Anonymous reveals prominent American political office holders' membership in Ku Klux Klan.

[MrFun]

It will be interesting to see what the fall out will be for these Ku Klux Klan members; if there will be any.

Carry on, folks.

Anonymous #OpKKK: Four US Senators 'associated with Ku Klux Klan' revealed by hacktivists
By Anthony Cuthbertson
November 2, 2015 17:09 GMT
Updated 15 min ago 556 124

Anonymous hacktivists published a list of politicians allegedly affiliated with the KKK as part of #OpKKKReuters
Anonymous has named four US State Senators in a list of public officials allegedly affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan. Five mayors from towns in southern states were also named as part of the ongoing Operation KKK, which aims to expose the identities of up to 1,000 members of the white supremacist group.

The names of the politicians have emerged at the same time as contact details were published that Anonymous claims belong to members of the KKK. 57 phone numbers and 24 emails were released by the group, alongside the message: "There is no place for racism now we're more connected, the time to cooperate and better the world is now."

What is #OpKKK?

Operation KKK, referred to online as #OpKKK, first began in November 2014 during the protests in Ferguson, Missouri.

When a local chapter of the KKK warned protesters that "lethal force" would be used against them, Anonymous took control of the KKK's main Twitter account and published personal information of alleged members of the white supremacist group.

The campaign has continued in 2015, with Anonymous threatening to reveal the identities of up to 1,000 KKK members on 5 November.

Representatives of the four Senators named on the list have been contacted by IBTimes UK for comment on the matter, though none had responded at the time of publication. The local chapters that each politician is allegedly associated with have also been contacted.

A faction of the amorphous hacktivist group claims to have obtained the information after gaining access to a KKK Twitter account, which enabled more contact details to be uncovered. A hacker by the name of Amped Attacks has claimed to be behind the latest release, saying in a message posted alongside the list: "These are the officials that have political power in the USA that are associated with either KKK or racist related."

Amped Attacks has also released evidence that they are behind attacks on Ku Klux Klan websites that have forced them offline in recent days.

The hacker claims to not be a part of Anonymous, only a supporter of the group's #OpKKK. Amped Attacks revealed to IBTimes UK that the email addresses of the Senators were found in databases held by several KKK sites: "All I can really say without fully admitting to federal charges is that several databases were dumped from different KKK websites that all linked their emails to the politicians in question and the only way their emails would have been on there to begin with is if they showed support when signing up for [the site] or filled out an application."

In a statement released last week as part of #OpKKK's revival, Anonymous stated: "We are not attacking you because of what you believe in as we fight for freedom of speech. Ku Klux Klan, We never stopped watching you. We know who you are. We know the dangerous extent to which you will go to cover your asses. Originally, we did not attack you for your beliefs as we fight for freedom of speech. We attacked you due to your threats to use lethal force in the Ferguson protests.

Senator Dan Coats of Indiana denies Ku Klux Klan ties
Hacktivists publish first batch of alleged Ku Klux Klan contact details
Anonymous to reveal identities of 1,000 Ku Klux Klan members on 1st anniversary of Ferguson protests
"We took this grudge between us rather seriously. You continue to threaten anons and others. We never said we would only strike once... The aim of this operation is digital. Another cyber war trist, nothing more. We are not violent. We will release, to the global public, the identities of up to 1,000 klan members, Ghoul Squad affiliates and other close associates of various factions of the Ku Klux Klan across the Unites States."

This article will be updated when a response from the US Senators is received.

UPDATE 5.17pm (GMT): A comment provided to IBTimes UK from the hacker who first revealed the names of the US Senators has been included.

[Dauphin]

If I signed you up to a KKK website, would that make you a member?

[DinoDoc]

MrFun: Here's a profile of one of the politicians on the list.

[MrFun]

MrFun: Here's a profile of one of the politicians on the list.

Yeah. Someone else on Facebook in a thread about this, who claims she personally knows Rogero, says this calls into question all the other listed KKK members revealed by Anonymous.

As if a source can only either be 100 percent wrong on a topic, or 100 percent right on a topic. Never mind the possibility that Anonymous could be correct with some or most of the people they have listed as being KKK members.

[loinburger]

Yeah. Someone else on Facebook in a thread about this, who claims she personally knows Rogero, says this calls into question all the other listed KKK members revealed by Anonymous.

As if a source can only either be 100 percent wrong on a topic, or 100 percent right on a topic. Never mind the possibility that Anonymous could be correct with some or most of the people they have listed as being KKK members.

Maybe some of the women executed in Salem were actually witches

[Aeson]

I signed up to all those sites using MrFun's email address.

[Proteus_MST]

So, how tiny are the chances that not all of them are members of the republicans?

[Sava]

republicans don't need to be in the kkk to be evil

[The Mad Monk]

"several databases were dumped from different KKK websites that all linked their emails to the politicians in question and the only way their emails would have been on there to begin with is if they showed support when signing up for [the site] or filled out an application."

This is the issue. If I were to investigate the Klan, one of the first things I would do is sign up for whatever information they had to send me.

[Proteus_MST]

If I were to investigate the Klan I surely wouldn´t use one of my "official" eMail-Adresses for this purpose

[The Mad Monk]

You probably wouldn't if you *weren't* investigating the Klan. It's just something not done under any reasonable circumstances, if you think about it.

IOW, it's evidence of ignorance, naivete, or carelessness, but implies little else without further corroboration.

[Dr Strangelove]

You know, there was a time when a Roman Catholic wouldn't be accepted into the KKK. I guess times have changed.

[kentonio]

You probably wouldn't if you *weren't* investigating the Klan. It's just something not done under any reasonable circumstances, if you think about it.

IOW, it's evidence of ignorance, naivete, or carelessness, but implies little else without further corroboration.

To be fair, lots of people are technology retards who do extremely stupid things. A huge number of child abuse suspects have been caught for completely misunderstanding how computers work. The singer Gary Glitter was originally caught IIRC because he took his PC containing child images into a PC repair store and left it there to be examined.

Never underestimate peoples capacity for being extremely stupid.

[Proteus_MST]

Aye ... the whole affair lets one assume that the senators in question were the type of computer illiterates who have their personal assistants which they order around when it comes to computer thingies, even with regards to the most trivial problems

[MrFun]

I made a mistake. Anonymous has said the KKK membership list released, is not legitimate, and that they're not releasing their list until November 5.