As part of their defensive strategy for client Bank of America, which is queasy over the possibility of Wikileaks having gigabytes of confidential information, financial security/intelligence firms HBGary Federal and Palantir Technologies put together a plan — since exposed by the hackers at Anonymous — to pressure Salon‘s Glenn Greenwald into sacrificing his support of Wikileaks to save his career. As if those two things could be separated! But there’s a PowerPoint presentation and everything, espousing the sort of stuff you only dream shadowy security firms would ever do.
Greenwald, the gay American based in Brazil who’s among the media’s dwindling number of reasonable thinkers, was totally gonna git it!
According to the Tech Herald, the word “disrupted” in the final presentation was actually written as “attacked” in earlier drafts of the presentation. This suggests some pretty confused thinking on the part of these firms. The idea that Wikileaks would “fold” without people like Glenn supporting them seems pretty silly, as does the idea that Glenn would suddenly give up the cause. Still, it’s pretty freaking ominous for the firm to seriously be suggesting that it can somehow put pressure on Greenwald that would lead him to “choose professional preservation over cause.” It makes you wonder just what level of underhanded tricks they were thinking about pulling.
Underhanded tricks? Two words: HIV darts.
[TechDirt]
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TomMc
That would have been one of your better serious stories had you not added that bit about the HIV darts at the end.
Still, you’ve explained the situation much better than any other news outlets.
Thanks Queerty.