Anonymous to shut Czech political parties’ sites during Occupy Prague protest

A screen shot from the ‘Operation Extinction’ video

Local members of the international group of cyber activists (“hacktivists”) operating under the banner Anonymous have threatened to take down the web sites of all Czech parliamentary parties on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. in an attack dubbed “Operation Extinction” (Operace Zánik). They will also meet at the same time in Prague’s central Wenceslas Square.

The denial of service attack will coincide with protests by Occupy Prague, part of the international movement calling for greater social and economic justice and controls on the influence of corporations on governments, among other things. The movement will set up a tent village at the Klárov square and park in Prague comprised of at least 50 and perhaps several hundred tents, Czech activist Jan Cemper told Czech Position last month.

“We will organize various lectures, workshops and, above all, discussions with people. We would like to know what’s bugging them and what solutions they suggest. We would like to hear the opinions of at least 1,000 people and with their help draw up a set of specific demands with which we'd go to government and opposition politicians,” said Cemper, a former member of the Czechoslovak Anarchist Federation (ČSAF) who remains close to the ultra-left group.

Members of the Czech branch of Anonymous said in a video posted on YouTube this week that it was acting out of solidarity with the Occupy Prague movement — but stressed it was disgusted by politicians across the political spectrum. Saturday’s cyber attack is to protest what they called top Czech politicians’ unethical links to businesses and corrupt practices – or inaction in the face of it. ‘[Our] domestic elected officials are incompetent, morally depraved, and corrupt and haven’t the slighted interest in reforming the system to function independently without corporate and lobbyist interests.’

“It is clear to all of us that our domestic elected officials are incompetent, morally depraved, and corrupt and haven’t the slighted interest in reforming the system to function independently without corporate and lobbyist interests,” Anonymous said in a video released on YouTube.

“Parliamentary deputies are not honorable and responsible people. They are only collectors of figures. These figures include mafia types and behind-the-scenes players. Every top politician is involved in corruption, tolerates it, or watches idly, which is the worst of all.”

The group also said that both sides of the Czech political spectrum were puppets of special interests, whether labor unions or corporations, “while trying to give citizens the illusion of a democratic system.” The parties in opposition were just as guilty as those in the government coalition of the aforementioned charges. “The opposition is also full of liars and criminals and cannot be trusted,” the statement said.

Czech Position interviewed a local Anonymous activist called ‘Great Troll’ earlier this year

Anonymous said it would therefore bring down the websites of all parties in the lower house of Parliament – the Civic Democrats (ODS), TOP 09, Public Affairs (VV) on the right and the Social Democrats (ČSSD) and Communists (KSČM) on the left, along with splinter groups like the “Left 21” of former ČSSD prime minister Jiří Paroubek.

Hackers claiming adherence to the Anonymous movement twice in recent months hijacked the website of the center-right Civic Democrats (ODS), of which Prime Minister Petr Nečas is chairman, and released personal details about party members, including their private mobile phone numbers.

Those cyber attacks were to protest the Czech government’s endorsement of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which critics say undermines Internet freedoms, hackers.