The above video was issued by “Anonymous,” a loosely affiliated group of computer hackers who have recently gained notoriety by coming to the defense of Wikileaks. Towards this end they have staged distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and other companies which distanced themselves from the website.
Anonymous has recently turned its attention to the protests in Tunisia, with “Operation Tunisia” which included posting a statement opposing the government crackdown on a Tunisian government website (here’s a screenshot of the message), and carrying out DDoS attacks on Tunisian government website. The video above kicks off “Operation Egypt.”
Here is another recent statement “Anonymous” released to “journalists of the world” which gives some more information on its motives and goals:
The message reads in part:
We need your help now. From North Africa to Gaza, people are rising up and risking their lives to demand nothing more than basic rights, an end to the corruption, and a fair chance to progress in life. What the Western world is unaware of, and the Western media largely ignores, is the fact that the people protesting and the people dying in the Arab world are just like them. They have the same desire for basic freedoms, similar ambitions for themselves and for their family and friends, the same inherent intelligence and, the same keen sense of injustice as their counterparts in the West when oppressed.
Here is where we need your help. We ask you, the journalists, to bring to the rest of the world the humanity of these revolutions. What we are witnessing are not extremist acts that are committed by misled, ignorant people. Indeed, they are committed by intelligent, but desperate people – people willing to sacrifice themselves in order to inspire their fellow citizens to rally against their oppressors. The world needs human news. The world needs to know who it is that needs their support, and not just the number of casualties or the politics involved.
What we ask is simple. There are people protesting in Algeria, Egypt, Yemen, Albania, Libya, and many other countries at this very moment. Tell us who they are and what it is they want for their country and their people, for now and in the future. So many voices are raised in protest right now and all the world can hear is the noise. Tell us what the people are saying.
