Sep 2, 2024
seen from Norway
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Netherlands
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from Poland
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from Türkiye
seen from Türkiye
seen from Türkiye
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from Italy
seen from Italy
seen from United States
seen from United States
Brief statement by anonymous Donor #1, a class representative in our lawsuit
“I absolutely believed my donations were a response to the government's prosecutorial overreach towards Barrett. It was the same tactic that was used against Aaron Swartz, and most likely the reason why we don't have him in the world anymore.¹ We'd already lost Aaron as an activist, and Barrett had been taken out of the fight as well with his incarceration.
It seems like they were, and are still trying to make an example out of information activists by charging them with anything they can think of.
I expected my contributions to the campaign to remain anonymous. I asked other people to donate, but never disclosed through social media how much I'd donated, nor when.
Barrett definitely crossed a line when he appeared to threaten SA Smith, but the charges they were trying to pin on him were more excessive than the ones brought against Jeremy Hammond, who actually broke into Stratfor’s system—with the knowledge and help of the FBI, for whatever that's worth.²
I was definitely politically motivated to donate to Barrett's defense because of those reasons, and more. Greenwald explains it better than I can in this article.³ I believe it was this article that also helped boost donations to Barrett's cause.”
https://web.archive.org/web/20130112233941/http://rememberaaronsw.tumblr.com/post/40372208044/official-statement-from-the-family-and-partner-of-aaron
https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/hammond-sabu-fbi-stratfor-hack/
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/21/barrett-brown-persecution-anonymous
The rights of hundreds of like-minded citizens such as the one quoted above were violated when DOJ & FBI offices in Dallas sent an improper subpoena asking for "any and all information" to WePay, Inc., a company which was then our payment processor. It must have been a fishing expedition of sorts; as we cannot imagine any legitimate purpose for such a broad request.
The advocacy campaign for Brown has always been a private entity, operating independently from him—with the goal of securing the defendant competent legal representation. Those who merely gave money to support hiring and paying for new private attorneys had absolutely no business having their information being caught up in an investigation. At the time, he'd already been indicted three times and was facing 105 years maximum, so what more could they have been looking for?
See also the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. constitution, which provides: "the accused shall enjoy the right…to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence." A right they sought to deny to him by asking the court for this unprecedented order to seize $20,000 we'd raised: http://cryptome.org/2013/04/brown-050.pdf
Our lawsuit against them remains severely under-reported and has been picked up very little by the media, which is remarkable considering the significant issues at stake. If these patterns continue, there will be a chilling effect upon defense fundraising campaigns for those accused of computer crime(s), security research or hacktivism-related offenses, not to mention cases involving jailed journalists and activists.
We think that every American possesses the right to give money anonymously without being unlawfully surveilled in doing so, and that’s what we’re fighting for. Financial donations to causes (political or otherwise) are unambiguously First Amendment protected speech and free association. What was done by the agents in Barrett's case was illegal.
For those who still might be interested in writing about or covering this, I will refer you first to our initial press release announcing the complaint: https://freebarrettbrown.org/2017/02/07/donors-sue-doj-fbi-right-give-anonymously/
The government and each official respectively then filed their motions to dismiss: https://freebarrettbrown.org/2017/05/12/us-government-moves-to-dismiss-our-lawsuit/
The latest development in the case is that we have responded, and our claims still stand: https://freebarrettbrown.org/2017/08/13/lawyers-counter-govt-motion-to-dismiss-lawsuit-over-illegal-surveillance-of-donors/
Stay tuned for more. Contact me: kevinmg [at] riseup [dot] net or Barrett: arbenzlola [at] gmail [dot] com if there are any further questions.
“U.S. inmates quickly get used to the fact that the few rights remaining to them can be violated more or less with impunity. The 1996 Prison Litigation Reform Act—passed amid a flurry of hard-to-source anecdotes about prisoners suing prisons over absurd and minor grievances—prevents prisoners from being heard in the courts until they've first exhausted a given prison's 'administrative remedy' procedure. For inmates in the federal Bureau of Prisons system, that procedure officially entails filing a BP-8, waiting five days, filing a BP-9, waiting 20 days, then waiting another 20 days if the prison needs more time, sending off a BP-10 to the regional office, waiting 30 days, then waiting another 30 days if the regional office needs more time, then sending off a BP-11 to the national office, waiting 40 days, then waiting another 40 days if the national office needs more time, and then filing in court."
Barrett Brown undertakes a year-and-a-half-long experiment on the tactics prison administrators use to deny their inmates legal rights
🎙 NEW PODCAST ~ Barrett Brown returns to expose the modern surveillance grid. From Palantir to the data‑center boom hiding behind NDAs. We dig into Epstein leaks, “Objection AI,” and the intel blacklist mob targeting him.
Full Episode on Spotify, Apple Podcast & More: https://linktr.ee/tftppodcast
#TheFreeThoughtProjectPodcast
Is Elon Musk running cover for the technocrat class—Thiel, Karp, and the rest? Barrett Brown has been tracking him for years. His insight is worth hearing.
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Nogx2gZzLsjvQCsjYL7Nk Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/guest-barrett-brown-techno-fascism-101-thiel-musk-the/id1439014279?i=1000719489893
Podbean: https://thefreethoughtproject.podbean.com/e/unmasking-techno-fascism-barrett-brown-exposes-the-new-power-players/
#TheFreeThoughtProjectPodcast
Sentenced to ten years, activist Marty Gottesfeld began writing about Bureau of Prisons corruption. Then he was shipped to a secretive new facility. His family hasn’t heard from him since.
This man is a hero who tried to save a girl's life and was locked up for it. Now he's been thrown in a secret prison.