# Barrett Brown

Barrett Brown (born August 14, 1981) is an American journalist, essayist and satirist. He is often referred to as an unofficial spokesperson for the hacktivist collective Anonymous, a label he disputes. He founded Project PM, an online distributed think tank, to facilitate analysis of leaked information about the cyber-military-industrial complex. He has spent over a year in a Texas jail and faces over a hundred more in federal prison over charges that he provided a URL link to source material and threatened to investigate a federal agent.

## Quotes

* Anyone who dismisses out of hand evidence that U.S. intelligence agencies still do some of the things that they now brag about having done not too long ago is not a skeptic, but a fool.
** Huffington Post, "Wikileaks Blows Whistle; Most Miss the Point", 7 April 2010.
* Being an atheist is like not owning a TV – completely rational, but best kept to one's self.
** True/Slant, "The Most Bizarre E-mail I Have Ever Received", 30 June 2010.
* The less said about my extended family back in ranch country the better, as I don't want the ATF burning them alive.
** True/Slant, "Sarah Palin as Margaret Thatcher, Except No", 10 July 2010.
* I, for instance, am a jackass, and this anguishes me quite a bit, or at least it would if I were not so fond of being a jackass, which has long been a hobby of mine.
** True/Slant, "The Weekly Standard, Ethan Epstein, and Jesus", 18 July 2010.
* I am a tremendous optimist for someone who has grown up amid the twilight of American competence.
** Vanity Fair, "Why the Hacks Hate Michael Hastings", 23 July 2010.
* The truth is that I am a sentient computer program and I fully intend to burn your cities to the ground.
** True/Slant, "Farewell, and a confession", 29 July 2010.
* The main point seems to be that I'm arrogant and narcissistic, which should be news to exactly four people.
** Huffington Post, "Palin biographer accuses me of planning anti-government violence", 3 December 2010.
* I would love to debate any politician in any western state on the question of whether the rule of law ought to be respected in a world where even the most "respectable" governments establish intelligence agencies that routinely violate those laws at taxpayer expense and at no real penalty to anyone involved.
** The Guardian, "Anonymous: a net gain for liberty", 27 January 2011.
* We're in a state of conflict with the Government. Either we are going to jail or we're going to win.
** The Australian, "Hackers poised for further releases", 28 December 2011.
* What an age of innocence it was, the Watergate era... way back in the halcyon days when the US could be contrasted with totalitarian regimes on matters of surveillance.
** VICE, "Reading 'Born Again' in Jail", 12 August 2013.
* In conclusion, they should let me out of jail.
** VICE, "What Radio Censorship Says About America" 17 December 2013.
* Politeness is wasted on the dishonest, who will always take advantage of any well-intended concession.
** Quoted by Peter Ludlow in The Nation, "The Strange Case of Barrett Brown", 19 December 2013.
* This is not the “rule of law”...it is the “rule of law enforcement.”
** The Guardian, "Barrett Brown statement: 'This is not the rule of law, it is the rule of law enforcement'", 22 January 2015.
* When we start fighting crime by any means necessary we become guilty of the same hypocrisy as law enforcement agencies throughout history that break the rules to get the villains, and so become villains themselves.
** The Guardian, "Barrett Brown statement: 'This is not the rule of law, it is the rule of law enforcement'", 22 January 2015.