Around 8pmest every night
Glenn Greenwald on MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan show(fill-in host):
Glenn Greenwald on Ratigan's radio show today with transcript
DYLAN: So they are trying to say those three firms — they’re saying — I’m sorry to interrupt you, but they’re saying that this firm, HB Gary, they were the cowboys and we weren’t on for the cowboy technique?
GLENN: Right. And they’re saying that they’ve — the CEOs have — the other two companies have said, “We terminated our contracts with them. We don’t want to have anything to do with the company like that.” One of the CEOs of the company called me personally and said, “We want to apologize profusely. We would never have anything to do with anything like this.”
But what happened was today Forbes — this group Anonymous, published 25,000 additional e-mails that they got their hands on and a reporter for Forbes went through them and found that in fact these two other companies that had been denying all responsibility and claiming they would never be involved in anything like this, that they actually were part of the e-mail discussion creating the proposal to smear me and other supporters of WikiLeaks. And in response, one of them has now put on leave the executive that was responsible, and what it turns out is that in fact all three of these companies as well as this law firm, the partner of this law firm, were all extensively involved in these discussions and nobody ever once said anything like, “Wait a minute, we shouldn’t be doing something like this. This is crossing the line” or “it’s violating the law.” They were all perfectly fine with these ideas. It was just par for the course of what happens in this world.
DYLAN: Now, you just said, “This is par for the course for what happens in this world.” We’ve spent a lot of time the past few weeks in this country I think a lot of people getting educated as to just how abusive and dictatorial and murderous Mubarak’s regime was in Egypt. Mubarak, of course, one of the closest allies of America in the Middle East, a man bank rolled by the American taxpayer for the past 30 years, the tear gas that’s used against the crowd supplied by the Americans, the guns supplied by the Americans that are pointed at the oppressors and the F-16s used to intimidate the protesters, of course, supplied by the U.S. military and bought with U.S. tax dollars. What you’re describing to me sounds like the sort of thing that we would report here at NBC as the dastardly scheme of a Middle Eastern dictator to annihilate the reputations of journalists who disagreed with him. Is that too much of a leap on my part?
GLENN: I don’t think so. I mean one of the things, if you read the proposals, they’re unbelievably disserving. And in part they talk about doing things like, for instance, one of the things they wanted to do to destroy WikiLeaks was they wanted to fabricate documents, create forged documents and then feed them to WikiLeaks pretending to be a source. So that when WikiLeaks publish them, they would then attack WikiLeaks and say, “Look, WikiLeaks just published fictitious documents, forged documents that you can no longer believe what they say.” And they talked about infiltrating WikiLeaks’ computer systems so they could learn the identities of the sources of the whistleblowers who gave documents to WikiLeaks. So what we’re talking here is about computer trespassing, cyber crimes, fabricating documents, and when it comes to journalists you’re talking about basically extortion, threatening the careers of people, and saying that, “Essentially, we can’t expose dirt on you. We can harm in other ways unless you stop advocating for WikiLeaks.” It’s exactly the kind of thuggish behavior that tyrannies are known for and that we frequently condemn. And I do think that that’s why this behavior and what’s so notable about it is that these are large entities that regularly do business with the U.S. Government, that have former government employees staffed throughout their company, and it’s really a consortium of corporate and government power that is plotting to do this sort of things.
DYLAN: I stopped for just because what you’re — I’m somebody is fairly up to speed on a lot of this and certainly tries to keep his eyes open as to what is real as opposed to what I want to believe is real or what I’m told is real. But this is about as disturbing as anything that I’ve heard in this country in recent memory.
GLENN: Well, let me just make a point about that, what you just said. I would look at this a lot differently if what had happened here is that there is somebody inside one of these firms who found out what was being plotted and decided that it was just so extreme and so awful that they could not in good conscience allow it to remain concealed, and then decided they were going to blow the whistle on it, just some conscientious whistleblower. Then you might say, “Well, look, this is just a weird aberrational over the line proposal that even someone in this company, one of these companies decided it needed to be public.” That isn’t what happened here. What happened here is that this was just a random hack of e-mails. I mean this group just basically took their hand and randomly and blindly stuck into the hat of these companies’ e-mails and just pulled out as many as they could. And it just turned out that among these e-mails happened to be plans this incriminating and this pernicious.
And what is most striking to me about it is that — what’s amazing to me about it is the casual breezy kind of brazen tone in which these proposals are done. I mean it is definitely in the large part probably illegal, felonies what is being discussed, and yet not only do they feel comfortable proposing it and not only is there nobody in this law firm or this internet security firms saying, “Wait a minute, how can we do something like this?” They feel so brazen and free from risk of law that they were actually willing to put it down in writing and distribute it to multiple companies with the expectation that not only would Bank of America and the Chamber of Commerce not object to it but that they would find it desirable, that they would approve of it, that it would make their hiring more likely. And that to me shows just how commonplace these kinds of schemes are, these kinds of smear campaigns are that these very experienced companies are perfectly comfortable putting it down in writing and believing that these perspective clients want this to be done and that nobody is objecting.
Greenwald today at Salon.com
First, another Palantir employee besides Steckman-- Eli Bingham -- was one of the recipients of Barr's original email proposing this smear campaign. Second, this proposal was being developed immediately before (and for consideration at) a conference call that included Hunton & Williams' Woods, HBGary's Barr, a Berico official, and both Steckman and Bingham on behalf of Palantir (see the bottom email here); was a 26-year-old mid-level engineer the only Palantir official aware of what they were proposing to H&W in order to attract the Bank and the Chamber's business? Third, there's no question -- as this article yesterday from The San Francisco Business Times documents -- that at least three Palantir employees (Steckman, Bingham and Ryan Castle) were all sent emails containing the proposals to smear critics of the Chamber of Commerce, including ThinkProgress. That article notes that these newly released emails "suggest that staff at Palantir Technologies, a high-profile data analysis company co-founded by ex-PayPal CEO Peter Thiel, may have helped prepare a proposal for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to undermine a pro-labor publication called ThinkProgress with dirty tricks." Whatever else is true, Palantir's knowledge of and involvement in these proposals is more extensive than it originally claimed, and extends beyond the 26-year-old scapegoat just placed on leave.
But the real party here which deserves much more scrutiny is Hunton & Williams -- one of the most well-connected legal and lobbying firms in DC -- and its partner John Woods. Using teams of people scouring all the available emails, FDL has done its typically thorough job of setting forth all the key facts and the key players -- including from Booz Allen -- and Woods is at the center of all of it: the key cog acting on behalf of the Bank of America and the Chamber. It's Woods who is soliciting these firms to submit these proposals, pursuant to work for the Chamber and the Bank; according to Palantir emails, H&W was recommended to the Bank by the Justice Department to coordinate the anti-WikiLeaks work.
Despite being at the center of this increasingly disturbing scandal, Woods and H&W steadfastly refuse to comment to anyone. As The New York Times noted on Saturday when reporting this story: "A Hunton & Williams spokesman did not comment." For a lawyer to be at the center of an odious and quite possibly illegal scheme to target progressive activists and their families, threaten the careers of journalists as a means of silencing them, and fabricate forged documents intended for public consumption -- and then steadfastly refuse to comment -- is just inexcusable. Perhaps some polite email and telephone encouragement from the public is needed for Woods to account for what he and his firm have done. In exchange for the privileges lawyers receive (including the exclusive right to furnish legal advice, represent others, and act as officers of the court), members of the Bar have particular ethical obligations to the public. At the very least, the spirit -- if not the letter -- of those obligations is being seriously breached by a lawyer who appears to be at the center of these kinds of pernicious, lawless plots and then refuses to account to the public for what he did.
Given my involvement in this story, I'm going to defer to others in terms of the reporting. But -- given the players involved and the facts that continue to emerge -- this story is far too significant to allow to die due to lack of attention. Many of the named targets are actively considering commencing civil proceedings (which would entail compulsory discovery) as well as ethical grievances with the relevant Bar associations. As the episode with Palantir demonstrates, simply relying on the voluntary statements of the corporations involved ensures that the actual facts will remain concealed if not actively distorted. The DOJ ought to investigate this as well, but for reasons I detailed on Friday, that is unlikely in the extreme. Entities of this type routinely engage in conduct like this with impunity, and the serendipity that led to their exposure in this case should be seized to impose some accountability. That this was discovered through a random email hack -- and that these firms felt so free to propose these schemes in writing and, at least from what is known, not a single person raised any objection at all -- underscores how common this behavior is.
Wired on this
By October 2010, Barr was under considerable stress. His CEO job was under threat, and the e-mails show that the specter of divorce loomed over his personal life.
On Oct. 19, a note arrived. HBGary Federal might be able to provide part of "a complete intelligence solution to a law firm that approached us." That law firm was DC-based powerhouse Hunton & Williams, which boasted 1,000 attorneys and terrific contacts. . . .
The three firms [HBGary, Berico and Palantir] needed a name for their joint operation. One early suggestion: a “Corporate Threat Analysis Cell.” Eventually, a sexier name was chosen: Team Themis.. . .
Team Themis decided to ask for $2 million per month, for six months, for the first phase of the project, putting $500,000 to $700,000 per month in HBGary Federal's pocket.
But the three companies disagreed about how to split the pie. In the end, Palantir agreed to take less money, but that decision had to go "way up the chain (as you can imagine)," wrote the Palantir contact for Team Themis. "The short of it is that we got approval from Dr. Karp and the Board to go ahead with the modified 40/30/30 breakdown proposed. These were not fun conversations, but we are committed to this team and we can optimize the cost structure in the long term (let’s demonstrate success and then take over this market :) )."
The leaders at the very top of Palantir were aware of the Team Themis work, though the details of what was being proposed by Barr may well have escaped their notice. Palantir wasn't kidding around with this contract; if selected by H&W and the Chamber, Palantir planned to staff the project with an experienced intelligence operative, a man who "ran the foreign fighter campaign on the Syrian border in 2005 to stop the flow of suicide bombers into Baghdad and helped to ensure a successful Iraqi election. As a commander, [he] ran the entire intelligence cycle: identified high-level terrorists, planned missions to kill or capture them, led the missions personally, then exploited the intelligence and evidence gathered on target to defeat broader enemy networks" . . . .
But before H&W made a decision on Chamber of Commerce plan, it had another urgent request for Team Themis: a major U.S. bank had come to H&W seeking help against WikiLeaks (the bank has been widely assumed to be Bank of America, which has long been rumored to be a future WikiLeaks target.)
"We want to sell this team as part of what we are talking about," said the team’s H&W contact. "I need a favor. I need five to six slides on Wikileaks -- who they are, how they operate and how this group may help this bank. . . ."
After the Anonymous attacks and the release of Barr’s e-mails, his partners furiously distanced themselves from Barr's work. Palantir CEO Dr. Alex Karp wrote, "We do not provide — nor do we have any plans to develop -- offensive cyber capabilities . . . ." Berico said (PDF) that it "does not condone or support any effort that proactively targets American firms, organizations or individuals. We find such actions reprehensible and are deeply committed to partnering with the best companies in our industry that share our core values. Therefore, we have discontinued all ties with HBGary Federal."
But both of the Team Themis leads at these companies knew exactly what was being proposed (such knowledge may not have run to the top). They saw Barr's e-mails, and they used his work. His ideas on attacking WikiLeaks made it almost verbatim into a Palantir slide about "proactive tactics."
Andy Greenberg at Forbes(you should really read the whole thing)
The emails also show that it was Barr who suggested pressuring Salon.com journalist Glenn Greenwald, though Palantir, another firm working with HBGary Federal, quickly accepted that suggestion and added it to the PowerPoint presentation that the group was assembling.
Brad Friedman has another take (I copied almost the whole thing WITH Brad's permimssion of course. There is a funny pic at the link and I don't know how to do pics so...
As noted, one of those they'd planned to target in hopes of discrediting in their nefarious scheme was yours truly, as well as my family, and VelvetRevolution.us, the non-profit, non-partisan organization co-founded by The BRAD BLOG. I was specifically targeted personally as the Chamber's first, "Tier 1" opponent in a Power Point presentation prepared for the nation's largest corporate lobby's law firm Hunton & Williams (H&W) by the three cyber-security/intelligence firms, HBGary Federal, Berico Technologies & Palantir Technologies. The triumvirate called themselves "Team Themis" in the plots developed for the U.S. Chamber to fraudulently discredit opponents and for a very similar scheme made for Bank of America to try and disrupt WikiLeaks.
FARCing Aaron Barr: Marcy Wheeler picks up on the general leitmotif of my piece today, highlighting tools and techniques developed by the three Team Themis firms for use against terrorist networks, now turned against U.S. citizen political opponents of their corporate clients, the U.S. Chamber and BofA. Her piece offers real world details on how HBGary's CEO and Jackass-in-Chief, Aaron Barr, had previously used the very same social media analysis tools against FARC revolutionaries --- the same tools and techniques he'd hoped to employ against people like me --- and you.
The Chamber Knew: I also noted the utter failure and complete absurdity of the U.S. Chamber's two, laughable non-denial denials (here and here) issued in the wake of this mess, claiming it was they who were the victims of "baseless attacks" and "smears", when in reality, they had simply no idea what those dastardly folks at Team Themis were up to! I noted the HBGary emails published by Anonymous showed that, in fact, the Chamber certainly knew what was going on, and how it was ridiculous on its face to presume their own law firm was acting without their direction. Today, Scott Keyes at ThinkProgress highlights a number of those emails demonstrating that the Chamber was in the loop throughout as their law firm H&W and Team Themis honed their conspiracies to defraud and defame.
Palantir Suspension: I pointed out a few of the implausibilities in the Palantir firm's claims of innocence as well, and their use of HBGary and its CEO Barr as terribly convenient fall guys (see the "Damage Control" section of yesterday's report) as the company now fights to save face and hang on to millions of dollars in government intel contracts. While the firm and their CEO, Dr. Alex Karp claimed the company "did not participate in the development" of the most "offensive" parts of the schemes, the emails show otherwise. Now, as Salon reports, one of their engineers, 26-year old Matthew Steckman, has been placed "on leave pending a thorough review of his actions" in the matter. And no, in case you're wondering, while Karp quickly called the very high-profile journalist Glenn Greenwald to offer an apology for his targeting by Team Themis after the conspiracy to discredit him came to light, Karp has yet to offer me the same courtesy, even as I was placed front and center in their ChamberPlot.
Also from Brad, Green News Report audio with Brad and Desi Doyen includes this whole mess
Alan Dershowitz on Parker Spitzer discussing Wikileaks/Julian Assange and his decision to become a legal advisor for them
Jason Ryan at ABC News: DOJ Seeks Twitter Records in Wikileaks Probe
In an interesting juxtaposition to Secretary Clinton's internet freedom speech later today, this morning at the US District Court in Alexandria the Justice Department will be seeking to enforce a court order to direct Twitter Inc, to provide the US government records from 3 individuals including Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of the Icelandic Parliament who communicated with others about Wikileaks and Julian Assange last year when Wikileaks released their trove of US cables.
WLCentral with review on what the cables have shown about Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and elsewhere in the region. And a Part II tomorrow
Be sure to follow the Wikileaks Informationthread group. Also let me know if you can see the messages in the group forum.