Barrett Brown, a self proclaimed spokesperson for Anonymous (and a recently banned DKos user) has been arrested in Dallas.
More below the Itzl
Barrett Brown, the self-proclaimed spokesman for the hacker group Anonymous, was arrested in Dallas last night, a Dallas Sheriff spokeswoman Carmen Castro told Reuters. He was then transported to an FBI facility this morning.
http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/...
For the second time this year, self-proclaimed Anonymous spokesman Barrett Brown was raided by the FBI.
The latest dramatic incident occurred late Wednesday evening while Brown and another woman identified by some as his girlfriend were participating in an online chat on TinyChat with other individuals.
Two minutes into the recorded chat session, loud voices could be heard in the background of Brown’s residence in Texas while the woman in the room with him was in front of the computer screen. She quickly closed the computer screen, but the audio continued to capture events in the room as the FBI appeared to strong-arm Brown to put handcuffs on him.
Brown’s latest raid came after he posted a long and rambling YouTube video in which he talks about taking drugs (though not today, he notes) and about retaliating against an FBI Agent named Robert Smith .....“So that’s why Robert Smith’s life is over,” Brown says in the video (beginning around minute 9:40). “When I say his life is over, I’m not saying I’m going to kill him, but I am going to ruin his life and look into his fucking kids."
http://www.wired.com/...
Note the reference to recent drug use. That was speculated as a possible cause of the diary melt-downs that led to bojo; and it has long been an issue for him, as indicated in this magazine profile from last year:
The night before Michael Isikoff came to Dallas, I got an e-mail from Barrett Brown. “Apparently Isikoff is freaked out about having another journalist here,” it said. “But I’ll secretly record the proceedings and provide to you.”
.
Isikoff’s cameraman and producer are the first through the door. Then the man himself, suited, gray hair, short. We shake hands. It feels awkward.
Ever the congenial host, Brown introduces us. “Tim’s a friend,” he says to Isikoff. “He’s writing a story. You guys can have a turf war if you want, but I’m on day four of withdrawals from opiates, so I don’t want to get involved.”
Brown has used heroin at various points in his life. On the night about a year ago that he met Loehr, in fact, at the Quarter Bar on McKinney Avenue, he told her he was an ex-junkie. “Ex” is a relative prefix. To manage his addiction, Brown was prescribed Suboxone, a semisynthetic opioid that is meant to be taken orally, but he had been dissolving the film strips in water and shooting the solution to produce a more satisfying high. On the Sunday before Isikoff’s visit, Brown showed me the track marks on his arm. He said he had run out of Suboxone, though, and was saving his last dose because he didn’t want to suffer through withdrawals during his big television interview.
http://www.dmagazine.com/...
Update #1: Lots of comment rightfully note that he's behaving like an asshole. He is. However, he also has had a credible history. He has been a legitimate writer of a number of books and articles
The bio info on a Vanity Fair piece from a couple of years ago:
Barrett Brown is the author of Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design, and the Easter Bunny. His second book, Caught, Fat, and Clouded: The Amazing and Amusing Failures of America’s Chattering Class, is set for release in April. He’s a regular contributor to Skeptic and The Huffington Post; his other work has appeared in The Onion, National Lampoon, Cracked, McSweeney’s, and dozens of other publications.
http://www.vanityfair.com/...
We may be watching a tragedy in process, as a great talent is melting down.
Update #2 And a news update:
Leiderman Devine tweeted earlier today an arraignment was scheduled for Thursday. The California-based law firm confirms it represents Brown, but per a tweet moments ago it’s no longer able to do so long-distance — as in, “Barrett needs a local Dallas atty ASAP. Current counsel can’t continue.” Shortly before that, someone at the firm tweeted that Brown “will be held in federal detention in Dallas pending trial on threatening a federal agent charge.”
http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/...