To the government of the state of Israel.  We are Anonymous.  For too long we have tolerated your crimes against humanity and allowed your sins to go unpunished.  Through the use of media deception and political bribery, you have amassed the sympathies of many.  You claim to be democratic, yet in reality, this is far from the truth.  In fact, your only goal is to better the lives of a select few while carelessly trampling the liberties of the masses.  We see through the propaganda that you circulate through the mainstream media and lobby through the political establishment.

Your Zionist bigotry has displaced and killed a great many. As the world weeps you laugh while planning your next attack.  All of this is done under the veil of peace, but so long as your regime exists, peace shall be hindered. You label all who refuse to comply with your superstitious demands as anti-Semitic and have taken steps to ensure a nuclear holocaust. You are unworthy to exist in your current form and will therefore face the wrath of Anonymous. Your empire lacks legitimacy and because of this, you must govern behind a curtain of deceit.  We will not allow you to attack a sovereign country based upon a campaign of lies. Your grip over humanity will weaken and man will be closer to freedom. But before this is accomplished, the people of this world will rise against you and renounce you and all your worth.

Our crusade against your reign of terror shall commence in three steps.

Step one will be initiated after the release of this video and will be comprised of systematically removing you from the internet. Step two will be later disclosed and is already in initiation; and, as for step three, well, think of this one as a present from Anonymous to you – we will not stop until the police state becomes a free state. We are Anonymous, we are legion, we do not forgive, we do not forget. Israeli government expect us.

It is not known whether Anonymous will actually follow through on the threat, as the collective has been known to abandon some plans, while misunderstanding others.  Additionally, an operation is sometimes thwarted when it’s been discovered to be the scheming of a rogue Anon.

But there has already been plenty of cyber-warring amongst hackers in the region, if this is any indicator.  Earlier in the week, Israeli hackers identifying themselves as the “IDF Team” attacked several Arab websites, including the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency and the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange, after Arab hackers launched a distributed denial of service attack on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and El Al airlines.  One of the lead hackers in Monday’s attack on Israeli targets told the Jerusalem Post that attacks would cease only “if the Israeli government apologized for what he described as a ‘genocide in Palestine.’”

A collective of Saudi hackers also hacked one of Israel’s largest sports sites and published the details of thousands of Israelis’ credit cards online.

According to Agence France Presse, a statement by “anonymous Saudi Arabian hackers” from Group-XP, the “largest Wahhabi hacker group of Saudi Arabia,” appeared on Israeli sports website One.co.il yesterday, announcing that the customer databases of multiple Israeli sites had been hacked.

Visitors were then redirected to another page, where they were invited to download lists of thousands of names, addresses, credit card numbers, expiration dates and security codes. Cards used to make payments to “Judaism” websites or “Israeli Zionist Rabbis” were among those listed, Haaretz reported.

The hackers’ statement described the attack as “a gift to the world for the new year” that they hoped “would hurt the Zionist pocket,” according to Ynet:

“It will be so fun to see 400,000 Israelis stand in line outside banks and offices of credit card companies to complain that their cards had been stolen. To see banks shred 400,000 cards and reissue them. To see that Israeli cards are not accepted around the world, like the Nigerian cards,” the hackers wrote.

Coincidentally, the incidents come at a time when some are speculating that Hamas leaders are pushing for another ‘Arab Spring’ in the region in light of their recent signing of a unity agreement with Fatah, a deal that was denounced by Israel’s prime minister.

If you want to keep up to date on the Occupy movement, you’ve come to the right place. This is Breitbart.com’s running chronicle of Occupy’s chaos, political machinations and internal power struggles as we head towards the Occupy movement’s planned Spring rebirth.

The Occupy movement is the Obama administration’s shadow campaign; community organized shock troops helping to spread the President’s strategic 2012 campaign message that we need to stop income inequality. With Big Labor calling the tactical shots, Occupy is President Obama’s direct action to bring real radicalism into the mainstream American politics, while another faction of Occupy organizers struggles to extract the movement from the grips of the Democrat Party establishment.

The crowds may have dwindled with the cold weather, but there’s still a tremendous amount of Occupy activity preparing for an “American Spring.”  We’ll be keeping this page updated with links to all of our Occupy coverage.  Catch it all right here, in one place.

View All Occupy Stories on Big Government ** View All Occupy Stories on Big Journalism

View 2011 #OccupyWallStreet Rap Sheet

February 2012

Occupy DC Slams Brick in Cop’s Face; AP Spins as ‘Nonviolent’, 2/8/2012

Occupy Wall Street Now Promoting the Weather Underground, 2/8/2012

Ohio Dem Gives Occupiers Tickets to Disrupt Kasich Speech, 2/8/2012

Occupy DC Plans Chaos At CPAC, 2/7/2012

Conservative Group to Share Freedom Plaza with Occupy DC, 2/6/2012

U.S. Park Service Moves in Against Occupy D.C. Encampment at McPherson Square, 2/5/2012

#Occupiers Targeting Breitbart at CPAC, Threaten Physical Violence, 2/2/2012

Big Labor Plans Super Bowl Chaos, 2/2/2012

Why Geezers Are Occupy Wall Street’s True Enemy, 2/1/2012

EXCLUSIVE: #Occupy Plans Cross-Country Marches for Mayday: ‘We’ll Quarter Our Troops in Homes Across America!’, 2/1/2012

January 2012

Occupy Wall Street Shows How We Can’t Get Our Message Out Over Old Media Din, 1/31/2012

What’s Next? Occupy the Super Bowl, of Course, 1/31/2012

Racist Occupy Wall Street: ‘Absolutely’ Race Problems & Hypocrisy, Says Black Occupier, 1/31/2012

White House Backs US Park Police in Occupy Conflict–Calls Tolerance of Protestors ‘Appropriate’, 1/30/2012

Martin Luther King’s Family Halts Occupy Event at Atlanta Memorial Center, 1/30/2012

Adbusters Tells Occupiers to Take to the Streets of Chicago a la 1968, 1/30/2012

Occupy Oakland Burns American Flag While Reciting Anti-Semitic ‘Pledge of Allegiance’, 1/30/2012

Racist Occupy Wall Street: Movement ‘Clearly’ Has Race Problems, Says Occupy Newark Leader, 1/30/2012

Occupy Slams National Prayer Breakfast for ‘1 Percent’; Will Lead ‘People’s Prayer Breakfast’ in Protest, 1/29/2012

Media Endorsed OWS Movement: “F*** The Police”, 1/29/2012

EXCLUSIVE–Inside Occupy DC: ‘Obama Is Not Why the US Park Police Are Letting Us Stay’, 1/29/2012

New #OccupyOakland Violence: Police Injured, 100 Arrested as Left’s ‘Mostly Peaceful’ Movement Returns, 1/29/2012

SUPER PACs: Occupy the Courts and the Fight for Free Speech, 1/27/2012

President Obama’s State of the Union & 2012 Campaign Based On Occupy’s ‘Income Inequality’ Messaging, 1/24/2012

One Occupier’s Sad Story Of Foreclosure Is A Bit Less Sad Than Reported By The Press, 1/24/2012

Media Hypes Occupy’s Rose Parade “Octopus” Float, 1/1/2012

View All Occupy Stories on Big Government ** View All Occupy Stories on Big Journalism

View 2011 #OccupyWallStreet Rap Sheet

Sources told Channel 4 Action News that, as the driver left the crash scene Tuesday afternoon, he told someone that he was with Occupy Pittsburgh and said there might be an explosive device inside the vehicle. But police said they’ve determined none of that to be true. They said McGee suffered a medical problem that gave him a coughing fit which caused him to lose control of the vehicle.

“There was speculation. We certainly wanted to check into that, in the current climate of what’s going on at the camp in downtown Pittsburgh, but we have no information — no evidence whatsoever — to relate this to Occupy Pittsburgh,” Lt. Kevin Kraus said.

More details here and here. The original post continues below:

A middle-aged man claiming to be with Occupy Pittsburgh has turned himself in to authorities after allegedly driving a stolen sport utility vehicle up the front steps and crashing it into the front entrance of a downtown PNC Firstside Center building yesterday afternoon. Richard McGee, 67, called Allegheny County Sheriff William P. Mullen today after hearing police wanted to speak with him about the incident, then showed up at the sheriff`s office in the Allegheny County Courthouse to turn himself in.

More images from WTAE

From WTAE in Pittsburgh:

Pittsburgh police are questioning a man who they think drove an SUV up the front steps of the downtown PNC Firstside Center on purpose and hit the entrance of the building during work hours.  [...]

Sources told Channel 4 Action News that, as the driver of the Hyundai Santa Fe fled the crash scene Tuesday afternoon, he claimed to be with Occupy Pittsburgh and said there might be an explosive device inside the vehicle.

View Video at WTAE.com.

The incident prompted police to call a bomb squad unit to investigate. WTAE reports that no explosives were found.

Employees in the building indicated that there is also a child care facility on the premises. A PNC spokeswoman said that the facility has since been moved to the other side of the building.

Only a handful of Occupy protesters remained at their camp nearby at the BNY Mellon Green lawn after an Allegheny County Judge ordered the protesters to be out of the park by Monday. Most left voluntarily, but just under a dozen remained on Monday, prompting the judge to issue an emergency order instructing police to remove lingering Occupy campers from the property. They told Channel 4 Action News that “they had no knowledge of the PNC crash and were not involved with it.”

Ironically, the PNC Firstside Center building is hailed by labor unions and environmentalists in the Blue Green Alliance coalition as a model for collaborative environmentally friendly development. The PNC Firstside Center building is Leed Silver Certified and is one of over 40 certified green buildings PNC owns. WTAE reported in 2008 that this number was more than any other corporation in the world.

There are no further details available at this time as to whether or not McGee’s claim to be with Occupy Pittsburgh is true. Police indicate that charges against him will include recklessly endangering another person and driving without a license.

It’s official.  Former Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY), who resigned in disgrace over a bizarre sexting scandal this past June, was NOT hacked.

Today, eight months after the congressman first claimed he was the victim of a hacking or a prank, the NY Daily News has broken the story that Anthony Weiner spent more than $13,000 in campaign funds to hire private investigators to track down a hacker that never existed.

Weiner paid T&M, a Manhattan-based firm, $13,290 for “legal services” in the fourth quarter of 2011, financial statements filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission reveal.

Sources told the Daily News, however, that Weiner hired T&M — a firm loaded with former NYPD sleuths — when he was in full spin mode over the controversy that eventually led to his resignation from the House.

[...]

Two sources familiar with Weiner’s downfall said the Queens pol told investigators the same story. T&M investigated — and learned Weiner had sent them on a fool’s errand.

“They did their job, and then it was time to sit down with lawyers,” another source said. “Self-denial, it dies a slow death.”

Surprised? No, neither were we.

The married congressman from Queens, NY initially told the public his Twitter and Facebook accounts had been hacked, after a tweet sent to a female college student in Washington state appeared in his public Twitter timeline, complete with a photo of a man’s bulging underpants.

The tweet triggered the unraveling of a series of sexually explicit online messages and additional photos Weiner had shared with numerous women. More than two weeks would pass before Weiner finally came clean about his extracurricular activities.  But not before embarking upon a media blitz to embellish his imaginary tale of hackers and pranksters and other political scapegoats:

“You know, I can’t say with certitude. My system was hacked. Pictures can be manipulated, pictures can be dropped in and inserted,” reported HotAir.

“At a time when the GOP is playing games with the debt limit, a member of the Supreme Court is refusing to recuse himself from matters he has a financial interest in, and middle class incomes are stagnant, many want to change the subject,” Weiner said in a statement emailed to POLITICO by his office. “I don’t. This was a prank, and a silly one. I’m focused on my work.”

Anthony Weiner indicated at the time that he’d asked a firm to look into whether his photos “could have been taken or manipulated,” followed shortly thereafter with the announcement that he’d hired an attorney to explore “civil or criminal actions” in response to the “prank.”  Now we learn that he used campaign funds to try and cover his hide.  And The Hill is reporting that Weiner continued to spend more than $130,000 in campaign cash even after his resignation.

This may be a good time for some to reflect on the unwarranted over-zealous scrutiny that fell upon Andrew Breitbart and other writers associated with these very websites who were accused of targeting, setting up, and/or hacking Congressman Weiner (or other ludicrous conspiracy theories), accusations that are often still repeated today, months after Weiner’s admission and resignation.  And one of the whistleblowers who stuck through the story has since had his life turned upside down, largely as a result of Weiner’s dishonesty (I won’t link to the horrid posts).

Might I remind these same critics that BigGovernment, which first broke the Weinergate scandal, reported the facts and did so responsibly, despite numerous claims to the contrary.  The dishonest party in this story is the one who no longer holds a seat in Congress.  And that’s a fact.

Des Moines, IOWA — Today, Friday, January 20, 2012, Zachary Edwards, age 29, from Des Moines, Iowa, was arrested and criminally charged with Identity Theft, an Aggravated Misdemeanor (Iowa  Code 715A.8(2)).  Edwards turned himself in to Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) agents this afternoon at the Polk County Jail.  He was then booked into the jail with a set bail of $2,000, cash or surety.

According to the Criminal Complaint, on June 24, 2011, Edwards fraudulently used, or attempted to use, the identity of Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz and/or Secretary Schultz’s brother, Thomas Schultz, with the intent to obtain a benefit, in an alleged scheme to falsely implicate Secretary Schultz in perceived illegal or unethical behavior while in office.

Read the full press release here.

Edwards was the 2008 Iowa New Media Director for Barack Obama’s campaign.  The Iowa Republican reported earlier that he is also the Director of New Media for Link Strategies, but the website has apparently since scrubbed all mention of Zach Edwards. However, you can see an earlier snapshot of the page through WayBackMachine.

Link Strategies is a Democrat-affiliated political campaign management, research and communications firm in Iowa, which has worked on projects and campaigns for clients like the SEIU and other labor unions, California Governor Jerry Brown’s independent expenditure committee, Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, and many others.

The founder of Link Strategies, Jeff Link, is very actively engaged in the Democrat party’s strategies, having served as “media consultant to the Obama for President Campaign, coordinating branding, all paid media and polling in 25 states, including seven battleground states (VA, NC, FL, CO, NM, NV, MT),”  according to his own bio (link to preserved snapshot from 1/10/2012).  He served as Senator Tom Harkin’s chief of staff from 1997 to 1999 and directed Sen. Harkin’s 2008 reelection campaign.

There has been nothing released to date by officials to indicate that Link Strategies was involved with or aware of Edwards’ activity.

The Iowa Republican also reports:

Since his surprise victory over incumbent Michael Mauro in November 2010, Secretary of State Schultz has been a target of the Iowa Democratic Party. Interestingly, on June 24, the same day as Zach Edwards alleged crime, Under the Golden Dome, a blog connected to Iowa Democrats, launched a three-part series of articles critical of Matt Schultz. They were based on documents obtained through an open records request from “a tipster.” The blog alleged that a batch of emails from Schultz’s office “raise some serious questions about his ability to remain independent and ensure election integrity”.

Just 15 days earlier, on June 9, the Iowa Democratic Party filed an ethics complaint against Schultz, claiming the Secretary of State of used public resources to campaign against presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman. The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board dismissed the complaint on July 19.

This is still a developing story, and we will continue to research much further and report on any additional findings or new developments.

I feel the duty to point out that this is very similar to other tactics from some of the left we’ve been observing over the last several months. While I haven’t personally observed anyone having gone so far as to steal one’s identity, I have witnessed similar efforts in which the individuals have gone to great lengths to publish false accusations, including crimes, that are clearly intended to cause a great level of distress for their targets (and that’s putting it mildly). We will report more on this particular tactic in the very near future.

The collective of hackers known as Anonymous attacked numerous government and recording industry websites this evening, shutting the sites down for hours as of this posting.

The attacks stem from a two year investigation into content sharing website Megaupload.com.  The Department of Justice unsealed an indictment today (after waiting an extra day to avoid coinciding with the SOPA protests), shut down the Megaupload website and arrested up to eight people in connection with the bust, including Megaupload founder Kim “Dotcom” Schmitz.  The actions provoked anger and triggered retaliation from Anonymous, according to Twitter accounts that regularly tweet news related to the collective of hackers.

The list of affected targets includes the Department of Justice, the FBI, Recording Industry Association of America, UniversalMusic.com, and others.  There are also reports that the US Patent and Trademark Office may have been targeted as well.

From the Washington Post:

Federal authorities Thursday indicted two firms and shut down one of the Web’s most popular sites for sharing illegally pirated material, triggering a quick response from hackers who claimed credit for taking down the Web sites of the Justice Department, Recording Industry Association of America and other media companies in retaliation.

The grand jury indictment, which caps a two-year investigation, charges seven people and Megaupload.com and other related sites with running an international organized criminal enterprise. Investigators said the group generated more than $175 million in income and cost copyright owners more than $500 million.

Justice Department officials said yesterday that the timing of its indictment was coincidental and had nothing to do with a debate on Capitol Hill over a bill that took aim at piracy online.

“This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States,” the Justice Department and FBI said in a statement.

Nevertheless, the federal action angered hackers, escalating the growing battle between the Web’s powerbrokers, both legitimate and illicit, and Washington, which has been seeking ways to clamp down on pirated content.

The Department of Justice released a statement on its website tonight, stating in part (since the DoJ site is down, portions of the statement are available at Mercury News, Silicon Valley):

“The Department of Justice web server hosting justice.gov is currently experiencing a significant increase in activity, resulting in a degradation in service,” the agency said in a statement. “The Department is working to ensure the website is available while we investigate the origins of this activity, which is being treated as a malicious act until we can fully identify the root cause of the disruption.”

…

“Our website and many others, including the Department of Justice, were attacked today and the hacker group Anonymous is taking responsibility for the attacks,” the statement read.

“The motion picture and television industry has always been a strong supporter of free speech,” the statement added. “We strongly condemn any attempts to silence any groups or individuals.”

You can read the complete 72-page indictment here or below:

Megaupload Indictment –

This story is still developing, so be sure to check back with Big Government for more on Anonymous’ activity and on the Justice Department’s investigation and indictment of  Megaupload.com.

Many of the Occupy Oakland movement protesting at the city’s port declared their solidarity with the Longshoremen’s union in Washington state.  In September, longshoremen Port of Longview in Washington stormed a grain shipping terminal, cut the brake lines on rail cars and held security personnel hostage, resulting in violent clashes between union workers and police.  The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on August 31st had issued a complaint against the union, condemning its “violent and aggressive” actions.

From the Monthly Review, John Hamilton interviews Oakland, CA International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 member and co-chair of the Million Worker March Movement, Clarence Thomas (not the SCOTUS Clarence Thomas), who explains why the Occupy movement is supporting the ILWU and closing of the port:

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

The partial transcript from Monthly Review is below:

“One of the reasons why they are doing it is because they are trying to defend ILWU workers in Longview, Washington, who are facing a behemoth of agribusiness, EGT.  The driving force behind EGT is a leading agribusiness concern called Bunge. . . .  Longshoremen have a debt of gratitude to the people who have organized this action today. . . .  30% of the funding of our pensions comes from that grain operation in the Pacific Northwest.  This is an attempt to rupture the jurisdiction of longshore workers that we’ve had for over 77 years in this country.  Wall Street is on the move, on the waterfront, looking for new profits, and the community are standing with the ILWU.

They are standing with us for a reason.  They know about 1984, when longshoremen refused to unload cargo from South Africa for 11 days.  They know about the ILWU shutting down all 29 ports in defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal.  They know about the ILWU shutting down all 29 ports on May Day, International Workers’ Day, to protest the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.  They understand about the ILWU and the actions that we took by not crossing the picket line in response to the murder on the high seas of those humanitarian activists taking supplies to Gaza.  The ship was shut down for 24 hours, the Zim Line ship from Israel.  They know about the actions that we took last October in support of Oscar Grant.  And this resonates with the community.  So now the community is saying: We want to stand in support of the ILWU.  So, this connection is genuine, it’s legitimate, and we embrace it.”

Early last month, the leftist publication SocialistWorker.org hinted at such coming activity:

“Corporate arrogance could provoke a first-ever shutdown of all U.S. ports at once. And Panama Canal pilots, who recently joined the ILWU, as well as the International Dockworkers’ Council and the International Transport Workers Federation, are also on board.”

Mumia Abu-Jamal was a former Black Panther who was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering a Philadelphia policeman in 1981.  The ILWU organized a work stoppage at West Coast ports in 1999 to protest the execution of Abu-Jamal.

When the Mavi Marmara (the so-called Gaza Freedom Flotilla) attempted to break Israel’s established Gaza blockade in international waters on May 31st, 2010, resulting in the deadly conflict between Israeli security forces and activists, Palestinian trade unions called for a work stoppage on Israeli cargo, and for dockworkers in the US to stand in solidarity against “Israel’s occupation and apartheid.”  Here at BigGovernment.com, we brought you similar protest footage from that day of  solidarity from leftist activist Lisa Fithian, where one of her activists leads the chant, “Long live Intifada!”.

The power of the people can be a very useful tool in forcing positive change through democratic direct action, we’ve seen it with both sides of the political spectrum.  But, left to the hands of organizers who may not necessarily have America’s best interests at heart, it can also be abused – for instance, to shut down every port – and cause severe harm to the economy of our nation.  These are not actions that should be taken lightly, or for ideological reasons.

While the Occupy Movement purports to represent the 99%, upon hearing some of the comments above, I’d question whether that majority really shares the same views.