JEREMY HAMMOND – the original enforcer

Before Snowden, before the mainstreaming of Hacktivism, and before most of us even knew what private intelligence contractors where up to, one brave activist stepped up and blew the lid off a story so big it actually rivals the tale of the former NSA contractor.

Hammond executed Enforced Transparency by hacking Stratfor and releasing millions of emails.

“A lot of people don’t even know who Jeremy Hammond is. He’s the original Snowden. #TrapWire #Stratfor #Anonymous”
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) April 20, 2015

Yesterday journalist Kit O’Connell wrote a great piece about Hammond’s case:
Kit O’Connell from MintPress News interviewed freelance writer and journalist Douglas Lucas and activist Azzurra Crispino – both fervent supporters of Jeremy Hammond. The article compared and contrasted Jeremy Hammond, the Stratfor hacktivist and Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower. The article also touched upon the question as to why mainstream media covers their very similar actions in very different manners. You will find the link to the whole article a couple of paragraphs down, but first…

What is Enforced Transparency – a recap
The concept of transparency is simple, if governments practice it – we as a people – will be able to spot misuse of power, corruption and safeguard our democracy. When transparency becomes just a word, a smokescreen, and governments and corporations around the world use it as well as the alleged need for secrecy to keep us in the dark, something has to be done.

Enforced transparency then becomes the only alternative concerned citizens can rely on. One form is simply hacking* organisations or corporations to gain knowledge about wrongdoing. Other ways include independent investigative journalism*, like the ICIJ’s Luxembourg Leaks investigation, whistleblowing and protests’ aimed at putting pressure on an issue of concern on the agenda.

♣ The article in MintPress News May 11 – 2015
“Why The Media Ignores Jeremy Hammond While Praising Edward Snowden”

What we found most interesting in this piece was this quote:
“Jeremy didn’t just infiltrate Stratfor quietly. He went in loudly then proceeded to smash Stratfor to pieces,” she concluded. “It took six months for them to get their servers back up!” – Azzurra Crispino / An activist with Prison Abolition and Prisoner Support (PAPS)

Hammond actually leaked 5 million private emails taken from Stratfor to the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, a release that came to be known as the Global Intelligence Files, or GI Files.”

—->> Database is here: https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/

♣ Click here to read the article from MintPress News

We asked Kit O’Connell why he decided to write this article

“The simplistic version is that I’m the Daily Staff Writer at MintPress News, the first place I published this interview. The founder Mnar Muhawesh saw a @YourAnonNews tweet comparing Edward Snowden and Jeremy Hammond and asked me to elaborate for one of my daily news briefs.

But delving deeper, this was a much more personal assignment than a lot of what I write about — just like Azzurra Crispino, the PAPS activist in my article, I was a member of Occupy Austin when Jeremy Hammond revealed infiltration of our movement by Stratfor. Occupy launched my career as a journalist, and Hammond’s sacrifice taught me a lot about the stakes of activism and the importance of exposing the truth, no matter the consequences.

It was just a happy accident that Douglas Lucas, a colleague of mine I’ve long admired and another journalist that’s benefited from Jeremy Hammond, happened to be in town too on the day I got this assignment. but I’m really glad I had the chance to include both their voices. In a way, both their experiences are reflections of my own.” – Kit O’Connell

In related news: we are happy to see that WikiLeaks is looking stronger every day
Earlier today Julian Assange published the leak of the Bundestag Inquiry into BND and NSA which should lead to a series of very important stories in the press in the coming

weeks. You see, this is how things must work when governments only treats transparency as an empty phrase: First someone must hack, whistleblow or FOIA information. Then it must be organized in a searchable database, and then and only then will the public have its Enforced Transparency.

On a sidenote we can say that this blog is especially happy that WikiLeaks released both parts of the TPP texts and the Sony Archives obtained by the elusive crew calling themselves #GuardiansOfPeace. Some think they are a smarter and more elusive children of LulzSec, or someone inspired by them.

In conclusion:
Jeremy Hammond: (click to visit his Courage Foundation website) is in jail doing a ten year stretch, communicating with the world through snail mail, while Edward Snowden is in exile in Russia – free to speak to the world. A lot of our Transparency Enforcers, including Snowden, are persecuted, vilified and/or jailed. Being stateless in Russia could also be seen as a loss of freedom.

It is a good thing then that we have organizations like FreeAnons working to aid our “fallen”. I am certain many of those reading this would say that they would like to see a better funded organization. To that end: https://freeanons.org/donations-and-fundraising/

Writing to Jeremy at FCI Manchester prison in Kentucky

Please write to Jeremy at this address:

Journalism and Enforcing Transparency
Obviously the media plays an important role in keeping an eye on our governments. One of the more critical organizations in the post-Snowden era has been The Intercept. Organizations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists and Freedom of the Press Foundation also play an important role.

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This post was written by Raymond Johansen Global Pirate Activist and a member of the Advisory Board of FreeAnons

Categories: Activism, Anonymous, AntiSec, Censorship, Crime, Encryption, FreeAnons, Hackers, Jeremy Hammond, Leaks, News, NSA, OpMayhem, Politics, Security, WikiLeaks