Members of Congress who voted for CISPA last week have received threats of violence and had their phone numbers, addresses and other personal details posted online by those who disagree with the legislation. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act would allow private companies to share cybersecurity information with the federal government, sparking privacy concerns and causing some to dub it the “Big Brother Law.”

Whispers has learned that the office of at least one member of Congress has asked the FBI to investigate.

A Twitter user called “Grim Reaper,” for example, whose bio reads: “We kill the ones that are corrupt so you don’t have to,” has been harassing Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., who cosponsored CISPA.

[READ: CISPA Supporters Spend 140 Times As Much Money Lobbying as Opponents]

“For your support of CISPA Rep. Mike Pompeo, the bill to end privacy, here is your dox,” wrote Grim Reaper, and then shared a document including the congressman’s work address and phone number, military service and salary, and even his zodiac sign. The document was posted to Pastebin, a website favored by hackers like Anonymous.

“Doxing” is the practice of posting personal information, much of which is already available online, all in one place in an effort to destroy anonymity. Another user threatened to add Pompeo’s credit card and social security numbers.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., the author of the CISPA legislation, has also been threatened. A “dox” about Rogers, also posted on Pastebin, includes the names of his wife and children, his work addresses, and a link to a petition for his removal from Congress.

[ALSO: Congressman Uses Bombing To Argue For CISPA]

A third document posted to Pastebin includes the phone numbers of every member of Congress who voted for CISPA.

Rogers has defended CISPA as “a constitutional obligation to defend this nation,” while Pompeo has called it “a Good Samaritan law for cyberspace.”

To his online aggressors, the Kansas congressman responded on Twitter: “Really?”

A spokesman for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence says that Rogers, who chairs the committee, is “far more focused on the real threat of cyber espionage from countries like China than he is on faceless and anonymous threats online.”

In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday the country’s interpretation of the Constitution will “have to change” to allow for greater security to stave off future attacks.

“The people who are worried about privacy have a legitimate worry,” Mr. Bloomberg said during a press conference in Midtown. “But we live in a complex word where you’re going to have to have a level of security greater than you did back in the olden days, if you will. And our laws and our interpretation of the Constitution, I think, have to change.”

Mr. Bloomberg, who has come under fire for the N.Y.P.D.’s monitoring of Muslim communities and other aggressive tactics, said the rest of the country needs to learn from the attacks.

“Look, we live in a very dangerous world. We know there are people who want to take away our freedoms. New Yorkers probably know that as much if not more than anybody else after the terrible tragedy of 9/11,” he said.

“We have to understand that in the world going forward, we’re going to have more cameras and that kind of stuff. That’s good in some sense, but it’s different from what we are used to,” he said.

America’s cops need more oversight, not more leeway to evade the law.

The horrific Boston bombings already have led to irrational calls for more security cameras and more police officers, with some Democrats absurdly using this tragedy as a reason to stop the slight sequester-mandated cuts in federal spending growth.

Never mind that police spending primarily is a local matter. The bigger questions that Americans have rarely asked, especially following the 9/11 attacks: Do we really want the government to hire new armies of police officers? Do we really want to pay the price for this?

Knowing my views on the growing public-pension crisis, most readers probably think the “price” I’m worried about the nation’s multi-trillion-dollar unfunded pension liabilities driven largely by the “3 percent at 50” pension deals that cost taxpayers millions of dollars for each “first responder” who retires at 50 after 30 years of service.

That’s a huge problem — the result in part of Americans’ irrational embrace of the “more police” logic after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. But that’s not the main source of my concern. My real concern involves our safety and civil liberties given that police officers, and other groups of public employees, have become a protected class that does not have to follow the same rules as the average citizen.

Read More

moralanarchism:

The fucking tyrants are afraid of those who want to govern themselves.  They can’t have the illusion of authority broken.  If they do the whole damn system will collapse and they will be rendered powerless.  So they will do everything within their power to stop the spread of freedom. 

Fuck the police state. 

The Keene Activity Center (KAC) is a place where (mostly) young libertarians and anarchists in Keene, New Hampshire congregate to talk philosophy, plan activism (including civil disobedience), and generally relax and socialize. Apparently the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been trying very, very hard to infiltrate the KAC, judging from this account of the arrest of one of the club’s members, Rich Paul, on marijuana charges.

Paul is going on trial for petty marijuana distribution offenses pursuant to testimony by an undercover FBI informant. It looks as if the trial is on state charges, but what’s interesting and disturbing is the interest the federal government has taken in the case. FBI agent Phillip Christiana apparently tried to pressure Paul into wearing a wire into the KAC and luring people into pot transactions, offering him immunity from prosecution in exchange. Follow the link to read more about how the FBI agent tried to coerce and trick Paul into waiving his right to counsel.

Here are some questions the FBI ought to answer, that is, if they were in any way accountable to those of us who are paying their salaries under duress:

  1. Why is the FBI taking such a keen interest in these small-scale marijuana offenses?
  2. Is the FBI targeting Keene libertarians, anarchists, and “voluntaryists” for their political views?
  3. Does the FBI countenance or authorize the deceptive and coercive interrogation tactics reportedly used by this agent?

I’m hoping Paul finds himself a good lawyer and negotiates a good plea bargain. His trial starts April 16th, though, so time is short. The local activists seem to be aiming for jury nullification. They shouldn’t bet the house on that. The prosecutor will paint Paul as a big-time drug dealer and scary anarchist.

It says he’s facing 81 years for selling a little grass to his buddies. Wtf is wrong with this picture?

It appears this guy is going to need some financial support from the community. Whether or not he’ll get that from voluntaryists I’m not sure. I hope so.

And when things are heated up and distractions are everywhere, that’s when evil slips its hand in. If the FBI hasn’t infiltrated their group yet, now would be the time to do it. A little caution from here on out would be wise.

back to top