Justin King

November 21, 2014

(TheAntiMedia) The war between Anonymous and the Ku Klux Klan over the rights of protesters in Ferguson has been raging. The war involves a faction of Anonymous that has been in existence for years, but has remained a closely guarded secret. It also involves a factionalized hate group that has been unsuccessfully trying to rebrand itself as a kinder, gentler version of the KKK.

The facts are pretty simple. A faction of the Klan issued a threat against protesters in Ferguson. Anonymous stepped up and began #OpKKK, also known as #HoodsOff. Anonymous began disclosing the identities of Klansmen and even seized control of the Klan’s most important Twitter account. The Klan responded by claiming they weren’t violent, threatening Anonymous with violence, and saying the people being identified as Klansmen weren’t really Klansmen (even when there were photos of those members wearing the famous white sheets of the Klan).

The Klan’s seemingly bipolar actions stem from the fact that the Klan just isn’t what it used to be. There was a time when the Klan was a highly-organized paramilitary organization capable of striking fear into the hearts of its enemies all across the country. It was an invisible empire of white supremacist hatred that had members in all facets of life, from the local police departments to the halls of the US Senate.

Today, the Klan is factionalized. Many of the Grand Wizards aren’t really even racists; they’re just out to make a quick buck. Some factions are ultra-violent, and some are a club of people pretending to be racists in order to belong to something. (How sad is that?) There is no organization connecting the Klans. Each Klan tends to just follow whatever their particular leader says, and the leaders are sometimes at odds. In short, the organization is in complete disarray. This doesn’t make them ineffective. In fact, it probably makes them more dangerous. When other paramilitary organizations have fallen into this kind of factionalism, one group typically steps forward to proclaim themselves the “true” leaders. This proclamation historically has involved a major act of violence. (see: Irish Republican Army)

Disinformation:

For its part the Klan has engaged in a major campaign of disinformation, or maybe it’s just that one faction has no idea what the other factions are doing. An alleged phone call between Missouri Klan leader Frank Ancona and Anonymous activist Alex Poucher seems to indicate that his faction of the Klan actually want to help the protesters with their legal troubles. Ancona even offered to give the protesters access to Klan lawyers.

Of course, it’s hard to believe a word that comes out of Ancona’s mouth when he is the same Klansmen that checked-in on Facebook from the Ferguson Police Department with the comment:

“I was going to tie a watermelon to the back of my SUV and lead them [the protesters] all south.

If you listened to the recording, you’ll hear Ancona indicate that the Klan really isn’t racist.

Other Klansmen have condemned Ancona, but the website is probably still #TangoDown due to Anonymous operations.

Factions:

One of the more interesting parts to the Anonymous operation is that most, including many Anons, didn’t know anything about who was really behind it. Anonymous is also subdivided into many factions, most use a word and then add the abbreviation “sec” to the end to pay homage to the best-known subdivisions of Anonymous, like LulzSec (which means Lulz Security). The secret of who the masked men (and at least three women) behind the #OpKKK operation is out. It was the faction NOWsec. NOWsec has been in existence for years, but keeps an extremely low-profile.

NOWsec was formed around the time of Oscar Grant’s murder. That was more than five years ago. The Anti-Media talked to one of the reclusive activists through an encrypted chat. It was the first time an activist connected to NOWsec spoke with the press about the faction.

The activist, who is identified only as “Kafir,” was hesitant to answer questions about the size and strength of NOWsec.

“The amount of Anons in NOWsec is confidential. It’s made up of both local and non local Anons.” [local meaning activists in Ferguson]

Estimates about the size and strength vary greatly, but most place the group’s core membership in the range of 40 to 120.

When asked about the comments made by Ancona in regards to helping the protesters, the doubt was crystal clear.

“Ancona is trying to do damage control. The offer is not genuine.”

I was curious if NOWsec would continue operations against the Klan. Kafir made it clear that the operation had grown and was now in the hands of the global collective. Indicating that it was no longer their decision to make, but the activist did say the group wasn’t done with #HoodsOff.

“We will list every Klan member and Ghoul Squad member we can find.”

He later said,

“NOWsec’s current goal is exposing connections between TAK KKK and law enforcement involved in policing Ferguson protests.”

An employee with access to the St. Louis County Police Department (who also happens to be a NOWsec sympathizer) is aware of NOWsec’s operations and believes officers are worried.

“There have been discussions about it. They aren’t happy.”

The employee provided a list of names that will be turned over to NOWsec for examination and comparison.

The Klan has been attempting to find out the identities of the NOWsec activists, all I can say is good luck with that. NOWsec is one of the most secretive parts of Anonymous, and any attempts to find them will only lead to incorrect information. If other Anons don’t know exactly who they are, it’s unlikely the Klan will be able to track them down. To summarize the war, the Klan hasn’t been able to agree with itself or launch any successful counter-attack; and Anonymous has identified Klansmen, taken over Klan accounts, and has a mole inside the local police department.

It certainly seems the “Invisible Empire” is the hidden hand of someone wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, instead of the Klan hoods from yesteryear.

Information obtained by NOWsec is being held tightly. A release is expected in the coming days.

This article (Battle of Ferguson II: An Inside Look at #OpKKK) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TheAntiMedia.org. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to receive our latest articles.