Barrett Brown

Barrett Lancaster Brown (born August 14, 1981) is an American activist, and a former journalist, essayist, and associate of Anonymous. He has described himself as an "anarchist revolutionary with a lust for insurgency" who "wanted to become famous for overthrowing things."

In 2010, he founded Project PM, a group that used a wiki to analyze leaks concerning the military-industrial complex. It was classified a "criminal organization" by the Department of Justice. In January 2015, Brown was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison for the crimes of accessory after the fact, obstruction of justice, and threatening a federal officer stemming from the FBI's investigation into the 2012 Stratfor email leak. As part of his sentence, Brown was also required to pay almost $900,000 to Stratfor in restitution.

In late 2020, Brown restarted Project PM and claimed asylum in the UK on the basis that he had been persecuted in the US for his journalism. Brown's asylum was denied in February 2024. Brown says in 2021 he overheard officers discussing sealed charges in the US against him when he was arrested in London for allegedly overstaying his visa and incitement offenses. He was convicted of causing intentional harassment, alarm or distress.

Brown has been praised for his columns and writing, and bringing people together in activism. The Associated Press called him "a gifted writer in the tradition of William Burroughs and Hunter S. Thompson" who had "a knack for self-sabotage and has struggled with heroin addiction and depression." He has been criticised as "a paranoid junkie riding political persecution and old glories", and for allegations of harassing women online, which he denies. Some have said Brown's behavior is "a result of addiction, paranoia, PTSD and not enough postprison support".