Slashdot Mirror
Anonymous Cancels Drug-Ring Attack
snydeq writes "Anonymous supporters have backed off threats to expose Zeta drug gang collaborators, an operation launched in early October as a retaliation for an alleged kidnapping of an Anonymous follower by the Mexico-based drug gang. Members of Anonymous had posted a video claiming the group could identify journalists, police officers, and taxi drivers who collaborate with the Zeta crime syndicate. Zeta has not shied away from targeting its online critics. In September the crime group hung two people from an overpass warning bloggers and 'online snitches' to beware. The decapitated body of another social-media reporter was found later with a similar warning. Worried about the impact on both misidentified people and Anonymous followers, other supporters of the Anonymous movement worked to dismantle the operation over the weekend. In effect, the group canceled the attack, according to online news site Milenio."
Not so tough now, are you Anonymous?
Their "we can do anything, beware us!!" pissing contest quickly turned around when they realized shit just got real.
They pick on the vulnerable for lulz. That's about it.
..working on taking down Fox News.
#include bier;
I've been happy to hear lately about anonymous's campaign against child pornography distribution. I was even more happy to hear that they were taking action against Zeta. But this withdrawl makes me question the mettle of the group. Any time you fight against organized crime, there will always be fallout. But the only way these groups have been pushed further underground or quashed is by taking action, and typically through infiltration and exposing the key players. If they have it in their ability to expose corruption, and do not do so, then they're just as bad as the corrupt officials enabling the criminals.
Did they not realize that sending 100's of pizzas to the head of a drug cartel isn't going to send the right message in the face of superior firepower?
This whole thing is just funny.
I'm pretty sure that Anonymous would have (did?) discovered undercover moles inside the Zetas...... so the real question is who didn't want to be discovered by Anonymous?
ANONYMOUS: we are basement-dwelling computer nerds who will attack you by hacking your web server and posting your info on the net!
DRUG CARTELS: we will kill you with AK-47s and cut your head off with a machete.
Any guesses to who would win?
I hope you're trolling. The accusation that it was rape was retracted immediately by a senior prosecutor. The facts have surfaced that it turns out to be regarding a condom that broke, a matter which was politically labeled rape by a feminist police officer who was a personal friend of the accuser and also member of the same socialist party. Sweden has previosly bent over for US interestes, even violating their own constitution by allowing CIA "rendition" flights to send Swedish citizens to Egypt for torture. The Julian Assange case is another case of US information warfare.
Here we go again, talking of Anonymous as a unified group. What makes someone a member of Anonymous? It seems claiming to be one suffices. So, someone posted a threat to the Zetas in the name of Anonymous, and another person posted a notice saying Anonymous will not be taking action against the Zetas. That's about all that can be said about this.
Are they attacking /. today because every other link I click I am getting a 404 error.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Dear Anonymous and Friends
I apologize that I thought you were a bunch of good guys. I was wrong.
You are a bunch of pussies. Go back to DDOS-ing meaningless websites.
Yours truly
Anonymous Coward
It's a good thing they backed away. Anonymous usually attacks organizations that are somewhat bound by law and fear of PR disasters, so their retaliation is quite limited. Drug cartels care for neither of them. That's why being a reporter in Mexico is a very risky thing to do.
Had they gone ahead with their attacks, they could have unleashed hell for all bloggers in Mexico. A lot of blood could be in their hands.
Right, because you'd do it if you could.
I mean, clearly you're risking your life fighting Mexican drug cartels right here ... as you call them cowards ... in the safety of your own home ... while you post on slashdot.
I think Anonymous is a bunch of idiots, but you're fucking retarded for calling them cowards.
Take your computer courage and STFU, you're EXACTLY like them. Big talk behind a computer, and I'm certain you'll shut up and cower in the face of actual danger.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Why doesn't Julian Assange release this data, then?
Why would you expect him to release this type of info? He got intimidated and silenced by Bank of America.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
A group like Anonymous can only operate in a free society where the rule of law constrains the actions of large and powerful actors. Shame and humiliation of powerful players is possible because they are unable to fully marshal their resources to strike back. Sure, Western governments have made some arrests, but in the end, the military and large corporations are limited in what they can do (yes, they can illegally and secretly do things, but the complexity, costs and risks of doing it are extremely high). The cartels however are a different animal, an opponent in an environment with no such constraints. They have repeatedly killed with impunity, and Anonymous members in Mexico are no different. Unless Anonymous' entire membership is in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the cartels are much more likely to drop a bomb on a member of Anonymous than the CIA is.
Thus I cannot understand what is posted on the web site cited here. And even if I could: Why should I believe it?? As far as I know Anonymous has certain patterns with which they identify their statements. Are there any on the cited web site? Where is the nice jingle or Guy Fawkes?
Anonymous had a chance to do some good, they pussied out like the fucking poseurs they are.
While I'm at it, we've INVADED countries for lesser atrocities than these barbarian Zeta motherfuckers have committed. WHERE'S YOUR BALLS NOW, U.S.? Send a few dozen cruise missiles up their asses!
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Evelyn Beatrice Hall, re Voltaire
Anon; "We'll expose you if you harm him."
Zeta, "Go ahead. We will kill every man, women, and child wearing a guy fawkes mask."
I am sure they have plenty of members who are in no danger from Drug Cartels, but they realized that the people who they are up against are too brutal and indiscriminate. If the Cartels fight back they will probably kill more innocents than opponents, but that is the whole point really. Better not to stick your finger in their eye to needlessly provoke them.
Best to share their information securely with the FBI and Mexican police. (well, where you can trust the Mexican police anyway). I don’t like everything my government does, but I HATE what the cartels do!
I followed all the links and I have found no evidence that those Anons have changed their minds.
The problem is that targeting a government agency or what have you might lead to them tracing back and nailing the actual people involved, not just someone that happens to be in the same group but was on vacation that week. With these cartel guys, if you've EVER been associated with Anon and they find you, they don't really give a shit, you're fair game to them. They are just as happy making an example of you as they would be to catch the masked clown that made these idiotic threats to begin with. That's a real problem with groups like Anonymous. With no clear leadership, some "faction" can spout off crap that endangers everyone.
You can throw out all the police state, abuse of power crap you want, the bottom line is in the end the FBI is accountable to SOMEONE and subject to laws and public outrage. There IS a limit to what they can and will do to you. The cartels have no such limit.
Palm trees and 8
organizations like drug cartels are practically sociopath organizations. it is very tough for even major governments to handle them.
the fact that anonymous is actually taken by the drug cartels as a serious threat that requires this much action basically tells that anonymous is on the same league with them in regard to impact now.
and someone will leak the data eventually.
Read radical news here
Is that basically, Zeta told Anonymous "gb2/b/". The innocent and guilty hang every day, whether Anonymous has a hand in it or not. If they wanted to really make an impact on Zeta, they would have kept to their word and responded with, "That's fine, but you have to break a few eggs to make an omlette".
don't worry, as this article shows they will back down as soon as facebooks users threaten violence against them
Don't fuck with Russians and don't fuck with ruthless organized crime operations. As the saying goes, you mess with the bull, you get the horns. Fucking with the FBI is messing with the de-horned milk cow, not the bull.
A better move could have been to create a website with good, accesible and easily understandable information for journalists on how to actually be anonymous and protect themselves from the intimidation. Going vigilante against Zetas isn't the smartest thing (turbo-euphemism) to do.
But then, where would be the fun of making video-threats and being cocky, if only for a few minutes?
...because Anonymous was really in a position to take on a brutal drug cartel? These guys were in way over their heads.
Palm trees and 8
Anonymous isn't a person, it's a meme. Even when you identify the people who participate and hold them responsible for the actions of the group, you're doing nothing to define what it is or keep it any less intangible. "We are legion" is another Christianity, another Patriotism, another The 99%, and it is indestructible because it has no body. It is only by the elimination of any memory and evidence that this kind of thing can be destroyed.
Even when governed it has no nature or goal. It is exactly as what each person who is aware of it decides it to be. The way those who call themselves Anonymous see themselves is just as much authority as the way those who do not call themselves Anonymous see them. It is the Ship of Thesius incarnate, My Grandfather's Axe in practice.
Don't bother judging the supposed declarations you see today. Just because you saw one collective of "Anonymous" back off doesn't mean another won't act differently. But still, we'll call them all the same. Every time they do something we appreciate or find unforgivable we'll still blame that same meaningless word.
Zeta made the mistake of having a name.
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
Duh, mexican pot is dirt schwag garbage. BUY AMERICAN!
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Evelyn Beatrice Hall, re Voltaire
Then don't buy pot from cartels, buy from domestic "hippies". We can hurt the cartels far more than anonymous by not sending our money to them.
People could just stick to the meth they get from the toxic house down the street, it'll kill faster the customer and producer both when the product is in greater demand.
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
in the safety of your own home
Hey, some of us post from work.
Just like the little 13 year old trash talking bitches on multi-player games ain't so tough when they meet a Marine combat veteran face to face.... Yes b00t2urHead I'm looking at you.
--- If the bible proves the existence of God, then Superman comics prove the existence of Superman.
my name Inigo Montoya, you killa my father prepare to die.
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
ROFL, I guess they realized that there are people out there in the real world that don't fuck around.
You call anonymous a bunch of pussies, and then follow it up with the most wimpy, naive plan I think I've ever heard in my fucking life.
"No repeat offenders (you can't do it again if you have no money to buy more drugs)." They'll just start mugging naive folks, like yourself. Most junkies don't have a nest egg they're drawing from. They lie, cheat, steal, prostitute, and pimp people out to make that money.
It gets worse from there as you suggest we just set up an authoritarian regime that can rob you of everything you've worked for, because you got with a joint. You call that "a bit of a slippery slope"? ROFL, man I want what you're smoking!
I don't think Anon is short on balls, I think they probably didn't have as many damaging names as they implied, better to turn tail and collect more names rather than shoot off a pop-cap and get a bunch of people killed in return. I mean, if they had real damaging info that could threaten Zeta's future ability to operate, they could out it without taking credit.
Yes, it's a bit of a slippery slope in terms of the government taking private property, but did you read the shit the drug cartels do? I fear my government like any good American, but I'm way more afraid of the drug cartels, And I don't live anywhere near the Mexican border.
You know that stupid argument people use to justify pot... like, "well, alcohol and cigarettes are way worse so weed should be allowed, too!" Just because we let one bad thing go on doesn't open the door for every other bad thing, even if it's objectively demonstrable to be less bad.
So, if drug cartels do horrible things without consequences, does that mean the next step is to allow the government to do terrible things because the alternative has the potential for being worse?
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
Anonymous: We are going to release information about corrupt politicians and officers and reveal sensitive data about your bank accounts and properties.
Slashdot: NO! DON'T DO THAT! THERE WILL BE BLOODSHED! YOU ARE NOT WORST THAN TERRORISTS!
Anonymous: Sigh, fine, we won't.
Slashdot: HUR HUR not so tough now, are you?
But... the future refused to change.
the only way to deal with them is with military force
Or abolish prohibition.
Do you not realize who created the black market in the first place, including all the violence and injustice that comes with it?
There is also such a thing as unreasonable punishments which our legal system is (supposedly) designed to protect against as well. Just imagine I can fuck your life up permanently just by slipping a joint into your coat pocket and calling the police. Matter of fact I would be tempted to do this to anyone passing such a law if it ever happened.
A policy change would certainly be a good thing, namely removing marijuana from your list of offending substances (make it legal, but only if grown in the states and with moderate taxes paid on it similar to tobacco and alcohol). With that one change alone it would completely rework the landscape in terms of cartels and drug money funds. We would still have problems with some of the harder substances like cocaine traffickers but it would pretty much eliminate a HUGE part of the Mexico cartel problem overnight. *~poof~* goes the profits and the industry. The best thing we could do to help both Mexico and the US is to make it legal to produce marijuana domestically and control it the same way we do for other substances like Tobacco, Alcohol, etc. Then, instead of your kids friends going down to the local gangster for some weed (of questionable origins or quality) they would just have to steal it from their parents. Unless of course you advocate for something like the electric chair for kids who get too curious.
- Toast
Meth is highly addictive and will ruin your life, but it doesn't kill many people; afaik most deaths from meth is from when their "labs" explode and burn.
You must not know the difference between amphetamines and opiates. ODing on heroin is easy, ODing on meth isn't.
ODing on pot is impossible. There may be arguments for meth and heroin to be illegal (although I believe the laws against them harm society more than the drugs themselves), but there are no valid, rational reasons for pot to be illegal, except to keep the cartels and gangs in business. Pot laws also make pot users disbelieve ANY anti-drug propaganda since they know from experience that pot won't hurt you unless you get caught.
Drug laws and false anti-pot propaganda only benefit the gangsters.
Free Martian Whores!
You know that stupid argument people use to justify pot... like, "well, alcohol and cigarettes are way worse so weed should be allowed, too!" Just because we let one bad thing go on doesn't open the door for every other bad thing, even if it's objectively demonstrable to be less bad.
I agree with you that it doesn't automatically mean that it should be legalized. However, it does raise questions as to why we let those "problems" go on. We can see from prohibition why that is, actually. It didn't work well at all.
"Bad" is subjective. Even if it is a bit unhealthy, I couldn't care less. These people can kill themselves (though if they use marijuana, I find that unlikely) while using their drugs for all I care. I don't think we should waste massive amounts of time and resources just so that we can (fail to) restrict what people do with their own bodies.
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
Reasons do not exist to perpetuate Prohibition. Reasons do not exist to outlaw marijuana.
Reasons DO exist for thoughtful, nuanced policies which treat DIFFERENT chemicals DIFFERENTLY.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
This Mexican drug cartel shit is out of control. They are practically right up our ass. Their presence is felt in almost every community in America, they extort public servants and teachers in Mexico (many have been killed and they demand 50% of their pay), and they flaunt their power or complete lawlessness to the world. Hitler did less than this and it was enough to mobilize the entire fucking globe to stop his party's advance. The Mexican drug cartels make the SS look like fucking strawberry shortcake and no one stands up to this shit. However ineffective "anon" is or would have been I laud them for trying or attempting to do something--whoever they are. WTF People!? Remember too that these drug cartels most likely operate in your community as well--yes IN America. They are everywhere. I'm truly saddened by all this.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
Definitely a tactical withdrawal. The Zetas have made it clear the only viable path is their extermination, so Anon will have to help with that. Either helping rival gangs or gov't black ops. Such a sad situation :-(
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
They could end this any time by flipping the Weed Legal and Coke Legal bits in the congressional computers from zero to one.
Play Command HQ online
Well, son of a bitch. I'm out of ideas.
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
Lets analyse both contenders and why anonymous can do shit to Los Zetas From one side, Anonymous is basically an internet mob, full of script kiddies and very few "3l337" hackers. Their powers relay on what they can find during google searches, known vulnerabilities of servers, exploits and social engineering. So basically most of their power is from what they can find online, or on any electronic media. On the other side Los Zetas, a bloody Mexican cartel that has a huge monetary power, and from years of fighting US and Mexican authorities I doubt they have a server with some excel sheets with the names and ranks of people of their organization. I am pretty sure they have hi-tech in some aspects but I really doubt they their master plans are on the companies CRM or on their Joomla Website. Most of their organization probably runs on word of mouth from the bosses. They probably change cell phones, emails on regular bases. So what can anonymous do against the Zetas, nothing just get people killed. They have a lot of money, they can certainly pay for people to find someone at anonymous and kill him.
"....that our parents own."
A vicious lie. I don't live in a house my parents own.
I inherited it from them.
Two posts ago you were calling them 'pussies' too.
Such a big man you are.
--Jeremy
Jesus was a liberal
Ok, let's see... the media claimed that some anonymous member of an amorphous group threatened a drug cartel. Now the media claims that that anonymous person changed his mind. Sure, whatever...
You're really anonymous after your face has been ripped off, fingers cut off and your teeth have been ripped out with pliers. No one will ever figure out who those kids were.
It wasn't (just) about a broken condom. You need to reread the allegations. "Rape" may not be the exact word in the Swedish law that applies, but it's the word in English that applies.
So in order to release that one video as evidence of a coverup, I would have to also release all of the classified information gathered in the theater for the duration of the war, without any redactions to protect anyone mentioned in them?
You're a moron.
We, the non-terrorist side in that war, are the good guys. If Assange had a clue, he could have revealed the malefactors in our midst, and got us to support him all the way with our own legal system. But he doesn't. Nor do you, because somehow you think that committing 100,000 crimes is justified by revealing one crime.
They are fuckng cowards is all, give me the zetas info and I'll dump it all over the place. hell ill register a domain name zetasinfo.com or something and display it proudly
It could simply be that they got their guy back quietly and thus the threat is no longer required.
Wait what? So you want to put MORE people on the street? Without wanting to go into a longer explanation: that's really stupid.
All the world's a CPU, and all the men and women merely AI agents
I think that more likely the cartels called anonymous' bluff and they backed down once they realized that this was actually real. Anonymous is made up of a few thousand members that do nothing but talk a lot of shit, make threats, etc. and a small handful of skilled hackers. In the past what has happened is that one or two of the hackers have broken into something (i.e. sony) and released a lot of data while the rest of the group takes all the credit. But even the skill of these few hackers is questionable. The servers they broke into had known security vulnerabilities that were unpatched due to incompetent administrators, one guy actually gave out the password to his server after some social engineering. The recent "child porn bust" was some "genius" who managed to write a script to return a list of names and other information that was publicly available in the first place.
I suspect what happened here is that a lot of members said "we're going to take down the cartels", the cartels didn't like that and responded by killing people. So now you're left with a bunch of shit-talking idiots and a few good hackers. The hackers aren't exactly useful here because I'm pretty sure the drug cartels don't go around storing details of their crimes on insecure servers. MAYBE some cartel member has an email account that might be of some use, but good luck hacking into a gmail account that you don't have any prior knowledge of. The rest of the anonymous members decided that maybe they should stop poking a hornet nest and tried to play it off as "well, we don't want anyone else to get hurt" rather than "we threatened some bad people, couldn't back it up, and got someone killed so we're not doing that anymore".
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
Then lets start with your family and see how you feel about it.
"Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me". - stolen from Dan C alt.os.linux.slackware
Its not so much the pot thats the problem; maybe a few years ago, but not today. I am fortunate to live in Colorado, where the laws are a little more relaxed, and with the medical MJ there is lots of high quality locally grown herb. It would be very difficult for me to go and try to find that Mexican Brown Frown, if I even wanted it. The problem is with the junky drugs like cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine. I know exactly which neighborhoods to visit to find that shit. One problem tho, I don't speak much Spanish.
Some random people say they are going to, anyone who's ever been to 4chan knows those particular clusters of idiots yell to attack facebook or google every other week. Anonymous works on a system, the popular ideas rise and are echod, the unpopular ones just become one idiot repeating the same thing until he shuts up. The FB and Google attack type ideas would fall into the latter category, The members of anon that have any knowledge of hacking don't bother with that crap.
Drug laws and false anti-pot propaganda only benefit the gangsters.
--
"The tyrant fears the laugh more than the assassin's bullet." Heinlein, Our Fair City
We will laugh at the tyrant, even if he does things that aren't funny, because of the influence. We're above the influence: we're high above it! (Alternately, government is really just the winning gang, as expressed earlier here, more eloquently.)
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
It gets worse from there as you suggest we just set up an authoritarian regime that can rob you of everything you've worked for, because you got with a joint. You call that "a bit of a slippery slope"? ROFL, man I want what you're smoking!
Perhaps, just perhaps, ... you don't.
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
It is the day Anonymous (in any sense of the word) got some sense. I am actually impressed (after spending my breakfast reading IRC logs for a laugh) that so many people spoke so concisely and with reason. The gist of their conversations: Going to jail is one thing but being decapitated is another.
I am still a tiny bit disappointed that they didn't follow through with their threat!
These people can kill themselves (though if they use marijuana, I find that unlikely) while using their drugs for all I care.
Generally, they will live longer than the non-smokers. Thanks to cancer.
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
We, the non-terrorist side in that war, are the good guys.
Our "freedom fighters" are the other side's "terrorists". We are not "the good guys", not by a long stretch.
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
Just like the end of Prohibition ended the hold that organized crime had cities like Chicago and New York?
The cartels have already made their money and amassed large amounts of capital. If they lose one source of income (the drug trade) they'll simply re-focus on other sources of income (kidnappings, protection rackets, etc.) and, thanks to the war on drugs, they'll have the resources to do it.
While drug policy is one of the few issues I happen to take a libertarian stance on, I think we need to go into the debate with our eyes wide open. Decriminalizing drugs may decrease drug related violence from the cartels, but we can expect a veritable explosion of violence in other areas as the cartels broaden the way that they make money. So, at least in the short term, things are likely to stay the same or even get worse on the violence front.
e-cojones ain't real.
Or they rally to bring out the LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon) and DDOS the target. Not really hacking though.
The official term is "Sex By Surprise", as absurd an excuse to reel someone in as there ever has been.
http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=%22sex+by+surprise%22&btnG=Google+Search
Lil' Thindime, lilting a lacrimose lament, krashes the kwaint konfines of Kokonino Kounty
There is this concept you need to learn about called hypocrisy. BitZtream was just pointing it out.
Wired's Danger Room speculated that the original threat video wasn't even done by Anonymous but by someone else trying to start a fight between the two: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/10/opcartel/
A coworker pointed out the obvious: these cartels ARE terrorists and they are killing US citizens and police officers. We roll into the middle east every time some clan get uppity but our government will sit idly by while Americans are murdered by these criminals. Why don't we fly a few predators UAV's over Mexico and take out some cartel targets? Why is our government doing nothing?
Sure, but to be a hypocrite in this case you'd have to advocate that Anonymous take on the cartels. I don't think that is what is going on here. As usual the criticism is not very cogently stated, but I take the gist of it to be an attack on Anonymous's naiveté in thinking they could take on the drug cartels, in thinking that the cartels were no different from Anonymous's prior targets.
I'll put an even finer point on it. This incident demonstrates the danger of believing political hyperbole. I believe that HBGary is willing to be an opportunistic leach on the public good, and without somebody like Anonymous there wouldn't be any counter-argument to "everybody else does it." That doesn't obligate me to believe they are the moral equivalent of a Mexican drug gang. HBGary is evil, alright, but it's a contemptibly petty kind of evil, like a shopkeeper who cheats his needy customers. The drug gangs are more like serial murderers. Greedy, unprincipled shopkeepers and serial murderers are both evil, but on a different scale. Being able to see that is a good thing.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
See, that's why we're the good guys. We know right from wrong, and why the other side is terrorists.
Fucking women who don't want you to fuck them is rape. Learn that now, if you haven't.
If I could mod you up I would, Anonymous would have to separate the list of those forced from those who joined willingly.
how is babby formed?
If the bad guys are able to do this, then Anonymous isn't anonymous enough and should improve its tech ... or its spycraft.