We are Anonymous.

We are Legion.

We do not forgive.

We do not forget.

Expect us.

— Anonymous

They are Internet jokers, hackers and hijackers, information rebels, revolutionaries and resisters.

They are you, me, the grunt in the next cubicle, the geek who fixes your computer.

They are Anonymous, an informal collective of interactivists that last month virtually armed protestors in Tunisia and Egypt with the necessary knowledge to topple governments: How to keep safe during protests. How to bypass censors. How not to leave an online trail. How to keep posting YouTubes when the dictators have pulled the Internet plug.

They are liberators, truth-seekers freedom fighters. Freedom of expression, freedom of information, freedom of the press, freedom of the people.

The thing is there is no “they.” Anonymous is a cyber blob, amorphous, a concept, a consensus, a consciousness, a collaboration, a strategy, a meme.

Individuals come and go. They meet in Internet chat rooms, or not. They post on forums, or not. They tweet and Skype and text, or not. They don the Guy Fawkes mask from the movie V for Vendetta and hit the streets.

Or not.

Barrett Brown, co-author of Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design and the Easter Bunny, says he is often referred to as a “spokesperson and strategist’’ for Anonymous. He has certainly written much about it, in The Guardian, The Huffington Post and other publications.

“Anonymous is really about the ebb and flow of relationships,’’ he says, Skyping from Texas. “Anyone who promotes Anonymous’s values and self-identifies as Anonymous, we consider to be Anonymous.”

But is Anonymous, whose numbers are typically estimated at 10,000, an organization in the classic organized sense?

“I believe there are core members who do the grunt work of managing the servers/sites etc.; they are the key holders so to speak,’’ says American computer security analyst Scot Terban. “I also believe there are other ‘thought leaders’ within Anonymous that could be seen as leaders of the group. Who they are I am not sure.’’

Anonymous’s tactics?

Overwhelming offending websites with hits until they overload. Hacking into computer networks and leaking classified documents and emails. Jamming fax machines with all-black transmissions. Making prank phone calls and exposing their targets’ innermost — and dirtiest — secrets.

Says Terban: “We are seeing the power of cyber warfare.”

Score another one for Marshall McLuhan, who in 1970 predicted, “World War III is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation.”

Want a revolution? There is an op for that. Op as in operation. #OpEgypt #OpAlgeria #OpTunisia. #OpPayback. These are the Twitter “hashtags’’ that disseminate dissent.

And there are PDFs, lots of PDFs, hard-copy guides to revolution that 1960s Yippies like Abbie (Steal this Book) Hoffman could not have imagined. Riot advice. “First Aid Made Easy.” “The Uber Secret Handbook.” Even print-and-cut-out Guy Fawkes masks.

Anonymous has proven its power time and again, operation after operation. Not just in the Arab uprisings by closing down government and counter-revolutionary websites, but also by taking out business sites that, for example, stemmed support for WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks, you see, represents everything Anonymous stands for — the absolute power to publish withour fear, favour or the heavy hand of the state.

“For the first time in history, politicians (and others) have to answer directly to the people who elected them, a reality that’s creating shockwaves which are rocking the Powers-that-Used-To-Be to their cores,’’ explains Vancouver Island-based Jon Newton, who runs the digital news site p2pnet.net.

“The corporations — and I have nothing against anyone earning a living or getting rich, just as long as it doesn’t mean screwing someone else in the process — just haven’t gotten the medium, or the message. . . . Now we have a voice which is becoming increasingly unified (read loud.)”

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Mainstream media usually treat Anonymous as a threat to the system.

“They don’t get it. They are stuck in analogthink,’’ sneers a poster on Puppet99.com. “This is the digital equivalent of the ’60s ‘Sit In.’”

“What we’re doing is very mainstream in terms of helping to topple dictatorships and help populations and run corruption out of government,” insists Brown. “Those are certainly mainstream values.”

But maybe the corporate media have it right. Maybe Anonymous will change the established order of things. Maybe Anonymous is the warrior of the future.

One thing’s sure: Anonymous is spreading.

“I think we’re going toward perpetual revolution,” says Brown. “The nation-state is an institution that developed in a different environment. That environment has changed very drastically. And it’s changed more drastically in a very short period than any change we’ve seen in human history.

“So people need to stop looking at the last 20 years and saying this is what’s possible and this is what’s not possible — because it’s all possible.”

Anonymous Ops 101

Anonymous Ops 101

Project Chanology (2008): This was the attack on the Church of Scientology that brought the first mainstream attention to Anonymous. When a YouTube of a manic Tom Cruise raving about the benefits of Scientology was posted, the Church threatened legal action. As a result, Scientology.Org was taken out.

Anonymous Iran (2009): During the uprising after the contested Iranian election, Anonymous and other hacktivists set up an opposition Green Party support site with news and resources for protestors.

Operation Titstorm (2010): An attack against the Australian government, which had tried to pass a law that would censor online photos of small-breasted women because they could be seen as child porn.

Operations Payback/Avenge Assange (2010): This was where Anonymous sealed its reputation as champion of WikiLeaks and free speech. Among other actions, Anonymous brought down MasterCard and Visa’s websites because they would not accept or froze donations to founder Julian Assange.

Operations Tunisia/Egypt (2011): Anonymous helped protestors by knocking out government websites and providing resources for getting around the denial of Internet access.

The Attack on HBGary Federal (2011): This is the humiliating attack on a major U.S. security firm, which claimed to have identified Anonymous leaders and was planning to out them to the FBI. The corporate website was hacked, 60,000 emails leaked, and even its phone system was disconnected. Last week, the CEO resigned.

Westboro Baptist Church (2011): Last month, on live radio, while a representative from the notoriously homophobic church was debating with an Anonymous participant, a WBC website was hacked.

Operation Koch Block (2011): Last week, the growing ranks of Anonymous went after the multi-billionaire Koch Brothers because they were working “to undermine” the political process and workers in Wisconsin. They temporarily disabled the website of the Koch-funded group, Americans for Prosperity.

Avenge Bradley Manning (2011): On Thursday, #opbradley was launched, aimed at supporting U.S. Pvt. 1st Class Bradley E. Manning, the soldier charged with “aiding the enemy’’ by providing classified government documents to WikiLeaks.

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