remind you of anything

the shadowy "Anonymous" - so shadowy that they are front-page news, see the Mail:

The ‘distributed denial of service’ (DDoS) attack involved around 2,000 computers bombarding the website’s host computers with requests for information, causing them to crash.

WikiLeaks has been publishing classified U.S. diplomatic cables, to the fury of Washington authorities.
They have lobbied to cut off all support for the website which they are desperate to shut down.
Yesterday a spokesman for Anonymous, calling himself ‘Coldblood’, a 22-year-old computer programmer based in London, said: ‘Websites that are bowing down to government pressure have become targets.
'As an organisation we have always taken a strong stance on censorship and freedom of expression on the internet and come out against those who seek to destroy it by any means.
‘We feel that WikiLeaks has become more than just about leaking of documents, it has become a war ground, the people versus the government.

‘The idea is not to wipe them off but to give the companies a wake-up call.’

In a further communique online, Anonymous warned: ‘We will fire at anything or anyone that tries to censor WikiLeaks, including multibillion-dollar companies such as PayPal.’

The spokesman added that the group’s intention ‘was to be a force for chaotic good’.

Anonymous has previously been linked to attacks on websites belonging to the Church of Scientology and the music industry.

Guy and Natalie

Watching coverage of this stuff yesterday I thought the whole thing seemed a bit like a graphic novel, especially as Jemima Khan, a donor to Julian Assange's campaign to get US soldiers slaughtered in larger numbers, looks rather like a graphic novel heroine herself.  Then I remembered a film I first saw a few years ago, which was based on a graphic novel but which is a terrific film in its own right, and which deals in a way with similar matters - the power of the State, and that of individuals.  Sig other and I watch it every 5th November now.  Zadie Smith wrote a very good essay about the film.  Natalie Portman is utterly beautiful in it.  It is of course V for Vendetta.

V for Vendetta

I would put money that those behind Anonymous have seen V for Vendetta and others like it - and if anyone is minded to make a film about the Julian Assange story and Anonymous - don't bother.  V for Vendetta is a good five years old, so social networking and Twitter were not there when it was made, but it did this, and better than most.