Sherman Austin
Encyclopedia
Sherman Martin Austin is an American
anarchist
and musician who was arrested for inflammatory content on his website and subsequently convicted. He was the first person to be successfully prosecuted under 18 U.S.C. 842(p), a United States federal law which makes the distribution of information on explosives unlawful if the information is provided with the knowledge or intent that the information will be used to commit a violent federal crime. Austin was convicted under a plea agreement in 2002 and served a one year sentence in federal prison. Some academics and activists, including Zack de la Rocha
of Rage Against the Machine
, protested the prosecution of Austin.
of the Internet site RaisetheFist.com (subtitled "National Security
is the Threat"), which provides a platform for discussion for anti-police activists, and provides suggestions on how to practice for possible armed combat with police.
On May 1, 2001, the FBI
received information about a possible server intrusion and defacement of the Web site of the James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness. The information contained on that Web site's home page had been deleted and replaced with politically militant rhetoric. In addition, the coding for this and a number of other defaced sites contained links to RaisetheFist.com, while responsibility was claimed by a group calling itself "UCAUN", which was Sherman Austin's personal online username
for a number of IRC clients, including AIM Instant Messenger.
armed with a search warrant
raided Austin's home. Agents seized all of his political literature and computer equipment, including the webservers used to distribute the explosives information. While searching Austin's bedroom, agents discovered two glass bottles containing petroleum products; one of these bottles had a metal screw top with a hole punched in the lid and the other contained a piece of burnt material. Agents also found boxes containing 63 glass bottles, and a remote controlled detonation device fashioned from a toy car. Austin's car contained fertilizer, cans of brake fluid, and two gas canisters.
A week later Austin attended the anti-World Economic Forum
protests in New York City
where he was arrested by the FBI for “distribution of information relating to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction.” When he was arrested, Austin was carrying a black mask, a gas mask, and a lighter; his car contained an empty gas canister, electrical wiring, and duct tape. He asked to be released so he could travel to the trial jurisdiction on his own, but the federal prosecutor argued that Austin's alleged vow to "take violent action to stop the 2002 Olympics" and "burn" the event posed another serious threat. Federal Magistrate Henry Pitman ruled that Austin would remain in custody for the trip back to California.
.
Austin has claimed that he never authored the explosives information, although he freely hosted it on his webserver. He says he took the plea deal because of the possibility of a 20 year sentence due to a "terrorism enhancement" clause in the USA Patriot Act.
Austin was not indicted for any alleged hacking crimes. However, he has acknowledged defacing the sites, saying it was necessary to get his message out.
Following his release from prison, he released a hip-hop CD, Silence is Defeat.
In February 2006, Austin released a statement on Indymedia containing claims that the National Security Agency
had installed illegal wiretaps before and during the investigation against him, and that the NSA, along with "other higher-ups in the government", arranged three separate attempts to assassinate him. Austin says that anonymous informants provided him with "some detail on who was serving the contracts, names, license plate numbers, etc", by anonymous informants, and that these informants also assured him that everything was being taken care of and he was being "looked out for".
. Since his arrest, Austin has become a cause célèbre
on the internet for anarchists, with many sites dedicated to freeing Austin. Zack de la Rocha
, lead vocalist of the band Rage Against the Machine
, came out in support of Austin.
Leslie Kendrick, arguing for the adoption of a standard for determining whether speech is "criminally instructive," has questioned whether Austin's sentence was fair given the available evidence. As she notes, the law protects both (a) speech that is intended to incite a violent crime, but is not actually likely to do so, and (b) speech that is likely to incite a violent crime, but is not actually intended to do so. The Department of Justice
prosecutor recommended a sentence of four months in jail and four months in a halfway house, but the judge rejected that plea twice and ordered a twelve-month sentence in jail, saying the prosecution was not "taking this case seriously enough." Writing of Austin, Kendrick says, "Too little information is available to make a complete assessment either of Austin's intent or the likely use of his website by others.… Judge Wilson's difference of opinion with the Justice Department prosecutor (the very agency that had contributed to the drafting of the Feinstein Amendment) illustrates the degree of subjectivity involved in assessing the danger imposed by the activities of individuals like [him]."
Carnegie Mellon University professor David S. Touretzky
posted a mirror of the Reclaim Guide on his Web site in reaction to the FBI raid on Austin, in order to prompt public debate. As Touretzky notes on his website, his own distribution of the material does not violate the statute because it is not performed with the intention or knowledge that the information be used to commit any illegal violent acts. On his website, Touretzky distances himself from Austin's politics, which he characterizes as "mindless," and suggests that the hacking evidence alone would be enough to arrest and charge Austin. But he is deeply troubled by the way the government handled the case:
"Did the amateurish bomb-making information, written by a minor, that Mr. Austin allowed to appear on his web site pose any significant threat to public safety? Did he personally intend to promote crimes of violence? Because he was coerced (with the threat of a possible 20 year 'terrorism enhancement') into signing a plea agreement, the government was spared the trouble of a public trial, and thus did not have to prove its case or enter its evidence against him into the public record. How then can we, the American people, judge whether our government acted reasonably in this matter?"
Audio
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
and musician who was arrested for inflammatory content on his website and subsequently convicted. He was the first person to be successfully prosecuted under 18 U.S.C. 842(p), a United States federal law which makes the distribution of information on explosives unlawful if the information is provided with the knowledge or intent that the information will be used to commit a violent federal crime. Austin was convicted under a plea agreement in 2002 and served a one year sentence in federal prison. Some academics and activists, including Zack de la Rocha
Zack de la Rocha
Zacarías Manuel "Zack" de la Rocha is an American rapper, musician, poet, and activist best known as the vocalist and lyricist of Rage Against the Machine.-Early life and childhood:...
of Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group's line-up consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello and drummer Brad Wilk...
, protested the prosecution of Austin.
Background
Prior to his arrest and imprisonment, Austin was webmasterWebmaster
A webmaster , also called a web architect, web developer, site author, or website administrator is a person responsible for maintaining one or many websites...
of the Internet site RaisetheFist.com (subtitled "National Security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
is the Threat"), which provides a platform for discussion for anti-police activists, and provides suggestions on how to practice for possible armed combat with police.
On May 1, 2001, the FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
received information about a possible server intrusion and defacement of the Web site of the James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness. The information contained on that Web site's home page had been deleted and replaced with politically militant rhetoric. In addition, the coding for this and a number of other defaced sites contained links to RaisetheFist.com, while responsibility was claimed by a group calling itself "UCAUN", which was Sherman Austin's personal online username
User (computing)
A user is an agent, either a human agent or software agent, who uses a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified by a username , screen name , nickname , or handle, which is derived from the identical Citizen's Band radio term.Users are...
for a number of IRC clients, including AIM Instant Messenger.
Search and arrest
On January 24, 2002, the FBI and the Secret ServiceUnited States Secret Service
The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...
armed with a search warrant
Search warrant
A search warrant is a court order issued by a Magistrate, judge or Supreme Court Official that authorizes law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person or location for evidence of a crime and to confiscate evidence if it is found....
raided Austin's home. Agents seized all of his political literature and computer equipment, including the webservers used to distribute the explosives information. While searching Austin's bedroom, agents discovered two glass bottles containing petroleum products; one of these bottles had a metal screw top with a hole punched in the lid and the other contained a piece of burnt material. Agents also found boxes containing 63 glass bottles, and a remote controlled detonation device fashioned from a toy car. Austin's car contained fertilizer, cans of brake fluid, and two gas canisters.
A week later Austin attended the anti-World Economic Forum
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
protests in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
where he was arrested by the FBI for “distribution of information relating to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction.” When he was arrested, Austin was carrying a black mask, a gas mask, and a lighter; his car contained an empty gas canister, electrical wiring, and duct tape. He asked to be released so he could travel to the trial jurisdiction on his own, but the federal prosecutor argued that Austin's alleged vow to "take violent action to stop the 2002 Olympics" and "burn" the event posed another serious threat. Federal Magistrate Henry Pitman ruled that Austin would remain in custody for the trip back to California.
Conviction
On August 4, 2003, after entering a guilty plea under an agreement with the prosecutor, Austin was sentenced in U.S. District Court by Judge Stephen V. Wilson to 12 months in a federal jail, a $2000 fine, and three years probation, and as well as other restrictions. His time was served in a federal institution in Tucson, ArizonaTucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
.
Austin has claimed that he never authored the explosives information, although he freely hosted it on his webserver. He says he took the plea deal because of the possibility of a 20 year sentence due to a "terrorism enhancement" clause in the USA Patriot Act.
Austin was not indicted for any alleged hacking crimes. However, he has acknowledged defacing the sites, saying it was necessary to get his message out.
Release
Austin was released one month early in July 2004 with 3 years of probation which prohibited him from having access to a computer or knowingly associating with individuals who "espouse violence for political change".Following his release from prison, he released a hip-hop CD, Silence is Defeat.
In February 2006, Austin released a statement on Indymedia containing claims that the National Security Agency
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...
had installed illegal wiretaps before and during the investigation against him, and that the NSA, along with "other higher-ups in the government", arranged three separate attempts to assassinate him. Austin says that anonymous informants provided him with "some detail on who was serving the contracts, names, license plate numbers, etc", by anonymous informants, and that these informants also assured him that everything was being taken care of and he was being "looked out for".
Criticism of Austin's prosecution
Some have questioned whether Austin's trial was fair. Austin's supporters consider him a political prisonerPolitical prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
. Since his arrest, Austin has become a cause célèbre
Cause célèbre
A is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning and heated public debate. The term is particularly used in connection with celebrated legal cases. It is a French phrase in common English use...
on the internet for anarchists, with many sites dedicated to freeing Austin. Zack de la Rocha
Zack de la Rocha
Zacarías Manuel "Zack" de la Rocha is an American rapper, musician, poet, and activist best known as the vocalist and lyricist of Rage Against the Machine.-Early life and childhood:...
, lead vocalist of the band Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group's line-up consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello and drummer Brad Wilk...
, came out in support of Austin.
Leslie Kendrick, arguing for the adoption of a standard for determining whether speech is "criminally instructive," has questioned whether Austin's sentence was fair given the available evidence. As she notes, the law protects both (a) speech that is intended to incite a violent crime, but is not actually likely to do so, and (b) speech that is likely to incite a violent crime, but is not actually intended to do so. The Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
prosecutor recommended a sentence of four months in jail and four months in a halfway house, but the judge rejected that plea twice and ordered a twelve-month sentence in jail, saying the prosecution was not "taking this case seriously enough." Writing of Austin, Kendrick says, "Too little information is available to make a complete assessment either of Austin's intent or the likely use of his website by others.… Judge Wilson's difference of opinion with the Justice Department prosecutor (the very agency that had contributed to the drafting of the Feinstein Amendment) illustrates the degree of subjectivity involved in assessing the danger imposed by the activities of individuals like [him]."
Carnegie Mellon University professor David S. Touretzky
David S. Touretzky
David S. Touretzky is a research professor in the Computer Science Department and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition at Carnegie Mellon University. He received a BA in Computer Science at Rutgers University in 1978, and earned a Master's degree and a Ph.D. in Computer Science at Carnegie...
posted a mirror of the Reclaim Guide on his Web site in reaction to the FBI raid on Austin, in order to prompt public debate. As Touretzky notes on his website, his own distribution of the material does not violate the statute because it is not performed with the intention or knowledge that the information be used to commit any illegal violent acts. On his website, Touretzky distances himself from Austin's politics, which he characterizes as "mindless," and suggests that the hacking evidence alone would be enough to arrest and charge Austin. But he is deeply troubled by the way the government handled the case:
"Did the amateurish bomb-making information, written by a minor, that Mr. Austin allowed to appear on his web site pose any significant threat to public safety? Did he personally intend to promote crimes of violence? Because he was coerced (with the threat of a possible 20 year 'terrorism enhancement') into signing a plea agreement, the government was spared the trouble of a public trial, and thus did not have to prove its case or enter its evidence against him into the public record. How then can we, the American people, judge whether our government acted reasonably in this matter?"
External links
- Sherman Austin's MySpace page
- Sherman Austin music site
- Sherman Austin's last fm page
- raisethefist.com
- freesherman.org
- Senator Feinstein Urges Department of Justice to Aggressively Enforce Bombmaking Statute September 3, 2003
- What the FBI Doesn't Want You to See at RaisetheFist.com by Prof. Touretzky
- "Anarchist Webmaster Begins Year in Jail for Inflammatory Website", The Indypendent, September 9, 2003
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