Just hours after releasing the recording of its daring interception of an FBI-Scotland Yard conference call, Anonymous had more surprises in store on Friday, this time leaking 300 GB of data it hijacked from the law firm Puckett & Faraj, which represents a U.S. Marine accused of killing 24 Iraqi civilians in 2005.
Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich received no jail time last month in a sentencing that followed a deal in which he pleaded guilty to negligent dereliction of duty. Originally he faced up to 152 years in prison for nine manslaughter charges stemming from a raid on homes in the Euphrates Valley city of Haditha. He admitted to telling his men to "shoot first, ask questions later," which they did, killing seven children, three women and a 76-year-old man, according to reports.
The plea bargain approved by Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser called for no jail time -- he would not explain why he offered this deal, reports said. The sentencing judge recommended Wuterich's rank be reduced to private, which came with a moderate pay cut.
Anonymous, clearly upset with the ruling, raided the website of Wuterich's Alexandria, Va.-based lawyers to steal "court mails, faxes, transcriptions, etc." the group announced. Barrett Brown, the public face of Anonymous, tweeted that the collective was seeking volunteers to help build a search engine that would allow the efficient perusal of the massive amounts of data.
The site is currently offline.
In a tweet sent from its primary Twitter account, the group said it was upset military prosecutors are trying to throw the book at accused WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, but let Wuterich off easily.
Meanwhile, Anonymous members on Friday also defaced the website of the Boston Police Department in retaliation for officers' treatment of Occupy Boston protesters, related to the Dec. 10 raid of Dewey Square, where demonstrators had been staying.
The department's website -- BPDNews.com -- is now redirecting to the agency's Facebook page. In a note posted to the page, the department said its "skillful technical staff" was working to repair the issue.
