activist guilty in SHAC case asks for support

From: http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20080101120224210

Support Dylan Barr!
Facing The State's Extortion for Solidarity Against Repression
From: http://www.supportdylan.org

Background
On October 29, 2007, Dylan Barr entered a guilty plea to one felony count of Second Degree Extortion in Seattle, WA for disrupting the operations of Washington Mutual Bank with a Denial of Service attack because of its investment in Huntington Life Sciences. After a two-year period of legal limbo and non-snitching plea deal negotiations, he was sentenced to 232 hours –29 days— of community service and ordered to pay Washington Mutual Bank $25,000 in restitution.

Who is Dylan?
Dylan is a long-time anarchist and activist from New Orleans, and he has been a member of the Iron Rail Book Collective for over three years. Dylan moved to Seattle just prior to Hurricane Katrina, but has now moved back to the Crescent City. He helped organize the 2007 New Orleans Book Fair and is involved with the rebuilding of Nowe Miasto, a long-running collective space in the city, as well as being involved in the recent struggles over public housing in New Orleans. In the past, Dylan has also been involved in Books 2 Prisoners, Food Not Bombs, Critical Resistance, Indymedia, the Buffalo Field Campaign, anti-free trade, indigenous support, union/worker solidarity, and environmental campaigns and organizations. He plans on continuing with these efforts in spite of his sentence.

What motivated the action?
Solidarity has been an important part of the success of the Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty (SHAC) campaign. This Denial of Service (DoS) attack was done in solidarity with the imprisoned SHAC 7, and from a desire to not let their imprisonment break an entire campaign. A Denial of Service (DoS) attack is an overload of e-mails that causes a server to partially shut down, preventing other information from being sent or received. Some of the emails sent were also considered to be threatening and harassing by the prosecution.

How can I help?
Dylan would like your solidarity and support. More than anything else, he needs help paying his $25,000 restitution. The government, the real extortionist, imposes a 12% interest rate on restitution payments, ensuring that it's nearly impossible to pay them off. Individual contributions in any amount would be greatly appreciated, but so would any type of benefit events. You can also help spread the word with, flyers, coming soon on the website.

Get in touch:
supportdylan (at) gmail (dot) com

Help Dylan pay off his restitution by donating through the PayPal Button on his website:
http://www.supportdylan.org

Or send checks or money orders to:
Dylan Barr
2846 Grand Route St. John
New Orleans, LA 70119
USA

A longer, in depth article about this case and it's lessons can be found in the forthcoming issue #13 of Bite Back Magazine(www.directaction.info), due out in late January 2008.