Journalist Barrett Brown Faces 105 Years For Sharing a Web Link? His Prosecution Could Set Chilling Precedent

Journalist Barrett Brown spent his 300th day behind bars this week on a range of charges filed after he used information obtained by the hacker group Anonymous to report on the operations of private intelligence firms. Brown faces 17 charges ranging from threatening an FBI agent to credit card fraud for posting a link online to a document that contained stolen credit card data. But according to his supporters, Brown is being unfairly targeted for daring to investigate the highly secretive world of private intelligence and military contractors. Using information Anonymous took from the firm HBGary Federal, Brown helped discover a secret plan to tarnish the reputations of WikiLeaks and journalist Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian. Brown similarly analyzed and wrote about the millions of internal company emails from Stratfor Global Intelligence that were leaked in 2011.




Barrett Brown, an investigative journalist with ties to the hacking collective Anonymous, faces more than 100 years in jail after revealing details about highly secretive world of private intelligence and military contractors based on hacked information. He has already been jailed for 300 days without bail. Using information that Anonymous hacked from the firm HBGary Federal, Brown helped discover a secret plan to tarnish the reputations of WikiLeaks and journalist Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian. Brown similarly analyzed and wrote about the millions of internal company emails from Stratfor Global Intelligence that were leaked in 2011. Peter Ludlow, professor of philosophy at Northwestern University, says the case against Brown could suggest criminality "to even link to something or share a link with someone." He just authored the article, "The Strange Case of Barrett Brown," for The Nation.