Neal Rauhauser: Internet Super-Spy!

Posted on | June 19, 2012 | 56 Comments

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
What service is Neal Rauhauser providing to his clients, including Brett Kimberlin’s tax-exempt 501(c) Velvet Revolution? Is Rauhauser paid to sit around all day playing with his Twitter sockpuppets, plotting revenge against Greg Howard, obsessing over Patterico and ranting about how a “Christian Infowar Militia cell” took down Anthony Weiner?

Rauhauser’s profile for the 2010 Netroots Nation conference described his work: “He applies his background in software development and telecom network engineering to solving problems in the social media work space for political campaigns and causes.”

What does that mean? Sunday, I published a sample of writings by Rauhauser that he had “scrubbed” from the Web, demonstrating his obsessions with his various enemies, as well as his penchant for online secrecy and deception. But there was much more in that vast 179-page cache, including a January 2012 post entitled “Maltego, FOCA and Shodan,” referencing three computer programs Rauhauser uses. His description of Maltego is particularly interesting:

I’ve been fooling around with open source intelligence and forensics application Maltego for some time now. I read an article about it in 2010, got an eval, and the very first search I ran led to a phone call with the FBI that actually got some people interviewed over their behavior. I was a bit freaked out at the time, worried that my world was going to burst into flame every time I clicked the little black icon, but instead it’s turned out to be a tool that comes out about once a week and does in minutes what would take me days to do by hand.

Hmmm. What does this software program do?

Maltego is an intelligence and forensics application. It allows for the mining and gathering of information as well as the representation of this information in a meaningful way.
Coupled with its graphing libraries Maltego allows us to identify previously unknown relationships between information, persons and information about persons. As such, it is a useful tool in the IT security field to map an organization’s people and relationships. A valuable aid in exploring the social-engineering attack vector in pen-testing investigations.

Exactly how did Rauhauser’s use of Maltego lead to “a phone call with the FBI that actually got some people interviewed over their behavior”? Which of his chosen enemies did this creepy paranoid freak identify using Maltego? We don’t know. What we do know is that Rauhauser also referenced Maltego in a March 2012 post entitled, “Regarding Andrew Breitbart,” excerpts of which I share here, urging readers to examine carefully:

I am not making any statement to the press for fear of screwing up existing investigations, but as a courtesy I will collate and describe a few things that are already available onthe net for the bewildered journalist trying to understand that last exchange between us.
The True History Of Andrew Breitbart’s Hatred For Neal Rauhauser is a fourteen page PDF of screen shots collected right around the time of the 2010 midterm election. … [T]he timeline is jumbled and you’d need to see inside sauce-jar.aes256 to understand exactly what transpired.
sauce-jar.aes256 is a 563 meg encrypted archive that was included in the Kookpocalypse torrent. This was released 2/6/2012, the anniversary of the HBGary break in, and it contains screen captures, PDFs, Maltego graphs, timeline files, and other data that support my conclusion –portions of the Team Themis project may be at work among the people who contribute to Breitbart’s BigGovernment site. There are some sample files in the torrent that are interesting. State and federal authorities have already seen the unencrypted version of this.
I have been pursued since the 2010 midterm by a woman who used the now defunct Twitter screen name @ZAPEM. The ZAPEM Libel SuitScribd collection is an as yet unfiled civil action against this person. She seems to have persecution delusions and this led to the massive non-scandal of Twittergate during the 2010 election. …
I have written about Persona Management Methods. I am deeply weary of crazy people following me around injecting their mental illness into my life, so I do really mean things to them –see Geolocation Lulz-a variety of network oriented pranks intended to keep them hopeful of locating me, yet thoroughly frustrated. If you read the nealrTumblr you will see a lot of fact, some ARG-ish posts, and a few that are obviously meant to convey one message to the overactive pattern matching of paranoid, delusional stalkers, and quite another to coherent readers.
There has been quite a bit of ephemera in and around Twittergate, Weinergate, and the Kookpocalypse.

What you see here is, among other things, a repetition of the claims asserted in a bizarre eight-page document (“Andrew Breitbart’s ISR Cell?”) that Rauhauser published in February 2012: TwitterGate was a hoax, Anthony Weiner was framed, HBGary was working for Breitbart, and all of these things were somehow part of a vast interconnected conspiracy. (I analyzed that document June 2, “When Neal Rauhauser Complained About ‘Menacing’ and ‘Cyberstalking’.”)

Rauhauser has apparently succeeded in getting that document taken down from its server, but the 575-megabyte torrent download is still available online, if you’d care to wade through a gigantic steaming pile of paranoid crazytalk. Of course, Rauhauser scrubbed all the other stuff — including his “as yet unfiled civil action” against @Zapem — which is one of his remarkably consistent habits: Every time people start taking an interest in whatever madness Neal has been doing lately, he begins deleting files, closing accounts, etc.

The guy’s deleted more Web content than most people have ever created, and why? Consciousness of guilt. Rauhauser’s obsession with secrecy is consistent with his habit of deleting anything that anyone might employ as evidence that he’s up to no good.

When his “beandogs” scam blew up into the 2010 TwitterGate scandal, Neal immediately shut down his operation and started deleting stuff, which has enabled him to tell people — at least those unfamiliar with the now-deleted evidence — that it was a “non-scandal” caused by “the persecution delusions” of one woman, @Zapem. She’s crazy, Rauhauser says, while insisting that he is both innocent and sane.

Only fools are deceived by this, especially when Rauhauser talks about his obsessive quest to find @ZapEm:

First, for background, we’re talking about An Inconvenient Kook, a woman I’ve tentatively identified as Michelle Lessick aka ZAPEM. All I had to start was:

The Twitter username @ZAPEM (now @Repository1) and a now defunct WordPress blog
Records of various streams of tweets and writings, which are a fairly distinct personality showing delusions of persecution
An email from Patrick Read aka @SwiftRead naming her as Michelle
A tip that her last name was Reilly, perhaps Nagy-Riley, which I believe to be incorrect
A tip that her name might be Lessick
Assertions that she was a police dispatcher and her husband a police officer
Many indications she lived in northern New Jersey

I did quite a lot of digging with Google and finally did locate the connection to the name Lessick, which can be seen in the link containing her name. I chased various permutations of this name and the Jascawow alias using a variety of search tools and came up empty.

Not since Humbert chased his doppelgänger Quilty cross-country has anyone so persistently stalked an enemy, real or imagined. And while there is a real person behind @Zapem, the vast conspiracy in Rauhauser’s demented mind is wholly imaginary. But as he sits down with his Maltego software and maps online connections, Neal’s paranoia tells him that this data-mining holds some hidden clue to how all these evil people — from Greg Howard to HB Gary to Patrick Frey to the ghost of Andrew Breitbart — are plotting against him.

And who are we to say that they’re not, huh?

– Robert Stacy McCain, Whereabouts Unknown

Category: The Kimberlin Files

Comments

56 Responses to “Neal Rauhauser: Internet Super-Spy!”

brooksbayne
June 19th, 2012 @ 8:57 pm

lulz. “derpy.”
Evi L. Bloggerlady
June 19th, 2012 @ 9:03 pm

What is the point in leaving home if they can track you anywhere you go? At least at home you can defend yourself by putting people on notice about what is going on.
MM
June 19th, 2012 @ 9:07 pm

I don’t know how you manage to wade through all of this gobbledygook. I feel like I need an aspirin every time I read another one of his magnum opuses.
The Secret of Neal Rauhauser’s Google-Fu | hogewash
June 19th, 2012 @ 9:44 pm

[…] Secret of Neal Rauhauser’s Google-Fu Posted on 19 June, 2012 by wjjhoge Stacy McCain tells all. But as he sits down with his Maltego software and maps online connections, Neal’s […]
Flynn
June 19th, 2012 @ 9:45 pm

Anyone find it odd he keeps referring to Zapem as having a persecution complex, while simultaneously referring to “as yet unfiled civil actions,” and listing whatever factoids he can think of to identify her? “Persecution complex,” hell- I’d call her bloody prescient. This twit is textbook Projection, personified.
GlenWishard
June 19th, 2012 @ 10:29 pm

I am NOT a doctor or a psychiatrist, but I have had some personal experience with paranoid people. People familiar with “persecutory” paranoia may not know that a common variation – often present in the same person – is “grandiose” paranoia, in which the person believes that he is very famous and that his life is of minute interest to thousands of people.

Paranoia is bugger-all to do with fear. Paranoia is about self-aggrandizement by creating a heroic and martyr-like identity for oneself. Paranoid people often recognize that their delusions are false, yet expect people to believe them and play along with the delusion.

The person that I knew was a harmless woman who had suffered a traumatic brain injury (which she blamed on Jews, the UN, and the KGB). She could hardly be blamed for her delusions, and perhaps NR can’t be if he really does suffer from something like a degenerative disease. But I think that paranoia is just a frequently the simple product of narcissism.

At any rate, at least NR is getting some good they’re-all-out-to-get-me vibe out of this.
Neal Rauhauser’s cowardly tactics on display! UPDATED! « The Daley Gator
June 19th, 2012 @ 10:31 pm

[…] Apparently Neal Rauhauser is either a SUPER SPY! Or he is just a paranoid douche nozzle. Stacy has the details, you make the call. Share […]
Second Timothy
June 19th, 2012 @ 10:35 pm

In case you missed it Brett Kimberlin flipping the bird:

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2nbyl1f&s=6
Red
June 19th, 2012 @ 10:47 pm

Here you go Stace, new monikers for your netizen creeper fanboys: “Kimber-hole and Rau-hacker”
What Would You Like To Know About the Brett Kimberlin Affair?
June 19th, 2012 @ 10:50 pm

[…] for completeness' sake. Then get over to Stacy's place and read his latest dispatches about the sordid behavior that should be where you are directing your […]
Resist Tyranny
June 19th, 2012 @ 11:19 pm

Neil Rauhauser is an evil, delusional, potentially violent leftist who is as committed to harrassment as he is crazy. He must be exposed for the vile, hate-filled, dangerous person he is.
ThomasD
June 19th, 2012 @ 11:20 pm

The plural of opus is opera.
JeffS
June 19th, 2012 @ 11:41 pm

And who are we to say that they’re not, huh?

It’s not paranoia if they are are really out to get you.
Rob Crawford
June 19th, 2012 @ 11:47 pm

“Paranoid people often recognize that their delusions are false, yet expect people to believe them and play along with the delusion.”

And you know what Stacy, Patterico, Stranahan, et. al. are doing? Playing along.
lewy14
June 20th, 2012 @ 12:04 am

Maltego is just the tip of the iceberg. The right blogosphere and the right in general is _way_ behind on this stuff.
robertstacymccain
June 20th, 2012 @ 12:20 am

And it ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings!
Dustin
June 20th, 2012 @ 12:31 am

Great point.
What The….???? « Catholic Bandita
June 20th, 2012 @ 12:42 am

[…] Hat-tip, Memeorandum, American Power, Stacy McCain. […]
Dianna Deeley
June 20th, 2012 @ 12:46 am

How many hours have we spent digging through Neal Rauhauser’s coruscating insanity? The more I look at this, the more worried I become that we’re watching the wrong hare. What’s Brett Kimberlin doing?
Dianna Deeley
June 20th, 2012 @ 1:08 am

Ah?

I think the hare that’s been started – Neal Rauhauser – is a highly attractive distraction, but I do not see RSM, Patterico and Stranahan as playing along, unless you could enlighten me?

I grant, my focus is a little different, here, but I’m not getting what you’re complaining about.
Adjoran
June 20th, 2012 @ 1:09 am

Just because Brett’s not the topic of the day, don’t think he’s been forgotten. Both are under scrutiny.

We need to see more on Brynaert and Zeese, and how on earth did Brad Friedman manage to slink away from this whole thing? He is in it up to his ears.
Dianna Deeley
June 20th, 2012 @ 1:11 am

Flynn’s noted that Rauhauser sends letters, creates files of unfiled civil actions, but…never, ever does much, legally.

While Brett Kimberlin files harassing suit after harassing suit, peace order after peace order, has his opponents arrested at court appearances….I’m getting slightly perturbed, here.
Dianna Deeley
June 20th, 2012 @ 1:12 am

I insist on a horned helmet!
Dianna Deeley
June 20th, 2012 @ 1:14 am

Add Jeffrey R. Cohen. Not kidding. He signed the 990’s for VR and JTMP.
Dianna Deeley
June 20th, 2012 @ 1:17 am

Do you know how much that makes normal people in comment sections want to issue you a tin-foil beanie?
GlenWishard
June 20th, 2012 @ 1:46 am

Playing along? This is not a situation that people can just ignore, given actions that have put people’s lives in danger.

I think it’s safe to say that Kimberlin does not relish the current spotlight. But somebody like NR might get quite a different experience out of this – he might actually enjoy it.

That is speculation, of course. I have no way of knowing if NR has any clinical mental illness. What he definitely has is politics, which is frequently indistinguishable from insanity.
Wombat_socho
June 20th, 2012 @ 2:54 am

Which isn’t to say he’s necessarily wrong. There’s been a long-standing tendency in the GOP and the conservative movement to act like we’re above this sort of thing, but times have changed, and the Left is starting to get a taste of their own medicine.
K-Bob
June 20th, 2012 @ 3:28 am

I can understand a little self-aggrandizement now and then, especially when delivered tongue-in-cheek, like Rush does with his various pretentions to legend. But what sort of person goes out and essentially dares people to be as “smart” as he is?

He sounds more like a basic hacker. Clever at using tools, but not intelligent enough to develop them.

Besides, if these guys were so smart, why don’t they realize that by “finding” most conservatives, they risk locating the exciting position where eyeball meets crown?
Erik Robert Nelson
June 20th, 2012 @ 5:46 am

Software like Maltego can be helpful when used by people with half a brain. But for those who already have a tendency toward thoughts of paranoid conspiracy, it can reinforce mental disorders. The internet is full of connections from one person to the next–but most of those connections are ephemeral. A truly paranoid person can inflate those simple connections far beyond their true value. Maltego only shows connections, it doesn’t impose any meaning on them. Giving a paranoid person Maltego is like giving a manic person amphetimines.
Morning Coffee Links | Liberty News Network
June 20th, 2012 @ 7:00 am

[…] The Other McCain: Neal Rauhauser: Internet Super-Spy! […]
TMLutas
June 20th, 2012 @ 7:54 am

Maltego looks like a bog standard investigative tool, one that I hadn’t heard about until this article. Part of civic oversight *is* investigation. Just don’t go nuts with it.
Aristomedes
June 20th, 2012 @ 8:15 am

Depends on whose ox you plan to gore.
Bob Belvedere
June 20th, 2012 @ 8:29 am

It’s much harder to hit a moving target.
Bob Belvedere
June 20th, 2012 @ 8:30 am

Do we have to listen to Rosanne Barr sing and how is she involved?
Bob Belvedere
June 20th, 2012 @ 8:32 am

Brunnhilde should be one of the heroes the Right looks up to!

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Br%C3%BCnnhilde
Bob Belvedere
June 20th, 2012 @ 8:34 am

As are most Leftists.

The [now] old cliche is true: Whatever the Left is accusing the Right of doing is what they, themselves, are doing.

It goes with the territory.
Bob Belvedere
June 20th, 2012 @ 8:47 am

I think it a good thing that the conservative’s initial reaction to this sort of thing speaks well of us – we are bound by Morality, Prudence, and Honor.

However, we cannot afford to let our initial horror paralyze us on the battlefield. No sane person likes war, but, one you are attacked, you must fight back using and that means taking actions that in peacetime would be wrong.

The Left [like Islam] has declared war against us and are on the offensive constantly, therefore, whether we like it or not, we’re at war.

My hope is that some conservative techie out there is now studying Maltego, figuring out how to put it use for our side, just as Patton read Rommel’s book.
Bob Belvedere
June 20th, 2012 @ 8:47 am

It’s a delicate balance – but then again, so is living life in all it’s aspects.
Bob Belvedere
June 20th, 2012 @ 8:48 am

This is what The Army Of Davids is for, Dianna and Adj.
SDN
June 20th, 2012 @ 8:50 am

No, you don’t have to listen to Roseanne Barr “sing”; she’s never done that in her life.
SDN
June 20th, 2012 @ 9:09 am

When I read posts by the BK gang and other internet trolls (like Yelverton the music prof over at protein wisdom), the only conclusion I can draw is that they are either so fundamentally dishonest they don’t believe their own BS, or they’re fundamentally stupid (I recognize these aren’t mutually exclusive).

Yelverton announced his location and occupation to the blog; any of the techniques the BK bunch use could be used against them to track them down.

Yet they persist in attacking people they describe as violent heavily armed lunatics who rock themselves to sleep with visions of staking out liberals on anthills. Heck, if Second Timothy had been so inclined, Brett Kimberlin would have
been a crispy critter sitting in his shot-up and burned out car. If they actually believed any of this crap, they’d have to be stupid to keep inciting their imagined enemies to expend the effort.

WTF????
Evi L. Bloggerlady
June 20th, 2012 @ 9:27 am

There may be a LGF connection to Twittergulag… And it is suspected that he may have ties to Rauhauser and Kimberlin.

And look, I am getting attention from the Lizzoid himself!
Red
June 20th, 2012 @ 9:44 am

LOLZ for bringing the ‘derp”. Now who brought the chips?
Red
June 20th, 2012 @ 9:51 am

Obsession is never pretty. How much you wanna bet Rau-hackster “has a dog named precious and is into death’s head Hawk-moths?
robertstacymccain
June 20th, 2012 @ 10:31 am

Thanks for this helpful comment. Would I be correct in assuming that you do stuff like this for a living?
McGehee
June 20th, 2012 @ 10:58 am

The only thing scarier than people knowing how smart I am — or not, as the case may be — would be everyone being at least as smart as I am. {{{shudder}}}
K-Bob
June 20th, 2012 @ 11:17 am

Thank goodness for teachers who grade on a curve!
‘Persona Management’ for Wackjobs: Rauhauser’s Methods of Deception : The Other McCain
June 20th, 2012 @ 1:40 pm

[…] doubt Neal was merely haunting Web forums as a blog troll, eh? In last night’s post (“Neal Rauhauser: Internet Super-Spy!“), I focused on Rauhauser’s fascination with Maltego software, which creates maps […]
DaveO
June 20th, 2012 @ 2:50 pm

That’s a link:

Rauhauser wants to be file lawsuits, and is a hacker.

Kimberlin files lawsuits and other legal actions, but isn’t a hacker.

Buono, meet Bianchi.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
June 20th, 2012 @ 5:27 pm

Who is Neal Rauhauser?