Slashdot Mentioned In Virginia Terrorism Report 779
megamerican alerted us to a leaked document (PDF) from a Virginia Fusion Center titled "2009 Virginia Terrorism Threat Assessment." The document is marked as "Law Enforcement Sensitive," not to be shown to public. Citizens for Legitimate Government has a write-up. Slashdot gets a mention on page 45 — not as a terrorist organization itself, but as one of the places that members of Anonymous may hang out: "A 'loose coalition of Internet denizens,' Anonymous consists largely of users from multiple internet sites such as 4chan, 711chan, 420chan, Something Awful, Fark, Encyclopedia Dramatica, Slashdot, IRC channels, and YouTube. Other social networking sites are also utilized to mobilize physical protests. ... Anonymous is of interest not only because of the sentiments expressed by affiliates and their potential for physical protest, but because they have innovated the use of e-protests and mobilization. Given the lack of a unifying creed, this movement has the potential to inspire lone wolf behavior in the cyber realms." According to the report, cell phones and digital music players have been used to transfer plans related to criminal activity, and therefore presumably could be grounds for suspicion. Podcasting is also suspicious.
A.C. (Score:5, Funny)
"Lone wolf" sound MUCH better than anonymous coward!
Re:A.C. (Score:5, Insightful)
They just don't understand the joke, do they?
Re:A.C. (Score:5, Funny)
a coalition of persons of interest is growing at an exponential rate on the Internets. Members of the group, posting in various websites under the handle, Guest, often post provocative and sometimes unlawful comments. By using the handle name "Guest", they were afforded anonymity.
Several related groups are Anonymous, Anonymous Coward, Public, Guest, and Unregistered.
Re:A.C. (Score:5, Interesting)
How can any member of Anonymous be "from" a site like fark? Do they issue Anonymous press pass credentials or something?
This gets the whole idea of Anonymous wrong. Anonymous isn't "from" anywhere. The moment you start thinking you know something about Anonymous, the moment you start trying to put Anonymous into a box, you're no longer talking about Anonymous...you're talking onymous [reference.com].
Re:A.C. (Score:4, Informative)
i think what they are trying to imply is that the group coalesces around the named sites for communication and organization.
also, im somewhat skeptical of them naming fark, and /.
*chan on the other hand...
Re:A.C. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:A.C. (Score:5, Funny)
a coalition of persons of interest is growing at an exponential rate on the Internets. Members of the group, posting in various websites under the handle, Guest, often post provocative and sometimes unlawful comments. By using the handle name "Guest", they were afforded anonymity."
Not only that...but, I hear there are people who actually register accounts with FALSE or misleading information as to their true identity. Pseudonyms and the like.
What the hell is this country coming to?
Re:They are very ignorant, and can be destructive. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A.C. (Score:5, Insightful)
Genius. How great would it be if Slashdot changed 'Anonymous Coward' to Lone Wolf for a few weeks?
Re:A.C. (Score:4, Funny)
Yes! This is a hilarious idea. How can we convince the Taco? We need to all band together. Perhaps we can submit an article to Digg about the idea and we can all Digg it :).
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Genius. How great would it be if Slashdot changed 'Anonymous Coward' to Lone Wolf for a few weeks?
I would rather push for "OMG Ponies" instead, as this would certainly make the report more fun to read ;)
Re:A.C. (Score:5, Interesting)
From the U.S. Constitution, Ammendment 1:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble , and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The keyword is "peaceably", but TFS seems to imply that they are trying to prohibit people from assembling, which is unconstitutional.
The correct response, I believe, is to arrange a "peaceful assembly" on the front door of the "Virginia Fusion Center" and generate enough publicity from the press so these clowns in Virginia can be made to understand that internet sites like Slashdot.org don't make any attempt to rally any violent political movements.
Message to Virginia Fusion Center, from Anonymous (Score:5, Funny)
All your base are belong to us.
Re:Message to Virginia Fusion Center, from Anonymo (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Message to Virginia Fusion Center, from Anonymo (Score:5, Funny)
"Who the hell their base belong to?"
You've just terrorized my brain.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
"Who the hell their base belong to?"
Us.
Don't you worry about the details there, Sparky.
Re:Message to Virginia Fusion Center, from Anonymo (Score:5, Funny)
You may say that, but I have contacts within the inner circle of Anonymous, and I'm given to understand that they have a laser. And they're charging it. And they don't afraid of anything.
Re:Message to Virginia Fusion Center, from Anonymo (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, they got me last year...
Re:Message to Virginia Fusion Center, from Anonymo (Score:5, Funny)
Is Coward the only member of Anonymous? That's not much of a threat.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I think the world would be a better place without 99% of those who comment on YouTube. Kill them evil terrorists I say!
Re:Message to Virginia Fusion Center, from Anonymo (Score:5, Funny)
I'm betting it goes something like this:
People who blow shit up are likely to be antisocial.
People on slashdot, 4chan, etc., are likely to be antisocial.
Therefore people who read slashdot are likely to blow shit up.
Can't blame them, really, given the quality of education we as a society have decided to give our citizens. Makes me so angry I want to blow some shit up. Who's with me?
Re:Message to Virginia Fusion Center, from Anonymo (Score:5, Insightful)
remeber bretheren....
4f 6e 6c 79 20 72 65 61 6c 6c 79 20 73 74 75 70 69 64 20 70 61 72 61 6e 6f 69 64 73 20 74 68 69 6e 6b 20 74 68 61 74 20 74 68 65 72 65 20 69 73 20 61 20 73 65 63 72 65 74 20 73 6f 63 69 65 74 79 20 74 72 79 69 6e 67 20 74 6f 20 67 65 74 20 74 68 65 6d 2e 20 20 20 50 65 6f 70 6c 65 20 69 6e 20 67 65 6e 65 72 61 6c 20 61 72 65 20 74 6f 6f 20 6c 61 7a 79 20 74 6f 20 61 63 74 20 65 6e 2d 6d 61 73 73 65 27 20 74 6f 20 64 69 73 72 75 70 74 20 74 68 69 6e 67 73 20 69 66 20 74 68 65 79 20 61 72 65 20 63 6f 6d 66 6f 72 74 61 62 6c 65 2e 20 20 49 66 20 79 6f 75 20 61 72 65 20 63 72 65 61 74 69 6e 67 20 6d 69 73 65 72 79 20 61 6e 64 20 64 65 61 74 68 20 66 6f 72 20 61 20 67 72 6f 75 70 2c 20 74 68 65 6e 20 62 79 20 61 6c 6c 20 6d 65 61 6e 73 20 77 6f 72 72 79 2e 0a 0a 42 75 74 20 74 68 65 73 65 20 70 65 6f 70 6c 65 20 61 72 65 20 73 69 6d 70 6c 79 20 63 6c 75 74 63 68 69 6e 67 20 61 74 20 73 74 72 61 77 73 2e 2e 0a
It all goes down 4/20/09 at 16:20 local time. Tell the others!
Re:Message to Virginia Fusion Center, from Anonymo (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Message to Virginia Fusion Center, from Anonymo (Score:5, Informative)
"Only really stupid paranoids think that there is a secret society trying to get them. People in general are too lazy to act en-masse' to disrupt things if they are comfortable. If you are creating misery and death for a group, then by all means worry.\n\nBut these people are simply clutching at straws..\n"
(Python: ''.join(map(chr, map(lambda x: int(x, 16), s.split()))))
Re:Message to Virginia Fusion Center, from Anonymo (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Message to Virginia Fusion Center, from Anonymo (Score:4, Funny)
Yes! We are Anonymous, we are legion, we do not...
Level Up (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Level Up (Score:5, Insightful)
Scientology. Or Habbo.com. Either could be the culprit.
That's such an illogical conjecture I'm not sure where to start. "Anonymous" isn't some sort of highly organised group. It's just a bunch of people on various websites. Going to those websites doesn't make you a terrorist, or a furry, or a protester, or whatever it is someone else is doing. "Stick around"? Makes no sense.
Re:Level Up (Score:5, Insightful)
Anonymous is a microcosm of society. There is no formal method for joining. There are no membership lists or membership dues.
There are people doing good things (for whatever you consider good), people doing bad things (for whatever you consider bad), people doing neutral things (for any other action), and people doing nothing.
When someone says "Anonymous will do xyz", they're not charging everyone who associates themselves with the group to do xyz. They are simply invoking the protection of being lost in a crowd and the protection of free association.
All things that, in and of themselves, are perfectly legal in the United States. However, what is done once under the cloak of these protections, on the other hand, may be illegal.
Personally, Anonymous scares me a hell of a lot less than the far right militia groups (which, by the way, all do the same thing and are legal).
Re:Level Up (Score:5, Insightful)
That's such an illogical conjecture I'm not sure where to start. "Anonymous" isn't some sort of highly organised group. It's just a bunch of people on various websites. Going to those websites doesn't make you a terrorist, or a furry, or a protester, or whatever it is someone else is doing. "Stick around"? Makes no sense.
That's basically what the report actually says about Anonymous. They got a mention and a small write-up in the report because a few individuals identifying with them committed minor acts of vandalism. It says that they aren't really an organized group. The main reason they're even mentioned seems to be to give an example of people coordinating protests or actions online.
The "phones and ipod" section just gives examples of how terrorists and organized criminals were taking advantage of technology-- examples which are already pretty well-known, really.
This isn't alarmism on the part of the Virginia government. The summary is silly.
Re:Level Up (Score:5, Funny)
Xbox Live Achievement Unlocked: You are now a terrorist!
Re:Level Up (Score:5, Funny)
Tell that to GameStop.
I'm sure the mere mention of "battletoads" will immediately put you on a watch list sometime soon.
Who is this anonymous? (Score:4, Funny)
.. and what can we do to stop him!!!
or her
or it
or them
or they
or ... no wait. It's me AAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhh
Re:Who is this anonymous? (Score:5, Funny)
Let's post our real names.
I'm David.
Re:Who is this anonymous? (Score:5, Funny)
Nice to meet you, Dave. I'm Spartacus.
Re:Who is this anonymous? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Who is this anonymous? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Who is this anonymous? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Who is this anonymous? (Score:4, Funny)
So when she yells out your name in bed do you ever think she's cheating on you with herself? Also pics.
Re:Who is this anonymous? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I have a vewy gweat fwiend in Wome called 'Biggus Dickus'.
Re:Who is this anonymous? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Who is this anonymous? (Score:5, Funny)
Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
Re:Who is this anonymous? (Score:5, Funny)
There are some who call me, "Tim".
Re:Who is this anonymous? (Score:5, Funny)
(Mark 5:9)
Re:Who is this anonymous? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Who is this anonymous? (Score:5, Funny)
His name is Robert Paulson.
Me too (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Me too (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Me too (Score:5, Informative)
I am David
Re:Me too (Score:5, Funny)
Dave? Dave's not here.
Re:Me too (Score:4, Funny)
The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.
Verily this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honour to meet you and you may call me V.
Re:Me too (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, hell....
Re:Me too (Score:4, Funny)
Will the real Anonymous please stand up?
Re:Me too (Score:5, Funny)
(nothing happens)
Mr. Anonymous has learned the first lesson of not being seen: Not to stand up.
Unfortunately, Mr. Anonymous chose a very obvious target.
*BOOO...Euuuuuuaaahhhh...OOOM*
Is Slashdot a Terrorist Organization Or Not (Score:5, Funny)
Points in favor
* It hijacks internet bandwidth that could be used more productively
* It performs DDOS attacks on an hourly basis.
* Millions of hours diverted from productive programming to non-productive uses
* CSS that makes site look like someone vomited on your monitor.
* The Idle section
Points against
* Millions of anti-social, hormone filled misfits are kept off the streets where they could do real harm.
We report the facts. YOU decide.
Re:Is Slashdot a Terrorist Organization Or Not (Score:5, Funny)
Don't forget:
* Promotes non-mainstream, rabid devotion to fanatical religions--including Linux and OSS.
of course! (Score:5, Funny)
It is well known that Commander Taco is actually a commander in the Judean Peoples' Front terrorist organization. Titles like "Cmdr" just aren't given out to anyone. He's their #2 man.
Re:of course! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:of course! (Score:5, Funny)
Judean People's Front?
Splitter
Q: anonymous in an organization? (Score:2)
Re:Q: anonymous in an organization? (Score:5, Informative)
They're talking about the group Anonymous, mostly from 4chan. They were responsible for some reasonably large and well-organized protests against Scientology not too long ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group) [wikipedia.org]
Re:Q: anonymous in an organization? (Score:4, Funny)
As for numbers, I doubt any individual protest ever got more than a couple of hundred at a time, but worldwide at peak it's estimated that there were over 9000 out on the streets.
Terrorism (Score:5, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Terrorism (Score:5, Interesting)
Dammit. A group of us did this in Auckland city one Friday night when I was a bit younger and we were bored. Any casual observer would've seen a group of six or seven of us carefully timing the traffic lights at the bottom of Queen Street for, oh, 20 or 30 minutes.
After we'd figured out the timing perfectly, we executed our nefarious plot. As soon as the lights turned red, we rushed into the middle of the intersection with a small couch, a couple of chairs, and a lamp, set up a mock living room, quickly took some photographs, and rushed back to safety just as the lights turned green.
And we thought we were just having some innocent fun on a Friday night!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Well, we all know that counterculture role-playing games [sjgames.com] are just training grounds for crime. The obvious solution is raids [wikipedia.org] on all their "publishers" [sjgames.com] (as the terror cells call themselves) and arrests of all their active trainees.
Please stand by. Agents of the DHS will be there shortly.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Since they demonstrate the tactical capacity to put a bunch of people in a place, at a time, without law enforcement getting a sniff of it beforehand.
Don't think of it as terrorism per se: think of it as a people-organizing toolset, and it ought to terrify any police state who's paying attention. To the extent the US behaves like a police state, this is a threat.
Take a look at Improv Everywhere's Cell Phone Symphony. Heck, much of what IE does is militarily relevant. It says, "We're a bunch of peaceful c
Only terrorists use anonymous posts (Score:2)
So anywhere you can be anonymous must be stamped out. in the name of fighting terrorism.
Open wifi, not keeping weblogs, ISPs not keeping logs forever... you get the idea.
Need a national registrar of mac addresses ( ok, i know they can be spoofed, but has reality ever got in the way before? )
Ha! (Score:5, Funny)
In your face, Digg! Yeah!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Never mind Digg, the list's missing an important entry here. Anyone who's ever been raided knows perfectly well that Anonymous come from ebaumsworld.
That silly Constitution (Score:5, Interesting)
How DARE citizens engage in the rights to:
Free speech
Assembly
Petition the government (or government institutions).
Why those subversives who not only wrote it into law, but preceded those rights with the words "Congress shall make no law abridging..." must have been terrorists or something.
No wonder this was marked "not to show to public". How dare we engage in such subversion of the LAW enforcement establishment.
The way I read this is that they are setting up pretexts for "probable cause" to detain and search people who engage in normal, legal behavior. Yet more evidence that the "war on terror" and the PATRIOT act are being used to expand law enforcement power over the law abiding, when instead such energy would be better spent guarding the porous borders or monitoring the FOREIGN FUNDED (Saudi) mosques (which is where most world wide terrorism originates).
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Free speech
Assembly
Petition the government (or government institutions).
...
No wonder this was marked "not to show to public". How dare we engage in such subversion of the LAW enforcement establishment.
Generally speaking, those three things are not directly equivalent to "subversion of the LAW enforcement establishment".
This is more generally indicative of a new age of governmental and police paranoia where anywhere and everything is a potential place or tool for Bad Things(TM). And they're right. They just haven't figured out how to accurately assess the risk levels yet.
Re:That silly Constitution (Score:4, Insightful)
[citation needed]
Perhaps you're unaware of the terrorism that occurs in central Africa on a daily basis, that is conveniently ignored? Or does that not count because it doesn't greatly affect American economic interests?
Re:That silly Constitution (Score:5, Insightful)
A terrorist attacks civilian targets. Freedom fighters attack military targets. There is a big difference.
You can be a freedom fighter and a terrorist. When will American history books call the people behind the Boston Tea Party terrorists? There's also the matter of a couple of nuclear bombs on Japan, and the fire bombing of Dresden.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not all that up on the history of the Boston tea party, but I don't think it was intended to terrorize anyone. Sure, the people guarding the tea on the boats might have had violence committed against them, but the goal wasn't terrorism.
The other two, yeah, they were designed to produce terror in the populace and get them to work to change their government's stance.
VA better watch out! (Score:5, Insightful)
Slashdot is known for being a terrorist hotbed of activity.
Seriously though, is it getting just so utterly bullshit that they list Slashdot as a potential terrorist hangout? I mean, really? Is the government this god damned stupid? I suppose in the back of my mind I always knew it was, but wow.
I don't want to come off as a nutjob here, but this country is falling down hard. A new revolution in the next 100 years appears to be more than possible at this point. Laws are getting absolutely ridiculous.
I realize VA is far from the federal government, but this "OMG EVERY1 IZ TERRORIZT!" stuff is getting really scary.
Terrorist.. This decades Communist.. Make lists and round 'em up, boys!
Fucking scary.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The biggest problem with this particular instance is that, unlike the Ron Paige matter, technophobes won't be able to dismiss it as the grossly hyperbolic bullshit it is. It's highly irres
So now I know! (Score:3)
On another note: if Anonymous is going after others who are detrimental to society (eg scientologists) I suppose that we should attach the label vigilante - normally not seen as the right way of going about things. However: the authorities have completely failed to protect us from these murdering crooks (by which I mean scientologists) which is why Anonymous is doing something. What they have done is to make a lot of noise, get up the crooks' noses, etc - all legitimate, so why are they listed here ? -- is it because the govt does not like anything that it cannot control ?
On /. (Score:4, Funny)
Anonymous has always been a threat to power (Score:3, Interesting)
The US government takes fingerprints, footprints, blood type, and DNA information from people when they are born. Later they take dental prints. Until a few years ago they enforced traceable information to be placed on products that can be used destructively. Now everything has RFID tags. Communicating by phone or mail can easily be monitored, and arguably is. No thing and no body is anonymous in the physical world. Now something existing that tears down that wall, anonymous communication. Ironically, it originated by the US government so they (the government) could be free in case of a power switch. I guess there is nothing more frightening to power than freedom you must share.
Terrorism Report (Score:5, Funny)
"Our report on the terrorist group is complete."
"What did you find?"
"Well, for one thing, we think they have been using the web to visit popular websites."
"Okay... what else?"
"Our findings indicate they have been eating food, possibly sourced from restaurants. Also, we think they've been engaging in verbal communication."
"That doesn't exactly narrow it down, does it? Based on that, almost anyone could be a susp... oh! I get it. Nice work!"
Could A.C. be a wheat/chaff solution? (Score:3, Insightful)
This raises an interesting question: could I actually create an alternate communication method using A.C. postings alone? Using a cipher symbol alphabet consisting entirely of sensible words or sentences, I could hide inside of the more popular systems that allow anonymous posting and probably not even be noticed (I mean hell, how many people do more than scan the A.C. posting to see if it makes sense?).
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
What did you think slashdot memes were?
All your base reference == mission accomplished.
Natalie Portman r
Virginia Fusion Center are terrorists. (Score:3, Insightful)
Groups that exist to deny us basic freedom in the name of their religion are terrorists, aren't they?
List of sites where people are NOT anonymous (Score:3, Insightful)
Isn't it easier to list those websites where people are NOT allowed to be anonymous?
If I were in the Virginia govt., I would block all internet, tv, radio, phone. You'll feel much safer if you don't know what's happening in the evil outside world.
Terrorist tools proliferation (Score:5, Funny)
According to the report, cell phones and digital music players have been used to transfer plans related to criminal activity, and therefore presumably could be grounds for suspicion. Podcasting is also suspicious.
I am told that terrorists now have access to a medium that can't be wiretapped, can be folded or rolled up for ease of concealment, and can be destroyed in seconds with an ordinary match. I'm hoping that the authorities don't paper over this threat. This stuff is so cheap it practically grows on trees.
Hey! I want to be an onymous! (Score:3, Funny)
Do I get a free T-shirt?
Social Science Research Gone Bad (Score:4, Insightful)
There might be dozens of other reasons why people would legitimately want to stay anonymous.
Oh, yes, I realize I posted this one while logged in. Let them mark me an enemy of the state if they so desire.
[I hereby raspberry those segments of United States government, or any other agencies for that matter, that conduct such shoddy research and make generalizations based on fear and incomplete information.]
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
[I hereby raspberry those segments of United States government, or any other agencies for that matter, that conduct such shoddy research and make generalizations based on fear and incomplete information.]
The fact that you can do this unmolested indicates that freedom of speech isn't nearly dead in the US. Read the article, it's a lot less inflammatory than the summary.
cell phones and music players (Score:3, Interesting)
" According to the report, cell phones and digital music players have been used to transfer plans related to criminal activity, and therefore presumably could be grounds for suspicion. Podcasting is also suspicious.
"
Wow.... "THEY" (ie, the "man") really fear us... I was @ DC for Cherry Festival just last week. I didn't understand why they made an announcement on the subway ("Metro" for the knowledgables) about how we were not to have our cell phones and digital music players out on the train, and to report supicious packages. I didn't understand the cell phone / mp3 player part till I reall the above. And as far as supicious packages go, all packages are supicious now-a-days if they are not mine.. How many times do you hear about donuts and flower/chalk being blown up by police because someone dropped a box and didn't get back to it in time...
I thought we would get "Change" but I guess not yet...
Anonymous (Score:4, Funny)
Anonymous's ideology sounds intriguing. How does one go about joining them? I would like to subscribe to their newsletter.
Re: (Score:2)
Or they are stupid and cant set up their own freenet.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You know there is one down side to the internet.
On the internet no matter how totally whacked out your idea maybe odds are you will find at least 100 people that will agree with you.
Once you find people that agree with you all of a sudden you can believe that your idea has merit.
Some where their is a discussion board about how it is to have orgies dressed up as giant stuffed animals. And the people on it will be convinced that they are perfectly normal people.
Re:Anon (Score:4, Insightful)
You laugh, but Ted Kennedy has already be caught up in this sort of nonsense.
Re:Anon (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Kind of funny (Score:5, Insightful)
"Ethnic cleansing" would be a better description of what the founding of America was based on.
Terrorism is something else and a term that gets abused to the point of making it meaningless.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Snakeoil, mostly.
Re:Anonymous defined (Score:5, Informative)