[Vision2020] US Chamber’s Lobbyists Solicited Hackers To Sabotage Unions, Smear Chamber’s Political Opponents

[Ron Force]

The average working stiff never hears of it. Go to the news sites for CBS, ABC, 
NBC, Fox--not a peep.

 Ron Force
Moscow Idaho USA




________________________________
From: Joe Campbell <philosopher.joe at gmail.com>
To: Dave <tiedye at turbonet.com>
Cc: vision2020 <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Sun, February 13, 2011 6:12:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] US Chamber’s Lobbyists Solicited Hackers To Sabotage 
Unions, Smear Chamber’s Political Opponents


Can someone tell me why the average working stiff is unimpressed by this sort of 
news?




On Feb 13, 2011, at 1:14 PM, Dave <tiedye at turbonet.com> wrote:


http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/10/lobbyists-chamberleaks/
>
>Anyone from the local chamber care to comment?
>
>Dave
>
>
>EXCLUSIVE: US Chamber’s           Lobbyists Solicited Hackers To Sabotage 
>Unions, Smear           Chamber’s Political Opponents 
>
>>ThinkProgress has learned that a law firm representing the U.S.         Chamber 
>>of Commerce, the big business trade association         representing ExxonMobil, 
>>AIG, and other major international         corporations, is working with set of 
>>“private security”         companies and lobbying firms to undermine their 
>>political         opponents, including ThinkProgress, with a surreptitious         
>>sabotage campaign. 
>>
>>According to e-mails obtained by ThinkProgress, the Chamber         hired the 
>>lobbying firm Hunton and Williams. Hunton And         Williams’ attorney Richard 
>>Wyatt, who once represented Food Lion in its infamous lawsuit against ABC News,         
>>was hired by the Chamber in October of last year. To assist the Chamber,         
>>Wyatt and his associates,         John Woods and Bob Quackenboss, solicited a 
>>set of private         security firms — HBGary Federal, Palantir, and Berico         
>>Technologies (collectively called Team Themis) — to develop         tactics for 
>>damaging progressive groups and labor unions, in         particular 
>>ThinkProgress, the labor coalition called Change to         Win, the SEIU, US 
>>Chamber Watch, and StopTheChamber.com. 
>>
>>According to one document prepared by Team Themis, the campaign included an 
>>entrapment         project. The proposal called for first creating a “false         
>>document, perhaps highlighting periodical financial         information,” to 
>>give to a progressive group opposing the         Chamber, and then to 
>>subsequently expose the document as a fake         to undermine the credibility 
>>of the Chamber’s opponents. In         addition, the group proposed creating a 
>>“fake insider persona”         to “generate communications” with Change to Win. 
>>View a         screenshot below: 
>>
>><screenshotfixed.jpg>
>>The security firms hoped to obtain $200,000 for initial background research, 
>>then charge up to $2           million for a larger disinformation campaign 
>>against         progressives. We don’t know if the proposal was accepted after         
>>Phase 1 was completed.
>>The e-mails ThinkProgress acquired are available widely on the         web. They 
>>were posted by members of “Anonymous,”          the hactivist community 
>>responsible for taking down websites for         oppressive regimes in Tunisia, 
>>Egypt, and American corporations         that have censored WikiLeaks. Anonymous 
>>published the emails         from HBGary Federal because an executive at the 
>>firm, Aaron         Barr, was trying to take Anonymous down. Barr claimed that 
>>he had penetrated Anonymous and was hoping to sell the data         to Bank of 
>>America and to federal authorities in the United         States. In response, 
>>members of Anonymous hacked into Barr’s         email and published some 40,000 
>>company e-mails.
>>It is widely believed that Wikileaks has sensitive information         about 
>>Bank of America, and plans to expose it later this year.         This revelation 
>>prompted Bank of America to hire the         law/lobbying firm Hunton and 
>>Williams, which in turn, according         to the e-mails posted online by 
>>Anonymous, hired HBGary Federal         and other firms to go after Anonymous 
>>and supporters of         Wikileaks. For instance, one proposal from HBGary 
>>Federal and         its associates proposed targeting Salon reporter and         
>>Wikileaks-supporter Glenn Greenwald with “actions           to sabotage or 
>>discredit” him. 
>>
>>ThinkProgress has published a series of articles investigating         the 
>>Chamber and its activities. We exposed the Chamber’s efforts to coordinate a 
>>lobbying campaign on         behalf of large banks, including JP Morgan, to kill 
>>significant         portions of financial reform. In October, we published a 
>>series looking into the Chamber’s efforts to solicit donations from         
>>foreign corporations for the same account the Chamber used to         run 
>>partisan attack ads during the midterm campaign, as well as         the 
>>Chamber’s participation in secret fundraising meetings convened by the 
>>billionaire         plutocrats David and Charles Koch. 
>>
>>ThinkProgress will be posting more details of the Chamber         lobbyist 
>>campaign to target progressives soon.
>>– With reporting from Scott Keyes



-- 
Windows, OSX, or Linux is the same choice as:
McDonald's, Burger King, or a (real) Co-Op.

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