Remember that story about HBGary, the "security" firm that got pwned by Anonymous? Was worth it for the lulz at the time, but now it also looks like some disturbing information is coming to light as a consequence.
JAB calls attention ("You have to get up pretty early in the morning to make the Mafia look like pikers…") to a ThinkProgress post, which begins as follows:
Earlier today, ThinkProgress published an exclusive report that the law firm representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a right-wing trade association representing big business, is working with set of “private security” companies and lobbying firms to undermine their political opponents, including ThinkProgress. According to e-mails obtained by ThinkProgress, the Chamber hired the lobbying firm Hunton and Williams. Attorneys for the firm solicited a set of private security firms — HBGary Federal, Palantir, and Berico Technologies (collectively called Team Themis) — to develop a sabotage campaign against progressive groups and labor unions, including ThinkProgress, the labor coalition Change to Win, SEIU, US Chamber Watch, and StopTheChamber.com.
New emails reveal that the private spy company investigated the families and children of the Chamber’s political opponents. The apparent spearhead of this project was Aaron Barr, an executive at HBGary. Barr circulated numerous emails and documents detailing information about political opponents’ children, spouses, and personal lives.
Of course, this is not nearly as sinister as the imaginary stuff Obama does, amirite?
The quoted link, among other things, points to some work done by Marcy Wheeler. She's got copies of some of the documents related to the US Chamber of Commerce's spying plans.
The ThinkProgress posts also describe other dirty tricks and disinformation campaigns that are or were being planned, that had the intent of smearing watchdog and other progressive groups. I'd say it's worth your time to spend a few minutes reading them, and perhaps also this post from Josh Harkinson at MoJo, but then I'm a liberal, so therefore I hate America, democracy, your freedoms, &c.
[Added] Hey, look! An actually decent story with some interesting tidbits (16 year old girl! lol) from the MSM: Byron Acohido at USA Today. (Don't be put off by the headline, as I almost was.) Also, Glennzilla has a typically thorough post up, which he describes as "just the summary." The more details the better in a case like this, I say. It appears that Glenn was on the list of targets.
[Added2] I should say that I don't know for sure that ThinkProgress is relying exclusively on info from the Anonymous hack. Glennzilla's post suggests they might have had other sources.
[Added3] So far, the silence is deafening from Wingnuttia.
[Added4] Soon, the emails will be made available to all, Anonymous says.
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