Category Archives: Proud Boys

Hugo Lowell,:

Well, the key of all of this is this December 21 meeting that Trump has with the White House at the White House with all these members of Congress House Freedom Caucus people, Jim Jordan, Andy Biggs, these really prominent Republicans who are big Trump allies on the hill.

And the crux of these conversations are, you know, how do we stop the certification of Joe Biden's election win on January 6, and they go back and forth and they talk about all sorts of things. And at some point, these members of Congress and Trump and Mark Meadows, the White House Chief of Staff learn that these efforts to violate the Electoral Account Act are unlawful and yet they pursue the strategy anyway.

And now the question of the said committee has to figure out is, is this all connected? Right, the Trump and Republican member of Congress on the attack on the Capitol and that's where the investigation is going.

Link:

Looking ahead to the Jan. 6 committee hearings - PBS NewsHour

Chris Odin Young, former Proud Boy at the Capitol on November 28, 2020.(Courtesy of @Borwin10)

By Robert J. Hansen

Sacramento, CA Usually wearing black shirts, with a yellow rooster on a weather vane or yellow knuckles, black pants, and a flak jacket, thats how a Proud Boy can be spotted from the many chapters throughout California and the United States.

The Proud Boys are a far-right, nearly exclusively male organization that has engaged in political violence that views its rival, Antifa, as the enemy, of traditional American values.

In downtown Sacramento, there have been several events in the past four to five years where Proud Boys have made public appearances.

In June 2021, a memorial for Breonna Taylors birthday coincided with a rally for Ashley Babbitt, a woman who was fatally shot during the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol.

A small number of Proud Boys and members of Antifa had a minor confrontation that the police did little to quell. Later that day some people from the Babbitt rally ruined the memorial for Breonna Taylor.

A small clash between Proud Boys and Antifa at the California Capitol building on June 5, 2021.(Photo by Robert J Hansen)

Chris Odin Young has attended many of these events in his roughly four years as a Proud Boy, but for almost a year has focused on work and his family.

The former Proud Boy said after years of demonstrating and political activism, as he called it, it has accomplished nothing.

What has it changed? It hasnt changed anything. It hasnt created positivity, Young said.

Young, 38, said he joined Proud Boys thinking it was a group of honorable men who were like-minded who wanted to live by a certain code of honor, integrity, morals, values, and uphold the traditional nuclear family.

I think its something thats important and is slowly being eradicated by liberal ideology, Young said. I wanted to be involved with men who I thought were like me.

Instead, Young found out that 90 percent of them are degenerate scumbags.

Young says he has built chapters and brought in lots of members but that there are leadership issues and a schism between members that could cause the end of the Proud Boys.

Proud Boys isnt gonna last much longer, Young said.

There are two ideologies within the group according to Young. One he calls the party boys mentality which is members who joined for the fraternity and party aspects which it was founded on, and the rally boys who joined to be part of the political rallies and demonstrations.

This is the reason why chapters butt heads. And the bylaws are just as stupid, nobody follows the bylaws, Young said. People just let whoever they want and thats how you get guys throwing up Romans, its not gonna last much longer.

Young called what happened at the January 6 attack on the Capitol a s*** show, and said,I dont think it was an insurrection though, Young said. I know what happened, I got live updates, it was just a s*** show.

Most of the members of Youngs chapter, he claimed, would not attack people unprovoked.

Typically, the guys that I was around, were decent dudes that wouldnt just go up and start bashing people.

Young said it only takes one person to make the entire chapter look bad.

One guy does something stupid and the whole organization is going to suffer, Youngs said.

Young says there was a rally where he planned to march to Cesar Chavez Park in downtown Sacramento and plant an American flag on the ground.

Young was in communication with the Sacramento Police Department the entire day and when he announced to the group to begin marching he received a phone call from the Attorney Generals Office.

He said if you go outside those barriers theres going to be consequences, Young said.

Young said he complied with the attorney and told the group that unfortunately they would not March outside the gate.

They were obviously p***** and then Jeffrey (Perrine) took the microphone and he was like f*** that, Young said. It only took one person to rally everybody there.

Young said they then marched to Cesar Chavez and a fight broke out.

It took just one person to get everyone riled up, Young said. So all it took was one person to get all those people riled up and storm the Capitol and thats how it happened, there was nothing planned.

When asked if former President Donald Trump had something to do with getting the crowd prepared to attack the Capitol, Young called him an idiot.

He didnt know, he certainly didnt know what was gonna happen, Young said.

Proud Boys in Sacramento(Via Twitter)

In March, a group of Proud Boys held a banner drop at an overpass in Rancho Cordova where they attacked a group of independent journalists, members of the Black Zebra Impact Team.

The incident is recorded and can be seen here.

The journalists were only recording the scene when a member knocked the phone out of one cameramans hand and hit him with a three to four-foot pole while charging at the other BZIT member.

Two weeks ago, Proud Boy Tyler Greenhalgh was at Howe Avenue and Fair Oaks Boulevard while the City of Sacramento was removing a homeless encampment.

He and BZIT members got into a verbal altercation which eventually calmed down to a conversation which can be seen here.

Greenhalgh seemed to know and was supportive of the cleanup crew, Forensiclean, which was contracted by Sacramento County to clean up and clear homeless encampments.

Sacramento Police did very little to defuse the situation between the BZIT camera crew and Greenhalgh.

Young says that law enforcement officers were members of Proud Boys before the January 6 attack on the Capitol in Washington, D.C. and since then there are few if any who still affiliate with the group.

Young said one day at the Capitol in Sacramento, the officers that stood by while a member spoke about the police being there protecting the government, not them.

I realized that day, that no matter what happens, a cop is always going to execute an order, Young said.

Young said it was a sad day for him and is no longer the supporter of law enforcement that he once was.

Young received an odd text message that when he responded it ended up being agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

They told him they were about 20 minutes from his location and asked if he would meet up with them.

About a thousand things go through your head. I dont break laws, I dont have anything to hide, Youngs said.

He told them he wasnt comfortable meeting anywhere except the Galt Police Department.

Young got there early to make sure nothing unexpected was waiting for him and the FBI agents got there on time as planned.

What they were trying to do was get information about what I knew about Proud Boys and the whole January 6 thing, Young said.

The agents ultimately tried to get Young to infiltrate a local Antifa chapter which he refused to do.

They wanted me to be a lone agent gathering information on Antifa, Young said. At that point, I thought they were trying to set me up to be a patsy or something.

During this interaction with the FBI, Young was in communication with his leadership letting them know what was happening.

I went home and spoke to my leadership about it and I called them (the FBI) back and told them what kind of loyalty would I have working with a group that is trying to bring down my brothers? Young said.

Paranoia within the chapter began to circulate that Young had turned informant for the FBI.

After everything that I had done, it just trickled down and I essentially wanted to leave with my honor, Young said. We had a meeting and I stepped away.

Young is married and just had a second child and his family is his focus now.

He has also started his own organization, Bowery Boys. focused on everything he thought the Proud Boys were supposed to be and says it will not be a political organization.

Original post:

Former Proud Boy Talks about January 6, Antifa and Why the Organization Won't Last Much Longer - The Peoples Vanguard of Davis

Top leaders in the Oath Keepers militia group indicted on seditious conspiracy charges over the Capitol attack had contacts with the Proud Boys and a figure in the Stop the Steal movement and may also have been in touch with the Republican congressman Ronny Jackson, newly released text messages show.

The texts which indicate the apparent ease with which Oath Keepers messaged Proud Boys could strengthen a theory being explored by the House January 6 committee and the US justice department: that the Capitol attack included a coordinated assault.

Oath Keepers text messages released in a court filing on Monday night showed members of the group were in direct communication with the Proud Boys leader Enqrique Tarrio in the days before the Capitol attack.

In an exchange on 4 January 2021, the Oath Keepers Florida chapter leader, Kelly Meggs, indicates an attempt to call Tarrio after learning of his arrest.

I just called him no answer, Meggs texted a group chat. But he will [call if] hes out.

That close relationship is certain to be of interest to the House committee as it zeroes in on whether the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys coordinated an attack on the Capitol in an attempt to stop certification of Joe Bidens election win over Donald Trump.

As the Guardian first reported, the committee has amassed deep evidence of connections between the far-right groups which could play a role in establishing whether Trump oversaw a criminal conspiracy as part of his attempt to hold on to power.

The newly released text messages also show a new link between the Oath Keepers and an unnamed figure from the Stop the Steal movement, which has ties to the pro-Trump operative Roger Stone and to Ali Alexander, a prominent Trump ally and activist.

On the evening of 1 January, Stewart Rhodes, the national leader of the Oath Keepers, texted to say he was adding an unidentified person affiliated with Stop the Steal to the group chat, to help them prepare for January 6.

The name was redacted in the released texts but Rhodes described an event producer for Stop the Steal. He requested I add him here. He can sort out who is doing what in the creative chaos that will be Jan 5/6.

Hes a good egg.

It was not clear whether Rhodes misattributed an affiliation to Stop the Steal, given the January 6 rally at the Ellipse was a Save America event. Neither Alexander nor Stone appeared to message the group chat or were otherwise involved.

The Oath Keepers text messages also show a connection to Ronny Jackson that allowed one of its members to learn that the Texas congressman Trumps former White House doctor needed protection as the Capitol attack unfolded.

The potential connection between the Oath Keepers and a Republican member of Congress could mark a new investigatory direction for the committee and the justice department: whether Jackson or others might have had advance knowledge of the Oath Keepers plans.

In the exchange on January 6, an unidentified Oath Keeper texts the group chat that Ronnie Jackson (TX) office inside Capitol he needs OK help. Anyone inside?

The same Oath Keeper provides an update less than 10 minutes later: Dr Ronnie Jackson on the move. Needs protection. If anyone inside cover him. He has critical data to protect.

Rhodes quickly responds: Give him my cell.

In a statement to the Guardian, a spokesperson said Jackson is frequently talked about by people he does not know. He does not know nor has he ever spoken to the people in question.

Asked if Jackson was never in contact with the Oath Keepers, the spokesperson did not answer.

The House committee has not given any indication that Republican members of Congress were connected to a potential conspiracy overseen by Trump that would connect his plan to have then-vice president Mike Pence overturn the election with the Capitol attack.

The Oath Keepers texts were included in a motion for release from pre-trial detention by Ed Vallejo, one of 11 group members facing charges of seditious conspiracy. On January 6, prosecutors say, Vallejo was at a Comfort Inn in Virginia with a cache of weapons, meant to act as a quick reaction force.

The messages show the Oath Keepers discussed providing security for prominent Trump allies including Stone, Alexander, Alex Jones, Lin Wood and Mike Flynn, Trumps former national security adviser.

One week before January 6, Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, mentioned requests to provide security for Bianca Garcia, president of the group Latinos for Trump, for which Tarrio, the Proud Boys leader, was also chief of staff.

The next day, Meggs, the Florida Oath Keepers leader who would ultimately lead Stones security detail, boasted that he had spoken to Stone the night before. Jessica Watkins, another member of the Oath Keepers, said she was also in touch with Stone.

Roger Stone just asked for security, Watkins texted the group chat on 1 January, to which Meggs responded: Who reached out to you? I [spoke] to him Wednesday.

Meggs using the alias OK Gator 1 added: I just texted him.

Though the Oath Keepers discussed providing security for other Trump allies, the extent of their voluntary services remains unclear. Alexander said in a recent statement that the Oath Keepers did not perform security duties for him on January 6.

See more here:

Oath Keepers and Proud Boys were in touch before US Capitol attack, texts reveal - The Guardian

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WSPA) A South Carolina inmate is accused of threatening to assassinate President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Eric Anthony Rome Jr. is facing eight criminal charges that include threatening the United State President and Vice President as well as threatening federal officials and their families.

Based on the indictments, the first threat was made on July 13, 2020, and the last one on March 14, 2022.

Rome Jr. is currently being held at the Kirkland Correctional Institution for a 2019 bank robbery in Greenville County.

While an inmate at Lieber Correctional Institution, Rome Jr. made a threat to take the life of and inflict bodily harm upon the Vice President of the United States on June 28, 2021.

According to the indictment, Rome Jr. called the South Carolina Department of Corrections and left the following voicemail:

My name is Eric Rome. Im a member of the South Carolina Aryan Brotherhood. I dont have long in prison, but Ill be leaving early regardless. Ive got an escape plan and my intention is to escape and kill Kamala Harris the Vice President. Its unfortunate that I cant take her somewhere Yet, I mean shooting her will have to work. I intend to carry out a sniper attack against Kamala Harris. I will attempt to find her and kill her, and if I cant, my brothers in the Aryan Brotherhood will. Its very serious. White power.

On June 30, 2021, Rome Jr. made a threat to take the life of and inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, the indictment said.

He called the South Carolina Department of Corrections and left the following voicemail:

The South Carolina branch of the Aryan Brotherhood can no longer tolerate a globalist communist President such as Joe Biden. Well be trying to assassinate him forthwith. Ive an escape attempt planned to get out of this prison, which shouldnt be hard because its done in SCDC all the time, and carry out a sniper attack on Joe Biden and take his life. Im willing to die in the attempt. White power.

While an inmate at the Board River Correctional Institute, on November 19, 2021, Rome made a threat to take the life of and to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States and the Vice President of the United States.

According to the indictment, he called the South Carolina Department of Corrections and left the following voicemail:

This is a statement of intent by the Aryan Brotherhood of South Carolina and the Greenville, South Carolina, Proud Boys, our intent is war on the federal government and specifically the assassination of the feds, Marxist leader Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. The death of these two has been decided based on a number of factors, not least of which being the theft of the last presidential election, promoting critical race theory in our schools, the vax mandate and using Marxist media outlets, notably CNN, to brainwash our citizens. These assassinations are imminent, and I, Eric Rome, of the Aryan Brotherhood, will have direct involvement. Secondly, also, we require the dishonorable judge, Joseph Anderson, the federal courthouse in Richland, South Carolina, to vacate the bench immediately; otherwise, we will execute the old man and post videos of his death on as many web platforms as we can, which judge, Joseph Anderson, convicted me on behalf of President Barack Obama in 2015, so I personally hope he doesnt heed this advice so I can see him dead. My name is Eric Anderso. Make America Great Again.

In two of the indictments, Rome Jr. sent letters to the U.S. Supreme Court and a Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in Portland, Oregon, claiming to contain anthrax.

This letter contains weapons grade anthrax. You [sic] as good as dead having opened this, part of the letter said.

In two other indictments, Rome Jr. threatened to injure the person whose letter was addressed, which included his supervising probation officer and the Senior United States District Judge.

On November 19, 2021, Rome Jr. threatened to assault and murder a United States Official, Judge Joseph Anderson by voicemail, according to the indictment.

We will execute the old man and post videos of his death on as many web platforms as we can, part of the voicemail said.

In his voicemail, Rome Jr. said that Judge Anderson convicted him in 2015 on behalf of President Barack Obama.

Originally posted here:

SC inmate accused of threatening to assassinate Pres. Biden, VP Harris - WSAV-TV

An Ottawa man who was a member of the now disbanded Proud Boys Canada organization has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in the U.S. It comes after he wasextradited from Canada to face a chargethat he assaulteda Palestinian man at a protest in Washington, D.C., five years ago, and that the attackwas motivated by hate.

The assault occurred on March 26, 2017, when the American Israel Public Affairs Committee which advocates for a strong relationship between the U.S. and Israel was holding its annual policy conference at a convention centrein downtown Washington.

Rival demonstrations by left-wing Jewish anti-establishment groups and the far-rightJewish Defense League(labelled a terrorist group by the FBI) and its supporters were taking place outside the centre at the time.

Amongthe Jewish Defense League'ssupporters was Brandon Vaughan, then a 22-year-old from Ottawa.

At the time hewas alsoa self-proclaimed member of the Proud Boysa far-right men's organizationlaterlabelled a terrorist entity inCanadaand was active on social mediabefore Proud Boys content was banned from many sites.

Some of the evidence police in Washington collected wasincluded in a2021 factumfiled in Ottawa Superior Court on a motion to have Vaughan placed into custody pending extradition.The factum statesthe victim from Charlotte, N.C.,and his spouse were visiting their daughter, who was studying in Washington, and were dropping her off near the convention centre as demonstrations were ongoing.

The victim heard a woman say Palestine doesn't exist, and in response the victim pointed to himself and said "words to the effect of, 'This is Palestine,'" according to the factum.

Immediately afterward,the man waspushed to the ground and was punched and kicked repeatedly by several peopleas he lay theretryingto protect himself, the factum states. His injuries included a wound near his eye requiring 18 stitches, abrasions, and bruising on his ribs and back.

The victim later identified Vaughan, who was wearing a Jewish Defense League shirt, as one of his attackers, according to the factum.

In April 2018, Vaughan was charged withafelony for his alleged role assault causingsignificant bodily injury while armed and was accused of being motivated by racial hate.

The felony assault charge carriesa statutory maximum of 30 years in prison, and aconvictiononthe hate-crime enhancement would have increasedthe maximum penalty to 1.5 times that amount, or 45 years.

The indictment filed by the grand jury in Washington allegedthe assault demonstrated Vaughan'sprejudice "based on the actual or perceived race, colour, or national origin" of the victim.

AMetropolitan Police Department public incident report filed after the attack listed the assaultas a suspected hate crime, andthe bias as "anti-Arab."

Vaughan, now 27, waived his right to an extradition hearing in Superior Court in Ottawa last monthand was conveyed to the U.S. days later on March 17, according to Canada's Department of Justice.

He had been wanted on a Washington, D.C., Superior Court bench warrant for nearly four years prior to hisextradition, afterfailingto appear in court in 2018 when the charges were laid.

After signing aplea agreement, Vaughan pleaded guilty March 28 to thelesser charge of simple assaulta misdemeanor that carries a statutory maximum of 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

In signing the agreement, Vaughanadmitted he acted voluntarily, on purpose and not by mistake or accident when he pushed to the ground and assaulted the victim after hehad identified himself as Palestinian.

Vaughan was sentenced by Judge Sean C. Staples to time already served,according toBill Miller, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. Vaughanhad been in custody in Canada for about two months prior to his extradition.

Three others, including a Toronto man, earlier pleaded guilty to simple assault for their roles in the attack:Jesse Vorona, Yosef Steynovitzof Toronto,andRami Lubranicki.

Vorona, like Vaughan, was sentenced to time served. Steynovitz and Lubranicki were placed on probation, Miller wrote in an email.

The extradition and plea cameafter Vaughan pleaded guilty in the Ontario Court of Justice to possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and received a conditional discharge in May 2021. The charge stemmed from an unrelated incident in July 2020.

Chargesof assault and failing to appear to be fingerprintedwerewithdrawn.

Vaughan was sentenced to 12 months of probation and was fined a victim surcharge of $100.

He was also ordered to complete anger management classes,not contact or be anywhere near the alleged victim of the withdrawn assault charge, and not possess any weapons.

In 2014, charges of mischief under $5,000 and failing to appear in court on the mischief countwerewithdrawn.

Attempts to reach Vaughan for comment were unsuccessful.

Continued here:

Former Proud Boys member extradited to U.S. pleads to misdemeanor after assaulting Palestinian man - CBC.ca

Behind closed doors in a nondescript conference room at the foot of Capitol Hill, the House select committee investigating 6 January next week expects to hear testimony about the connections between the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys militia groups and the Capitol attack.

The panel expects to hear how the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys coordinated their plans and movements in the days before the insurrection to the same level of detail secured by the justice department and referenced in recent prosecutions for seditious conspiracy.

And the select committee hopes to also hear in the 5 April deposition arranged by a senior counsel for the panel private conversations between the leaders of the two militia groups and whether they might have communicated with any Trump advisers.

The panel should get the evidence both on the record and under oath, according to two sources familiar with the arrangement, to add to raw video footage of a meeting between the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders in a garage across from the Capitol on the eve of 6 January.

The expected testimony and materials represent another significant breakthrough for the investigation and could play a major role in establishing for the select committee whether Donald Trump oversaw a criminal conspiracy as part of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Most crucially for the panel, it could form part of the evidence to connect the militia groups that stormed the Capitol on 6 January to the organizers of the Save America rally that immediately preceded the attack who in turn are slowly being linked to the Trump White House.

As the select committee moves closer to Trump who House investigators alleged in a recent court filing that the former president violated federal laws including obstructing Congress and conspiring to defraud the United States as he sought to return himself to power it is redoubling its efforts.

The information that Sean Tonolli, the senior investigative counsel who set up the deposition, should obtain about the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys in the first week of April means the panel has managed to get all the major evidence for all the big moments.

In December, the select committee revealed that it had in its possession 2,320 text messages from Trumps former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, emails such as one with a PowerPoint presentation on staging a coup, and other documents he had turned over to the inquiry.

That alone has been seen as a treasure trove of materials, including messages to and from House Republicans who apologized for not being able to stop the certification of Joe Bidens election win, and more recently, messages with Ginni Thomas, the wife of the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas.

In January, the panel got from the National Archives thousands of pages of Trump White House documents that the former president unsuccessfully sought to shield over claims of executive privilege in a case that Justice Thomas reviewed and emerged as the sole dissenter.

Those included documents in the files of Meadows and the former deputy White House counsel Pat Philbin, among others, and Trumps private schedule for 6 January that showed he gave the crowd a false pretense to go to the Capitol perhaps in the hope that they might stop Bidens certification.

Then the select committee learned of the fake electors ploy a scheme to send alternate slates of Trump electors to Congress in states won by Biden that ensnared the White House and showed the involvement of some of Trumps most senior aides.

Earlier this month, the panel also revealed in separate litigation that the Trump lawyer John Eastman knew that his plan to have the then-vice president, Mike Pence, reject Bidens wins in select battleground states and return Trump to office was an unlawful violation of the Electoral Count Act.

The panel has so far conducted the vast majority of its investigation in private, conducting nearly 750 depositions behind closed doors, amassing more than 84,000 documents and pursuing more than 430 tips that have come through on its website tip line.

But notwithstanding the secrecy, the select committee has uncovered extraordinary information that has put them several steps closer to potentially forcing them to make criminal referrals to the justice department once the inquiry is complete, the sources said.

What the panel has found and made public so far, the sources said, could also lay the groundwork to sketch out a criminal conspiracy that connects Trumps political plan to return himself to office with the attack itself its ultimate suspicion, the Guardian first reported.

From its nondescript offices boarded up with beige boards and wood-paneled conference rooms with blinds always drawn, the select committee has spent the last eight months working in color-coded teams in an attempt to untangle Trumps efforts to subvert the 2020 election results.

The gold team is examining Trumps plans to stop the certification of Bidens election win with the help of Republican members of Congress, and his pressure campaign on state, local and justice department officials to return himself to office.

The red team is looking at the Save America rally organizers and the Stop the Steal Movement, while the purple team is scrutinizing the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, the 1st Amendment Praetorian and how militia groups helped lead the Trump mob into the Capitol building.

As the panel moves into the second phase of its investigation, its members have said they want to release in narrative form the evidence of wrongdoing in a series of public hearings that are likely to be delayed from April to May but still focus on how Trump broke the law.

The select committees purpose remains to recommend legislative reforms to prevent a repeat of 6 January, but the evidence collected by the panel is fast hurtling it towards a conclusion of criminal behavior that could implicate Trump and necessitate a referral the sources said.

Read the rest here:

Capitol attack panel expects to hear how militia groups coordinated plans before insurrection - The Guardian

For nearly two decades, one of the world's most infamous hacker groups has operated under the name "Anonymous." And the mysterious online community is making headlines once again.

After Russia invaded Ukraine at the end of February, a Twitter account with 7.9 million followers named "Anonymous" declared a "cyber war" against Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. Since then, the group has claimed responsibility for various cyberattacks that disabled websites and leaked data from Russian government agencies, as well as state-run news outlets and corporations.

Often called "hacktivists," Anonymous employs coordinated cyberattacks against various world governments, corporations or other groups, often in the name of social or political causes. In a Feb. 24 tweet, the "Anonymous" account which says it "cannot claim to speak for the whole of the Anonymous collective" called on hackers around the world, including in Russia, to "say 'NO' to Vladimir Putin's war."

Over the years, actions linked to Anonymous have inspired both Hollywood filmmakers and other hacker groups around the world. Here's a look at the murky group's origins, some of its most notable cyberattacks and the philosophy that allegedly steers its decisions:

Anonymous' origin story begins in the online message forums of 4chan, the anonymous social community website founded in 2003. Even today, posts on 4chan from users who don't specify a username are labeled as written by "Anonymous."

In the website's early days, users often organized group pranks called "raids," flooding chat rooms in games and other online communities to cause disruptions. 4chan began cracking down on the raids after critics accused participants of cyberbullying and posting offensive content.

Those raids formed the basis of Anonymous' operations: a decentralized movement of like-minded online users who would communicate in encrypted chat rooms to plan online disruptions. At first, those plans were largely about cheap entertainment. Eventually, they began to revolve around social or political aims.

The group's most prominent early instance of "hacktivism" came in 2008, when 4chan users led by early Anonymous hacker Gregg Housh launched a coordinated effort against the Church of Scientology, using tactics like denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on the church's websites, prank phone calls and faxing the church black pages to waste their printer ink.

The cyberattacks, which Anonymous labeled "Project Chanology," were retaliation for what the hackers deemed as attempted censorship: The church had legally threatened Gawker after the media outlet published a leaked video of actor Tom Cruise speaking enthusiastically about Scientology.

A series of worldwide protests against Scientology soon followed, with many Anonymous-supporting protesters wearing white-and-black Guy Fawkes masks, depicting the 17th century British insurrectionist. Those masks have since become closely associated with hacking group.

Generally, Anonymous opposes governments and corporations that it views as participating in censorship or promoting inequality. Since the group is decentralized, it has no real structure or hierarchy so there's often much internal debate about which ideas or causes to support.

A pinned 2019 tweet on the @YourAnonNews Twitter account which, again, claims not to speak for the collective as a whole describes Anonymous members as "working class people seeking a better future for humanity." It lists Anonymous' guiding principles as "freedom of information, freedom of speech, accountability for companies and governments, privacy and anonymity for private citizens."

Since "Project Chanology," Anonymous members have targeted a long list of parties, including:

Authorities around the world have arrested dozens of hackers with alleged ties to Anonymous, including at least 14 people charged with hacking PayPal in 2011. Barrett Brown, a journalist and self-professed Anonymous spokesperson, served more than four years in prison after a 2012 arrest on charges related to cyberattacks and threatening a federal officer.

The collective's activities trailed off after some of those arrests, but resurfaced last year when Anonymous claimed responsibility for hacks targeting the Republican Party in Texas, in protest of the state's controversial abortion law. Anonymous also claimed responsibility for a September hack of web-hosting company Epik, which leaked more than 150 gigabytes of data on far-right groups like QAnon and the Proud Boys.

In 2012, Time magazine named Anonymous one of the world's 100 Most Influential People. Today, millions of people follow Anonymous-affiliated social media accounts.

Jeremiah Fowler, a co-founder of the cybersecurity company Security Discovery, told CNBC last week that Anonymous' supporters likely view the group as somewhat of a "cyber Robin Hood," targeting powerful governments and corporations in the name of popular causes.

"You want action now, you want justice now, and I think groups like Anonymous and hacktivists give people that immediate satisfaction," Fowler said.

But Anonymous definitely has critics. Many believe the group's vigilante tactics are extreme and potentially dangerous. In 2012, the National Security Agency deemed Anonymous a threat to national security.

Parmy Olson, a journalist who wrote a 415-page book on Anonymous in 2012, stated at the time that even the group's supporters should consider its legacy a mixed bag.

"Has Anonymous done good for the world? In some cases, yes," Olson told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, citing Anonymous' support of pro-democracy demonstrators in the Middle East. "Unnecessarily harassing people? I would class that as a bad thing. DDOSing the CIA website, stealing customer data and posting it online just for sh-ts and giggles is not a good thing."

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What is Anonymous? How the infamous hacktivist group went from 4chan trolling to launching cyberattacks on Russia - CNBC

The leader of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, met with Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes in an underground parking lot for 30 minutes the day before the Capitol riot, and a film crew was there, prosecutors for the Justice Department said in a court filing.

Reuters initially reported last month that the FBI was looking into a meeting between Tarrio and Rhodes that took place before the Capitol riot.

In the court filing on Monday, prosecutors were appealing to a magistrate to keep Tarrio detained pending his trial.

The filing also said the film crew picked up audio of someone referencing the Capitol. Tarrio was also picked up on the mictelling another individual that he was certain no one could get in and see the contents of his phone because he cleared the messages and there was a two-step process to get in the phone.

The Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers were some of the first to overrun police lines and break into the Capitol building sending lawmakers into hiding. The new court filings suggest the leaders of the groups were more involved in the planning of the riot than previously known.

On Tuesday, Tarrio will have a hearing where a magistrate will determine if he should be released pending trial or remain detained.

An attorney for Tarrio declined to comment. An attorney for Rhodes did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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Leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers met the day before the Capitol Riot. A documentary film crew was present. - Business Insider Africa

Ukraine war: No, the Proud Boys aren't going to UkraineGet Access Code.

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A post from an Australian Proud Boys account pretended they were flying overseas to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine. And a lot of people bought it.

A trolling post from an Australian Proud Boys social media account pretending that they were flying overseas to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine has gone viral, amplifying the accounts false claims and helping them grow their audience.

Late last week, a tiny Twitter accountclaiming to belong to a local chapter of the far-right group Proud Boys made a series of posts saying that their members were flying overseas to Poland to join other international members of the group on the ground in Russia -- a meme that had also been made by other Proud Boy chapters.

Crikey has chosen not to specify which account to avoid amplifying it further.

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Cam Wilson

Associate Editor @cameronwilson

Cam Wilson is Crikey's associate editor. He previously worked as a reporter at the ABC, BuzzFeed, Business Insider and Gizmodo. He primarily covers internet culture and tech in Australia.

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No, the Proud Boys aren't going to Ukraine: how a small troll went viral - Crikey

Over the past few weeks we have seen First Nations people protesting alongside alt-right freedom protesters at Old Parliament House in Canberra.

With this we saw a classic example of the alt-right trying to recruit disaffected marginalised people for their own ends.

This is not only dangerous given what we know about the history of First Nations peoples interactions with police, it also perpetuates a stereotype of First Nations people that we are dysfunctional, disunited and do not know what we want.

Read more: A short history of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy an indelible reminder of unceded sovereignty

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra was established in 1972. The Embassy is a permanent, heritage-listed protest site representing the political rights of the Indigenous Peoples of Australia. It is the longest living Indigenous protest site in the world.

However, in recent months a clash of extremist white protesters alongside some Indigenous people, attempted a hostile invasion of the site in a bid to co-opt the Embassys cause. The group that descended the area included key white supremacist figures, including members of the Proud Boys.

These alt-right, extremist invaders are aligned with the global Sovereign Citizens (SovCits) movement, whose roots are racist and antisemitic. Sovereign Citizens are anti-government and believe they are sovereign from the laws of the country where they live.

These extremists misappropriated the long-term struggle of First Nations people, and created chaos and division.

It seems these groups find ways to recruit others by tapping into the distrust of authority. They potentially exploited this to recruit Indigenous people to an alt-right cause.

The presence of Indigenous people in these protests further perpetuates the narrative we are dysfunctional peoples who cannot agree - a stereotype white people as a collective do not have to worry about.

Indigenous people being perceived as dysfunctional springs from white deficit narratives about Indigenous communities. This deficit discourse represents our people in terms of incivility, discord and failure.

Sovereignty is one of the foundational principles of international law. Unfortunately, sovereignty under traditional Western Euro-centric international law was purposefully designed and restricted to what are considered civilised nations and Indigenous Peoples were (and one could argue still are) objects under the law.

Indigenous Sovereignty remains a separate concept and means something entirely different but is marginalised to Indigenous politics. It remains marginalised because of the history of Terra Nullius being applied to justify colonisation and the refusal of contemporary politicians to advocate on the issue. Indigenous Sovereignty has deep significance in the fight for recognition, and there are many models of what Indigenous Sovereignty looks like.

However, sovereignty cannot simply exist, it can only be asserted, claimed, or taken - which is the antithesis of Indigenous law and lore.

Sovereignty and the assertion of sovereignty is a critical item of Indigenous activism in Australia the only commonwealth country without an agreement between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Terra Nullius was enacted in Australia because the colonial invaders believed the Indigenous Peoples were uncivilised and thus did not possess sovereignty, therefore did not have the right to exclude the invaders from their lands. Therefore, the notion of Indigenous Sovereignty is intertwined with the activism for Treaty and the pursuit of self-determination.

Sovereignty however, has been hijacked by the alt-right and their version of sovereignty is about the rights of (white) individuals to do what they like without the subordination of the outside authorities.

White protesters co-opting Indigenous causes for their own sovereignty agenda is problematic in a number of ways.

First Nations people are often expected to educate those around us, and to freely give emotional and cultural labour. Providing such labour when educating about systemic violence while concurrently facing disadvantage due to white privilege in systems takes a significant toll. However, speaking out and protesting has very real life and death consequences for Indigenous People that white people do not need to consider.

First Nations People in Australia are the most criminalised and incarcerated in the world, and are at a higher risk of dying in custody.

White people also do not need to manage the same burdens, cultural loads or responsibilities, such as being asked to be the representative of their entire race. Nor are they collectively condemned when one white person does something that is considered wrong.

The far-right appropriating Indigenous causes is not new and often used to justify acts of violence. The far-right appropriate language about rights and twist them to fuel their own propaganda. This has been an effective tool to recruit all sorts of disenfranchised people.

Read more: Who are the 'Original Sovereigns' who were camped out at Old Parliament House and what are their aims?

In order to stop the momentum of these groups and their toxic way of thinking, we must ensure white people are no longer ignorant of the power of white privilege and the effect dysfunctionality speech, deficit narratives and systemic racism have on Indigenous Peoples and communities.

Many people may feel we are living in uncertain times, and these protest groups might try to pretend they have the answers people seek. But they do not. These groups encourage a pattern of ignorance that maintains social inequity for marginalised groups.

Instead these groups fuel hate speech, create further division in communities, and do nothing to bring stability to uncertain times.

Read more here:

Whose sovereignty is really being fought for? What happens when First Nations People are dragged into extremist protests - The Conversation AU