Blog containing a database of articles, reports, blogger's notes and photos of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Balkans region. The compilation and material was created by Aleksandra Miletić-Šantić, a lawyer, social scientist, human rights activist, journalist and interpreter.
In support of the UN-led Global Open Day for 1325 events, the Regional Women's Lobby decided to organize a set of complementary meetings in two of the countries where the Lobby is active: Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. As neither of these countries has a DPKO mission the UN team leading the Global Open Day initiative was not planning on promoting the event in these locations. RWL decided to use this space to organize its own meetings, complementary to the Global Open Day, with the UN RC and other stakeholders to brief them and discuss 1325 implementation issues. Both of these countries has a specific set of contextual factors influencing UNSCR 1325 implementation and this background will be discussed below.
It should be mentioned that the RWL also planned to meet with the President of Croatia, however due to scheduling factors beyond their control the meeting was cancelled. As an alternative, the RWL members will meet with the President of Croatia and the UN RC in Croatia at the end of June after the RWL Regional 1325 +10 conference to brief them on the state of 1325 implementation in Croatia and the region.
Context: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina is a post-conflict country that endured years of bloody conflict in the 1990s in which rape was used a method of warfare and women were victims of shockingly brutal gender based violence. The conflict led to the militarization of these societies and women were pushed out of public spaces and lost many of the social and economic rights they had under the socialist regime.
In terms of Protection Laws and Mechanisms, Bosnia has a good legal framework. There is a Law on Gender Equality; a legislated electoral quota; a Law on Domestic Violence; a NAP on Gender Equality; a NAP for Domestic Violence; and a NAP on implementation 1325 is in the process of being adopted by Parliament. Mechanisms for implementation of these laws include a government Agency for Gender Equality, Gender Centers at the "entity" level of Bosnia's structure and a municipal/regional gender focal point network. In terms of political participation of women there is 14% women in parliament and only 2-3 women in executive decision-making positions at any point in time. In the security sector there are 2% women in the military at higher ranks, 5% at lower ranks and 5% at enlisted level. In the police there are 8% women.
Civil society is very active in Bosnia on monitoring and advocating for 1325, with the strong support of UNIFEM. For example, the NGO Zene zenama has been active in raising awareness of 1325. They have translated the resolution into the local language and dispersed it and united with national and international security sector organizations in a program entitled "Participation of the public in security: UNSCR 1325 in BiH". Examples of goals of the 1325 program are the creation of a women's police network at the national level and the establishment of cooperation between women's NGOs and EUFOR local observation teams on women's human rights and security. Civil society in Bosnia has also been involved in the NAP drafting process and will take on promotion of the NAP in local communities along with representatives of ministries, entities and cantons.
Context: Serbia
Serbia is a post-conflict society with a high degree of militarization. Serbia experienced the effects of the wars in the region first indirectly, and then directly with the NATO bombing in 1999. As in Bosnia, women in Serbia were also pushed out of public spaces and decision-making during the conflicts of the 1990s as public attitudes reinforced the view that women were not the decisive politicians or strong leaders needed during the wars and conflicts that Serbia was involved in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.
Serbia, like Bosnia, also has an extensive legal framework related to gender equality. There is a Law on Gender Equality; a legislated electoral quota; an Anti-discrimination Law; a NAP on Gender Equality; and a NAP on implementation 1325 is currently being drafted by a working group of stakeholders. The gender mechanisms include a Department for Gender Equality within the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and a network of gender focal points at the regional level of government.
Women's participation in parliament is about 21% and at the executive level 5 of 27 ministers are currently women. In the military 0.5% of officer are women and 5% of enlisted soldiers are women.
The NGO Women in Black has been advocating for a women's perspective of security since the very beginning of the conflicts in the region in the 1990s and has been active in promoting peace and security issues from a feminist perspective and from an anti-nationalist and anti-militaristic perspective. Needless to say their consistent opposition to the regime was not without danger to themselves, especially in the charged atmosphere of the 1990s.
Policija i Tužilaštvo Hercegovačko-neretvanskog kantona intenzivno tragaju za ubicom 35-godišnjeg Magdija Dizdarevića (Magdy) iz Mostara. On je u srijedu navečer, 15. jula, brutalno pretučen ispred Šarića džamije, a dva dana kasnije podlegao je u RMC "Dr. Safet Mujić".
Čime je udaren
Osoblje ove bolnice koje se te noći nalazilo na dežuri, kako "Avaz" saznaje, ostalo je šokirano stanjem u kojem se nalazio rahmetli Dizdarevića. Iako je cijela ekipa predvođena dr. Hafidom Konjhodžićem, koji je izveo operativni zahvat, učinila sve da spasi Dizdarevića, pomoći ovom mirnom i nadasve pristojnom mladiću, kako su nam kazale njegove nekadašnje kolege iz Mostarske Gimnazije, nije bilo.
Dežurna kantonalna tužiteljica Gordana Knezović kazala nam je da je do jučer, u svojstvu osumnjičenih, ali i svjedoka, saslušano više od trideset osoba.
- Policija intenzivno nastavlja sa saslušanjima, a imamo i neke materijalne dokaze. Interesantno je kako se u ovoj situaciji svi sjećaju da je nesretni mladić ležao na zemlji, ali se niko ne sjeća čime je udaran. Također, njihovi iskazi su kontradiktorni te se tako mijenja status i jednih i drugih. Jednostavno, u toku je obimna policijska istraga koja će, zasigurno, duže trajati, jer moramo cijeli predmet kompletirati - kazala je Knezović. Tačan uzrok
Istakla je da će Tužilaštvo izuzeti i dokumentaciju iz bolnice kako bi uz nalaz obdukcije i ostale materijalne dokaze utvrdilo tačan uzrok smrti. Knezović je ponovila da su određene osobe nakon 24-satnog pritvora puštene na slobodu, jer, kako je kazala, Tužilaštvo na temelju iskaza i dosadašnje istrage nije imalo elemenata za zahtjev za određivanje mjere pritvora.
Snimak ubistva na internetu
Na videoservisu YouTube jučer se pojavio, kako to tvrdi osoba koja ga je postavila, snimak ubistva Magdija Dizdarevića. U opisu snimka navodi se da ga je snimio jedan od svjedoka napada. Pri kraju incidenta čuje se muški glas koji konstatira da je "mrtav čovjek". Kvalitet snimka je vrlo loš.
Policiji i Tužilaštvu ranije su predati mobiteli čijim je kamerama snimljen napad, ali još nema informacija o tome radi li se o istom snimku ili ih ima više. Na portalima su se jučer oglašavali prijatelji rahmetli Magdija Dizdarevića. Niko od njih nije pozivao na osvetu zbog smrti nedužnog čovjeka, ali su tražili da policija, Tužilaštvo i Sud otkriju počinioce brutalnog ubistva i kazne ih.
Kako smo obavješteni iz izvora bliskih Magdiu Dizdareviću, ovaj mladić je na žalost izgubio bitku za svoj život. Prognoze ljekara su se obistinile i nije preživio fatalni udarac koji je zadobio u fizičkom napadu alkoholiziranih i po svemu sudeći drogiranih mladića.
Mi smo pisali o onome što je se desilo za vrijeme sukoba kao i o licemjernom ponašanju pojedinih medija, među kojima izdvajamo posebno Federalnu Televiziju.
Isto tako, nedavno smo pisali i o stravičnom ubistvu Merve Eš-Šerbini, Egipćanke koja je ubijena sa 18 uboda nožem u sred drezdenske sudnice. Povod za njeno ubistvo jeste rasistička mržnja prema islamu i muslimanima a koja je inicirana bez ikakve sumnje huškačkim medijima.
Ni u slučaju šehida Magdija Dizdarevića mediji nisu nimalo nevini. Raspirivanje mržnje na vjerskoj osnovi je prisutno i u BiH i ono je već duži period specijalitet pojedinih medija jasne lijevičarske orijentacije i neprikosnovene podrške lijevičarskim strankama.
Iako je vrhovni poglavar Islamske Zajednice, Mustafa ef. Cerić izjavio da u Bosni ne postoje nikakve "vehabije" već je riječ o tome da postoje ljudi koji bolje ili slabije praktikuju vjeru, lokalni mediji predvođeni FTV-om nikada nisu prestali sa tom huškačkom retorikom.
Zbog toga, ovi mediji snose veliku odgovornost u divljanju pijanica i razuzdanih mladića, kao što nose i smrt šehida Magdija Dizdarevića na svojoj duši.
Kada uzmemo u obzir ovu huškačku medijsku retoriku gdje su takozvane "vehabije" prestavljeni u svjetlu vještica koje treba nemilosrdno loviti, nije ni čudo kada naiđemo na internetskim forumima na komentare poput slijedećih: ___________________________________________________
- vehabije su g***a i treba ih sve pobit
- ime pokreta:UDRI VE.HABIJU zdruzena lista:sefke,mito,sema,ramo,ljigo,nino... cilj:koristenje opijuma na javnim mjestima i alkoholnih sredstava. Podrska za lucane
...šljegli s brda zamotani...svaka čast momci..brz oporavak želim..sve ih pobiti treba.. ___________________________________________________
Da napomenemo, Magdi Dizdarević je u cijeloj gužvi ostao po strani i pokušao je da smiri tenzije smirujući učesnike u tuči, nakon čega je dobio udarac iz mase tupim predmetom pri čemu je došlo do pucanja lobanje. Magdji je pao na tlo, a ubice su se odmah razišli i kako saznajemo, izlijev krvi u mozak je bio uzrokom njegove smrti.
Nadamo se daće počinioci biti adekvatno kažnjeni i da ovaj slučaj neće izazvati veće napetosti koje Bosni i Hercegovini nisu potrebne, posebno ne u ovim teškim ekonomskim trenutcima te izvjesnom izolacijom Bošnjaka u getou, nakon što je ostalim narodima omogućeno putovanje u zemlje EU.
Practitioners of nonviolent struggle have an entire arsenal of "nonviolent weapons"at their disposal. Listed below are 200 of them.
Formal Statements
1. Public Speeches 2. Letters of oppos
ition or support, mass emails, Text Resist to 50409, faxes, twitter storms 3. Declarations by organizations and institutions 4. Signed public statements 5. Declarations of indictment and intention 6. Group or mass petitions
Communications with a Wider Audience
7. Slogans, caricatures, and symbols 8. Banners, posters, memes and displayed communications 9. Websites, pamphlets, books, leaflets, videos 10. Newspapers, journals, fanzines, social media, press releases 11. Internet, radio, and television 12. Skywriting, earthwriting, chalk
55. Social boycott 56. Selective social boycott 57. Lysistratic nonaction 58. Excommunication 59. Interdict
Noncooperation with Social Events, Customs, and Institutions
60. Suspension of social and sports activities 61. Boycott of social affairs 62. Student strike 63. Social disobedience 64. Withdrawal from social institutions
Withdrawal from the Social System
65. Stay-at-home 66. Total personal noncooperation 67. "Flight" of workers 68. Sanctuary 69. Collective disappearance 70. Protest emigration (hijrat)
The Methods of Economic Noncooperation: Economic Boycotts
Actions by Consumers
71. Consumers’ boycott 72. Non-consumption of boycotted goods 73. Policy of austerity 74. Rent, Mortgage withholding 75. Refusal to rent 76. National consumers’ boycott 77. International consumers’ boycott
Action by Workers and Producers
78. Workmen boycott 79. Producers’ boycott
Action by Middlemen
80. Suppliers’ and handlers’ boycott
Action by Owners and Management
81. Traders’ boycott 82. Refusal to let or sell property 83. Lockout 84. Refusal of industrial assistance 85. Merchants’ "general strike"
Action by Holders of Financial Resources
86. Withdrawal of bank deposits, Use Credit Unions a) Stop using petrol dollar, switch to crypto currency 87. Refusal to pay fees, dues, and assessments 88. Refusal to pay debts or interest 89. Severance of funds and credit 90. Revenue refusal 91. Refusal of a government’s money
Action by Governments
92. Domestic embargo 93. Blacklisting of traders 94. International sellers’ embargo 95. International buyers’ embargo 96. International trade embargo
The Methods of Economic Noncooperation: The Strike
118. Hartal 119. Economic shutdown The Methods of Political Noncooperation
Rejection of Authority
120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance 121. Refusal of public support 122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance
Citizens’ Noncooperation with Government
123. Boycott of legislative bodies 124. Boycott of elections 125. Boycott of government employment and positions 126. Boycott of government departments, agencies, and other bodies 127. Withdrawal from government educational institutions 128. Boycott of government-supported organizations 129. Refusal of assistance to enforcement agents 130. Removal of own signs and place-marks 131. Refusal to accept appointed officials 132. Refusal to dissolve existing institutions
Citizens’ Alternatives to Obedience
133. Reluctant and slow compliance 134. Non obedience in absence of direct supervision 135. Popular non obedience 136. Disguised disobedience 137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse 138. Sit down 139. Noncooperation with conscription and deportation 140. Hiding, escape, and false identities 141. Civil disobedience of "illegitimate" laws
Action by Government Personnel
142. Selective refusal of assistance by government aides 143. Blocking of lines of command and information 144. Stalling and obstruction 145. General administrative noncooperation 146. Judicial noncooperation 147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents 148. Mutiny
Domestic Governmental Action
149. Quasi-legal evasions and delays 150. Noncooperation by constituent governmental units
International Governmental Action
151. Changes in diplomatic and other representations 152. Delay and cancellation of diplomatic events 153. Withholding of diplomatic recognition 154. Severance of diplomatic relations 155. Withdrawal from international organizations 156. Refusal of membership in international bodies 157. Expulsion from international organizations
The Methods of Nonviolent Intervention
Psychological Intervention
158. Self-exposure to the elements 159. The fast a) Fast of moral pressure b) Hunger strike c) Satyagrahic fast 160. Reverse trial 161. Nonviolent harassment
174. Establishing new social patterns 175. Overloading of facilities 176. Stall-in 177. Speak-in 178. Guerrilla theater 179. Alternative social institutions 180. Alternative communication system
Economic Intervention
181. Reverse strike 182. Stay-in strike 183. Nonviolent land seizure 184. Defiance of blockades 185. Politically motivated counterfeiting( Think #OpLionCash) defacing money basically 186. Preclusive purchasing 187. Seizure of assets 188. Dumping 189. Selective patronage 190. Alternative markets 191. Alternative transportation systems 192. Alternative economic institutions
Political Intervention
193. Overloading of administrative systems 194. Disclosing identities of secret agents 195. Seeking imprisonment 196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws 197. Work-on without collaboration 198. Dual sovereignty and parallel government
Commander X, a Fugitive Homeless Hacker, Has a New Book About Hacking on the Run
The legendary Anonymous member just published his first book, Behind the Mask, and it’s the first of its kind in terms of advancing the public record on Anonymous.
Christopher Doyon—or as he's known to his 7,000+ Twitter followers, Commander X—is a homeless, fugitive hacker who has been on the run from the US government for more than four years in Canada. While there have been severalhigh-profilecases of Anonymous members being imprisoned, Commander X is an outlier. By all accounts, he was an influential member of the hacktivist collective during its most consequential period, but he has so far escaped the fate of his former comrades.
So, as a symbol of his freedom, today X published his first book, Behind the Mask, and it's the first of its kind in terms of advancing the public record on Anonymous. While we are used to some sporadic voices from the hacktivist collective movement coming forward to the media, they are mostly heard through voice-scrambling filters in short videos announcing Anonymous operations, or from behind bars.
X's book is the antithesis of what we're used to from Anonymous; it's personal, both braggadocious and self-deprecating, and through its first-person perspective provides insight into operations of Anonymous that will be completely alien to any non-hacker reader.
It's arguably not smart to write a book like this, given the intense thirst from the FBI to capture Anonymous leaders. But when you're Commander X, who has given interviewsto majorpublications since escaping prosecution in the US and becoming a fugitive; and who still tweets daily and taunts government agencies by writing messages on his timeline, such as "What will the FBI Cyber Crime Division do when there's no more Internet? Is Walmart hiring any security guards?" and "...if you want pigs to respect your protest, show up armed"; then quite obviously the traditionally-guarded hacker/media relationship has gone out the window.
"For those wondering how Anonymous begins a major operation, it usually starts with righteous indignation bordering on group outrage."
Behind the Mask covers a time period between 2008-2012 wherein X joins Anonymous, quickly rises to a position of influence in the decentralized organization, gets the attention of the FBI Cyber Division, and escapes the US on an underground railroad of his own design. (Of course, this is all according to the author.)
In X's words, his initial thoughts on Anonymous were that it was a "crazy ass science fiction cult" where people wore "stupid Guy Fawkes masks." In fact, he was apparently told to join Anonymous while he was serving as a "Commander" of a small cyber-focused militia called the People's Liberation Front (PLF), run out of a "dungeon" in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where "every square inch" of the walls were "plastered with concert posters (mostly Grateful Dead), protest fliers… and hand-drawn art, mostly political in nature."
It's here that X got an order from the "Supreme Commander of the PLF," a man we know in the book only as Commander Adama, to become an Anonymous member. This is provable insofar as the People's Liberation Front certainly exists, and Christopher Doyon is a real person. Otherwise, Behind the Mask has to be read with a certain healthy skepticism about the events detailed wherein.
Commander X in 2012.
Nonetheless, Adama's intention for X joining Anonymous was allegedly twofold: 1) For the PLF to form an alliance with the group and 2) to launch an offensive against the municipal government of Santa Cruz for its treatment of the homeless—a city where public sleeping is still criminalized.
Apparently, Adama wanted revenge for a homeless friend of his living in Santa Cruz, who was found dead under a bridge.
X accepted the mission quickly, which provides insight into the mindset of hackers like him. In more than one instance, he makes it clear in Behind the Mask that he and his colleagues were often driven to action by pure and simple anger: "For those wondering how Anonymous begins a major operation, it usually starts with righteous indignation bordering on group outrage."
After accepting the order, we pick up X's Santa Cruz mission a year in, where he is living in the mountains growing weed, or as he refers to his plants: "the girls... Twenty-six of the most gorgeous sativa/indica mix plants the likes of which you could only grow in the black earth of the Santa Cruz mountains."
It's here that he is still on a roundabout quest to obtain vengeance for the homeless. And while he did eventually take down the Santa Cruz county website in 2010 as a direct protest for the city's treatment of its street population, it was a minor defacement. X describes this kind of low-impact DDOS attack as a "smashy-smashy" operation. Despite the relatively inconsequential operation, it was this protest that led to the indictment from which X is still running from today (it carries a maximum 15-year sentence due to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act).
X's relationship with Anonymous at that time led to other notable hacks, including what he describes as the takedown of Mastercard.com by his own keystrokes ("I hit the fire button"), during the infamous Anonymous attack against credit card companies and Paypal after they cut off Wikileaks' financial lifeline.
In what is perhaps the most telling anecdote of X's life as a hacker on the run, he describes his role in attacking the government of Egypt during the Arab Spring while spending his days in a San Francisco coffee shop called Coffee to the People Cafe:
"Another area where my work had an impact was in data collection… I programmed a 'spider'... to crawl servers and harvest specific data. Mine was programmed to collect the fax numbers and E-Mail addresses of every single Egyptian. My spider, which I nick-named 'Hazel' - was not only capable of doing the task - but she could then separate the civilian from the government data. This would eventually allow Anonymous to wage psychological warfare on the Egyptian government while at the same time sending valuable information and encouragement to the Egyptian people…
This led to a somewhat comical scene of me having to spend the night sleeping in an alley behind the coffee house so I could stay connected and keep Hazel running."
This intense duality of coordinating and participating in globally influential hacks while sleeping on the street, encapsulates the fascination that journalists and activists alike have had with Commander X for years.
That said, Behind the Mask has to be taken with a grain of salt, if for no other reason than the fact it is written by one of the single most prominent evangelists of one of the most divisive, but nonetheless impactful, activist movements of all time. X is never shy to state (and perhaps overstate) Anonymous's impact; and some of his past claims verge on unbelievable.
But what's verifiable about the exploits X was involved in are historical in and of themselves; many of his colleagues were punished and imprisoned, the financial industry was spooked by Anonymous's retaliation for Wikileaks, X is a cyber-fugitive, and he is personally emblematic of a new kind of anarchistic activism that can very quickly grab the attention of the world's strongest governments.
For all these reasons, X's book is a remarkable and personal account of a uniquely bizarre adventure. His account of escaping the US is, alone, worthy of a reader's attention. According to X, he designed an underground railroad—before he knew he would have to use it himself—of willing Anonymous members or sympathizers who could, at a moment's notice, deliver a "package" from (as he puts it) one "node" to another in order to transport an American activist out of harm's way and into Canada.
Designing an underground railroad and activating it are of course two different things. And for X, who at the time was living in a camp by California's San Lorenzo river, deciding to take that voyage was at times "way too 'spy thriller'" for his own taste.
The book unfortunately ends in 2012, with X's masked appearance at the Hot Docs Film Festival premiere for Brian Kloppenberg's Anonymous documentary, We Are Legion, in Toronto. As he says, "I arrived at the world premier to play my part wearing my brown Guy Fawkes hoodie, my all access pass around my neck and a real Guy Fawkes Mask on my face." So by the end of Behind the Mask, we're left wondering what X has been up to in Canada for the past four years.
Incomplete timeline notwithstanding, the book captures a first-hand account of a man who, for better or worse, was at the switchboard during some of Anonymous's most high-profile hacks, stunts, and protests. And thus, it's an essential work in framing the impact of this controversial, decentralized, and brash hacktivist network.
Commander X speaks with Dark Web News in an exclusive interview, covering topics from his bid for political asylum in Mexico to opsec advice.
Christopher Doyon, more commonly known by the pseudonym Commander X, has been one of the hacktivist communities’ more public figures in recent years, known equally as well as the likes of Barrett Brown, Jeremy Hammond, Sabu and weev.
Affiliated with Anonymous and the People’s Liberation Front (formerly), Commander X has been on the run from the United States since 2011, facing prosecution for taking down a local government website. Following a stint in Canada, Commander X is now in Mexico and seeking political asylum.
On June 12, 2018, Commander Xannounced the releaseof his third book, “Exiled for the Mask: The Story of Anonymous Operation Golden Eagle.” The book is scheduled to be released on November 5 via Lulu and Smashwords for print and eBook, respectively.
This book is the “finale” to his first two books, “Behind the Mask: An Inside Look at Anonymous” and “Dark Ops: An Anonymous Story,” effectively forming his trilogy.
In light of Commander X’s ongoing bid to gain political asylum in Mexico and the pending release of his third book, Dark Web News has landed an exclusive interview with the renowned hacktivist.
Here’s what Commander X had to say:
Your new book is slated for release on November 5. Talk about it a little bit. What can we expect as readers? Why did you decide to write it?
It is the final installment in what is now officially known as “The X Chronicles Trilogy”. It completes a roughly ten year story of my life within the Globaxicol Collective called Anonymous.
The final book entitled “Exiled For The Mask: The Story Of Anonymous Operation Golden Eagle” is due out exactly one year after I cut a hole in the fence between the USA an Mexico with a pair of bolt cutters and entered this country in a bid to gain political asylum. It will tell the story of how that came to be, and a bit of what happened after arriving in Mexico.
Operation Golden Eagle. What’s the meaning behind the op name?
The Golden Eagle is the national bird of Mexico. Not much more complicated then that, really.
Have you ever considered stopping or taking a leave from what you do? You’ve cited health issues in recent years as well as the toll that the pressure of staying on the run has taken.
Yes, these things are true. And yes I’ve considered it, daily sometimes. And finally, no – it’s probably not going to happen any time soon.
Did you enjoy your time in Canada?
Yes. But then I have thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this decade long adventure. And Mexico is an utterly delightful nation.
You’re currently seeking political asylum in Mexico. How is the process going?
Very well.
What are some of the major challenges you have faced?
Breaking into the main stream Mexican media. Something that I believe is about to change any moment. I have given an interview to the largest media outlet in Mexico.
Did you ever imagine that things would get to this point of chaos in what you do?
From day one, yes.
What are some of the biggest misconceptions that people have about who you are, what you stand for, and what you do?
Christopher Doyon, more commonly known by the pseudonym Commander X, has been one of the hacktivist communities’ more public figures in recent years, known equally as well as the likes of Barrett Brown, Jeremy Hammond, Sabu and weev.
I am not really sure I can speak to what misconceptions people have about me, I don’t really make a point of noting them. Perhaps you can fill me in as to what people are saying about me!
You’ve worked on the side of the people, in your respective point of view. How have the people generally reacted to what you do? (i.e. Food Not Bombs condemning your online attacks)
The Op Orlando shit, well hell – Kieth McHenry is an old friend from the 80’s in the Bay Area. He was frankly delighted by the whole fiasco.
But that is just that particular example. In general people on the advantaged side of an Anonymous confrontation are grateful for the intervention.
How would you describe yourself? A hacktivist? A hacker? A leader? Just another guy with a computer?
All of the above, I suppose.
How have things changed over time with Anonymous?
Short answer, it’s gotten bigger and more global.
To what extent are you currently involved with Anonymous operations and Anonymous in general?
At the moment my time is taken up with my own case, and one particular media project in Anonymous, Anonymous Global Internet Radio.
It has been defunct since 2014. What survived now goes by the name Legion Security.
The People’s Liberation Front and Palestinian Liberation Front share the same acronym; has this caused confusion or misunderstandings?
I don’t recall this ever being an issue. But we were a pretty non-descript underground crew.
How did you get your start with hacking and Anonymous?
That’s a question it took a book to answer, my first one to be precise.
What imprint do you think that Anonymous has left in history, looking back and looking forward?
The most profound imprint in human history.
Anonymous has been accused of many things that they have not collectively admitted to doing. There have also been reported incidents of individuals supposedly from Anon claiming ops that Anon did not actually do. What’s the best way for people to keep up to date with what Anon is actually doing?
The choice of sources is as individual as the Anon recommending them. Check out those I follow on Twitter, and use your own judgment. My handle is @CommanderXanon on Twitter.
Six years ago, you stated Anonymous 2 won’t happen in a bid to fix the perceived issues within Anonymous. Have these issues been corrected since then, or are they still present?
Probably still all fucked up. Anonymous simply is what it is, there will be no great changes – just further refinement and evolution of tactics. No versions. Just one big messy global collective.
What role have script kiddies played in Anonymous thus far?
I don’t really have an answer to questions like this. And I prefer not to answer a question that pre-supposes a negative stereo-type of a fellow hacker.
What have been some of the miscellaneous challenges you’ve faced with being a notable member and arguable leader of Anonymous and PLF? Dealing with people, getting things done, time and resource management, etc.
Probably all of the above.
Throughout your time in Anonymous and related ops, have made any friends as opposed to just coworkers or associates?
LOL yeah I have maybe one or two friends in the world. But they would prefer to remain anonymous.
Is ‘Commander X’ solely a handle used by you, or have others done work under that pseudonym with your permission? I ask this because your attorney stated “Commander X isn’t a person. He’s an idea and that idea is social justice.” in a 2011 statement.
So far the acts attributed to the persona “Commander X” must be laid at my feet, for good or ill.
However, I have not ruled out passing the persona on after my death. Anything is possible, I suppose.
With the pending release of Apple’s iOS 12, what is your stance on the jailbreak scene?
My stance is that it’s healthy for the eco-system and should be legalized.
How instrumental has the dark web and Tor been in what you do?
Vital, at least to not getting caught.
It’s rather ironic that Tor was initially created by the U.S. government and has been a huge thorn in their side since its “public” adoption. What are your thoughts on that?
Do you see the adoption of anonymity and privacy technologies and applications continuing to become more mainstream?
What choice does anyone really have?
What computer security and opsec tips would you give to the general public? Any recommended software or best practices?
Use a cellular modem and a reliable no-log VPN. Use a Tor browser. Use a good password manager like Key Pass and make all your passwords inside the manager, nice and hard. ALL your passwords, individual and hard using a password manager. This last part eliminates 90% of all attack vectors, just that one tip.
What’s your advice for the next generation of hacktivists, noting that many adolescents are growing up in the age of seeing WikiLeaks, Assange, Manning and others being covered by the mainstream news?
See the above answer. And add to it my personal advice. Move. A lot. Never stop moving.
Here’s what Commander X had to say:
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