Hacktivists Target Arizona Over SB1070
The Twitter picture for the LulzSec profile.
By John Guzzon
Modern Times Magazine .com
June 28, 2011 — By now, everyone has heard that Lulz Security — better known as LulzSec — released a boatload of information they gathered from Arizona Department of Security computers last week.
But what has been forgotten has been that Arizona’s statewide law enforcement agency was targeted specifically as retribution for SB1070 — that pesky piece of legislation that has cost the state millions of dollars and now has made Arizona a target for hackers around the world.
“We are releasing hundreds of private intelligence bulletins, training manuals, personal email correspondence, names, phone numbers, addresses and passwords belonging to Arizona law enforcement. We are targeting AZDPS specifically because we are against SB1070 and the racial profiling anti-immigrant police state that is Arizona,” said the LulzSec website, which is now offline. “Hackers of the world are uniting and taking direct action against our common oppressors — the government, corporations, police, and militaries of the world. See you again real soon.”
Even though LulzSec abruptly disbanded Saturday, the way that these hackers went about exposing what they perceive as injustice causes the message to get diluted. Accusing someone of breaking the rule of law then doing so yourself, is akin to the teapot calling the kettle black. And, it also is a security concern for us all: If activist hackers can access sensitive information, just think what nefarious elements might be able to accomplish.
But it should also not be forgotten that such actions should be expected when states go it alone in this modern age. Immigration policy and enforcement is a federal concern precisely because it is so important and the threats are so large. Going it alone, as Arizona did with SB1070, can only cause issues.
“Every week we plan on releasing more classified documents and embarrassing personal details of military and law enforcement in an effort not just to reveal their racist and corrupt nature but to purposefully sabotage their efforts to terrorize communities fighting an unjust “war on drugs,”” according to the LulzSec website.
Evidence has existed for decades, but in a partial review of the material LulzSec made available, it is hard to argue that the “war on drugs” is not one of the biggest fuelers of illegal immigration from Latin America. One document released by LulzSec, a U.S. Army PowerPoint presentation on narco-terrorist operations, claims that Mexico has seen nearly 40,000 casualties since 2006 that are directly related to the real ‘drug wars’ that are engulfing that country.
People are being skinned, beheaded, and hung in Mexico as various cartels fight each other, the government and anyone else who might stand in their way. Who wouldn’t want to flee Mexico and Latin America?
And, most of this is fueled by the dollars that U.S. citizens spend each and every year on illegal drugs — especially the biggest cash cow of all time — cocaine. The same Army presentation made available by LulzSec said that nearly 90 percent of the cocaine bought and used in the U.S. comes through Mexico.
It is this flood of money that keeps the illegal immigration issue alive and well. As long as there are drug cartels that are making Mexico and Latin America war zones, people will want to flee. Then, to come here, they are used as mules to haul the drugs or used as diversions to draw attention from concurrent drug shipments destined to be delivered to eager customers in the U.S.
The cycle, seemingly, continues unabated and it’s complexities are precisely why Arizona shouldn’t go it alone.
John Guzzon is editor of Modern Times Magazine.
Shooters: Crime, Sports and Sex
Sleep
