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Anonymous Targets Koch Brothers, Gets Involved in Wisconsin Politics

by Amar Toor on February 28, 2011 at 11:30 AM

AnonymousAnonymous has already targeted authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, the Westboro Baptist Church, and one particularly outspoken snitch. Now, the group of tireless hacktivists has apparently turned its attention to David and Charles Koch -- the billionaire brothers who, according to Anonymous, are manipulating Wisconsin politics to their own corporate advantage.

Yesterday, Anonymous temporarily took down the official website of Americans for Prosperity -- an advocacy group that's devoted to free market principles, and funded by the Tea Party-friendly Koch siblings. The DDoS attack came as part of the group's newly minted 'Operation Wisconsin' campaign, launched in support of the state's pro-union protesters. And, according to Anonymous, the brothers Koch are public enemy number one.

"Koch Industries, and oligarchs like them, have most recently started to manipulate the political agenda in Wisconsin," Anonymous declared in a press release. "Governor Walker's union-busting budget plan contains a clause that went nearly un-noticed. This clause would allow the sale of publicly owned utility plants in Wisconsin to private parties (specifically, Koch Industries) at any price, no matter how low, without a public bidding process."

Anonymous went on to directly accuse the brothers of stirring the upheaval in Wisconsin, and supporting a bill that would strip unions of their collective bargaining rights -- all "in a bid to gain a monopoly over the state's power supplies." Koch Industries, meanwhile, has vehemently denied that it would benefit from Walker's proposal.

Though several of Anonymous's operations have touched upon political issues or targets, it's rare to see the group immerse itself in such a distinctly political debate. But one member of the collective insists that Operation Wisconsin was borne out of principle -- not politics. "The operation was non-partisan and remains so, the political noise generated is unavoidable," an Anonymous member known as Antivigilante told Gawker in an e-mail. "It's not about Walker, it's about Koch. It's not about the Tea Party, it's about a corporation casting a reality distortion field on the Wisconsin gov't."

Tags: anonymous, anonymous+koch, anonymouskoch, ddos, hack, hacktivists, koch, koch brothers, KochBrothers, KochIndustries, politics, protest, security, TeaParty, top, union, Web, wisconsin, WisconsinProtests

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