Feds Target BlueLeaks Publisher & Other Pressing Matters w/ Journalist Ali Winston

On this edition of Parallax Views, new documents show that the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) and other federal agencies are targeting the Distributed Denial of Secrets, a transparency organization specializing in publishing leaks the reveal the inner workings of powerful institutions, as a "criminal hacker group". The documents show that the DHS has its eyes on DDoSecrets in light of their publishing BlueLeaks (or #BlueLeaks), a collection of 269 gigabyte collection on U.S. law enforcement obtained by the hacker collective Anyonmous. DDoSecret, however, claims that it is not involved in hacking but rather is only a publisher of data like BlueLeaks. Independent journalist Ali Winston, whose work has been features in The Daily Beast, The Intercept, and The New York Times, fills as in on the whole story as outlined in his article "Feds are treating BlueLeaks organization as ‘a criminal hacker group,’ documents show" (The Verge; 8/13/20).

In addition to discussing the federal targeting of the BlueLeaks publisher Distributed Denial of Secrets, Ali also discusses with us:

- How he got involved in journalism; specifically journalism related to surveillance
- Ali's coverage of far-right  white supremacist extremist terrorist groups like The Base and the Satanic neo-nazi Order of Nine Angles. Ali notes how The Base's founder is ex-FBI analyst Ronaldo Nazzaro and relays how the Order of Nine Angles recently had a member, Ethan Melzer, infiltrate the military. Additionally, Ali briefly covers how members of the U.S. far-right are tied to international far-right organizations like the Azov Battalion in the Ukraine. In this regard we note how federal agencies focusing on organization like DDoSecrets or Antifa and Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists seems a bit misguided in light of the threat that these far-right groups represent.
- Joe Biden's picking Kamala Harris as VP; Kamala Harris's framing of racism as a "National Security" issue due to allegations of Russian propaganda operations seeking to amplify existing social tensions in the U.S.; the history of the National Security State; how the National Security State is a reactionary force that has been supported by bipartisan efforts on the parts of both Republicans and Democrats; the employment of war-time language in the age of coronavirus ("The War on COVID")
- The implications of DDoSecrets being targeted by the DHS and other federal agencies; Emma Best, the DDoS's founder, and her response to the documents; what this means for publishers of information and data as well as journalists and the media as a whole
- Ali's podcast Surveillance and the City.
- And more