Just what our armed forces need–and coming from the people they’re risking their lives to protect, no less:

Barrett Brown, 29, calls himself senior strategy officer for the group [calling itself Anonymous].  He recently was interviewed by MSNBC and explained why his group is looking to attack critical U.S. institutions.  He states, “It’s a guerrilla cyberwar — that’s what I call it. It’s sort of an unconventional, asymmetrical act of warfare that we’ve involved in. And we didn’t necessarily start it. I mean, this fire has been burning.”

While the young man doesn’t have much experience in formal ethics theory, he is a fervent “propagandist” (in his own words) who preaches a philosophy of breaking the law to fight perceived injustices.  He states, “Our people break laws, just like all people break laws. When we break laws, we do it in the service of civil disobedience. We do so ethically. We do it against targets that have asked for it.”

Mr. Brown’s latest effort is to personally attack and “harass” military personnel, law enforcement officials, and staff at the Quantico, Virginia military base where Bradley Manning is imprisoned.  Anonymous members try to hack into the peoples’ personal accounts and attempt to post personal information and embarrassing details on internet message boards and other outlets.

The attacks are known as “doxing” to the group.  They include trying to post details about the individuals’ families such as the names of their children and their home addresses.

The group is also attempting to accomplish a “complete communications shutdown” of phone lines and internet to the military base.  He was careful to stress that he calls himself a “journalist” and is not involved personally in these attacks.

Don’t expect the Obama Administration to do much about these attacks, though.