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Th3 Pr0: The SEA started at the beginning of the Syria crisis. Young Syrians came together to defend their country against a bloody propaganda campaign by media organisations such as Al Jazeera, BBC and France24. We're all Syrian youths who each have our specialised computer skills, such as hacking and graphic design. Our mission is to defend our proud and beloved country Syria against a bloody media war that has been waged against her. The controlled media of certain countries continues to publish lies and fabricated news about Syria.Why did you choose to attack the BBC Weather Twitter feed to get your message across? It seems like a weird choice.
Because the BBC have never published any truth about Syria – they've been completely biased in their coverage – so we used their Twitter feed to do it ourselves. Revolutions don't need foreign guns and they don't need to force civilians from their homes and execute anyone who opposes them. Revolutions ride on the back of popular uprisings, and there's nothing popular about the Muslim Brotherhood running this “revolution”. The word revolution invokes a sense of mass public support, but what Syria is facing is not a revolution, it's a foreign-backed armed insurrection.
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Anonymous isn't one organisation; there are many taking on that name, some of whom claim to be genuine fighters for justice but are actually FBI and CIA agents. By attacking Syria they're simply following the agenda of the US government. They're not a threat to us – we've hacked several of their websites and released the personal details of their members.
What's the SEA position on the Syrian government's internet blackout in November and restrictions such as blocks on Facebook and YouTube?
We think that the internet will be better without Facebook and YouTube, because it's like prison – if you get into them, it's hard to get out. But internet freedom in Syria is better than many other Arab countries. However, unlike what the mainstream media reported, it wasn't the Syrian government that blacked out the internet, it was the opposition group, who call themselves the Free Syrian Army. They're all using satellite phones given to them by the US, so they don't need Syrian internet access. They attacked the lines to coincide on a push to control Damascus airport.And what about claims that the SEA have passed on details of anti-regime activists to the government, which in some cases have led to those activists being arrested and/or killed?
No, that's not true. We don't give any information about any activists to the Syrian government. We don't think the Syrian government needs our information; every country has its own intelligence.
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If FSA activists are planning on setting a bomb off or killing or kidnapping anyone, then yes, we'll tell the government. We don't hide the fact that many of the emails we obtained were forwarded to the Syrian government because of their importance and the fact they contained security and military information.Okay. Thanks, Pr0.

Commander X: I and the PLF, under the flag of Anonymous, launched Operation Syria the very first week that the protests began in Deraa, Syria and the police had brutalised some young protesters caught doing political graffiti near the university there. As a movement, we were fresh out of victories in both Tunisia and Egypt, and I guess we felt that we and the Arab Spring were both sort of invincible. I think we all honestly felt Assad would be easy to topple – I don't think any of us back then could have predicted how things would turn out.
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Can you tell me about your war with the Syrian Electronic Army?
The SEA was actually founded by Assad back when he was thought to have next to no chance of inheriting his fathers position as dictator because he was just such a geeky nerd. So they've been around a while, and we were aware from day one that they could become involved in the cyber conflict. As for our dealings with them, that's pretty straightforward. They are, by their own choice of allegiance to the dictator, the enemies of Anonymous. And they introduced themselves into the conflict fairly early on with a rather spectacular hack of a fairly well known Anonymous web site. We, in turn, responded by attacking their web assets and that conflict continues to this day.It's a cyber war; they attack our assets, we attack theirs. They have their victories, and some spectacular defeats, and we have ours. To be honest, the war has gone on so long now you could probably fill up a book if you were to detail every engagement between Anonymous and the SEA.
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Frankly, both sides are a bit exhausted by the cyber war and I don't think you could say that there's any sort of battle plan other than to simply persevere and continue the fight. As long as they continue to support Assad, I think it's safe to say the SEA would do well to expect us to carry on.Follow Oz on Twitter: @OzKaterjiMore hacking and Anonymous:Meet The Mysterious Hacking Collective Who Love Trolling AnonymousAnonymous Taught Twitter About The Rohingya GenocideAnonymous Tried To Storm The Houses Of Parliament Last Night