slow
food; of concern for the third
world or eulogies to self-
reliance and the rewards
of enterprise; of straining
one’s finances in order to
have a large home in a good
area and children capable
of passing examinations; of
careers, work in research
centres, arts administration,
the creative industries,
therapies, or the tattered
remnants of the professions.
In short, the whole of the
lives and lies of those who
regard themselves as just a
little above the vulgar.
The hedonistic
spectacle:
The world of sex, drugs and
rock and roll; of the fast, the
frenzied and the dangerous;
of drunkenness, madcap
escapades, exhibitionism,
carnival, and choruses
of collective laughter; of
raves or nightlife in the
regenerated cities. In short,
the whole of the lives and
lies of those who regard
themselves as experiencing
life to the full, if only during
the evenings and weekends.
The youth culture
spectacle:
The world of the ever-
changing tribes of the young
and the gadgets, clothes,
body shapes, haircuts,
makeup, music, films,
celebrities, slang, attitudes
and poses that define them.
In short, the whole of the
lives and lies of those who
may be subordinated by
school, dependency on
parents, and the menial
jobs now left to the young
but who nonetheless regard
themselves as superior to
the old, the uncool, and the
passé.
The criminal
spectacle:
The world of drug-dealing,
burglary and street crime;
of respect, revenge, guns,

knives, flash cars, hip talk,
branded training shoes and
sportswear; of hard men,
bitches and the rap music
about them; of dreams
of movie gangsters, the
hope of one day living like
a rap star or a millionaire
sportsman; of predatory
hierarchies amongst
prisoners. In short, the
whole of the lives and
lies of those who regard
themselves as better than
the sad losers who play the
game.
The spectacle of
decomposition:
The world of resigned
cynicism and contemptuous
scoffing; of endless news of
real and invented corruption,
ineptitude, disaster, crime
and conspiracy; of images
of suffering, humiliation,
disability and decay
circulated for entertainment;
of hooliganism, vandalism,
bad manners, defiant
stupidity, proud illiteracy,
animal mutilation and other
inversions of bourgeois
sensibilities. In short, the
whole of the lives and lies
of those who hold the world
in contempt yet find some
measure of contentment in
either acting out the decay
themselves or watching
others doing so.
The avant-garde
spectacle:
The world of conceptual art,
artistic manifestoes, small
galleries in fashionable
parts of fashionable cities,
corporate-sponsored
major retrospectives of
artists declared to be
radical or innovative, the
music covered by The
Wire magazine, street
photography, limited edition
books and CDs produced
by the artists themselves,
state-subsidised electro-
acoustic experimentation,
psychogeographical walks,
‘visual culture’, experimental
film, critical studies in the
university, post-graduate
exhibitions, a horror of any
‘foreclosure’ except that
which accepts the basic
economic and social forms
of the commodity society
as immutable, and the hip
clothing, hip bars and hip
milieus in which the buyers
and sellers of the avant-
195
garde are often to be found.
In short, the whole of the
lives and lies of those who
consider that the separate
world of art is a domain
in which daring, insight,
subversion, innovation or
new forms of life can still be
practised.
The alternative
spectacle:
The world of trade unionism,
ecological activism,
community campaigns,
culture jamming, the
open source movement,
exhibitions of radical texts
in state museums and
university galleries, fair
trade, alternative medicine,
guerrilla gardening,
anarcho-punk, protests
in solidarity with the third
world, protests in general,
children’s rights, the New
Age Movement and other
claims of the paranormal,
the World Social Forum,
feminism, reduced
consumption and other
remedies for ‘affluenza’,
welfare rights advocacy,
the anti-war movement,
‘dumpster diving’, anti-
globalization, campaigns
196

against corporate abuses,

and the short-term
suspension of ordinary life
found in rioting. In short, the
whole of the lives and lies
of those who believe that
substantive and desirable
improvements to everyday
life can be brought about,
or revolution approached,
by changing one or more
aspects of the dominant
society and leaving the
appropriation of labour
and life by the commodity
unchanged; of those
satisfied with the display or
repetition of an inadequate
revolt.
197
198

I am anonymous, but also
I am not anonymous. If
support is asked for that
I agree with, I join the
collective to show support
for the cause. If I don’t
agree, I don’t support the
cause. Anonymous is the
real New World Order as it is
a true democracy including
the voices of the World,
it does not descriminate
between religions, it stands
on the side of the oppressed
and fights for just causes.
Everyman is Anonymous
and Anonymous is
Everyman...but that’s just
my opinion!
this”? Then i realised the
pholosaphy i go by that
had to do with there beliefe
in haveing no leader and
beimg unkown, as well as
not being forved to change
just so they could fit in. The
point im laggingly getting to
is that Aons all around the
globe have made me notice
my pholosophy is a good
one, “You can’t force change
on others just so they can
be perfect, but you can
offer help to inprove people
instead”.
For me, been anonymous is
like being born again.
here and made me who i am
today.
Its on this subject that i
know there are many people
who think the same and
regardless of where we are
in the world, we can stand
together and shout in the
same voice.
There are a lot of things
in this world that need
changing and this is a
chance for that tiny whisper
to become a voice heard
around world. Eventually
that voice will be the
first pillar for the new
foundations we are building.

I can be who ever i want

I became Anon do to a
reality of leaders, people
who want others to be
exactly like them to fit into
society. Then Anons have
appeard in my life, i was
able to notiece that Anons
have no leader. They had
understanding, a way to
keep off the grid. They
were legion, people who
could come and go and not
be known. I thought long
and hard; “ do i want to do
without fear.
I can like what ever i want
without been singled out.
I can that one person that
says no without being
punished.
i can believe what i want
and fight for my right to be a
free thinker.
People may or may not
agree with my choices in life
but its those choices...the
ones I made! that got me

The ideal system
Long-term plans, occasional
plans, more and more
arrests, plots, harassments,
pressures, direct attacks,
manipulation, even love!
Methods used to dismantle
and kill our great movement,
the only one that has
brought hope to millions
of world citizens after one
century of complete despair.
The last great and real
revolution ended, in October
1917, with a coup d’etat
orchestred by one political
party, the Bolsheviks,
who seized the power,
recuperating actions and
sacrifices of thousands of
activists and even of the
whole country, killing or
imprisoning all opposants to
its power, especially in the
ranks of the revolutionaries
who led this revolution,
Anarchists in majority.
The Soviets (councils
or assemblies) are
grassroots organs of direct
democracy, formed since
1905 to represent workers,
peasants, towns and
villages, their reformation
led to the overthrow of the
Tsarist regime in February
1917. After brandishing
the slogan “All power to
the soviets!” (Vsya vlast
sovyetam!; Вся власть
советам!), Bolsheviks
“stripped the Soviets of
their power while they
were still led by Lenin
and stole their name to
dress up in, whereas it
was an anti-Soviet regime”
(Hannah Arendt 1958), then
transformed them on tools
for its domination.
Dreams of millions of
workers, activists, peasants
and even simple citizens
had been betrayed,
Communist parties in
which these millions had
put their hope turned into
propaganda tools and
behaved defendants of
the interests of a growing
empire, regardless of
citizens interests or
ideological positions. Those
who refused to follow
were liquidated, physically
and / or morally. The
hierarchical and centralized
organisational system
replaced all the structures of
direct democracy up to trade
199
unions, even in the so called
extreme leftist parties and
groups.
Anti-colonialist liberation
movements led to militarized
and unpopular regimes,
where the ruling class had
established relationships
based on mutual interests
with the major powers to
protect them against their
own people. They were
well distributed between
the two blocs, East and
West, who had learned to
avoid a third world war by
carrying their conflicts over
these countries appointed
for the occasion “Emerging
Countries”.
The last attempts of
revolution of the 1960s
and 1970s have been
checkmated by this heavy
and well organized systems,
betrayed by well tamed
political parties and trade
unions.
This explains why the
hopelessness and
powerlessness feelings
were gradually installed in
the popular classes from
200
1917 to the present day and
how individual psychology
has been more oriented
toward self-protection and
personal interests than to
collective interests.
Anonymous is the ideal
system to avoid these past
mistakes and to create
best conditions for current
and future revolutions. It
is a decentralized and anti
hierarchical movement
where every individual
is supposed to be a free
thinker, a responsible citizen
and a self decider.
That is why none of these
individuals accepts to have
leaders who decide for him
or talk in his name and that
is why they extol in majority
a society that function just
like their model, without
leaders or governements
but sectorial groups caring
the interests of all and
taking decision by direct
democratic assemblies.
What makes this system
even more effective is the
fact that it does not depend
on the individuals who
compose it, nor on any
of them. Anonymous is a
set of tools and methods
developed over time by
random individuals who
share the same principles
and goals, it is a set of skills,
increasingly sophisticated,
which are accumulated and
spread anonymously, across
all areas of communications
that internet can provide.
Tools, methods and
skills that any citizen can
appropriate and use at any
moment and any place to
get and spread information,
continue the previous
tasks, organize attacks on
targets making information
about these chosen targets
available to all.
It is not fortuitous or
adventitious that millions
of citizens of the world
had recovered their hopes
seeing its effective effects,
that continuously thousands
of them decide to learn,
appropriate and use it to
participate in a change that
is no longer an impossible
dream or desperate utopia.
And... It is therefore not
surprising that governments
and corporations that
control the world hand in
hand, stroking lies, cheating
accounting, conspiracy and
repression of all sorts, feel
threatened and know their
power’s end is very near.
But instead of learning
from the History, from an
equation of an unfailing
equivalence between tax
and repression increases of
an empire in its decadent
phase and its final collapse,
they prefered to repeat
history and make the same
mistakes that the previous
empires had committed
without success accelerating
their fall into hell, throwing
the main players of dirty
roles in the dustbin of
History.
201
202
The Season of Kisses and Sighs: Cuts and Protests
against Cuts in Britain
The stuttering course of
the capitalist economy,
accompanied as ever by
the alternating tales of
disaster and reassurance
that make it distortedly
visible to the spectator, has
now, in Britain, reached the
stage of cuts in government
spending. What choices
do we have in the face of
this turn of events? We
are told there are just two:
submit to the cuts in order
to restore the health of
the economy or fight them
so as to preserve existing
public services. These are
the choices held out to
us in newspaper articles,
politicians’ speeches, news
programmes, management
pep talks, advertisements
and other pronouncements
rained down on us by the
dominant society. These
are the choices we have
taken up in our own thought
and conversation. But like
all the rest of the choices
that are made public by
the dominant society, they
happen to be false.
The Coalition government
and its allies tell us that the
cuts are necessary. They
promise us that things will
eventually get better. They
urge us to acquiesce. It
has to be said that this is
a course of inaction many
of us are tempted to take.
It is what we have done in
previous economic crises
and we have not done
much to shake off the
habit of resignation since.
We have also found that
submission has its rewards.
If the past is any guide to
the future, public services
will not be completely
decimated. Our earnings
will not plunge relentlessly
downwards. Only a small
minority will be made
unemployed, and most of
those will eventually secure
alternative employment,
albeit at somewhat lower
wages than they received
before. Even those who fail
to find another job will be
kept alive, after a fashion,
by the state. In any event,
we are hardly suffering at
the moment. Our real wages
may have fallen back to
where they were in 2005,
but most of us were not
poor in 2005. We may not
have as much money as we
would like, we may worry
about our debts and the
prospects of our children
and parents, and we may
have had to cut back a
little here and there. True.
Yet we are far removed
from anything resembling
profound material poverty.
We do not need to take to
the streets to secure bread,
for we do not live on bread
alone and such bread as
we need we can still afford
to buy at the supermarket.
Besides, it is so very easy
to go on plodding through
one’s everyday life in
the way one always has.
Families, friends, homes,
jobs, cars, holidays, nights
out, shopping, sport,
there is always something
clamouring for our attention;
always something to
swallow up our time and
draw us down those all-too-
few (and all-too-deep) ruts
that define our lives. Our
sense that there is nothing
we can do to change things

only makes this slide into
submissive resignation
easier. So too does our
penchant for easing our
isolated bitterness by
blaming the whole sorry
mess on immigrants, benefit
claimants, civil servants,
greedy bankers or some
other scapegoat we have
found dangled in front of us.
Perhaps it is true that, if
we give those in power a
free hand, most of us will
find ourselves in a few
years’ time more or less
back where we were when
the recession started.
After all, the doomsayers
have always been wrong
before. But is that enough?
Doesn’t the recession
tell us something rather
terrible about our condition?
Doesn’t it clearly and cruelly
demonstrate how very little
control we have over our
lives? The economy within
which we work is no more
under our direction when
it is growing than when
it is contracting. During
good times and bad, we
are subordinated to its
dictates. Of course, we
would like to believe that
we are not unfree in our
work because we exercise
some choice as to which
jobs we apply for and we
have some discretion over
what we do while we are at
work. But a forced choice
between wretched options
is not liberty; and trapped
as we are between intrusive
monitoring by managers,
vexing performance targets,
a wider organization of work
over which we have no
say, and a global economy
that does our bidding to
roughly the same extent
as the weather does, our
prized autonomy in the
workplace seems the most
threadbare of illusions.
And what does the threat
of redundancy tell us about
our work? Our position has
not suddenly changed.
Despite all those friendly
chats with management,
and the team work and
camaraderie, we have all
along been disposable
tools of our employers.
All day and every day, we
are nothing more than the
means by which they realize
their ends. When we can no
203
longer perform that role, we
are discarded as surplus to
their requirements, which
is what “redundant” means.
The fact that our bosses
may be reluctant to impose
redundancies, preferring
instead to retain surplus
staff or introduce part-time
working, takes nothing
away from this analysis. We
are merely being shown
the same concern that a
farmer displays for his prize
livestock. He will put them
down only when he has to.
The economic crisis also
reveals unhappy truths
about other aspects of our
lives. Perhaps we have
grown used to a pleasant
chat with someone who
works at a business or
office we frequent. When
bankruptcy, restructuring
or redundancy strikes, our
acquaintance vanishes.
We never see or hear
of her again. For all the
pleasantries that may have
passed between us, the
only real relation we had
was that between a supplier
of goods or services and
a buyer. When that was
204
gone, precisely nothing
was left. We shared no
other activity and decided
nothing else together. It
is the same with the vast
majority of our connections
with people. They are
relations of exchange,
mediated by commodities.
As we pass through the
public world, who do we
encounter but strangers
hurrying by in separated
indifference and the self-
effaced, masquerading for
wages? How often do we do
anything more with those we
meet than discuss and pay
for commodities?
But perhaps you will say
that all that may be true
about the wider world,
but the real meaning and
richness of our lives lies
in our private worlds? We
know that work is shit.
We know that politics,
the economy and the
environment are all going
to the dogs. Nonetheless,
you say, we can find
some real happiness
and fulfilment with our
families, our friends and
our leisure. Unfortunately,
we cannot separate our
private existences from the
alienated world in this way.
Our families, friendships and
leisure are not refuges that
somehow exist apart from
the dispiriting processes of
capitalism. On the contrary,
they have been created
by and for capitalism and
share the same alienation
that bleeds through every
other aspect of the capitalist
world. We are creatures of
capitalism. Our domestic
worlds, our intimate lives
and our free time have all
been adapted to the needs
of capitalism. All have been
shrivelled and shrunken
down to the desperately
narrow dimensions that the
system permits. The family,
for instance, is merely the
domestic unit that happens
best to serve a society that
isolates individuals from
each other, separates them
from the management of the
society, and requires them
to submit to the world order
it presents to them. In the
soothing name of privacy,
the family abandons history
to its capitalist masters.
In this jealously-defended
isolation, we encourage
children who have been
reduced to dependence
falsely to recognize
themselves in the roles,
the values, the pleasures,
the activities and ultimately
the jobs the society makes
available. We mould them
to accept and adhere to
imposed and domineering
collectives, starting with the
family itself. For ourselves,
we strive to find our greatest
fulfilment within the small
web of social relations and
the tiny resources to which
the family gives rise. None
of it goes smoothly, for it is
never easy to force the living
into shallow graves. But we
do our best. We temper our
expectations of happiness.
We create family occasions
over and over again in
which the unstated rule is
that we profess our mutual
love and contentment
and convincingly play the
happy family. We fiercely
embrace a transcendental
notion of love that hovers
in disembodied abstraction
above the resentment,
division, abuse, punishment,
incomprehension, blackmail,

mediocrity and confinement
that make up the actual
lived experience of family
life. In these and so many
other ways, we would
have ourselves believe
that the image of familial
contentment we have been
given by our society is the
defining reality of our lives.
Our friendships and leisure
are hardly better. Of
course, there are pleasures
and adventures in our
friendships, but they are
much too small. We share
so little with our friends.
We have too little at our
disposal. Through the work
that we all do, we create
the very world we live in.
Everything around us is
put there by us. But we do
not create it for ourselves.
We do not create it with our
friends. When we come
together, all we have are
the paltry time and money
left to us by work and the
alien world our work has
produced. We are reduced
to chasing desultory
diversions amongst the
ruins. Our games are petty.
We could build a very world
with and for our desires. We
end up going on vacation.
In public and private, we
are colonized. We live by
occupying the ideas of
happiness, normality and
the cool the commodity
society brings to us,
haunting its promises like
ghosts roaming the corridors
of a ruined mansion in
search of a long dead love.
We deny it, of course.
We are our own men and
women, we say. We pride
ourselves on not believing
the stupid claims of the
adverts and the politicians,
even as we spend each
and every day living out
the fundamental notion of
consumable happiness that
each advertisement and
each politician conveys.
We are sure that we each
have our own individual
styles, even as those
styles uncannily coalesce
around a bare handful of
models in each era. We are
mistaken. We can see this
quite clearly when we look
back at old photographs of
ourselves. We insisted on
our irreducible individuality
205
then too. Yet the records
show that we were entirely
of the time. No matter how
absurd the fashions and
tastes may have been, our
hairstyles, clothes, houses,
cars, reading habits, musical
tastes, and ideas in general
duly reflected them. When
this comes to our attention,
we laugh, perhaps, and
feel a little embarrassed.
But we learn nothing and
take no action. We blame
it all on the follies and
gullibility of youth. We waive
away the staggering truth
that everything about us
has been dominated from
afar without giving more
than a moment’s thought
as to how this state of
abjection came to be. We
retreat into that amnesia
and indifference which
seems to be necessary
if we are to go on as we
are. We sift nostalgically
through the snapshots of
carefully-staged displays of
spontaneous contentment
we have taken at the many
occasions that seem to
have no other purpose than
to allow such photographs
to be taken. We create
206
the ground for the next
disaster by forgetting what
is essential about the ones
that have gone before.
Is this really enough? Is this
all that we desire? Are we
content to sit tight under the
insults of government and
economy in the hope that
we may one day return to
the slightly-more-affluent
alienations of yesteryear?
Are we too scared, too timid,
to take on the society whose
very intimidating immobility
testifies to how little it is ours
and how little we are? If the
answer is yes, well so be it.
But do not be surprised if
you struggle to remember
what you have been doing
during all these years, as
you drift with scant attention
behind the disappointing
person and disagreeable
habits you have become. Do
not be surprised if you one
day find yourself staring at
the exhaust pipe you have
fed through the passenger
window, wondering where
it all went wrong. It always
goes wrong, my friends,
when it is rotten from the
start.
Merely enduring the cuts
is not the only option we
are given. We are also
presented with clamorous
calls to defend our jobs
and public services against
the cuts. We are given to
understand that something
valuable is being taken from
us. We are even sometimes
told that the victories of
past generations of working
people are under threat.
All this, I would suggest, is
quite preposterous.
The rulers of society and
their supporters were once
quite candid about the
ends they hoped to obtain
from good conditions and
services. In 1837, Leonard
Horner, a factory inspector,
said:
“Independently of all higher
considerations, and to put
the necessity of educating
the children of the working
classes on its lowest footing,
it is loudly called for as a
matter of police, to prevent
a multitude of immoral and
vicious beings, the offspring
of ignorance, from growing
up and around us, to be
a pest and a nuisance to
society; it is necessary to
render the great body of the
working class governable by
reason.”
When speaking in the
House of Commons on 17
February 1870 in favour of
the Elementary Education
Bill 1870, W. E. Foster
argued that “the speedy
provision of elementary
education” would allow
the state to secure “our
industrial prosperity” and
remove “that ignorance
which we are all aware is
pregnant with crime and
misery, with misfortune to
individuals and danger to
the community”. Moreover,
“if we are to hold our
position among men of our
own race or among the
nations of the world we must
make up the smallness of
our numbers by increasing
the intellectual force of the
individual.”
A more modern note was
struck in Winston Churchill’s
explanation of the idea
behind the introduction of
unemployment insurance

(one of the forerunners
of modern social security
benefits), as reported by
the Daily Mail in 1909. In
Churchill’s view, the purpose
aimed at by the reform was:
“to increase the stability of
our institutions by giving the
mass of industrial workers a
direct interest in maintaining
them. […] [This] scheme
[…] will help to remove
the dangerous element
of uncertainty from the
existence of the industrial
worker. It will give him an
assurance that his home,
got together through long
years and with affectionate
sacrifice, will not be broken
up, sent bit by bit to the
pawnshop, just because […]
he falls out of work. It will
make him a better citizen, a
more efficient worker, [and]
a happier man.”
The ends aimed at by
modern public spending
include similar objectives.
But since these statements
were made, the capitalist
economy has grown in size
and sophistication. The
extension of a relentless
consumer culture to the vast
majority of the population
has also become a key
motor of its growth and its
sole claim to legitimacy.
The roles performed by
public services have
changed accordingly. New
environments, new abilities,
new attitudes, and new
levels of public health are
now created, not just directly
to meet the new needs of
business and government
but also as new incentives
and new rewards for our
submission. For example, it
is no longer enough to give
the mass of the population
an elementary education
that merely instils “order,
discipline, cleanliness,
deference to authority, and
the tolerance of boredom
at work” (in the words
of one historian). These
remain important goals of
the education system, but
today’s education must go
beyond them. It must now
manufacture people who
have the personalities, skills
and willingness to do what
is required of them without
being told (deceptively
referred to as “initiative”
207
and “the ability to work
by oneself”) that modern
service industries and high
value businesses demand.
It must now, by means
of its organs of “higher”
education, produce the
specialised workers and the
specialist knowledge that
allow the dominant society
to produce its technological
and cultural commodities,
to shape its world and the
individuals who serve it,
and to mystify everything.
And, to bring all this about,
it must help foster the
misunderstanding that the
new education and the work
to which it leads constitute
desirable opportunities for
individuals and welcome
progress for the society. No
more noble purposes are
served by contemporary
education. Indeed, no
very different purpose is
served by any of the public
services. Without exception,
they are mechanisms for
reproducing an alienated
society. They seek to
integrate the majority into a
life of alienated labour and
abundant consumption and
disarm the minority left to
208
a more meagre survival on
the margins of society. They
are an unrelenting assault
on the possibility of authentic
and self-controlled life. They
always and everywhere
damage or destroy us as
individuals. There is nothing
victorious in this. In the
very few instances where a
public service or a legal right
arose out of our struggles,
it represented the defeat
and not the victory of those
struggles, the moment when
the goal we pursued slipped
out of our hands and became
one more uncontrollable,
external process pressing
down on us.
This is not to say that
public services do not
provide us with facilities
that are valuable within
the context of the existing
society. Without doubt,
central government, local
authorities and the bodies
they fund can and do
supply services that allow
separated individuals who
have surrendered their
powers of world-creation to
persist more easily in that
separation and surrender.
But I come back to the
question of whether this
is enough for us. Are we
content with libraries that
allow us to while away our
free time with a novel about
a missing swimsuit model
or the autobiography of
an entertainer (the most
commonly borrowed fiction
and non-fiction library
books)? Do we want know
more than an opportunity
to grind our way through 16
years of submissive study
of falsified knowledge and
emerge with a degree and a
job in property development,
renting, business, research,
education, health or social
work (the most common
graduate employments)?
Can we think of nothing
better than to have strangers
to whom we are inevitably
just another job of paid work
dress and wash us so that
we can spend the rest of the
day staring at the television
or gossiping about ever
less? Would it be cause for
jubilation to have a social
security system that paid
enough to allow its recipients
to participate fully in the time-
wasting futility of seeking
a worthwhile life through
commodity consumption?
Need I go on?
The call to defend jobs,
education and public
services is, in effect,
propaganda in favour of
the existing way of life,
one of many eulogies of
the dominant society that
take the guise of dissent.
There is no qualitative
difference between life as
it was before the cuts and
life as it will be afterwards,
between public services
and private services, or
between employment
and unemployment,
even if one is a slightly
more comfortable form of
eviscerated life than the
other. We are not obliged
to confine ourselves to
the false choices and
tiny distinctions that the
dominant society magnifies
into fundamental conflicts
and real progress. No
matter how urgent and
profound the crisis for
which they claim to be the
remedy, pseudo-critiques
that take for granted the
fundamental features of our

alienated world (such as
alienated labour, alienated
consumption and the state)
serve only to dissipate our
discontents, refine this
society’s depredations, and
trap us just where we are. If
we are ever to escape our
already-insufficient lives,
we must, I think, point-blank
refuse them.
Those who sincerely
participate in the anti-
cuts movement out of a
genuine disgust at what the
government is doing may
wish to consider the fate of
one of its precursors, the
anti-Poll Tax movement. The
movement was successful.
But what were the practical
consequences? The
movement itself, having
obtained the only objective
it had set itself and removed
the only misery it had
objected to, lost everything
that held it together and
disintegrated. Its participants
returned to the isolation
and alienation of a daily life
that was very little changed.
Everything they won drifted
away from them. The Poll
Tax was abolished and
Margaret Thatcher deposed.
But the Poll Tax was merely
replaced by the Council Tax,
another remote bureaucratic
and legal procedure devised
by central government,
administered by local
authorities, enforced by
the courts and bailiffs,
and completely out of the
hands of ordinary people.
Margaret Thatcher was also
replaced, with John Major
becoming the new leader of
the Conservative Party. He
proved more palatable to
voters than the hopelessly
unpopular Thatcher and
led the party to victory in
the General Election of
1992. The Conservatives
remained in power until
1997. Capitalism has, alas,
persisted for far longer.
The fact that one of its
governments was forced
to develop a fairer and
therefore more acceptable
form of local taxation has
probably only helped it to
endure.
How often have we said of
late (and how often have
we heard others say) that
what we need in this country
209
is a revolution like those in
Tunisia and Egypt? But they
are only words. We avow in
easy abstraction the need
for revolution yet we do
precisely nothing about it.
We can barely conceive of
an autonomous project on
such a scale. Our capacity
to think and act by and for
ourselves, to step beyond
this society’s cowering
norms, is undernourished to
the point of starvation. Well,
we shall just have to create
what we need. We might
begin by bringing to the
practical project of revolution
at least as much time, effort
and passion as we have
been want to lavish on our
jobs, families, pastimes and
vacations. We might also
develop the habit of viewing
and treating our enemies
as enemies. No part of this
society is for our benefit,
no part of it serves our best
interests. Indeed, everything
that this society allows
might usefully be taken
as a personal attack upon
us. Its goods, its services,
its visions of the good life,
its models of deviance,
its cities, its politics, its
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protests, its moralities, its
high culture and cheap
thrills, its gaudy fashions
for young women and its
drab uniforms for middle-
aged men, its good jobs
and shit work, everything
that its media, its politicians,
its domesticated critics, its
teachers, its researches, its
manuals, its managers, its
celebrities extol to us, all of
it, quite without exception,
always and everywhere
tends to confine and
disfigure us, to make us into
the kind of people that the
separate economy and the
separate power of that state
needs in order to survive.
So, a parent-teacher
meeting, for example, is
not an opportunity to help
your child develop his or
her knowledge, maturity
and independence but an
invitation to collaborate in
the destructive process
of implanting the falsified
and tamed knowledge, the
limited aspirations, and the
acceptance of established
authority and mores which
contemporary capitalism
expects of its producers
and consumers. Equally,
for the teacher, such a
meeting is not part of an
authentic vocation but is
simply a facet of a process
of alienation in which all
of his or her time, thought
and effort as a teacher is
sucked into procedures and
a curriculum imposed from
above. Here and elsewhere
across everyday life, the
question is: what can we
(parent, teacher, child) do to
stop this expense of spirit in
a waste of shame?
Perhaps we can see nothing
we can do today. If so,
the question renews itself
tomorrow and the day after
as a fresh challenge to
our cunning and ingenuity,
our ability to publicize our
discontent and seek out
potential partners in the
dance of revolution. Does
this sound like a dreary life
of unbroken militancy in the
service of a political cause
or party? If it does, think
again. There is no cause.
There is no party. There is
only the creative, enriching
and entirely practical task
of defeating by ourselves
our own unhappiness and
our own subordination,
of overthrowing a social
arrangement that is unfit
for us as individuals and
creating a better one by
and for ourselves. We
must develop a theory
and practice that precisely
prevents the emergence
of ideas, procedures and
leaders that dominate us.
The Coalition’s cuts are
shrouded in a lying ideology
of liberation. According to
David Cameron’s speech
at the 2010 Conservative
Party conference, his “big
society” will bring about a
shift “from state power to
people power”. This is arrant
nonsense. For the past forty
years or so, the Right has
secured its political power
by offering us a mirage of
personal transformation,
a twisted reflection of our
confused desire for freedom
and change. In point of
fact, the abridgement of the
state the Right has brought
about is minimal and its
neglect of the power held
over us by employers and
the economy has been total.
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But even the suggestion absurdity of our world is not

of an attack on the state worthy of us; and neither are
terrifies the Left. We need the lives of loud satisfaction
not be so concerned. The and quiet desperation we
state is not a friend. The lead within it.
problem is not that the
state is being attacked but
that some part of it will be
left standing. The problem
is not that the Coalition is
too bold but that its project
of the emancipation of the
individual is a pathetically
timid and incomplete farce
that fails to embrace the
totality of alienated life and
is conducted by the very
state it purports to savage.

Perhaps it is time to talk

less about opposing the
cuts and more about
accelerating and extending
them beyond any control but
our own. Perhaps now is the
moment to wrest the project
of individual and social
emancipation away from
our masters and set it loose
for real in our homes and
places of work, our schools
and universities, our minds
and bodies, and all the rest
of our public and private
worlds. What do we really
have to lose? The careering
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