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Hacker group ‘Anonymous’ takes aim at SOTU online broadcast

Infamous hacker group Anonymous plans to sabotage online broadcasts of President Obama’s State of the Union address tonight.

In a statement released this morning, the group said it would form a “virtual blockade” between Capitol Hill and the Internet in retaliation for a laundry list of grievances including the use of drones, the imprisonment of accused military leaker Bradley Manning and the possible re-introduction by Congress of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act.

The group has long opposed the legislation, which it says cuts down Internet freedoms.

“We reject the State of the Union. We reject the authority of the President to sign arbitrary orders and bring irresponsible and damaging controls to the Internet,” the group said in the statement.

“The President of the United States of America, and the Joint Session of Congress will face an army tonight.”

The group has taken credit for several online attacks in the last few years, including blacking out the CIA and Vatican Web sites for several hours and accessing email accounts of Syrian government officials.

But several threats from the group were not carried out. Planned attacks against Facebook and promises to reveal the details of the Zetas drug cartel were not successful.