Private Contractors Plan To Protect Bank Of America From WikiLeaks By 'Neutralizing' Glenn Greenwald, Others

On Wednesday, Matt Yglesias ran an item about a "consortium of national security contractors" that are "shopping a counter-WikiLeaks strategy." It is, in equal parts, sinister and hilarious. The overall intent appears to be to protect Bank Of America from the potential worldwide revelation of their terrible business practices.

According to the Tech Herald, these firms have "worked to develop a strategic plan of attack against WikiLeaks" that includes "pressing a journalist in order to disrupt his support of the organization, cyber attacks, disinformation, and other potential proactive tactics." The Tech Herald got wind of this from a tip from CrowdLeaks.org:

What was pointed out by Crowdleaks is a proposal titled "The WikiLeaks Threat" and an email chain between three data intelligence firms. The proposal was quickly developed by Palantir Technologies, HBGary Federal, and Berico Technologies, after a request from Hunton and Williams, a law firm that currently counts Bank of America as a client.

The law firm had a meeting with Bank of America on December 3. To prepare, the firm emailed Palantir and the others asking for "...five to six slides on Wikileaks - who they are, how they operate and how this group may help this bank."

Apparently, "neutralizing Glenn Greenwald," who has hammered away repeatedly at the government's case against Julian Assange. Yglesias provides the relevant slide from the consortium's PowerPoint presentation:

As you can see, Jennifer 8. Lee, best known as the author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, is also to be neutralized. (Actually, there are reasons why she'd end up on this slide.)

Apparently, this consortium is being headed up by Palantir Technology, named for the magic stones from The Lord Of The Rings that allowed people to "communicate with other such stones and anyone who might be looking into them" and be used by "beings of great power ... to see virtually any part of the world." One such stone, of course, was used by Saruman, to nefarious ends. When I told my wife -- a Tolkien enthusiast -- about how a company named Palantir was operating against WikiLeaks, she laughed and said, "That's truly the most ironic thing I have heard in many years. Also: keep your hands off of my nerd culture!"

RELATED:
Get Greenwald [Matt Yglesias @ Center For American Progress]
Data intelligence firms proposed a systematic attack against WikiLeaks [Tech Herald]

Comments

[Marlyn]

08:59 PM on 02/15/2011

"Hunton and Williams, a law firm that currently counts Bank of America as a client."

What this article doesn't say is that Hunton and Williams was recommended to B of A by our very own Justice department as a way to fight against Anonymous, a supporter of WikiLeaks.

So our tax dollars that went to fighting terrorism are now being used against WikiLealks and friends. Welcome to 1984.

[Arishia]

06:19 PM on 02/15/2011

Best articles on this whole sordid affair. Go Anonymous!!
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/how-one-security-firm-tracked-anonymousand-paid-a-heavy-price.ars/
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/the-ridiculous-plan-to-attack-wikileaks.ars

[Mikeeee]

10:01 PM on 02/14/2011

Isn't this anti-American? Oh wait, that's right, we're dealing with money which has it's own allegiance which funnily enough Americans seem to accept.

[BeckyJustice]

04:59 PM on 02/12/2011

Having just read the HP article on how the GOP plans to cut Public Broadcasting from the Budget, It looks to me like they plan to do away with the 1st Amendment of the constitution entirely. Except for Wikileaks, PB, and a few lonely little souls out there, they have most of the Press wrapped right around their greedy little fingers. All that's left of the 1st Amendment would be Freedom of religion. Can that be far behind?

Then what? Work their way through the rest, some of which have already been compromised? 4, (Patroit Act, Wiretapping) 5, 8, and 14 (Bradley Manning)

[kritiktwee]

03:07 PM on 02/12/2011

Your attempts to stop WikiLeaks has resulted in frustations. Admit it.

I ask that common sense prevail, stop and study for yourself, a little before you yell, bring my armor, bring my horse. Go to the site of WikiLeaks, study some of the documents, be critical but be open minded also. And then arrive at the conclusion for yourself. You have I am sure read both sides of the arguments. Some have the yae's and stand 'For', while others are dead 'Against' the plethora of documents that are open for examination and comment. Is justice being done to Assange. Is the human rights issue at stake if we prosecute Julian Assange. Is this political persecution. Is this one of the gag orders. Is this the new begining of freedom of press as it should be, or nothing is indifferent. In the end you should be able to say, I have done my homework and I know what the truth is. And I can argue about it.

[ALoayza]

11:25 AM on 02/12/2011

Attacking wikileaks is an act in complete defiance of what has just happened in Egypt. Full disclosure shared through the Internet of the oppression wrought by the powers that be versus the thugs and security companies that Bank of America and the Chamber of Commerce hire to help silence this information. These people have lots of money but they do not have the numbers of people on their side. Lots of quaking in boots these days...and it's only just begun. Now all we have to do is vote and run our own elections WITHOUT voting machines.

[Vegan Girl]

12:28 AM on 02/12/2011

Here is what I don't understand. We already know what a disgraceful company BoA is and yet millions and millions of Americans still bank with them. That is more frustrating to me than what BoA does.

[ALoayza]

11:05 AM on 02/12/2011

I stopped banking with them a year ago after 16 years. It baffles me too. People care about convenience over morals. And that's why we have a lot of lazy disrespectful people in our country.

[SuperKK]

09:37 PM on 02/11/2011

In this game, probably most of the criminals go undetected. We may be seeing just the tip of the iceberg. All the adverse publicity against Assange, Greenwald, Chomsky, and the other moral giants of our day, may be corporate and government-sponsored 'hit' jobs, like the one described here. In this case, the perpetrators were sufficiently incompetent compared to Anonymous that they got caught. Probably in 90% of the cases, they get away with their smears and defamations.

[moutonnoir]

11:06 PM on 02/11/2011

assange is no chomsky. absurd.

[AllAmericanAmericanBoy]

02:13 PM on 02/12/2011

Meanwhile, Chomsky is no Assange. Absurd indeed.

[SuperKK]

09:03 PM on 02/12/2011

They are each moral giants in their own way. Chomsky may be willing to tell truth to power, but he does it under the protection of academic tenure. Assange is perhaps the most courageous person in public life today, willing to risk career and life for the higher ethical and moral values. His type comes along once in a generation; we haven't seen something similar since MLK and Daniel Ellsberg.

[SuperKK]

09:24 PM on 02/11/2011

The real question is who initiated these proposals. I don't see these three companies initiating such a proposal on their own. Given the topic matter, I would guess someone at the DoJ or BoA level verbally suggested that such a proposal be submitted, and the law firm solicited the mercenaries. Usually, people at that level are sufficiently clever not to commit such requests to print (or email). While the Three Stooges have to take responsibility for such a devious proposal (plural, if the similar Chamber of Commerce proposal is included), we really need to identify who was behind the proposal.

[joseph449008]

07:57 PM on 02/11/2011

Update: Berico Technologies has now also apologized for their involvement, according to Salon. (Palantir had apologized earlier.) BoA has issued a tepid denial of their involvement, as has the US Chamber of Commerce. No word from Hunton and Williams or the DOJ. HBGary and HBGary Federal are not saying anything at all -- they must be in utter and complete shock.

[SuperKK]

09:25 PM on 02/11/2011

Unfortunately, the Three Stooges are the pawns in this sordid affair. The proposal was obviously solicited from a much higher level. If I were to guess, it would be DoJ, one of the intel agencies, or BoA.

[drjasonmd]

07:34 PM on 02/11/2011

"Last week, Aaron Barr, a top executive at computer security firm HB Gary, boasted to the Financial Times that his firm had infiltrated and begun to expose Anonymous . . . ."

First he shoots Alexander Hamilton and now this?

[Adam Luebke]

05:30 PM on 02/11/2011

I guess it's time to pick it up with guerrilla journalism in support of WikiLeaks and Glenn Greenwald's support for them. Who wants to protect corrupt bank policies anyway?

[joseph449008]

09:55 AM on 02/11/2011

Glenn Greenwald weighs in, and he tells it like it is, as usual.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/02/11/campaigns/index.html

[SmolderingRuin]

05:53 PM on 02/11/2011

I was going to post the link also. Thanks for beating me to it. Glenn Greenwald is the best!

[Adrian31]

09:40 AM on 02/11/2011

Has Jason Bourne been activated?