Journalist Barrett Brown sentenced to 63 months in prison

[villager]

Source: BoingBoing

A court in Dallas has sentenced Barrett Brown to 63 months in prison. For count one in the case, he receives 48 months. For count 2, 12 months. And for count 3, 3 months.

The government's charges against the intelligence and security reporter stemmed from his relationship with sources close to the hacker group Anonymous, and the fact that Brown published a link to publicly-available copies of leaked Stratfor documents.

Brown read a statement to the court during the sentencing hearing, and you can read that statement in entirety here.

"Journalists are especially vulnerable right now, Your Honor, and they become more so when the FBI feels comfortable making false claims about them," Brown wrote:

Deny being a spokesperson for Anonymous hundreds of times, and you’re still a spokesperson for Anonymous. Deny being a journalist once or twice, and you’re not a journalist. What conclusion can one draw from this sort of reasoning other than that you are whatever the FBI finds it convenient for you to be at any given moment. This is not the “rule of law”, Your Honor, it is the “rule of law enforcement”, and it is very dangerous.

From our earlier coverage:

Brown originally faced more than a century in prison on a swathe of charges relating hacks targeting corporations. He admitted lesser crimes to reduce his possible sentence to 8½ years.

<snip>

Read more: http://boingboing.net/2015/01/22/barrettbrown.html#more-359724

[KamaAina]

1. WTF?

Are we a banana republic yet?!

[villager]

2. Have been, officially, since 2000.

n/t

[msanthrope]

3. Threaten an FBI agent and you will get time. Post stolen credit card

numbers...you will get time.

[snooper2]

5. Why, because this loser is going to prison?

[Blue_Tires]

6. Threats? Hacking? Obstruction of Justice?

I fail to see Brown as some kind of hero, in spite of the cherry-picked tidbits in the OP...

[tammywammy]

15. He pled guilty.

[KamaAina]

16. Was there a plea bargain involved?

That's often why defendants plead guilty.

[tammywammy]

17. It's in the OP

He admitted lesser crimes to reduce his possible sentence to 8½ years.

[OKNancy]

4. he doesn't sound like some sort of hero

I read a little about him... threatening an agent and HIS FAMILY... not a good person.

Interesting side here: from LGF

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/44244_Some_Words_on_the_Sentencing_of_Barrett_Brown

snip:

I knew Barrett Brown before he got involved with the hacking of Stratfor, and for a while I thought of him as a friend — but man, was I ever wrong.

Some of the things he posted at LGF were criticized by our commenters, and Barrett went absolutely nuts about it, in a classic ultra-narcissist reaction. He blamed me for the criticism (ironically, one of the comments he was most upset about said he was risking getting in trouble with the FBI), and began a secret campaign to hack Little Green Footballs (causing a DDoS attack at one point) and poison my reputation by revealing private emails between him and me to none other than far-right anti-Islam blogger Pamela Geller.

Barrett Brown is no hero of free speech. He’s a vindictive, vengeful thug.

[Maedhros]

7. Regardless of his personality or "thuggishness", it is still ludicrous to be sentenced to 63 months

for PUBLISHING A LINK TO A PUBLICLY-AVAILABLE DOCUMENT.

If he's guilty of threatening someone, prosecute him for that. This is more of the Obama Administrations crusade to criminalize investigative reporting.

[pkdu]

14. You either didn't read the conviction and sentencing or you did and are willfully leaving out

reference to it.

"He ultimately signed a plea deal on three lesser charges: transmitting a threat, trying to hide a laptop computer during a raid, and to being "accessory after the fact in the unauthorized access to a protected computer."

If these are listed in the order of decreasing jail time , he only got 3 months for the " link" . He got by far the most time for threading an FBI agent and his family on Youtube of all places.

[Peace Patriot]

18. A person signing a plea deal is often in despair at the forces arrayed against him...

...or her, and is not at all necessarily guilty of anything. Plea deals are subject to major abuse by prosecutors and police forces. They mean nothing--and I mean nothing--when it comes to judging someone. I would no more condemn someone as a criminal on the basis of a plea deal than I would condemn someone as a criminal on the basis of a prosecutor's or FBI agent's or a police officer's accusation. That's how rocky our justice system has become.

And in this case--a journalist versus the huge, evil Stratfor--I think we have even more reason to presume his innocence of even the pled charges and the guilt, not only of Stratfor, but also of the authorities involved in protecting that horrible corporation.

I'm reminded of the "honey trap" set for Julian Assange in Sweden--a non-case in which no charges have ever been filed and which nevertheless has been used to harass, hound and basically to imprison Assange in the Ecuadoran embassy in London, and to seize his assets, in a plot to disgrace and disempower him and ultimately to render him into U.S. custody for 'burial' in a deep dark prison like Chelsea Manning. When are we going to grow up? When are we going to realize that the U.S. "military-industrial complex" is OUT OF CONTROL, and is victimizing people all over the world--murdering, torturing, disappearing, robbing and brainwashing people wherever the U.S. "MIC" identifies something they WANT, including here?

It is naive to think that anyone who challenges a major 'player' in the highly secretive "MIC"--a 'player' like Stratfor--can get justice here. The uber-rich and the uber-connected control our justice system, which means that it is no longer just. It is warped beyond recognition. Please do not use this extremely warped system as evidence that someone is bad, or a criminal. Even if a person 'confesses' to something, it is no evidence of anything. We cannot rely on it. Also, try not to pile on to someone who is already in danger and has already been harmed by one of these vulture 'defense' entities. We really need to develop strong and healthy skepticism when someone like this is accused and prosecuted.

[pkdu]

19. Lots if words , many of which I might agree with....but none address my point.

He threatened an FBI agent and family...ON YOUTUBE...hello????

Which , by the way , got him by far the longest of his 3 sentences.

Unless anyone can prove he was forced into that , or it's completely fabricated , then he's a fucking idiot.

[Peace Patriot]

20. 'Fucking idiot" doesn't mean criminal.

Maybe he was under severe pressure (could be mitigating circumstances). Maybe HE felt gravely threatened, or HIS family was threatened. Anger at injustice, disillusionment and especially fear can make you lose your judgment, temporarily; can make you say things you don't mean. Maybe it was a forgivable threat? I haven't seen the YouTube item, so I don't know what kind of threat it was (vague? serious? threat to do what?), or if I would consider it a threat, or how intemperate it was. But if it was serious--say, a death threat or implied death threat (like, "I know where you live"--that sort of thing)--I would sure like to know if HE had suffered a similar threat or threats, because I might well forgive him such a threat if he had.

It's easy enough to say that a grown human being should control his/her anger or fear, but taking on Stratfor--and, by implication, the whole secret, vile "MIC"--is not an ordinary endeavor. I would be surprised if he had NOT received death threats, which can be issued in many untraceable ways. At least he--whatever he said--was upfront about who was saying it.

I don't trust the FBI. I don't trust the "justice system." I don't trust the "MIC" and its war profiteers. All with good reason. That's where I'm coming from. So I give him the benefit of the doubt--even if he did something really stupid, like the YouTube item seems to have been.

[pkdu]

21. Threatening an FBI agent Is CRIMINAL.....end of story. It's the law , like it or not. Nt

[Ash_F]

24. How did he threaten them?

Is there a transcript somewhere?

[Octafish]

8. Why you should care about journalist Barrett Brown's sentencing today

By Barry Eisler, Opinion, Dec 16, 2014

EXCERPT...

In 2009, Barrett founded Project PM, “dedicated to investigating private government contractors working in the secretive fields of cybersecurity, intelligence, and surveillance.” He was particularly instrumental in using documents obtained by the hacktivist collective Anonymous to expose secret collaboration between the government and various contractors. The covert factions Barrett’s work threatened are powerful, and fought back. Two years ago, Barrett was arrested and threatened with 100 years in prison—yes, you read that correctly—allegedly for threatening an FBI agent, concealing evidence, and linking to a website that contained stolen credit card numbers. The allegations themselves are sufficiently preposterous, and the threatened sentence sufficiently draconian, to make it clear that Barrett, like William Binney, Thomas Drake, Daniel Ellsberg, Jeremy Hammond, Jon Kiriakou, Chelsea Manning, Jesselyn Radack, Edward Snowden, Aaron Swartz, Thomas Tamm, and many others, is in fact being persecuted as an example to anyone else who would dare challenge America’s Deep State.

CONTINUED...

http://boingboing.net/2014/12/16/opinion-why-you-should-care-a.html

In this case, I'm surprised by how many side with the FBI over the First Amendment.

[villager]

9. Many here post like good kapos, when it comes to questioning the security state

Wonder if their posting would change if the other corporate party was in the White House now?

[LiberalLovinLug]

10. +1

Seems to be so much loud and wild-eyed circling of the wagons to protect the 2nd amendment, even though outside the circle is nothing but rolling tumbleweeds

But as far as the 1st, shredding it tomorrow is not soon enough.

[Octafish]

12. That brings a disturbing thought...

"The Patriotism" that appears only when the right person is watching.



“To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it. In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt.” -- Mikhail Bakunin

[villager]

13. Well, it's hard to imagine the mass of humanity standing against the corporate state w/ any dignity

Especially if their cells remain "reasonably well appointed" with "stuff," as it were.

Would love to be proven wrong, though.

[Blue_Tires]

23. So you're saying Brown was innocent, then?

So why even plea in such a high-profile case?? Apparently the new way to hide behind criminal behavior is to label yourself a journalist and/or whistleblower.


And just so you know, the door of 'good kapos parroting the party line' swings both ways...

[Blue_Tires]

22. Meanwhile, on the flipside of the coin:

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/44244_Some_Words_on_the_Sentencing_of_Barrett_Brown
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/text/BarrettBrown-March2011-chat.txt

The one thing I'll grant Brown is that he has more stones than Snowden ever did...But I remain unconvinced of his supposed "heroism"

[Ykcutnek]

11. Journalist, lol. nt