You know Barrett Brown as one of the few public faces of Anonymous, the hacktivist collective. He spends much of his time in Dallas. He was arrested last night during an FBI raid that happened to occur while he was in an online chat.
Wired gives the play-by-play:
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 could be heard yelling in the background.
According to the article, Brown had posted a rambling YouTube clip in which he spoke about retaliating against FBI Agent Robert Smith after learning his mother might be hit with an obstruction of justice charge. But the FBI probably has any number of reasons for wanting to take down Barrett.
Barrett was taken to the Dallas County Jail. Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Carmen Castro said he was released to the FBI sometime this morning.
Update: Anonymous wasted no time retaliating for Brown's arrest. posting the names, home addresses, and phone numbers for 13 federal employees, according to Talking Points Memo.. An even more devious plot was reported by the Morning News: sending a bunch of cheese pizzas to the FBI headquarters in Dallas.
