Wikileaks Wasn't The Only Operation HBGary Federal, Palantir And Berico Planned To Defraud
from the with-the-help-of-the-government dept
By now the exposed plan of HBGary Federal, Palantir and Berico to attack Wikileaks and its supporters through fraud and deception, in order to help Bank of America, has been discussed widely. However, the leaked HBGary Federal emails suggest that this sort of plan involving these three companies had been used elsewhere. Apparently the US Chamber of Commerce had approached the same three firms to plan a remarkably similar attack on groups that oppose the US Chamber of Commerce.That leaked plan (embedded below) includes a similar plan to create fake documents and give them to these groups to publish, with the intent of "exposing" them later, to raise questions about their credibility.
That giant US companies and lobbyist organizations are interested in underhanded, dirty tricks is no surprise (though, there's no evidence that either BofA or the CoC agreed to these proposals). However, as Glenn Greenwald (a key target in the original proposal for BofA) explains, what's really troubling is the chummy relationship between these organizations and the US government. The US government is supposed to protect people from frauds perpetrated by big companies. But the evidence here suggests that the federal government was pretty closely connected to all of this.
The reason HBGary Federal, Palantir and Berico were even talking to BofA in the first place was because BofA contacted the Justice Department to ask what to do about Wikileaks, and the Justice Department turned them on to the law firm of Huntoon and Williams, who was instrumental in arranging both of these proposals.
But the real issue highlighted by this episode is just how lawless and unrestrained is the unified axis of government and corporate power. I've written many times about this issue -- the full-scale merger between public and private spheres -- because it's easily one of the most critical yet under-discussed political topics. Especially (though by no means only) in the worlds of the Surveillance and National Security State, the powers of the state have become largely privatized. There is very little separation between government power and corporate power. Those who wield the latter intrinsically wield the former. The revolving door between the highest levels of government and corporate offices rotates so fast and continuously that it has basically flown off its track and no longer provides even the minimal barrier it once did. It's not merely that corporate power is unrestrained; it's worse than that: corporations actively exploit the power of the state to further entrench and enhance their power.Greenwald's language may be a bit hyperbolic (though, considering he was one of the people "targeted," that seems entirely understandable), but he has a point. And his very next paragraph shows how the government isn't doing its job of protecting people in law enforcement, but is selectively picking what laws to enforce mainly when it protects themselves and big corporations. For example, while the FBI is spending so much time trying to track down Anonymous for its brief virtual sit-ins in the form of temporary DDoS attacks, it has not bothered to put any effort into looking at a similar DDoS attack on Wikileaks itself.
That's what this anti-WikiLeaks campaign is generally: it's a concerted, unified effort between government and the most powerful entities in the private sector (Bank of America is the largest bank in the nation). The firms the Bank has hired (such as Booz Allen) are suffused with the highest level former defense and intelligence officials, while these other outside firms (including Hunton Williams and Palantir) are extremely well-connected to the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government's obsession with destroying WikiLeaks has been well-documented. And because the U.S. Government is free to break the law without any constraints, oversight or accountability, so, too, are its "private partners" able to act lawlessly. That was the lesson of the Congressional vesting of full retroactive immunity on lawbreaking telecoms, of the refusal to prosecute any of the important Wall Street criminals who caused the 2008 financial crisis, and of the instinctive efforts of the political class to protect defrauding mortgage banks.
The exemption from the rule of law has been fully transferred from the highest level political elites to their counterparts in the private sector. "Law" is something used to restrain ordinary Americans and especially those who oppose this consortium of government and corporate power, but it manifestly does not apply to restrain these elites. Just consider one amazing example illustrating how this works.
Why? Because crimes carried out that serve the Government's agenda and target its opponents are permitted and even encouraged; cyber-attacks are "crimes" only when undertaken by those whom the Government dislikes, but are perfectly permissible when the Government itself or those with a sympathetic agenda unleash them. Whoever launched those cyber attacks at WikiLeaks (whether government or private actors) had no more legal right to do so than Anonymous, but only the latter will be prosecuted.This really should trouble people. I'm not a big fan of "conspiracy theories," and I don't believe there's any big Hollywood-style conspiracy going on here. But I do think that the incentives are screwed up, and that our federal government is way too beholden to large private companies whose main goal is protectionism and survival, rather than in benefiting the American public the most. It's incredibly disheartening.
That's the same dynamic that causes the Obama administration to be obsessed with prosecuting WikiLeaks but not The New York Times or Bob Woodward, even though the latter have published far more sensitive government secrets; WikiLeaks is adverse to the government while the NYT and Woodward aren't, and thus "law" applies to punish only the former. The same mindset drives the Government to shield high-level political officials who commit the most serious crimes, while relentlessly pursuing whistle-blowers who expose their wrongdoing. Those with proximity to government power and who serve and/or control it are free from the constraints of law; those who threaten or subvert it have the full weight of law come crashing down upon them.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: fraud, politics, propaganda, smearing
Companies: bank of america, berico, hbgary federal, huntoon and williams, palantir, us chamber of commerce
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Two items - Poor headline and question about dirty tricks
From dictionary.com:
defraud (dɪˈfrɔːd)
�vb (tr)
to take away or withhold money, rights, property, etc, from (a person) by fraud; cheat; swindle
I don't think that was what they were trying to do, although that might have happened.
Maybe a better headline would have used works having to do with lying, forgery, etc...
Second item - Not to justify bad behaviour by pointing out other bad behaviour, but when an organization engages in dirty tricks, like distributing information that was provided by a person who was unauthorized to do so, shouldn't that organization expect the same treatment? Not to say it's right or justified, but when you get down in the mud with the pigs, you have to expect to get dirty.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Two items - Poor headline and question about dirty tricks
:(
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Two items - Poor headline and question about dirty tricks
BTW, you transferred blame from the people who were unauthorized to share information to the people the information was shared with. The only thing "dirty" about WikiLeaks is that it doesn't do the US Government's bidding.
That's why NYT can do the same thing WikiLeaks does and they don't get attacked; NYT will sit on things like the warrantless wiretaps if POTUS asks nicely.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Two items - Poor headline and question about dirty tricks
On your second comment, I'm not transferring blame to anyone. I just observed that sometimes when people/organizations become involved with folks who do illegal or unauthorized things, even if they do so with the best of intentions, they end up getting dragged into the same sleazy world in which the original two parties operate.
This shouldn't surprise anyone, maybe except those whose naivety and idealism blind them to the realities of the world in which they unfortunately have to live.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
America =
Which, in time will =
http://www.cs.technion.ac.il/users/yechiel/gif/Art/SandArt-SqueezHead.jpg
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It's not their business.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Uh, because if the DDOS was initiated within the US then US law has been broken within its jurisdiction?
Try to use a brain cell now and again....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
DDOS against Wikileaks
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Where are the ICE supporters now?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Er...
Forgive me, Mike, but this is exactly the problem that allows this stuff to propogate. Such labels now considered derogatory make people think of some movie-style nonsense that isn't how this stuff actually works. No David Icke "all the people in government are actually lizards and clay-people" stuff happening.
This kind of thing, on the other hand, IS a conspiracy in the most traditional sense. And by traditional, I mean it's HAPPENED BEFORE. And not just with the over-used Nazi example, but elsewhere as well. Free governments without a vigilante citizenship deteriorate slowly but inevitably into facism, and that is what we're seeing here. Facism is the unity of government and industry for the purpose of control. Recall that Benito Mussolini famously quipped that the first stage of facism would better be called corporatism.
Let's not hide from the scary facts here just because we don't like them. What the above is describing is pure corporatism. It's a large step from 1776 free America to 2011 plots between banks and govt. to discredit a private citizen. It's a far smaller step from that 2011 to 2013 plots between banks and govt. to KILL such a citizen.
This is nothing more than a CFR member using its political and media drinking buddies to threaten someone else....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Er...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Er...
To hell with Godwin. They were called "alarmists" back in Germany in the 30's. Worked out real well for those fuckers, didn't it?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Er...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Er...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Er...
As to the actual release of the emails about the CoC?
I'm amused that efforts to infiltrate a group supporting Wikileaks led to the release of information supporting Wikileaks reason for existing.
That's some convincing evidence that Assange is correct to some degree about the conspiracies (his term) within government and large businesses.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Er...
Yes, it's very amusing. I don't think anybody in Anonymous saw that coming either. This level of hacking seems like a step up in level of crime for Anonymous. Legally, participating in a DDOS attack is just as serious with the FBI saying it could result in a 10 year max sentence. However, I think the average person would say the stealing of emails, documents, financial info, and source code is much more serious.
The result is beginning to look much more effective and important than DDOS attacks. I believe the uncovering of underhanded schemes to undermine Wikileaks and opponents of the US Chamber of Commerce is a complete surprise to those few members of Anonymous involved in the attack against HBGary and HBGary Federal. This might well be the start of a new wave of hacktivism targeting internal documents from government and industry. The following is a quote from Sparkatus' comment on Glenn Greenwalds article on Salon.
Hunton & Williams is one of the most important DC centric law firms. They play a significant role in most areas of public policy as standard legal advocates, lobbyists as well as "independent" party.
Among many other things, they host data rooms for public-private partnership efforts so that private companies can "share" information on their activities for review by government officials without that information being covered by FOIA rules. This may be typical for many law firms, but I know they provide this service for EPA.
I'm sure Hunton & Williams is now freaking out about Anonymous coming after them a la HB Gary Federal. With the amount of privileged info they have from a whole range of clients, distributed locations and law firm's typically low levels of technical savvy, they are a sitting duck.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Er...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Er...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Er...
I am a bit young to remember the McCarthy era except for one thing. My grandparents let John W.(Bill) Powell to hide in their house at Muir Beach north of S.F. for a couple of weeks when he was trying to avoid being subpoenaed by HUAC. Bill, and his wife Sylvia, had been accused of and acquitted of treason in the 1950's. I went to his memorial a couple of years ago. A bit strange, as I hadn't seen anyone from his family since I was a child. Alltogether, a rather moving experience and struck me as to how really conscientious and well intended people can be so vilified and persecuted.
I think that revelations from the disclosure of COINTELPRO are a little more contemporary and apt in this case.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
He needs to get new tin foil, his hat is leaking.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Is that you, Aaron?
(Aaron Barr of HBGary Federal often trolls online discussion sites)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The mainstream media
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: The mainstream media
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: The mainstream media
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
~Theodore Roosevelt
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Great Article
US politicians are nothing but prostitutes and whores that sell the mind, body and souls to big corporations.
For shame.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Disgusted American
My children are 6 and 2; why on earth should I teach them voting is important?
At this point they will be taught how to pay proper attention.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Disgusted American
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781453.html
It seems that more people are willing to stand around and bitch, but when it comes time to actually take the steering wheel for a moment, they decline and stay home to watch episodes of COPS or Conan or whatever.
When less than 50% of the people vote, the majority has nothing to bitch about. They missed their turn.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Disgusted American
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Disgusted American
Sure, I like to vote for the lesser evil, but unfortunately this is generally the only choice.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Not a *new* step up...
Just to point out that this is hardly a new level for Anonymous. They were never, as their detractors have liked to claim, amateur script kiddies with no skill. Back in September they stole and leaked the entire email archive of a predatory legal firm in the UK, ACS:Law, which has since had to pack in its lawsuit business as a result of the high legal costs hey have incurred trying to defend themselves against the resulting data protection cases taken against them.
They also did the same in October with a Portugese company called A.C.A.P.O.R. And they have on many occasions actually hacked into the servers of their enemies and replace their home page content with messages from the Anonymous movement, as opposed to simply forcing it offline with brute force.
Love them or hate them, it would be EXTREMELY foolish to underestimate them. Many articles claim that they have no technical skill and are simply using pre-written programs to achieve their aims - this may require such people to think twice about this.
As an interesting comparison, the director of ACS:Law, when asked about the ddos attack, stated "I would be more worried about my train being five minutes late". That very afternoon, the future of his company was already in serious doubt following the email leak.
Pride cometh before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall - Some verse in Proverbs.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Fascism per Mussolini
- Benito Mussolini
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Kleptocrats
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
re re re re er
and he could have actually done a lot of good for this country, it is pretty damn sad that way back when, the ignorant who spoke for religion truly mucked up our world, even sadder now that the ignorant who supposedly speak for the new anti-religion movement are equally ignorant and also mucking up our world. Perhaps in 2020 the wise and awakened will balance out these pathetically ignorant yocals who still clearly don't understand a humane beings most basic rights, and where they have no right no matter what bullscript reason to even attempt to influence the life of another
It's the men -- and not the women -- and men's inability to respect those and their rights, unless the are forced , when these idiot men (on both sides of the God exists or does not exist fence) who refuse to respect the sexuality and spirituality of people they do not share their life with, those idiots through their ignorance are the greatest threat to the existence of our humane race
[ link to this | view in chronology ]