In 2012, Junaid Hussain gained global attention after his involvement with the notorious hacker group Team Poison, which was partly responsible for doxing the contents of Former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s private address book. It is said that the man behind this was Junaid Hussain himself. Later that year, after Team Poison fell apart, Hussain left the UK and moved to Syria to fight on behalf of the Islamic State. He has been considered a high priority target by intelligence officials ever since.
In June of 2015, Hussain publicly supported the cartoon contest attacks of Garland, Texas—an event which left two gunman dead—when he posted “Allahu Ackbar!!! 2 of our brothers just opened fire.” To honor the ISIS attackers who died that day, Hussain hacked into the YouTube and Twitter accounts of U.S. Central Command and used them to post pro-ISIS propaganda. These two instances, along with a number of other offenses, gained Hussain his reputation as one of the most dangerous hackers in the world. This past August, Hussain was brought to justice when he was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Raqqa, Syria.
After the drone strikes were completed, military officials announced, “We have a high level of confidence [Hussain] was killed,” and claimed that this was a result of great “intelligence success.” So, where did this intelligence come from? Apparently from an online hacker. The hacker, known online as “5h00mp,” has since claimed via social media, that the information he gave to the FBI, enabled the government to track down the whereabouts of Hussain. According to the story, 5h00mp and Hussain had ties that dated back to Team Poison. In 2014, Hussain reached out to 5h00mp through the online service Jabber, where 5h00mp proceeded to hack into Hussain’s account and discover his location.
At the 2015 Defcon hacker conference in Las Vegas, 5h00mp and a few of his friends, members of Rustle League, were detained by the FBI for questioning. In exchange for his freedom, 5h00mp is said to have disclosed the whereabouts of several hackers—including Hussain. As a result of this, 5h00mp says he is “99.9% sure” that this information led to the death of Hussain. After the attack was announced, 5h00mp went on to post:
“What the fuck have I done.”
“I lost a lot of good friendship and my fucking honor, I am so embarrassed to show my face in public now because of this.”
“I fucking helped you MURDER him. Do you know how I feel now when I sleep at night? Regardless that he was a terrorist and an animal, I sure as fuck felt betrayed. You betrayed me. You betrayed your people.”
5h00mp has since deleted these Twitter posts; however, you can view an archived copy of his statements here: https://archive.is/kANEa
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I don’t understand… Why is it a bad thing to snuff Hackers who work for ISIS? Maybe we should focus on finding the money supply…
because they were friends in the hacking community i guess? very personal you could say.
It is hard when two persons are friends and due personal choices/interest suddenly have to confront each other. It is kinda like the video clip of the song Handlebars by Flobots.
Imagine yourself and your best friend. Your friend makes a choice that you do not agree with. However, you are friends for a reason. Then one day you get captured and forced to either betray your friend who clearly made a choice that you do not agree with, or your own life ( as far as I know it was not clear to 5h00mp that he would die ).
Basically the choice you get is a life in prison or a life in guilt.
This is true, And this sucks because he has to live with this for the rest of his life. I know i would feel this same way if i did this. I wouldn’t know what to do.
cause if it was your friend will you do it?
Sure i love my life and i don t know what other persona kann do with several infos they find
Maby one day i m in the wrong place in the wrong time and i die cose i dont say wehryou find umanity enemy ? No man !
Dont give a damn for ISIS-activists. If my friend one day starts supporting and helping assholes to kill and rape innocent peopple, it’s his choice made – lived and died by. Boo-fucking-hoo.
Maybe he helped on the condition they at least attempt to bring him in alive. Drone strike is a pretty big f’you to that pretense.