Protest Warrior

Protest Warrior is a conservative political activist group. It was formed in 2003 by Alan Lipton and Kfir Alfia in Austin, Texas. The group is primarily known for organizing counter-protests in favor of the Iraq war. Its slogan is "Fighting the left...doing it right".[1] As of 2015, it was inactive.

History

In February 2003, Alfia was working as a computer chip designer in San Francisco when he reunited with Alan Lipton, a childhood friend, and crashed an anti-war protest in San Francisco on February 16, 2003.[2]

The two carried their own signs. Alfia's sign showed a woman in a burqa tied to a pole with a leash around her neck, and was captioned "Protect Islamic Property Rights Against Western Imperialism. Say No To War!" Lipton's sign said, "Saddam Only Kills His Own People. It's None Of Our Business." Conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh covered their counter-protest on his website and complimented the group on its work.[3]

Motivation

Seeing liberals as "morally and politically bankrupt," and as having a monopoly of media attention, Protest Warrior believes that the voices of the left are "heard disproportionately, demoralizing our troops and emboldening dictators around the world."[4]

Method

The group's primary method of activism is crashing liberal events, chiefly anti-war protest marches and counter-demonstrating within their ranks. For instance, Protest Warriors attended rallies against Halliburton, Caterpillar Inc., Israel, and U.S. President George W. Bush, displaying support for these entities. When doing so, the Protest Warriors carry large signs often designed to appear similar to those held by the participants, enabling them to mingle until observers are close enough to read their signs' fine-print.

Website

The group maintains a website as an organizing and information hub. It also acts as a source for the many slogans and signs presented by Protest Warriors at protests, as well as offering a sign creation tutorial to registered members. The website also includes an online shop. The website also featured numerous forums, but they were shut down without explanation on September 13, 2006, and currently return a HTTP 404 error.

The website has been the target of various attempts at politically motivated hacking in the course of its existence. Most notably, in January, 2005 the site was hacked by Chicago native Jeremy Hammond, affiliated with the website HackThisSite.org, to steal credit card numbers and shut down the web server. Hammond was indicted in May, 2006, and sentenced to two years in prison on December 7, 2006.[5]

Past operations

Local and National chapters of Protest Warrior have carried out operations in the United States and abroad. Examples of past Protest Warrior operations include:

Current status, future campaigns

The current status of Protest Warrior is unknown:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Protest Warrior Archived September 9, 2009, at the Wayback Machine., Protest Warrior
  2. ↑ New York Times, Alan Feuer, September 3rd, 2004 Warriors of the Right Take to the Streets
  3. ↑ Washington Times, Chris Jolma, November 18th, 2003, Protest Warriors New Movement
  4. ↑ Protest Warrior Protest Warrior: Mission Statement
  5. ↑ "Chicago Tribune". Archived from the original on January 6, 2007. Retrieved 2006-12-16.
  6. ↑ "Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts". Retrieved 2006-11-17.
  7. ↑ "Franchise Tax Determination of Good Standing". Retrieved 2006-11-17.
  8. ↑ "Protest Warrior Blog". Retrieved 2009-09-14.
  9. ↑ "Protest Warrior Website". Archived from the original on 2009-09-09. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
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