Softpedia – by Catalin Cimpanu
The native American Indian population is disavowing any ties and pushing away any help the Anonymous hacker collective is trying to provide as part of protests against the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline.
Several American Indian communities, led by members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, have gathered outside Cannon Ball, a town in North Dakota, near a construction site where preparatory work is being carried out for Dakota Access, a 1,170-mile oil pipeline that links North Dakota oil fields with other Illinois pipelines.
Several parties are involved in the protests, from native American Indian communities that say the pipeline passes through their ancestral grounds, to local farmers unhappy their lands are used against their will, and environmental groups fighting against yet another environmental disaster waiting to happen. A New York Times article provides more details about the legal fights surrounding the pipeline’s construction.
Anonymous gets involved
On Friday, on the same day news was picking up about the protests, a new Twitter account appeared online called @OpNoDapl, as part of a joint Anonymous, AnonGhost, Ghost Squad Hackers (GSH), and MniWiconiSec (Canadian hacking group) operation.
The account claimed to speak for the Native American people and tweeted out a link with targets it wanted other Anonymous members to take down.
The list included websites for the US National Guard, the North Dakota state government, and Keystone XL, another controversial pipeline construction project. Softpedia has also discovered a YouTube video supporting this campaign, published a day earlier.
Native Americans fear Anonymous involvement may lead to violence
But news of Anonymous’ involvement was not met with cheers in the Native American Indian community.
“It’s about maintaining control of the situation,” Chris Big Eagle, a member of the Warrior Society, has told Softpedia. “I fear that the people of Standing Rock may be blamed for the actions of Anonymous.”
“I’m afraid that law enforcement may use the actions of Anonymous to target the Natives protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline,” he adds. “The leaders of the protest have asked that protests remain peaceful.”
Anonymous member was shot dead last year at a similar protest
“When it comes to Native issues Anonymous sometimes does more harm than good,” Chris Big Eagle adds, referring to the infamous killing of James McIntyre, 48, a man who was shot by Canadian police in July 2015.
The victim was shot and killed in the town Dawson Creek, Canada, while wearing a Guy Fawkes (Anonymous) mask at a protest against the construction of the Site C dam.
After that unfortunate event, a Native American protest planned for the following days was canceled by local tribes leaders, fearing “potential violence planned by ‘others.'”
Anonymous plans to go through with the attacks anyway
Softpedia has spoken with s1ege, a member of Ghost Squad Hackers, one of the Anonymous factions, who says that they are in contact with “native american anon brothers [sic].”
He adds that #OpNoDapl is scheduled to start on Sunday, August 28, and that the list of original targets will be updated with new entries.
For its part, the Native American community is planning to stay clear of any issues unwieldy Anon members may cause around the Dakota Access protests, fearing that all the consequences of Anonymous online attacks might fall on on-site protesters, just like in the Dawson Creek shooting.
https://twitter.com/creewarrior7/status/769283628136366080
https://twitter.com/creewarrior7/status/769288742800592897
Grow a pair of Indian balls.
Bitch slap these communist bassturds out of your tribe. Zionist agents running these reservations for a jew dollar.
I almost want to cry.
Stand up red man
We feel your pain finally.
But we cannot we cannot be punished forever for the ingnorance of our fathers.
At what time will we finally realize that we all bleed the same color.