Free Jeremy Hammond

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Jeremy Hammond is a gifted young computer programmer facing a decade in prison. His crime? Leaking information from the private intelligence firm Strategic Forecasting, information which revealed that Stratfor had been spying on human rights activists at the behest of corporations and the U.S. government.

In March 2012 Jeremy was arrested in his Chicago home and charged with violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the same legislation used to prosecute Aaron Swartz. This outdated law, written before the Internet was even created, gives absurdly broad powers to corporations and prosecutors to criminalize an array of online activity and pursue extreme and disproportionate sentences. By contrast, Jeremy’s co-defendants in Ireland will not be prosecuted and in the U.K. none will spend more than 16 months in prison.

Jeremy has been denied bail, cut off from his family, and held in solitary confinement– treatment normally reserved for the most egregious offenses. He did nothing for personal gain and everything in hopes of making the world a better place. He is facing a maximum sentence of ten years, but the minimum is zero. He has been jailed since March 2012 awaiting trial and now sentencing. It’s time for him to come home.

Free Jeremy Hammond - A support site for accused activist Jeremy Hammond

Vivien Lesnik Weisman: Jeremy Hammond, American Political Prisoner

In order to understand Jeremy Hammond's case, it is important to explain what private intelligence security firms are. They are for-profit firms that contract with corporations and governments. They are mercenary intelligence outfits. They offer their services to the highest bidder nations and corporate clientele. China, Korea, and the United States all contract with these firms. US government agencies routinely outsource what used to be done in-house. The FBI, CIA, DoD, and Homeland Security contract with these firms. After 9/11, outsourcing skyrocketed. It is estimated that 70% of US intelligence work is done with outside, contracted companies. Those are the estimates from 2006 and the trend continues to grow. Gone are the days when the CIA and FBI were in charge of intelligence and law enforcement.

Outsourced intelligence work has no kind of congressional oversight or regulation, or any other kind for that matter. These companies operate in the shadows and, as the Stratfor hack revealed, are involved in criminal behavior. When under contract for the US government, they do what would be illegal for the government to do itself. A convenient byproduct: the government is given the ultimate plausible deniability, which simply means they can outsource whatever they do not want to know.

The Obama Administration and the DOJ at it again.