LulzSec Leader ‘Sabu’ Betrays Anonymous Hackers to FBI
Law enforcement officials in Europe and the U.S. acted in unison this morning to arrest five hacktivist members of Anonymous offshoot Lulzsec, acting on information leaked by the group’s leader, Hector Xavier Mensegu, who went by the codename Sabu and had been working with the federal government for months, according to FoxNews. Twitter

Anonymous has released a statement addressing the revelation that prominent LulzSec and Anon hacker Sabu has turned FBI informant.

The statement was published on the collective's AnonOps site - a prominent website affiliated with the Anonymous collective.

In it the Anon - the word used by Anonymous members to define themselves - promised the collective would continue its series of ongoing cyber campaigns.

"Last week Anonymous were arrested in Argentina, Chile, Columbia and Spain by the Interpol. Yesterday we released that Sabu was an FBI agent and betrayed several partners. One in Chicago, two in Britain and two in Ireland," began the statement.

"After what happened, this communication team met to talk. We decided we will continue reporting news about the Anonymous´s activities. Anonymous will continue fighting for freedom in the world, but we also understand that people around the world should stand up and claimed by what is right."

"We think that it is also important to start removing the old power structures that oppress people. The FBI does work for politicians after all, who are kept in office by the campaign donations of Corporations. No longer represent the people. It is time for a change."

Continuing, the message went on to directly address the FBI, calling for it to stop its Anonymous "witch hunt" and target "white-collar criminals" - which it listed as bankers and politicians.

"Suggestion to the FBI: Maybe you should spend a little less time pursuing Anonymous and put more effort into bringing to justice the white-collar criminals who crashed the economy in 2008 and 2011. Maybe in this way people begin to believe in you. Stop working for the 1%."

The news comes after the FBI confirmed the Fox News suggestion that Sabu, who's identity has been revealed as Hector Xavier Monsegur, an unemployed 28-year-old Puerto Rican living in New York, had turned snitch.

"HECTOR XAVIER MONSEGUR, a/k/a 'Sabu,' a/k/a 'Xavier DeLeon,' a/k/a 'Leon,' who also identified himself as a member of Anonymous, Internet Feds, and LulzSec, pled guilty on August 15, 2011 in U.S. District Court to a 12-count information charging him with computer hacking conspiracies and other crimes. MONSEGUR'S information and guilty plea were unsealed today," read the FBI's statement.

Sabu was arrested as a part of a larger campaign by law enforcement that saw five alleged LulzSec members arrested around the globe on Tuesday - two in the UK, two in Ireland and one in Chicago. The operation follows the 2011 arrests of several other believed LulzSec members including the group's alleged "PR man" Jake Davis - aka Topiary.

Though the two are closely linked, the LulzSec group is separate to the larger Anonymous collective. Beginning to operate in 2011, LulzSec operated on a more anarchistic ideology, targeting random organisations and companies "just for lulz" - internet jargon for laughs. Running in a different direction, Anonymous portrays itself as a hacktivist collective, picking its targets for perceived crimes against the world.

Following Anonymous's defiant message, analysts have come to question whether the collective will mount its own revenge campaign. In the past the collective has "punished" law enforcement for members' arrests, by mounting distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against agencies' sites.

Similarly, the collective has targeted alleged turn-coats in the past, releasing the informants names and addresses - though what Anonymous can do when Sabu is already under arrest is questionable.

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