The Nationally Directed Effort to Take Down Aaron Swartz

The death of Aaron Swartz, co-founder of Reddit, co-author of the specifications for the Web feed format RSS 1.0 (Rich Site Summary), pioneer of open-source, and  Internet activist against the monopoly of information, was sadly, a death that was coerced. Yes, he apparently killed himself, but it's the government--with the assistance of MIT who over-zealously persecuted through prosecution, and pushed him to that point.  Not the first time, I might add.

The issue here is the abusive treatment of citizens, in particular, one citizen who courageously spoke truth to power, Aaron Swartz, by a government bureaucracy intent on intimidating activists. In this case, prosecuting a person accused of a victimless "crime," if it was a crime at all, and threatening a severe sentence--35-years in jail-- in retaliation for, in this case, advocating on behalf of the free flow of information on the Internet.

What was Aaron Swartz's crime? Attempting to liberate taxpayer paid research journals--that already belonged to the public--to the public for free, journals that the "owner" of the records, JSTOR, declined to press charges. Swartz did not seek to profit from the information he liberated, and the writers/researchers had already been compensated for the work, unlike all of corrupt banksters, CEOs, and politicians, who not only go free but are rewarded for intentionally bringing down the global economy.

“..he used an open network connection at MIT, which explicitly allowed free guest access, to download academic research papers that were available for free for any user on that particular network."

According to a good friend of his, Aaron Swartz had a "much broader agenda than the information freedom fights for which he had become known." He was also a "political activist interested in health care, financial corruption, and the drug war."  To sum it up, Aaron's goal was making "life a little less unfair." And for that, he paid the ultimate price.

Here are some of the more unusual aspects in this case:

Two days before Aaron Swartz was arrested, the Secret Service took over the investigation.

"On the morning of January 4, 2011, at approximately 8:00 am, MIT personnel located the netbook being used for the downloads and decided to leave it in place and institute a packet capture of the network traffic to and from the netbook.4 Timeline at 6. This was accomplished using the laptop of Dave Newman, MIT Senior Network Engineer, which was connected to the netbook and intercepted the communications coming to and from it. Id. Later that day, beginning at 11:00 am, the Secret Service assumed control of the investigation."

The top federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz and her assistant Stephen Heymann rejected any deal that did not involve a prison sentence.

Aaron Swartz prosecutor 'drove another hacker to suicide in 2008 after he named him in a cyber crime case'

“In his suicide note, James said he had no faith in the justice system, which he believed were trying to tie him to a crime he did not commit.

'I have no faith in the "justice" system. Perhaps my actions today, and this letter, will send a stronger message to the public.

'Either way, I have lost control over this situation, and this is my only way to regain control.

'Remember, it's not whether you win or lose, it's whether I win or lose, and sitting in jail for 20, ten, or even five years for a crime I didn't commit is not me winning. I die free.'

James was the first juvenile put into confinement for a federal cyber crime case.

And last, but certainly not least, from emptywheel, who seems to be breaking most of the news regarding the death of Aaron Swartz, the Department of Justice invoked Aaron Swartz’ manifesto to justify investigative methods.

“And look at the passage from the Manifesto they quote in the brief, which appears in this larger passage.

“There is no justice in following unjust laws. It’s time to come into the light and, in the grand tradition of civil disobedience, declare our opposition to this private theft of public culture.

We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that’s out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks.

In context, much of the manifesto advocates for things that are perfectly legal: sharing documents under Fair Use. Taking information that is out of copyright and making it accessible. Purchasing databases and putting them on the web.

Aside from sharing passwords, about the only thing that might be illegal here (depending on copyright!) is downloading scientific journals and uploading them to file sharing networks.

Precisely what the government accused Swartz of.

But they don’t cite that passage. Rather, they cite the “making copies” passage–something not inherently illegal. As if that justified the investigative tactics they used.

Used as it is in this page-limited brief arguing why their tactics were legal, the citation is really bizarre. But it does seem to admit that the government considers Swartz’ role in the Open Access movement to be as much proof he was a criminal as that he chose to download the documents at MIT and not Harvard.

This is just one more example of how distorted the whole US justice system has become in order to please the elite few who want to retain their power and wealth at any cost.

“For remember, we live in a world where the architects of the financial crisis regularly dine at the White House — and where even those brought to “justice” never even have to admit any wrongdoing, let alone be labeled “felons.” Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig,

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"Terrorism Enhancement"

On January 24, 2002 I was surrounded by 25 federal agents from the FBI and Secret Service Los Angeles Joint Terror Task force while I was at home asleep taking a nap.

The agents were armed with sub-machine guns, shot guns, bullet-proof vests, a battering ram, and a 25 page search and seizure warrant filled with as much "terror rhetoric" as they could think of. While asleep I was unaware that agents were
already positioned around every angle of the house, including right outside my window with loaded weapons ready for a fire fight. I was 18.

Fortunately my sister was home and woke me up to the news that "a bunch of FBI looking people" in suites and vests were all over block and up and down the streets. Every single one of them focused on the house. It had only been 2 years since I started the site Raisethefist.com which was receiving thousands of hits daily from around the world, many of those hits were also coming from the FBI, U.S Department of Defense, NSA, Secret Service, and foreign government law agencies. I
was running the site on a computer network and a residential DSL line from my home.

The news was no surprise.

I got up. Looked at the servers hosting Raisethefist.com. They were off-line.
I approached the door where 2 special agents asked for my name, then grabbed my shoulder and pulled me outside. Agents armed with their loaded sub- machine guns and shot guns emerged from their hiding spots and entered the house. Just as they
walked in, "Its this way!" one of the agents said as he pointed his sub-machine gun and led others to my room where the servers were.

The 2 special agents who greeted me at the door escorted me back inside and said they had a search and seizure warrant because of my web site, Raisethefist.com. I asked them how this was legal and they said it was now legal under the USA Patriot Act.

I wasn't being accused of authoring anything on raisethefist.com. I was being accused of authoring a web site that was created by somebody else. A white kid. A website that contained a page on how to build home-made explosives. Again, a website I didn't author, implement, or create in any way. The FBI insisted I did. They asked me 7 times if I was the author of the site which contained this explosives information. I said "NO".

I had a link to this web site from Raisethefist. com , as I did to many other sites. While my room was being ransacked. The "evidence" which consisted of computers, protest signs, and political literature was loaded into boxes and placed into a big white truck waiting outside.

The FBI tried to ask me questions about raisethefist. com. The FBI told my mother
they had been watching me for a very long time and my political haven't changed. I was asked if I'd like to see the president killed. I was told I had crossed over a line and as long as I got back on the other side of that line everything would be
okay. In other words if I stayed silent and did what I was told there would be no more trouble.

After approximately 6 hours the FBI agents left. We noticed a message on the answering machine from a call that came in the same day but before the raid. It was from an individual I hadn't spoken to in 2 years. He left a message asking if I wanted to "hang out". A few weeks prior he sent me an email about going to an anti-capitalist demonstration together to "smash the state". I later learned the FBI visited this individual, stood over his shoulder, and dictated the very words he sent me in the email. And as for the phone call, this was also a setup. He was
an informant. The FBI forgot to black this out in the 1000+ pages of case discovery.

But that wasn't the only thing they forgot to black out.

The white kid who I mentioned earlier. The one who authored the site on how to build home-made explosives. He was visited by the FBI as well. What did the agents do? Arrest him? No. They confirmed he authored, implemented, and created the website on how to build Molotov cocktails, pipe bombs, and other recipes, then they
left. What happened next? The FBI fabricated statements saying I admitted to authoring, implementing, and creating the web site on how to build explosives.

2 weeks later federal prosecutors call my public defender and say the FBI didn't find anything illegal on the computers they seized but didn't want to let me off the hook. Basically they wanted me to sign a plea admitting guilt to something I
didn't do.This only happened after spending 2 weeks in a 24-hour lock-down maximum security federal prison cell where I was only allowed out for legal visits, and my closest neighbors on the cell block being those convicted for the U.S.S Cole bombings and the bombings of the US Embassy in Kenya. I was called "terror boy". Then of course I was released after 2 weeks when prosecutors decided not to indict me on anything until they had gone through all of the computers. A 6 month period of death threats, wire taps, harassment, government threats, being followed and
surveilled by undercover agents, sheriffs and local police continued..

I still continued to organized and refused to remain silent. The feds didn't like that.

"18 U.S.C. 842 (p)(2)(A): distribution of information relating to explosives,
destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction with the intent that such
information be used in furtherance of a federal crime of violence."

This was the statue written and sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein and passed under Clinton's 1997 anti-terror law. It was never before enforced. Not until August 4, 2003 when I was sentenced to a year in federal prison and 3 years "supervised release". I was threatened with over 20 years in prison under the terrorism enhancement. I was never indicted.

What happened to the white kid who actually wrote the explosives information and put it on-line with the intent that it be used at an upcoming protest against the International Monetary Fund in New York? Nothing.

The FBI walked out of the court room with smiles. My mom, family and friends were in tears.

And of course It was only standard routine for the U.S injustice system. Another young black male, railroaded by the system. Convicted and sentenced for a crime he didn't commit.

I went in when I was 20 and got released in 2004 when I was 21. I lived with my mom for the first few months when I got out. 2 undercover agents moved into an apartment complex directly across the street. They kept the blinds on the windows closed 24/7. We later learned they worked at the Westwood Federal Building. That's the same federal building that the FBI on the case worked out of. Sometimes they made the mistake of not taking off their security badges whenever they came and left the apartment. It was a bad job of being undercover...

As was the entire case. A bad messy job. Fabricated evidence filled with contradictions and obvious lies and allegations created by the feds. Yet the obviousness of the truth wasn't enough. The blatant fraud, a blatant setup wasn't
enough to stop the judge from handing down a year prison sentence.

This case had nothing to do with information related to explosives being made available to the public on the internet. If it did then I wouldn't be on the one writing this right now with my pencil and paper as the stipulations of my probation state I still can't touch a computer.

I would say to those who believe this is too far fetched to be true, just go look at the case discovery and see for yourself. The obvious lies are supported by the contradicting articles FBI agents forgot to black out. The truth is right there.

But recently we've learned that the entire case was SEALED by the feds. Not even a lawyer can get access to the case files now. However, a copy of the entire case discovery was obtained before this happened. And that copy hasn't been sealed.

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