The United States’ prison camp at Guantanamo Bay has attracted controversy for years, but in the last few months the situation has escalated with reports of hunger-striking inmates being force-fed to keep them alive. The US has received a lot of criticism for the inmate’s treatment, and in a show of support the hacktivist collective Anonymous recently threatened to take Guantanamo offline, causing officials to panic and shut down the camp’s wireless network.

According to Army Lt. Col. Samuel House, the military took the decision to shut down its Wi-Fi network due to Anonymous’ public threats to “disrupt activities” at the base. While there’s no evidence to suggest that the collective has launched an attack so far, the fact that officials have taken this action shows that they’re taking its threats very seriously.

Anonymous made its threat over two weeks ago, posting a press release on to the Anon Insiders website that detailed its plans for an “Operation Guantanamo”. The statement noted that May 18 would represent the 100th day, and announced it would launch a “three-day operation” beginning on that data, calling for members of the public to support them with “email bombs, twitterstorms and fax bombs”. The aim of the operation was to “raise awareness in social media of human rights violations going on a Guantanamo, the indefinite detention of prisoners, many of whom have been cleared for release years ago.”

Attached to Anonymous’ press release was a list of phone numbers for institutions including the US Department of Defense, the US Southern Command, the White House and others. The hacktivists urged its supporters to bombard them with calls demanding that the military end its practice of force feeding inmates and improve the conditions of detainees at the camp. They also called for Obama to shut down the camp altogether, asking the public to petition their senators to do so.

It’s notable that Anonymous’ proposed tactics are different to its usual methods, which typically involve hacking into or DDoS attacking targeted networks. By calling on the public to act on their behalf, the collective isn’t actually breaking any laws, an approach that has two obvious benefits – first, if it can muster a significant amount of support then Anonymous has proof that public opinion is on its side, thus achieving a degree of credibility. Second, by not acting illegally the hacktivists can protect themselves from any potential fallout from attacking the US Military directly, something we’d imagine it wouldn’t be best pleased about.

In any case, the fact that Guantanamo chiefs have decided to take the base offline themselves gives Anonymous a small victory of sorts – they’ve achieved their stated goal indirectly, though clearly they’d have achieved a lot more publicity for their cause had they done so without this kind of ‘assistance’.