Monday Jukebox and Press Release UPDATE: ANONS FACE MASS ARRESTS

Barrett Brown

I am the founder of the distributed think-tank Project PM and a regular inactive to Vanity Fair and Skeptical Inquirer. My work has also appeared in The Onion, National Lampoon, New York Press, D Magazine, Skeptic, McSweeney's, American Atheist, and a couple of newspapers in the U.S. and Mexico as well as a few policy journals. I'm the author of two books and serve as a consultant to various political entities and private clients.

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28 Responses

  1. tom van dyke says:

    Anarchy is cute, but pull this on the Russians, they’d be fishing you out of a dumpster about now.

    “Anarchy” seems to depend on a host society too civilized to return its tactics in kind. As long as it just sticks with the turtle people at WTO conventions, issuing manifestos, or annoying Western civilization, it’s a pretty safe hobby.

    Getting serious is unlikely, since it requires concerted action in a given direction, which is anathema to “anarchy” by both manifesto and the fact that whenever a group finally divines a purpose, it immediately splits into factions.

    Our over-arching mission is to ensure and promote the right of any person to speak and act freely and conscientiously.

    Without judgment, of course. Sort of the Pontius Pilate approach to ethics. What are you rebelling against?

    Whataya got?Report

    • Barrett Brown in reply to tom van dyke says:

      I already pulled it on the Russians, and on their own television station to boot. The Russians didn’t do shit – at least not to me, since my own little “direct action” didn’t really matter. Like the U.S. and Britain, they kill journalists whom they see as threats. I’m not a threat.

      The rest of your comment is hard for me to understand, but I’d be happy to discuss the subject further if you promise in advance not to falsely accuse me of screwing with the reply function in order to stymie your brilliant comments, as you did to James Hanley the other day; my understanding is that each of us is assigned one commenter whose job it is to libel us in the course of enjoying our free content, and I’ve already got MFarmer. It’s kind of like the Secret Santa program except I basically got a card saying “You are too young to write for major magazines so I will call you a fraud.” In conclusion, blogging is awesome.Report

      • Heidegger in reply to Barrett Brown says:

        Barrett writes, ”
        “… and a friendly reminder that the U.S. government targets and kills journalists, just as the Russian government does….” That’s quite funny! I’m assuming you’re kidding otherwise, we’re entering the spooky tin foil hat wearing, Kool Aid drinking dimension.
        I suppose you think terrorists should be able to fire on US and British soldiers with impunity, which is exactly what was happening at the Hotel Palestine on a regular basis. You know, after a while, enough is enough. And for anyone to suggest it was a deliberate attack on journalists holed up in that hotel is just laughable. With the exception of Israel, no nation in a time of war, has made a greater effort (even costing them their lives) to avoid civilian casualties than has the United States. If they want to go after journalists, why not have an accidental missile hit the New York Times. Now that would be understandable!Report

  2. RTod says:

    “and a friendly reminder that the U.S. government targets and kills journalists, just as the Russian government does”

    Ignoring the potential bias of Al Jazeera op-ed piece – and assuming it’s inside source is both real and accurate – shouldn’t your line be “a friendly reminder that the US government talks about targeting and killing journalists like the Russian government does, but ultimately decides not to?”Report

    • Scott in reply to Barrett Brown says:

      Barrett:

      If you decided to go to a war zone and cover the fighting, odds are that you will get shot at. That is their job and they know the risks. Just like the two Reuters guys that Apache smoked.
      However, the US does not kill journalists in the streets of the US like the Russians kill their journalists in the streets. Comparing the two is just fantasy.Report

      • Barrett Brown in reply to Scott says:

        Please at least glance at the article we’re discussing.Report

        • Scott in reply to Barrett Brown says:

          I read it, so what? Was there any evidence that the US was actively targeting journalists? And if even if they did, I could care less.Report

          • ThatPirateGuy in reply to Scott says:

            This confirms it.

            I have suspected that Scott was an imperial roman for at least a few days. I’m not commenting on his ancestry just his disposition.

            Consider the following:
            He wants public executions.
            He wants executions for people who threaten national interests by word alone.
            He wants an empire.
            He is obsessed with limiting citizenship.
            He doesn’t care about killing journalists if it promotes the empire.

            There are a few others on this site that I suspect but I’m not sure of yet. But I think I have finally figured Scott out.Report

            • I like the idea that an officer of the Roman army, perhaps transported to the present by some Mithraic ritual gone horribly awry, would, after learning English, take the time to comment on our humble blog.Report

            • Scott in reply to ThatPirateGuy says:

              Sorry, I never advocated 2, 3 or 5. I’ve made statements that are close but not quite what you quote here. The least you can do is correctly state those things I’ve actually advocated.Report

              • ThatPirateGuy in reply to Scott says:

                2) See Assange, Julian
                3) how else to interpret 2 and 5?
                5)Scott December 14, 2010 at 8:29 am

                I read it, so what? Was there any evidence that the US was actively targeting journalists? And if even if they did, I could care less.

                Come on man your making it too easy.

                Come to think of it you have more in common
                6) You think that a slave based society can fight for “freedom”
                Just look for the post where you defend the lost cause mythology that the civil war wasn’t about slavery.Report

              • Scott in reply to ThatPirateGuy says:

                I’ve never advocated that the US have an empire, ever. Therefore number 5 is not true. As for Assange, he admits releasing the stolen docs and I am willing to believe his confession.Report

  3. RTod says:

    well, that is definately not good.Report

    • Barrett Brown in reply to RTod says:

      Yeah. Ironically, al-Jazeera is nonetheless accused of being a “terrorist” organization, even though we’re the ones that are bombing it. This is the sort of thing that radicalizes a lot of people in opposition to their own countrymen.Report

  4. Kolohe says:

    Two data points
    1) While Fox is generally on the TV in state side offices, in ‘real’ forward deployed ops centers, Al Jazerra is the feed of choice (alternating with BBC World News)

    2) US bombs have hit everything from Sudanese factories to Chinese Embassies to Canadians, so I wouldn’t take it *too* personally if I were Al Jazerra.Report

  5. Heidegger says:

    Kolohe–you’re right. It’s called death by “friendly fire”, an accident of war. Conspiratorialists see all accidents of war–if the United States is involved in some way–as cold, deliberate, murder.Report

    • Barrett Brown in reply to Heidegger says:

      Except that they don’t. Rather, I see an occasional incident in that light, and then others come along to helpfully explain that I see all of them in that light in order to try to depict me as HURRRRR HURRRRRR TIN FOIL HAT HURRRRRRRRRRR because that is the way of the world.Report

      • DensityDuck in reply to Barrett Brown says:

        When you say things like “…a friendly reminder that the U.S. government targets and kills journalists, just as the Russian government does, and even consulted with Blair on killing a great deal more of them” it’s kind of hard to NOT conclude that you see all such incidents as cold, deliberate murder.Report

  6. D.A. Ridgely says:

    Consider this an open thread and feel free to discuss how excited you are that the anarchist victory is eminent according to some Shroud of Turin enthusiast.

    I’d be more excited to learn it is imminent.Report

  7. Robert Cheeks says:

    zupi///….yous guys is smart!Report