FBI Raids Texas Company in Hunt for Anonymous

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

So much for the anonymity of "Anonymous".

Three cheers for the FBI and their bureaucratic crusade against freedom.

would you rather anonymous grow out of control and get so sucked up in its own power that it will eventually take over our governments? (i really think that if one controls the internet, they can control the world)
well hell no, this should teach those little cunts a lesson.
don't
fuck
with the government.

They're fighting for us in this case. What has happened to Assange is total bullshit. Those rape charges are fake, the case against him in slanted heavily, and when anyone opposes, they get attacked.

So much for equal stance on crime. /b/ puts up child porn 5 years ago, no one bats an eye. They help a man fight an unlawful case against him, they get rolled.

Then you petition the Swedish government, the US Government and the British Corrections Board.

You don't just take swings at various people/organizations for various reasons. Whilst I agree that Julian Assange is innocent, and also agree that the Australian Government sitting back and allowing this farce to continue without stepping up and petitioning the release of an Australian political hostage is beyond incredulity, I cannot for reasons of moral jurisprudence emphasise that cybercrime be used as a tool.

All it is childish games that Anonymous is playing, and furthermore they do not do one thing to help Assange but further mold him into being publicly seen as some sort of ozerzealous hacker-cult leader rather than a journalist.

 

[Dr.Nick]

@Hyene

Wouldn't that make the government kinda like terrorists or at least working against the people in that case then? They certainly pressured paypal and visa rather than going after wikileaks itself.

 

[hyperdrachen]

So much for the anonymity of "Anonymous".

Three cheers for the FBI and their bureaucratic crusade against freedom.

would you rather anonymous grow out of control and get so sucked up in its own power that it will eventually take over our governments? (i really think that if one controls the internet, they can control the world)
well hell no, this should teach those little cunts a lesson.
don't
fuck
with the government.

You should go work for glenn beck. DDoS attacks = government control... yuh huh.

I'm glad we're doing laps around the world to maybe track down 12 assholes with laptops. But when we go to the middle east looking for the man we believe mastermind the fall of the twin towers, we get distracted and end up in two wars. Man we are so good at using our money wisely. That's why we don't waste it on stupid things like public healthcare.

 

[lacktheknack]

So much for the anonymity of "Anonymous".

Three cheers for the FBI and their bureaucratic crusade against freedom.

would you rather anonymous grow out of control and get so sucked up in its own power that it will eventually take over our governments? (i really think that if one controls the internet, they can control the world)
well hell no, this should teach those little cunts a lesson.
don't
fuck
with the government.

Yeah, don't do anything while they slowly take away freedom. Learn your place like a good little citizen.

Remember, the government is a group of people that are chosen to help organize the people who live in the country. They're supposed to work for you, not the other way around.

Besides, Anonymous members are mostly decent people in real life. Sure they are little cunts, but all their actions are actually a relief to me. It means the internet still has a bit of freedom left.

"dont fuck with the government" should be common sense to anyone who knows what life is really like. protesting and petitioning isn't fucking with the government, but actually taking hostile action against them is something NO ONE should do, unless you're asking to disappear... for a looooooong time.

besides that, all these little cunts are doing are fighting to keep are their child pornography and guro hentai involving 5 year old girls getting tentacle-raped.

other than that, i dont think they could give a damn about our "freedom"

Two problems with that:

1. The ONLY thing /b/ bans is child pornography.
2. They're fighting for Julian Assenge, no more, no less.

If they were only fighting for their porn, they would have had no reason to jump to Wikileaks' defense.

Seriously, sweeping generalizations only weaken your argument. Why don't some people on this site gets that?

 

[Actual]

It's like a criminal organization and the cops.
If the cops demand that you can no longer sell guns to a group of people, and you do it, how does it make it right if that group comes and breaks your legs and burns down your store for complying with the authorities?

If we're going to do silly comparisions, this one is far more accurate:

You are a shopkeeper, the government decides that due to "terrorism" concerns they don't want you to sell to any customer who looks middle-eastern. You don't want any hassle so you just cave and tell any Asian looking folks that you won't serve them.

An anonymous group of vigilantes then padlocks your doors closed so you can't do business with anyone and they leave a note on the door that says "Don't be a douche".

 

[Dr.Nick]

It's like a criminal organization and the cops.
If the cops demand that you can no longer sell guns to a group of people, and you do it, how does it make it right if that group comes and breaks your legs and burns down your store for complying with the authorities?

If we're going to do silly comparisions, this one is far more accurate:

You are a shopkeeper, the government decides that due to "terrorism" concerns they don't want you to sell to any customer who looks middle-eastern. You don't want any hassle so you just cave and tell any Asian looking folks that you won't serve them.

An anonymous group of vigilantes then padlocks your doors closed so you can't do business with anyone and they leave a note on the door that says "Don't be a douche".

Yeah that sums it up alot better. Thank you articulating my lazy thoughts for me =P

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

Plenty of jingoism here, very little objectivity or seeing it from the anonymous' position.

There is a fine Polish quote I came across once, translated it is roughly: one's angle of viewing depends on one's place of seating.

 

[manaman]

snip

To be honest Wikileaks goes into that massive pile of thins I don't give a fuck about. I've got better things in my life than to worry if they make another nation's Government look silly.

What I'm talking about are the mercenary little motherfuckers who can't even select an appropriate target for their actions. They want to help out Wikileaks in an actual way? Petition Moot to release a server for Wikileaks use. Maybe organise a moneymaking event or an online donation for them to buy whatever they need.

But noooo...no, they had to DDoS someone! Because let's face it, that's all they can really do, they can't do anything productive because they're attention seeking idiots and they've got a pretty nifty little way of causing chaos.

I'm sad I had to wade through nearly 90 comments about how this represents the death of freedoms, before someone said what I figured half way through reading the news post. What happened was illegal sure, and you can argue clemency based on the situation, but more over what happened as stupid, stupid beyond belief.

Good riddance I say.

Anonymous don't represent any kind of freedom, they represent a very serious threat to freedom in fact. Glaze over the facts all you want, they're pretty much the embodiment of mob rule.

And over 100 before someone noted the mob rule connection. We absolutely cannot have a true democracy and true freedom, those ideals are for the birds. Mob rule is all fine and dandy until you wind up a part of the minority.

It's pretty sickening to me that so many commenters have shown such fervent opinions on this matter while at the same time revealing quite the lack of knowledge on the subject.

 

[-AC80-]

only idiots use their own ip. if i wanted to, i would use McDonald's or any other public domain to DDoS

 

[Spectre39]

Kind of reminds me of how the FBI took down John Dillinger. Sure, what they were doing was illegal but they fighting against corruption in high places. They were people the common man could sympathize with.

While I understand that it's a dangerous game the Anon's are playing, any form of backlash against the draconian government of the United States is welcome so long as violence isn't part of it.

 

[n00b27]

I really don't understand all the hate towards anonymous. I mean, really, when they do something that truly has some gravity, like crash everyone's computer for no reason, then yeah, I'll be pissed. But history has shown us that there are always groups of people who conflict with the government's designs, like war protestors in the seventies, and that this rebellion largely dies away with time. I don't find this situation that different from protests against the vietnam war. Anonymous is just a group of people who have gone to admirable lengths to stand up for their beliefs. I'm not saying the FBI should not pursue them, as I'm sure they have violated laws with their mischief against PayPal, but I don't think we need to panic and view anonymous as some cyber terrorist group. At least not yet. We don't need to agree with their methods, which are indeed occasionally unlawful, but I for one am ready to recognize anonymous as something that is basically good.

 

[MegaManOfNumbers]

saaaaay, isn't this like Code Geass' Zero?

a person who's identity is impossible to determine because technically everyone is him/her?

 

[Originality]

saaaaay, isn't this like Code Geass' Zero?

a person who's identity is impossible to determine because technically everyone is him/her?

I'd say it's far closer to V for Vendetta. Remember remember...

 

[hyperdrachen]

It's like a criminal organization and the cops.
If the cops demand that you can no longer sell guns to a group of people, and you do it, how does it make it right if that group comes and breaks your legs and burns down your store for complying with the authorities?

If we're going to do silly comparisions, this one is far more accurate:

You are a shopkeeper, the government decides that due to "terrorism" concerns they don't want you to sell to any customer who looks middle-eastern. You don't want any hassle so you just cave and tell any Asian looking folks that you won't serve them.

An anonymous group of vigilantes then padlocks your doors closed so you can't do business with anyone and they leave a note on the door that says "Don't be a douche".

A second face to this point is that people seem to think "the government" is some abstact entity that's "out there" somewhere. The government in this country is every citizen, and in a sometimes stronger sense, every buisness owner. The US government has no legitimate claim to restrict paypals or mastercards choice of buisness partners. But they pulled out the ol' national security card. The swiss army knife of stomping on freedom. Wikileaks is certainly inflamatory but filing truthful information under terrorist threat is domating and unnacceptable censorship.

The truth is ugly sometimes, and the old way of the world is built on alot of shadows. But the information age is starting to change that. The internet has given the public so many eyes that it's impossible to hide from them all. Wikileaks should be a prelude to a more transparent world. More transparent governments would be forced to conduct themselves honestly and ethicly, and actually reflect the will of the people instead of hidden agendas.

Anonymous was not legally in the right to do what they did, but if the law alone is your moral compass than I assume you would be happy with a USA where black students attended seperate "but equal"(see poorly funded) schools and women couldn't vote. If Paypal and Mastercard intend to be the obedient thralls of this whitewashing then I feal no pitty for thier reprocussions. They were party to this quietly going down in some obscure corner of the internet. Had they resisted, and been siezed by the government do you think anyone in the country wouldn't take notice of the jack-booted censorship?

Wikileaks is a site that has brought to light some inconvinient truths. But to put things in perspective. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7GuTPI8mfM

 

[FROGGEman2]

So, people in this thread seem to have no sense of perspective on Anonymous. They're either GODS AMONG MEN or EVILL SATANISTS WHO HATE EVERYBODY INCLUDING THEMSELVES

Guys, Anonymous are weak. They are not major. Let's look at their irl accomplishments, shall we?

-Formation: Arresting a pedophile
-Middle of life: After national news attention, brief war with Fox News, arresting that kid who abused his cat, a few other animal abusers
-Split into Anon (Almost Internet only) and Project Chanology (Only warring against Scientology, more organized)
-HURR DURR

Anon, first of all, is *just* a label. Anyone can join an Anonymous raid. Hell, I have. If there's something you believe in, you can initiate a raid yourself.
But the most important thing you have to remember is that most Anons are *basically* just trolls.

Seriously, no big deal.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

Fuck Anonymous, I hope they're caught and thrown in jail!

Yep!! Definently you can arrest Thousands upon thousands of people of different nationalitys and races who are scattered across the globe, All around the world, Australia, South America, Canada, Most of Europe, New Zealand, etc.
If the government tried to arrest all these people outside their legal bounds, That will give a whole new meaning to Prison Overcrowding.

Well......jail is just ONE possibility

 

[Stillve]

Consequences will never be the same! Anonymous Dun Goofed!

Anonymous is like a hydra, each individual involved in a single head, cut one off and over 9000 will replace it. Amirite guys?

Aye, /b/ro.

 

[Khada]

I don't support Anonymous or what they did. I also don't support WikiLeaks. I am all in favor for the government telling us the truth and keeping us informed, but some things are meant to be a secret for our safety.

Everyone knows Russia is basically run by Vladmir Putin though. Don't know why people are still surprised by that.

What kind of person chooses ignorance?... Oh right, the ignorant.

 

[A Pious Cultist]

hey did those attacks because they were letting the government force them to deny Wikileaks money to force the site to go down. Basically, they were protecting freedom of free speech.

They were breaking the law. With the exception of accidents intention does not change legality.

If you kill a man you go to jail. If you killed a man because he was complying with the goverment and giving away his customer's details then you still go to jail.

Paypal getting pressured? That's bad.
Paypal getting DDosed for doing what practically every other single buisness would have done? That's bad and illegal.

 

[LastDarkness]

My favorite part about this is how it will affect absolutly nothing and is being used to most likly not even catch the real annons but some other people they are looking to convict.