Interview with 4N0nym0u5 on 5/21/2014 https://www.facebook.com/pages/4N0nym0u5/512641752116065
There are many rumors and articles on the net and in the media about 'Ghost Exodus', but today we are more interested in 'Jesse McGraw'. Why dont you tell us about yourself?
I was born in Fort Worth, Texas on April 3rd, 1984. I grew up as a classical concert pianist and went on several national tours traveling all over the United States giving concerts and engaging in competitions. It was a professional career, as I hoped to get a scholarship to Julliard - the world's most prestigious music school. I was a child model and dance choreographer. At age 12 I won the Annual Play Alike, Look Alike Liberace piano competition in Las Vegas. I was adopted so the record of my winning back in 1996 is under my adopted name Howard Daniel Bertin.
I was reunited with my mum and siblings back in 2004 after nearly 18 years of being lost to each other. At age 18 I played in an alternative country band called the Mark Jackson Band, an alternative rock band, and a celtic group called Highland Way. I've played with the Kingston Trio, opened a concert for Frank Patterson - one of the Irish Tenors, and frequently rubbed elbows with members of Flogging Molly. I play the fiddle. Upon reuniting with my mum in Texas, I have guest appeared with a Christian 80s metal group and toured with Eddie James and Ultimate Call. I ended an up becoming a music minister and youth minister at my church. I'm a former atheist turned christian-mystic, and I have a beautiful little girl named Milania who is the apple of my eye.
I understand that you discovered hacking at age 14. What influenced you? Who did you admire growing up? Have any heroes?
Ah yes, I was inspired back in high school - that was 1998. My only friend in the world was a computer hacker, and he always took advantage of the fact I dont know anything. Consequently, he didn't teach me anything because it defeats the purpose of what hacking is at its most base level, which is self-discovery. He was a firm believer in 'RTFM' - Read The Fucking Manual. So I spent my script-kiddie years pouring over text files, reading old issues of PHRACK and destroying everything... hence my online alias which was 'Devastator'. I lived on IRC servers back then. As far as heroes, I guess in those days it was Jackie Chan, but realistically speaking, I lived in the past. My biggest admiration was for Ludwig Von Beethoven. But today my heroes are hackers, like Jacob Appelbam, John Draper, Emmanuel Goldstein, even KYAnonymous- because he didn't take no crap from the feds and he fights for a just cause. Of course, Julian Assange is an old hacker turned legend, so he is definitely someone I admire on the political hacktavist frontlines.
Tell us about you involvement with music. You were very talented at a young age, weren't you?
<blushes> Yeah, I was considered a musical prodigy since the age of 7. I held my first piano recital only 3 months after teaching myself. I play anything with keys, like the organ and the accordion. I also play the penny whistle, bagpipes, mandolin, dulcimer, guitar, bass, and I sing. I studied piano under two pinao instructors, and violin from 4 different instructors, one of which was Howard Horowitx, who was the first chair violinist of the Sand Diego symphony orchestra. My main passion is the celtic fiddle. I read music and I have an ear and can improvise. The musical instrument is a very magical thing when I play it, it becomes like a natural extension of my body. You needent have eyes or ears to navigate the instrument - people like Stevie Wonder and Beethoven have proven that. I can shred on the piano blindfolded, which is kinda funny because I used to spray paint my computer keyboard black because I knew where all the keys are and which is which. I can thank my mum for that, she taught me to type on an old, cast iron typewriter with a bell on it. I'm fixing to teach piano here at this prison. Music is a part of me and we can never be separated. It is a gift, a language of the heavens and a voice box for the passions of the heart.
Along with teaching yourself hacking and a musical career, you were also the music director and minister of your church as well, were you not? Please describe how you juggled all that.
Emphasis on the 'juggling' part, yes. When living under the umbrella of personality-suppression, I sought a means to express myself. But the type of atmosphere my church was creating seemed to demonize everything I did and wanted to be. I was forced to live 2 very different lives, if I was to pursue my vision to help people in ways that did not pertain to street evangelism and church. Some people don't want to be preached at. Some people just need you to listen. Some people need justice. That's 2 things the church generally does not render. I constantly was being exploited in front of my entire church family for my hacking, and my real family did not care to even understand what it was I was doing, let alone why I felt I needed to do it. So I had to lead a very secretive life if I was going to liberate myself be able to express my ideas and feelings with a computer. You can reach millions of people with a computer. I was constantly bombarded by the diea of what I was doing was somehow immoral. Its like if my church couldn't control it - or me, then it was evil or sinful - and so was I. Like anything in life, it is the intention of the individual that defines his morality. Hacking in and of itself is a neutral force. A gun is a neutral force in that it is not evil just because it is a gun. In the hands of the right person, it can save lives and deter violence. Hacking is no different. But try explaining that to a heavily opinionated people who don't want to know the truth. Juggling two lives takes a heavy toll on the conscience because it leads you to have to hide what you do from the people you love or care about, in order to maintain my anonymity, I couldn't reveal who I was even to my best friends in the hacker world. What I am revealing to you all right now I have only told a few people since coming to prison.
What is the 'Electronik Tribulation Army'? How and why was it formed, and what was its main purpose?
I needed a vehicle to drive the platform I wished to build. The Electronik Tribulation Army was an idea before its time. I guess it kind of preceded Anonymous' ideals in the wake of the WikiLeaks revolution in 2010. THAT was when Anonymous started really backing a just cause that effects all of us. I founded the ETA in early 2007 with Dev/Null and the Fixer. It was more than just another hacking crew. We were like family. It became a refuge to alot of people whether they could hack or not. People have an inherent desire to want to belong to something and to be proud of their association. I counseled a lot of people, especially in suicide prevention. We harbored a lot of people who were victims of cyber bullies, and I empowered many of them so they were not helpless victims anymore. There was also a level of entrepreneurship involved. I helped some of my members with their homework and college careers, make business decisions and encouraged creativity. Any contribution, no matter how small or great it was, was very valuable to me because it demonstrated community. One of our main objective functions was disarming bullies - and they are easy to find on the net. Second, was performing online sting operations in IRC channels against pedophiles. Like bullies, they are ways to find and report. Some of us have kids of our own, and as a people, it is our duty and civic responsibility to do what we can within reason to identify and stop people like this. We were definitely vigilanties. Our next function was hacktavism. I personally responded to #protesterhelp during the 2009 Iranian presidential elections which spiraled into a protest-turned-revolution movement after Ahmadinejad swayed the ballots away from Mousawi by fraud. They called this the 'Green Revolution' as it was the colors representing Mousavi's candidacy. When young Neda Soltan - the peaceful right's activist was martyred on camera by a pro-government militia, I thought to myself "to have the power to make even the smallest difference but not try at all is a moral crime.' Two of us from ETA storm-packeted the Iranian government's local area networks, while people that traveled in similar circles - friends of mine acted as a communications liaison between on-ground activists and the BBC. When the Arab Spring kicked off the following year, I had tears in my eyes watching it unfold from prison. I wanted anything to be there, to help. Activism is in my life-blood. If ETA was under my command back then, we would have been participating in that. That is what being a member of the Electronik Tribulation Army was all about: helping people, molding people, rendering justice, exposing corruption. Isn't that what Anonymous is about now? Anonymous is the new super-power of the interwebs, and it is a form of expression I find poetic, in a crazy sort of way.
Tell us about your relationship with Anonymous. There has been alot of controversy concerning this topic of your motivations,which eventually led to your arrest.
My relationship with the Anon collective started in the latter part of 2007 when I first started hearing about them. I caught wind of them from the hysteria caused by that sensationally infamous Fox News story that painted us as some kind of domestic terrorist group - specifically naming us an internet hate machine, because of the misdeeds of a few. I followed the Habbo Hotel thing, and surged many YouTube videos and forum threads posted by people who seemed to be negatively affected and/or randomly targeted by Anonymous members. Anonymous was an enigma like I had never seen before. I mean, every decade before it, there were groups like the Chaos Computer Club in the late 1970s- early 1980s, then in the 80s and 90s it was Cult of the Dead Cow and Masters of Deception. But when it came to the 2000's and came Anonymous, and it was unlike anything before it. I seen the peaceful protestors organizing to expose Scientology's corruption, then on the reverse side of the coin I saw- for lack of a better term, 'organized chaos'. Somewhere in between the black and the white was a very noble grey area I wanted to be a part of, and I ended up meeting quite a few great and talented individuals who's ideals were the same as mine. Only a few of us ETA members doubled as Anons - my friend 'c0d3' in ETA was one. I became 74K71X and only revealed my alternative identity to him. Fixer was Darth Anonymous, and even the famous Internet Death Machine, who became well known for his song "Yiff in Hell Fur Fag" doubled as an ETA member. I had to keep my affiliation a secret because our allies opposed Anonymous, even to a point where speaking their lingo was causing diplomatic rifts between us and our allies - allies whom we relied on for important resources.
You have to understand, I never had any qualms with the body of Anonymous as a whole. My main focus was luring and identifying the bad eggs within our ranks. As Ghost Exodus, I publicly opposed Anonymous, and anyone with something to prove who rose up to challenge the ETA would definitely be the very individuals we were looking to neutralize. As 74K71X, I was a hacker for 94chan under Internet Haet Machine. She knew who I was, and even she doubled as an ETA member after my arrest, if I am not mistaken. But she was always trying to do something malevolent to others and constantly plotting against me, so I doxed her and packet stormed 94chan to death, also aiding 24chan in their invasion against her. I think it was 24chan. Its been ages ago.
But there was this troll named Issac Guest who had a personal vendetta against me that I had to take seriously. He was trying to frame me for the sole purpose of being known as the guy who dismantled ETA by getting their leader arrested. He seemed like a delusional psychopath and he had actually managed to get the Oceanside Police Department to visit my mum's house searching for me. Internet Haet Machine joined him, along with two or three others to see that I would get arrested. Fixer, Splax0r and myself kept receiving a bombardment of death threats from spoofed callers. I kept a detailed record of these, along with chat logs which became evidence in my own criminal case, which the FBI and prosecution held back from the Judge and the public and media as to my motives. Fixer filed a police report after one guy threatened to rape his son and murder them both. The police did nothing. Then images of his son photoshopped in very inappropriate circumstances , they had doxed Fixer from court documents they had discovered in the email of his that they had compromised. Furthermore, we were betrayed by our web security guy, who handed over our database to these very people, which resulted in many of our accounts being taken over, which is superficial in the light of the threats against our lives and those of our children. As a father, I take ANY hint of a threat against my little girl very seriously. I feared that if I reported these attacks to the FBI I risked exposing us all, that the FBI would only glance over my complaint in favor of a MUCH bigger fish and bring charges on us all, which is something the FBI and the police do by nature. Eventually I made a burner email and notified the Internet Crime Complaint Center, uploaded transcripts of the calls and chat logs, including dox on Issac and IHM as well. Nothing. They did absolutely nothing. I was tempted to pay Issac a visit, but knowing how throwed off he was, he would have used that against me. So I did what anybody would have done. That is, take the law into my own hands. I'd been casing the moderator and admin on 4chan, since Issac and one of his co-conspirators visted the board frequently. If I didn't end up defacing it and posting his address on it, plan 'B' was to hit it with a botnet attack, as collateral for one of it's members acting out like he was. I would have contacted the admin after the strike and tell them that Issac, IHM, and the others were responsible for the distributed denial of service attack, in an attempt to keep everyone busy and off my back for as long as it would last. But we were having a terrible time maintaining our botnet pool. The attack was called off several times because we couldn't keep our bots online, or because they weren't responding with our command and control server. I needed to find a way to spread the bots quickly, and I had local access to my computers at my work. Since there was only four of us left in ETA, I just didn't have time to employ a more sophisticated means to spread the bot, save for using Peer-2-Peer networks. As it is, Fixer called the whole operation off, and I agreed we should scrap the project altogether. You can see how desperate I was near the end. My propaganda videos on YouTube seemed to be a hit-and-miss. Those crazy videos were targeted toward the the younger crowd looking for something to be a part of, but my call-to-arms was short-lived.
We have only ever heard one side of the story about you and your case - that of the prosecution. Why don't you tell us your side of the story?
To put it plainly, I am guilty of what I am charged for. But every fact is completely manufactured. This changes everything you thing you would know about me, this case, and the real motivations of the Justice System. I mean, they had me definition of the law, but the FBI Special Agent Lynd and Federal Prosecutor Candina Heath went above and beyond the common garden variety of judicial misconduct. Helping shape public perception of the government's story about me only helped carry a fanatical image of me as being this paranoid career cybercriminal who is the leader of a dangerous, anarchistic hacker gang who maliciously attacked a hospital in preparation for Devil's Night, which could have factually killed or injured the hospital patients. What I was actually charged with on paper was never explained to the public or even the Judge in my case. Transmitting a malicious code has a very broad meaning in legal terms and is not exclusive to computer viruses at all. A commercial, remote desktop application called LogMeIn and TeamVeiwer was what I was charged with from the HVAC system at the Carrell Clinic - a medical center that specializes in out-patient orthopedics and sports medicine - NOT a hospital in any sense. The faculty is closed at night and on the weekends. I accessed this HVAC system locally and from my laptop in the main lobby. I used it for multi-tasking, like personal web surfing and checking email, Myspace, chatting over Meebo, and purchasing car magnets from Vistaprint. The evidence which establishes this fact is several inches thick, taken from the computers page file and key logger the FBI said had been installed prior to my employment with the contract security firm that I worked for. Everything I ever did on that HVAC system was well preserved in those logs. All of that evidence was covered up in favor of a fictitious link, trying to connect the HVAC with the botnet pool. Not a single piece of evidence exists to support this, only prosecutor Candina Heath's own sworn testimony. The funny part is that the reason as to why I installed Team Viewer on the HVAC was because my laptop was riding on the tail end of a weak wireless access point the clinic provided as a fee public access point. My connection kept dropping, so I'd remote into the HVAC from my desk at work, but the firewall kept blocking my connection attempts, so I switched to the browser based LogMeIn instead. My use of this machine was no different than what the Clinic's Administrator, Tony Blair, was using it for, or the users for that matter - mind you my access was unauthorized. Their personal user accounts were password protected. The HVAC user account required no password at all. I was totally killing people just because I am a hacker - and because I am a hacker I wasn't harmlessly browsing the internet like anyone else would, I was attacking a hospital. The truth is not so newsworthy without a little sensational flair, don't you think? This HVAC computer had nothing to do with the botnets I installed on the 5th floor of the medical facility. Plus, if I was installing botnets - which I was, Candina made that distinction that the quote-on-quote 'hospital' was the target of the planned distributed denial of service attack, which would make absolutely no sense. It was to be the source of attack on 4chan- and not the target. The government has all the sense.
The media says one thing, the court documents say another. Did you hack into computers belonging to NASA and Dallas Police Department as you were accused of?
No, I didn't hack them. If I had, do you suppose it would carry the weight of greater severity than a botched attempt to DDoS some hackers from a clinic's network? The agent who made these outrageous claims was Special Agent Allyn Lynd, Dallas FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force. He and Candina are two peas in a pod. Robert Wesley McGrew himself supplied the FBI with screen capture images from my Photobucket account, two of which ended up being relevant to this preposterous claim. I had preformed a cross-site script vulnerability test on NASA.gov, a public domain and not hosted anywhere on NASA's local area networks. It is actually hosted by Akamai Technologies in Cambridge, MA. Performing this vulnerability test is kind of like the equivalent of a portscan performed before an intrusion. The scanning itself is not hacking, and neither was the test I performed. The screen capture image related to the Dallas Police Department's Aviation Unit computer systems I'd discovered from a port scan for remote desktops. I brought up their RDP logon prompt and attempted a dictionary attack using TS Grinder but was unsuccessful. I kept a screen shot of the logon prompt as a kind of trophy because I had found a gateway belonging to the City of Dallas which I thought was kind of cool. But Wesley, being a PhD research assistant and respected member of the information security community HAD to know what these screenshots were- I mean, I dont have the PhD or anything but I I sure know the difference. Wesley's reputation and position and his history gave him incredible moral high ground, so one would assume his word to be credible and reliable. If his concern was truly for the patients of the Carrell Clinic, then his concerns were binary, in that he was concerned with 'justice'. That being said, there fell upon his shoulders the burden of responsibility to ensure that the Agents he delivered his information to understand what it was that he gave them. He knew I had not 'hacked into' these government websites or local area networks. Why he never clarified these gross misrepresentations of evidence when he was contacting the FBI or news platforms is anyone's guess. He specifically contracted secrityprivacyandthelaw.com and did quite a few interviews with his embellished 'facts'. But this 'evidence' was also used in court in order to add greater weight to my actual charge, and to portray me as evil and dangerous, and he made sure I would never be bonded out of jail. What is really going to blow your mind is the fact that I never once got to read Wesley's comments or statements against me. Therein lies part of the cover-up. Maybe he never even suggested that I hacked these systems - Maybe he even diligently explained to the Agents what was truly contained in those images. Wesley is very thorough because he is a professional. What is needed is to bust out a Freedom of Information Act request and have the FBI disclose those statements. I would be we could finally see why Candina had to rely so heavily on her own sworn oral testimony instead of ACTUAL evidence. Oh wait - a prosecutor's sworn statement IS evidence. Kind of self-serving, isn't it?
What about the Carrell Clinic? The prosecution and the media claimed you planned to attack a 'hospital', but this is far from the facts, is it not?
Everybody was calling it a hospital. All of the ETA who were trying to defend me on the net even got it mixed up and were so bloody misinformed that they inadvertently helped carry that image and only reinforced the governments fabricated story. Even to the extent of agreeing with the government's claim that people could have 'died.' They didn't even leave this to the wild theory and conjecture it was. To reinforce this grave consequence, they used the testimony of Robin Shaw who worked at the Clinic- rather than, say, an experienced network administrator or network security analyst who would KNOW the difference between what could have happened in any worse case scenario, over against some fanatical theory or fabrication to pursue a tainted agenda. At one point, even I was calling it a hospital. They were so bent on aggressively reinforcing that false image that at one point even I practically forgot what it was I had actually done. This brain washing is common, they use the media to control the public perception so that they can use that in the court room. This is not fair, unbiased justice for all. This is court room choreography, lies and deceit. I could have decided to rip that HVAC computer from the wall, take it out to the roof and thrown it off and the air conditioning may have failed, and some temperature-sensitive medicines may have been compromised - however, it was my understanding that the HVAC had a redundant server that would have kicked in to resume normal operations in the event of a failure. So the theorized risk to human life is out of the question.
Why was there such a focus on your case? Why would government employees want to fabricate a story to slander you with and pad your sentence as much as possible? What does discrediting you with a manufactured story about you attacking a hospital gain them, when this clearly was not the case?
The Justice Department is carrying a political agenda against all hackers. Don't believe it? Judge Boyle's own admittance at my sentence hearing clearly proved that. She is quoted by the Dallas Morning News as having used me to "... send a message..." They do this in a variety of ways. They make up all kinds of stupid shit that only a lay person could believe. They threaten us with astronomical prison sentences because the media carries this to the masses, and other hackers will see what hacking suspects will be subjected to, so it serves as a deterrent - which in some ways only has an opposite effect. They hang the threat of say, 20 years, (or 105 as in the case of Barrett Brown) over your head because they also have to terrorize you into snitching on everyone you know so they can enlarge the case even more. You have to understand how very profitable this business is. Mass incarceration is nothing more than the enterprise of government-sponsored human trafficking and warehousing, treating people like human sardines. Prisoners provide them with a free or very cheap labor force. I make .11 cents an hour, sometimes not even that. We have literal sweat shops where we make military BDUs and helmets. Bodies = money. More bodies = more money. You do the math. TDC slaves. And we thought Lincoln freed all the slaves... Ha! The 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution only ensured that the government, rather than private land owners, would have the right to keep slaves, although this would be allowed as they are only convicted felons, and surely deserve such a fate. Plus the money made in liquidating the assets of those suspects; personal property, real estate, bank accounts - quite a substantial benefit, no? And they just help themselves. Its legal robbery. Don't believe me? For instance - the FBI stole thousands of dollars of computer and server equipment from three ETA members, and my sister, over suspicion of so-called witness intimidation - yet, never once was anyone charged with a crime. Investigations were dropped, property never returned... and I was being threatened with 20 years. Look at what they did with Barrett Brown! 105 Years! WHY? Its political posturing. I call it legal terrorism. These people weaponize the Justice System to pursue their own agenda of malicious, judicial mobsters who are savagely attacking peaceful members of society. These are domestic enemies of fair justice and free people. Candina Heath is a criminal of the highest degree, and a traitor the American people. I'm sure the fact that my case landed her a historic conviction in a landmark case is no coincidence to the severity of my sentence. I am the first person in U.S. history to ever be convicted of corrupting industrial control systems. So I am sure she was tempted to turn me into a trophy; which, she did. Plus, on the night of my arrest on June 26, 1009 the FBI specifically asked me for information on Anonymous and their operations - not realizing I was actually a member. No worries, my lips are sealed, and I live by the creed 'death before dishonor.' I maintain my honor. Let that be my legacy, if nothing else. When Wikileaks went big, so did Anonymous. They want to crucify every one of us because they can't fucking stand that was have more power than they do. In this Age of Information, he who controls the data rules the world. Let that be us, because we fight for the user. We are the life-blood of true revolutionary power - which is why if they can't crush us, they will lure us into their field by flipping hackers into snitches or by offering them dream jobs. No government can act responsibly with this power. Therefore it HAS to remain with the People. We are the People's last defense. I'm ranting... sorry!
What could be gained by the media promoting only the prosecution's side of the story? Especially when that story is full of misconceptions and half-truths? Who gains the most from your downfall?
The person who gained the most is Candina herself. Her personal vendetta against hackers is purely for self-gain. You see, no hacker case is straight forward, they are complicated, and Judges are not savy to the technical distinctions in these cases - which is why these cases are so easy for the prosecution to manipulate and take advantage of. And if your defense attorney is collaborating with the prosecution - your only defense and legal representation, your mouth peice, will and counsel just tells you to keep your mouth shut while they 'negotiate' on your behalf... again, these cases are far too easy to skewer and slant, manipulation is just routine.
The Justice Department should not have a political agenda - that would show an automatic bias, not 'innocent until proven guilty' for sure, which would motivate the courts to rule based on prejudice and slander... do you believe the deck to be already stacked against hackers in the courts?
Oh yes, the evidence is obvious. These cases are very easy for the government to win, the media is hacker-crazy and eats this stuff up. But what is funny is no matter how slanted and biased even the media is when it comes to the endless pushing of fear-mongering; still the public is fascinated with hackers. We are the enigma of the information age. It enrages Big Brother that we are exceptionally hard to catch, so when they do manage to catch one of us they will do anything to break us, and get us to snitch on others. The war on hackers is no different than the war on drugs. The use of the term 'war' is very appropriate. They burst in on us with guns- some with assault rifles as if they are performing some commando shit. The way I see it is that we proved what we can do when pushed too far. We can push back. But the courts prove their prejudice by what they do and how they figure their unjust sentences. The punishment never suits the crime. Every hacker case should be properly scrutinized for slant. Do they ever? No. It is their 'business', not ours. We need justice reforms that better protect these defendants.
What about your legal representation? While other hackers in recent media have had teams of legal council working pro bono, and much public support from the online community, you have not even had your appeal filed. Is this true?
Yeah, its true. My family supports my incarceration by choosing not to intervene. It would have been nice for them to have tried to help me find the justice I deserve, but whatever. The pro bono attorney I managed to get back in December of 2012 refuses to work my appeal, let alone be useful in any capacity. To date I am 15 months past my filing deadline date, and my attorney, Edmundo Espinoza, has effectively abandoned my case and refuses to communicate with me on any level. Somebody probably got to him, and the only person who risks exposure for gross misconduct is Candina Heath. She has alot to loose. Besides, filing an Appeal would probably be pointless when I could go after Candina and my lawyers for evidence tampering, cover ups, concoctions and obstructions of justice, ect. Oh wait, I would need a lawyer for all that. Never mind.
How long before the time runs out for your appeal?
It has already past the filing deadline of February 2013. However, if I can meet the criteria for what is called "Equitable Tolling' which can waive a late filing due to extraordinary circumstances, there is still a chance I could have my appeal heard. The appeal process is my right. But this right is being blocked. I never waived that right. My lawyer holds me hostage by his refusal to move us into the courts.
Is the federal prosecutor that handled your case the same one that presided over Matthew Weigman's case, and now presides over Barrett Brown's case? Were you just one of many she has sought over exaggerated convictions for?
Yes, that is all true. She also presided over Carlton Nalley and Matthew Simpson's cases. We are all the work of her hands. Special Agent Lynd also worked most of these cases. Weigman got 11 years. Simpson got 40 years for wire fraud, and I got 9 years for botnets. Also, Judge Sam Lindsay, the judge presiding over Barrett's case is also the judge that is appointed over my civil lawsuit against Seagonville Prison officials - but that is another long story. Candina is out to crucify Barrett. But exposing her will free us all. Mark my words, and mark them well.
This same Candina Heath was seeking over a century-long sentence for Barrett Brown, yet the courts ruled that some of his charges violated his constitutional rights. Why do you think she wants to over-penalize hackers who have committed no credit fraud or financial data corruption that the original 1980 legislation was written for?
That 105 year sentence is not merely over-penalization, she is fucking insane. No such sentence given under those circumstance could ever be acceptable in any civilized society. Its draconian and malicious, it serves no correctional value. A failed terrorist plot may get you 15-30 years, killing a cop might get you 20 to life. But to copy and paste a link?? Hell, I live with Uwe Jensen, a convicted terrorist who got 12 years. The fact that Judge Lindsey does not rein her in or stop her displays sheer ignorance and indifference the social elite carry as they meet out a fate that on other country would even consider such sentences for. These high sentences alone carry the agenda. "'America the free...' whoever told you that is your enemy." But in Simpson's case, Candina crucified him with 40 years, and she continues to over-penalize every case that has a conviction value to the benefit of the government's agenda against hackers. If it can won, it will be exploited to the fullest extent of the law. (Oh, copyright that- sounds kinda catchy.)
Can you tell us how Candina Heath has attempted to cover up your case? Is there any way to prove the bias, and how she tainted the case?
The first, most important resource is to prove the manufacturing is to follow the things she said in my court hearing's transcripts and other related court documents, such as the Bill of Particulars, Factual Resume and Pre-Sentence Report Investigation. Enumerate a list of her claims then link them to the evidence she is referencing. If someone was to sit down with me for just a few hours, I could have this whole case thrown out in a few months. The 'evidence' in my case file tells a very different story that just does not fit with her portrayal of the facts. This evidence was withheld from my judge. My sentencing lawyer, Todd Durden, also concealed this evidence from the judge. No matter how many times I pleaded with him, he refused to disclose any exonerating evidence in my favor. I guess they weren't paying him enough.
Can you describe for us this whole Witness Intimidation thing? In a Wired.com article, your lawyer was quoted that your 'participation in that appeared thin,' and yet they pinned it on you anyway?
That is correct. Wesley McGrew never once accused me of bothering him, because I never tried contacting him before I was sentenced. This episode started with Fixer and Wesley, if I am not mistaken. Wesley openly engaged him and other members of the ETA, even on a daily basis. In that same article by Wired my public defender John Nicholson says Wesley would go out of his way to communicate with the ETA - but from my understanding, none of these interactions ever went beyond the scope of the first amendment. Dev/Null kept telling me in letters what they were saying and doing. Even the FBI put my people under electronic surveillance, and none of it was ever of a malicious or criminal nature, which is, consequently, why these reports quickly became hidden, because without the evidence, the government can claim anything. I told Fixer countless times to leave Wesley alone, but he would not listen. Fixer's detailed account of this was published in the Spring issue of 2600 magazine, 29:1 2012. So both Wesley and Fixer hosted content on their websites the other did not care for. Free speech was abridged by the government intervention. But on June 14, 2010 I phoned an ex-ETA member called Immortal and had him destroy the ETA website because they were just using that which will always belong to me as a platform to sabotage me unknowingly. Though Candina makes references to this phone call, she says I instructed him to attack Wesley's website with DDoS attacks. No such evidence exists. My letters confiscated from Dev/Null and my sister's house actually prove I was simply trying to protect Wesley and prod the ETA to leave him alone, regardless of what Wesley was doing. What I truly find mystifying is how when I emailed Wesley myself in 2011 to ask him whether or not he knew I was behind it, he refused to answer to question on several occasions. I think he is hiding something, and he may fear his reputation to be at stake if he ever answers that question. Because if he says I was responsible and the courts then overturn it, people will be left wondering why he allowed the feds to drown me in the system when I was actually innocent of the slander I was painted with. However, if he says he knew I didn't do it, his silence will only support this blatant miscarriage of justice. He stands at the end of a receiving end of a double edged sword. Fixer admitted to have created that website that made Wesley so sensitive to its content, but he should have just let that go since he practically obsessed over me and what the ETA was doing for 2 solid years. So if Fixer admitted to it, how did I end up being the sole antagonist behind it? But if I hadn't done it and hadn't orchestrated attacks against this man, then why was I the only one charged with it? If others are equally responsible, the government took no interest in them, no interest in fair justice, only serving their agenda or selective, unjust prosecution.
Obviously McGrew had an ax to grind with you. Why would he want to take you down? Do you think he was motivated by concern for the Carrell Clinic, or self gain?
I honestly think his initial intentions were pure, but I don't think he anticipated the reaction that would explode in the international media. I think the temptation to unmask his confidential role was great, and the desire to be recognized ended up diluting his honest intentions. This became a huge opportunity to further advance his career. He ended up lurking on ETA forums, and I've read print outs from his security blog where ETA members were accusing him of stalking them. To them, it felt suspicious, like he intended to take down all of ETA. It became less about the Clinic, and more and more about his role, which became an embellished exaggeration about how he aided the FBI in identifying and capturing me. This is more about him than ever it was about justice. I've never in my life been subject to such humiliation and public contempt - that is no easy pill to swallow. But it is what it is. He got famous real quick. I'm sure he really enjoyed being the hero in this story. I still have more respect for him in his professional capacity than I have for Fixer in any capacity. But as a person, he is as much a piece of shit as Fixer is.
McGrew obviously engaged the members of the ETA online, enticing and baiting them, but did he not also 'hack' the ETA themselves? How was it that you had your sentence padded even further for this?
Engage them he did... persistently and seemingly obsessively. It is publicly available on his blog, preserved online at mcgrewsecurity.com . I asked Wesley his side of the story, concerning accusations from our seasoned web security administrator of our sites, who had archived these apparent intrusions. Wesley argues that the eoeta awstats page was poorly configured and that no access controls were in place to limit access exclusively to the Site administrator from the controls panel. That is a far explanation, I suppose. Still, one must wonder what purpose he saw in finding their awstats page, making a screenshot of it and sharing it publicly with his blog followers, if it was not to antagonize and provoke further engagement with the ETA; which he made a point of doing consistently, and by constantly defaming me without respect for how my friends would react. Thats just a hoe's ass move, and its spiteful.
The other report I received was that Wesley had gained unauthorized access to Fixer's FTP server and had downloaded Sun Tzu's 'Art of War' which he published a book review on as if rubbing what he had done in Fixer's face. Wesley contends that either the server had open access key, or was open-authenticated, or that Fixer had published the login for public access. Which of these three he made no clarification. Fixer contends that the server was not public, but again I will give Wesley the benefit of the doubt. But, I do wonder, if there is no password, is Wesley advocating that it was fair game? Hell, that is exactly my reasoning when I walked up and started to use the HVAC system for personal use. Wesley and I seem to have a similar justification. Unauthorized access is a punishable federal felony. This instant also establishes the relevant conduct on hos Wesley constantly sought out ways to harass and bait ETA members. His intentions were purely malicious in nature, and such little acts of defiance was the very catalyst as to why Fixer set up that website. If Wesley could do it, then why not Fixer as well?
Tell us what it was like in the Seagonville Special Housing Unit. Why did they put you there, and why for so long? How long are violent offenders usually put in there?
First, Seagonville low security is a sex offender yard and there just really is no real significant violence kicking off in low security compounds. But if there was a fight, they would be in the SHU (Special Housing Unit) for 90 days... or less. That prison used to serve as a Japanese Interment camp during World War 2. The SHU is a Maximum Security control unit that stays on 23/5 lockdown status; 3 showers a week, one hour of recreation inside a secluded, isolated cage- and your worse nightmare. I almost died back there several times during the summer of 2012 with temperatures reaching up to 125 degrees Fahrenheit with no air conditioning, no fan, or even adequate air ventilation. The cell was a 9 x 6. I spent nearly 14 months in lock down. I had to endure heat exhaustion, horrible rashes, insomnia, dehydration, starvation, and I succumbed to maddening hallucinations from the isolation. By winter I was showering in freezing water and I caught pneumonia and was coughing up blood. This was torture. I mean, I was sentenced to prison as punishment, not to BE punished. They confined me to this place indefinitely because I was accused of hacking into an inmate's email account after he willingly allowed me to borrow it. The FBI investigated but found no evidence to support 'hacking'. This turned into retaliation, which only intensified the moment I inquired about a lawyer and served them lawsuits. In the end, they were trying to kill me by denying me any medical help. I don't really want to expound more on this. I have to relive it whenever I remember it. You can read the full account on my bio. Never in my life have I actually pleaded for death, but I was suffering that badly.
Why do you think that there is such disproportionate sentences for hackers, whistle-blowers, activists and protesters? Do you think that the American government tends to demonize these people and overreach their jurisdictional boundaries moreso than other countries? Why is it, you think, that the American Judicial System is so much harder on cybercrime than the rest of the world?
If you are not conformed to the flow of the social simulation, then you are malfunctioning, and pose a threat to the integrity of the thought-stream. Thinking and acting out of simulation is dangerous to a system that needs complete control in order to survive. The Constitution gave no provision for government control. The government is supposed to serve the people, a servant of the public - not the other way around. They have no jurisdiction in the capacity they operate on. People like hackers, activists, and whistle-blowers represent a remnant power of the people, and this both perturbs and terrorizes government entities because it means if one person is not simulating, then others will stop simulating as well. If these people start liberating minds, they could band together and start a movement that may remove the veil, and show an enraged public what the government is actually doing to them - all in the name of their freedom?? Ha! There is a sucker born every minute. We have 2.5 million people behind bars. That is a bigger prison populace than Russia and China combined. We claim to be the global leaders of human and civil rights, yet it is this country that has been brutalizing prisoners since its conception. We have more laws restricting the movements of the very people its supposed be freeing, and you tell me if a machine this controlling and abusive represents the ideals the founding patriots built - or liberated us from? Apathy has corroded the true spirit of patriotism. We fight wars on foreign soil under the guise of protecting the homeland from foreign invaders, all the while being monopolized by a government that has abandoned its subservient station and declared itself to be king. President Obama is merely a spokesperson of this whole corporate enterprise, its the three-letter agencies that are calling some serious shots - he cant even control the NSA. And if he tried, he would not be president for very long. Protesters need to become more creative without resorting to acts of violence. The day will come when the people will figure it out and respond appropriately. Stop tweeting about what is pissing you off, and march in the streets into gridlock!
What do you think such prejudice against hackers, whistleblowers, activists, protesters, and supporters of free information will mean for this country and its future? How will such legal precedences now being set affect our future generations?
First of all, we need a total overhaul of our legal system. The Constitution is the fundamental law of the land, and the amendments are non-negotiable. Legal statutes in different states interpret the scope and application of the Constitution differently. Law should be fair and unified. But our future looks very oppressive, as it stands now. It becomes this way because people are too concerned about their own selfish lifestyles and refuse to involve themselves in critical functions that invest in the future of the next generations. To look to the government for answers is out of the question. We must look within ourselves and ask, "what is it that I can do for society? For my city? For my neighbor?" ect.
People who work together accomplish much. The time is now. You don't have tomorrow, you only have this moment. What you do right now could change everything as long as you choose to fight for it. It is not going to be easy, but for those brave enough to try to make a difference - you shall be my heros. Let the government demonize us. That is the natural response when one powerful force opposes another powerful force. Let them do what they already going to do. As long as there is at least one protester in our midst, he or she will gather the like-minded and they will reach out to even more people who wish to see a positive change and our rights restored. I have this hope, that no matter how bad things will get, as long as there is any remnant of the patriotic spirit in our midst, there is hope for a revolutionary movement. And... it has already begun.
Thank you for your time, Mr. McGraw.