I up-voted this post mostly out of curiosity. What, exactly, is the point that the author is trying to make? I might be misreading but the impression I got from the tone of the article was that there is something sinister going on, but the only thing that the article put forward was the fact that the bulk of the TOR project's funding comes from the US government, something that has been known since the project began. Furthermore, the hiring of a PR firm to help explain what is truthfully a complex and technical subject to a predominantly non-technical journalistic community is not inherently sinister or deceitful.

I have no problem with highlighting the pretty wacky relationship between the government and the TOR project but unless I'm missing something here this article seems designed to foment suspicion and distrust toward TOR without any kind of real evidence and is reminiscent of the kind of attacks used by various organizations, including the government, to tarnish the image of encryption.