contributed by Bronc Buster
Late last night Legions of the Underground, who last week declared war on the cyber infrastructure of China and Iraq has released a statement in response to the international coalition of hacker groups who have condemn these actions.

Late Tuesday night December 28, 1998 LoU called an IRC press conference (see IRC transcript) to to announce their intentions to destroy all data systems in both China and Iraq. They stated that the growing human-rights concerns in both countries as the reason for their actions.

Yesterday at 12:00 GMT over seven of the worlds oldest and most respected hacker groups, including Chaos Computer Club, Phrack, 2600, Cult of The Dead Cow, and others released a joint statement condemning the actions of the Legions of the Underground. Stating that while they agree that the atrocities in both countries should be ended the methods chosen by the Legions of the Underground should not be employed.

The statement said "We strongly oppose any attempt to use the power of hacking to threaten or destroy the information infrastructure of any country, for any reason." While Hactivism - the act of using the skills of hacking to bring about social change, can be an effective tool it does not include the destruction of information systems, the statement went on to say.

This was the first time in history that so many hacking groups had come together for a common cause. It is the first time that such a large project had been undertaken by so many. The spirit of cooperation and working together was phenomenal.

The statement asked that other hackers and hacking groups lend their support to the document. The response to this statement has been overwhelming. Numerous emails received at the hactivism@Berlin.ccc.org email address have also condemned LoU and offered their support to the international coalition.

Not only hackers and hacking groups but large corporations and individuals, have voiced their support for this action. A spokesperson for the Chaos Computer Club, one of the signers of the joint statement, mentioned that the amount of support was not expected but has been very well received.

The Legions of the Underground released a statement last night responding to this condemnation. The LoU says that they in fact "do not support the damaging of other nations computers, networks, or systems in anyway" and that they "will not take any actions against the systems, networks, or computers in China or Iraq".

The LoU statement blames that the misunderstandings and apparent contradictions as a result of individual members taking actions on their own and not as part of a concerted effort by Legions of the Underground.

LoU says that it "may in the future take action against other Chinese Systems" but that it will limit those actions to that of pure hactivism and will not be out to destroy computer systems and the internal information infrastructures of other countries.