Category: Neutral Objective Journalism

Neal Rauhauser was a speaker at the 2010 Netroots Nation conference

When last we encountered Neal Rauhauser, the “TwitterGate” instigator and Brett Kimberlin associate was e-mailing false and defamatory claims about Brandon Darby to public officials, including law enforcement agencies and members of Congress.

There was a remarkable resemblance between Rauhauser’s crazytalk smear of Darby and the “Breitbart ISR” conspiracy theory that Rauhauser published in February. Anyone can examine and compare the style and content of those documents.

Now, in an anonymous 1,000-word document published on Pastebin (which we can expect soon to be deleted, as has been Rauhauser’s habit whenever his vicious online activities are exposed), Rauhauser has evidently promulgated a new smear, accusing Patterico of exploiting the mentally ill for nefarious purposes:

Pity poor John Patrick Frey aka @Patterio, owner of http://patterico.com
His despicable practice of identifying vulnerable adults and using them to do his dirty work has finally backfired on him in a truly impressive fashion.
Seth Allen, a troll who long carried water for Frey, is now deemed to be a “libelous cretin”. Less than a year ago he was begging Frey for enough money to appear for a damages hearing due for a civil suit he faced over a conflict that Frey and Islamophobic hate talker Aaron Walker had stage managed, with Allen as the fall guy. Allen’s specific defect appears to be schizotypal:
“Schizotypal personality disorder is a personality disorder characterized by a need for social isolation, anxiety in social situations, odd behavior and thinking, and often unconventional beliefs.”
Allen is on psych disability.

Mike Stack, a troll with a history of frequenting porn blogs, was left holding the bag for operations aimed at former Congressman Anthony Weiner in response to his reporting an extortion attempt by Congressman Michael Grimm, who represented NY-13 at the time. Stack was outed, publicly humiliated, trolled long and hard by Democratic Underground, and finally swatted by Brandon Darby in an effort to silence him.
[Further material deleted at request of Mike Stack — RSM]

Ron Brynaert, a former journalist who worked with Megan Carpentier and Mike Rogers at Raw Story, faced a framing attempt by Frey, in which he paid for an audio forensics expert to attempt to shift the blame from Brandon Darby. Brynaert lost his job in the summer or fall of 2010 due to the onset of an inability to control his behavior coupled with a drastic reduction in his investigative abilities, per multiple conversations involving Carpentier and Rogers, which others have overheard.
“The acts of those who have OCD may appear paranoid and potentially psychotic. However, OCD sufferers generally recognize their obsessions and compulsions as irrational, and may become further distressed by this realization.”
Brynaert is on psych disability.

“Michele Lessick” aka @ZAPEM, a troll who publishes enormous conspiracy theories, has been fed information by Frey in order to lead her into attacking targets he selects. Sooner or later she turns on anyone foolish enough to work for her and this happened for Frey in early summer of 2012.
[Further material deleted at request of Mike Stack. — RSM}

Aaron Walker, an Islamophobic troll who formerly operated http://everyonedrawmohammed.blogspot.com, has appeared more as a collaborator than a victim, but Frey uses him in a similar fashion, leading him into harm’s way and trusting that his delusions and obsessions will do the rest. Walker long attempted to provoke reactions from Muslims in America, he has made statements in court to the effect that he fears something called “The Kookpocalypse”, and he has attempted to involve himself in the Swatgate conspiracy theory.
“In cases where reporters of stalking behavior have been judged to be making false reports, a majority of them were judged (by the same people) to be delusional.”
There are no recent screen shots of Frey interacting with or discussing Walker.
Aaron Walker is not on psych disability yet, but his hate speech coupled with his poor courtroom demeanor will cost him his career as a lawyer.

Where is Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley when Frey, who is a Deputy D.A., is engaged in this pattern of finding and manipulating vulnerable adults? Cooley is not up for election and has endorsed Democrat Jackie Lacey against Republican Alan Jackson. There have been multiple internal investigations of Frey, but nothing has stuck yet.
Where is California Attorney General Kamala Harris? If Cooley is unable to touch this problem for some reason it would seem natural that Harris is the next stop.
Where is Washington D.C. U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen? There is a grand jury evaluating election fraud on the part of James O’Keefe and Frey has attempted to obstruct the investigation by intimidating a key witness, Nadia Naffe. Frey used the Scribd account of his wife, Deputy District Attorney Christi Frey, dumping medical records that reveal she, too, is a vulnerable adult.
Where is Eastern District of New York U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch? There is a grand jury evaluating a racketeering case against Congressman Michael Grimm, and the swatting of Mike Stack is clearly part of a payback scheme that Grimm aimed at former Congressman Anthony Weiner. While executed by Brandon Darby and Lee Stranahan, Frey had knowledge of this extremely dangerous stunt after the fact and did nothing to bring justice to the perpetrators.
The particulars of the story change with each event, but Frey’s modus operandi is quite clear – find someone who is either on psych disability or who could easily qualify if their stable living/working situation were disrupted. Learn their specific weakness, manipulate them into a conflict, and stage managing them via a cutout persona that disappears once Frey’s objectives are met.
Frey’s behavior is either that of an extreme ideologue, willing to destroy the lives of anyone he can lure into his schemes, or he is an outright sociopath/psychopath.
If the Washington D.C. grand jury or Staten Island grand jury don’t put a stop to Frey’s dangerous, unethical, illegal conduct, either Jackie Lacey or Alan Jackson will have to deal with him after one of them is elected as the Los Angeles County District Attorney.
Have a good day, Deputy District Attorney John Patrick Frey.

* * * END OF DOCUMENT * * *

In calling attention to this document, of course, I must caution that it is either (a) 100% false, or (b) a carefully crafted concotion of fact and fiction, created so as to discredit witnesses who might possibly provide testimony implicating Rauhauser in the lawsuit that Aaron Walker has filed in Virginia: “All of these people are crazy!” Continue reading Neal Rauhauser Again? Yet Another Conspiracy Theory Smear Emerges →

Nice Deb invokes the magic word to describe the harassment of The Lonely Conservative, and let’s notice something in the list of methods:

They’ve told me to slit my own throat. They’ve called me every foul name you can think of. They’ve insulted my husband, accused me of molesting my children and threatened to report me to my local school board. They impersonated my husband and contacted a local divorce attorney. They tried to have pornographic sex toys catalogues sent to my home. They have sent emails on my behalf to my elected representatives advocating for policies I disagree with completely. . . .They’ve called my home using Caller ID spoofing software or websites. They’ve let me know they know where I live.

Caller ID spoofing? They know where you live? Gee, that sounds kinda familiar, doesn’t it?

“One of the things they’ve done to people who have worked with me in the past, including an L.A. prosecutor, is to ‘SWAT.’ That means that they’re spoofing phones, pretending to be somebody else’s phone, calling 911, and saying ‘I killed somebody’ and then the person’s home is met with the guns drawn, the SWAT and the helicopters, in a horrifying act. It’s happened twice: once in New Jersey, once in Los Angeles . . .”
— Andrew Breitbart, Feb. 29, 2012

Targeting someone for harassment using deceptive means to conceal participants’ online identities? Perhaps “to engage them with a synthetic presence”? Hey, that sounds kinda familiar, too!

In 2010, Rauhauser was involved in a scandal known as “TwitterGate.” Using a Twitter account called @WingNutWatch, Rauhauser was accused of having “organized a group of E-Thugs meant to harass, threaten, provoke, disparage, intimidate, verbally assault, berate & employ hate-speech against those not in agreement with his brand of politics,” to cite blogger Patrick Read’s September 2010 description. . . .
On Aug. 31, 2010, the same day he declared his intent to go after “right wing cells,” Rauhauser created a sock-puppet account he called “WingNutWatch,” which then acted as a sort of Twitter ringleader for the effort he described. It took less than a month, however, for Greg Howard, Patrick Read and @ZapEm to document the malicious actions of Rauhauser and his “beandogs,” resulting in the “WingNutWatch” account being shut down by Twitter.

Not only has Neal Rauhauser personally engaged in this kind harassment — go read Patterico’s 3,000-word account of how Neal used his “Gaped Crusader” persona for that purpose — Rauhauser has advocated such harassment and instructed others in these methods. Go read what Rauhauser wrote about “persona management” (how to protect a secret online identity), and then read Rauhauser’s account of how he joined forces with a “very big dog from Anonymous” in a plan to attack Brett Kimberlin’s enemies. Now, go read Rauhauser’s strategy to attack conservatives online in two posts (using his alias “Stranded Wind”) at the site Open Left:

• Aug. 29, 2010: Organized Intimidation? Ambush Time.
• Aug. 31, 2010: Social Media’s Neighborhood Watch

Those two posts laid out the basic game plan of “TwitterGate,” an orchestrated campaign of harassment that erupted in September 2010, mere weeks after Rauhauser was a featured speaker at the DailyKos “Netroots Nation” conference.

The point is that Rauhauser is not just some random guy on the Internet, but has been a ringleader in fomenting the kind of viciousness that has been directed at The Lonely Conservative and others. When the people running the astroturf boycott against Rush Limbaugh’s advertisers feared their group had been infiltrated, they got Neal Rauhauser to “dox” the suspected spy:

Rauhauser . . . mused about exposing the man to harassment by sending his personal information to online groups.
“I have been sorely tempted to point him out to various actors — a guy like this, he could really produce some high quality entertainment for 4chan, Something Awful, Encyclopedia Dramatica, etc.,” Rauhauser wrote in his e-mail reply to [“Stop Rush” leader Matt Edelstein].

This is who Neal Rauhauser is. This is what Neal Rauhauser does.

He targets people for harassment and incites others to join his attacks on his targeted enemies, which he calls “high quality entertainment.” Having advocated such attacks, and having boasted of his skill at concealment and deception, Rauhauser cannot complain that he is wrongly suspected of complicity when the sadistic methods he has previously employed and endorsed are used to harass an innocent woman like The Lonely Conservative.

Remember that, when describing his plan to harass conservatives online in August 2010, Neal Rauhauser explained that his strategy was intended to provoke them into doing something that would provide the basis of civil or criminal prosecution:

We’re dealing with people who have likely had no interaction with the court system beyond a traffic ticket; the potential for a pro se litigant to force them into expensive, long distance, lengthy, discovery laden litigation doesn’t seem to cross their minds.

So there is profound irony in observing that Rauhauser is one of three defendants (along with Brett Kimberlin and Ron Brynaert) named in a Virginia lawsuit Aaron Walker filed in January:

Something tells me that twelve ordinary Virginians are not going to be very tolerant of this convicted domestic terrorist’s antics.

Probably not.

UPDATE: Linked by William Hoge — thanks! — and welcome, Instapundit readers! Zilla Stevenson has an honor roll of bloggers who have rallied to support and defend The Lonely Conservative.

BTW, Aaron Walker e-mails to say that the way I quoted him, it accidently implies that Rauhauser is the “convicted domestic terrorist” whose “antics” will be heard by a Virginia jury.

Of course, that description by Walker actually references Brett Kimberlin. However, the two appear to have become quite nearly inseparable, and every time Kimberlin shows up in court, Neal is part of the Brett’s entourage.

UPDATE II: Ace of Spades wrote this on May 22:

It is very easy to decide “this isn’t any of my trouble” and permit vicious behavior.
Easy. Perhaps understandable.
But hardly ethical. And certainly not heroic.
Who wants to get involved? Easier, and surely safer, just to duck one’s head and hide, and hope the danger visits someone else.
Perhaps the alligator will prefer to eat someone else first. Perhaps his belly will be full.
And why should you stick your neck out?

Here we are nearly two months later, watching as the alligators chomp on The Lonely Conservative’s leg, and it infuriates me. Because I know damned well this kind of harassment could be prevented, if law enforcement and political leaders were really determined to stop it.

Neal Rauhauser was a speaker at the 2010 Netroots Nation conference

“Facts don’t matter, that’s the perception of the situation, and the world is going to act on that basis.”
— Neal Rauhauser, “Gaped Crusader,” Nov. 26, 2011

“Neal’s antics were sufficiently disturbing enough to result in a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation. What the psychiatrist found was a man who was deeply disturbed, possessed of the worst narcissism he’d ever seen. Neal had reactive attachment disorder. He was sociopathic, and his behavior resulted in Neal facing various difficulties socially and professionally.”
— Screed of Momus, June 23

“Soliciting assistance in his plots — recruiting a gang of followers — functions psychologically as a means for Rauhauser to validate his grandiose narcissistic conception of himself as a heroic leader.”
— Robert Stacy McCain, June 15, 2012

In a phone conversation last night, regarding the outrage that prompted me to invoke the dreaded War Oath of Clan Cameron, a friend mentioned the possibility that Neal Rauhauser, who has in the past boasted about his pistols, might resort to violence.

“He’s a punk!” I shouted into the phone. “He’s a liar and a coward! Punks like that don’t scare me one bit. A man who is honest and brave is the man to be feared. Never be afraid of a lying coward.”

Rauhauser is obsessed with deception and secrecy — for evil men prefer darkness to light — and schemes to harm anyone who tells the truth about him. He has devoted nearly two years to an insane campaign of vengeance against Greg W. Howard, Patrick Read and “Zapem,” who exposed Rauhauser’s role in the 2010 TwitterGate scandal.

The liar knows in his heart he is wrong. Neal’s ferocious rage against his enemies can only be understood as an expression of his own cowardice in refusing to admit the truth about himself.

Nobody trusts Neal Rauhauser. Even his “friends” like Brett Kimberlin and Matt Edelstein distrust Rauhauser, with whom they associate only because his skill at deception is useful to them. They do not trust him, because they fear he might some day turn against them.

Indeed, his allies must constantly fear that he is even now deceiving them, accumulating evidence to be used against them in a future betrayal. Rauhauser’s habitual boasting has repeatedly brought him disgrace, and his attempts to impress others by naming his influential “friends” inevitably result in embarrassment for anyone who fails to keep away from him.

Darcy Burner made the mistake of befriending Neal Rauhauser, a friendship she is at pains to conceal now that she’s running for Congress and Rauhauser has been exposed as “The Gaped Crusader.”

Why does Rauhauser persist in his evil deceptions? Because there is always some new fool he can deceive, and even crude ruses give him the sadistic pleasure of thinking his lies have triumphed — however briefly — over the truth. Patterico explains one of Rauhauser’s methods:

Trickery works. People don’t expect every comment left as “Patterico” on a random website to be a trick by a Rauhauser-style scumbag dirty trickster.

By their “accuse the accusers” strategy, Rauhauser and Kimberlin have succeeded in deceiving fools, but the wise are not so easily deceived. And while the threats and tricks of Kimberlin and Rauhauser have inspired some to fear them, there are still honest and brave men in the world who consider it dishonorable to fear a lying coward.

Saturday in Centreville, I had dinner at Five Guys with Aaron Walker and his wife. Brett Kimberlin and Neal Rauhauser have endeavored to destroy Walker’s career and dishonor his name. Unfortunately for them, Aaron has survived and his name is now celebrated for his courage in standing up to these evil men.

At one point during our meal, Aaron’s wife threw her arms around his neck and declared that he is her hero.

No one will ever say that about the “Gaped Crusader.” Neal Rauhauser is no one’s hero, and no honest woman can admire a lying coward.

In the past week or so, readers may have noticed that I’ve relented in my non-stop blogging about convicted terrorist Brett Kimberlin and his demented associate Neal Rauhauser. On July 5, when Judge Rupp’s ruling restored Aaron Walker’s First Amendment rights, I figured this ended the original emergency that drew my attention on May 17. My family and I are now safely relocated, and it seemed a good time to return my attention to the presidential campaign that I had been covering before this emergency arose.

However, I did not for a moment suppose that Kimberlin, Rauhauser and their surrogates would cease their evil machinations. This expectation was fulfilled today when I was contacted by a blogger friend, who reported that she had received an utterly vicious e-mail sent by someone impersonating a mutual acquaintance, conveying vile falsehoods attributed to me.

That mutual acquaintance is clearly not amused, and the question of who perpetrated this mischief can perhaps permit some speculation.

Means, motive and opportunity, if you get my drift.

Who had a motive to do this evil deed? Who described himself as a “hacker” and boasted of his connection to the hacker group “Anonymous”? Who is a self-proclaimed expert in “persona management” and other means of online deception? Who has written at length about his fascination with Maltego software as a tool for mapping online connections? Who therefore would have sought to exploit such connections in this way?

Let me make clear that I do not accuse Neal Rauhauser of committing this crime. He might very much wish me to make such an accusation, thus allowing him to deny the accusation, demand “proof” of his guilt — which I don’t have — and thereby portray himself as a victim of defamation, harassment, blah, blah, blah.

Nevertheless, I hold Neal Rauhauser personally responsible, based on his own well-documented record of advocating, intructing others in, and personally engaging in such malicious online behavior.

Perhaps my suspicions are misplaced. Perhaps this particular act was committed by some random a–hole unconnected to Neal Rauhauser.

Whatever. It makes no difference to my resolute determination to see him brought to justice for his sociopathic behavior, which he had been directing at other innocent people even before I ever heard the name “Neal Rauhauser”. There is good reason to believe Neal has committed numerous sins against the innocent that will never be proven against him, his deceptions permitting him to evade responsibility. When the hammer of justice comes swinging down on his head, let no one pity him.

All this I say as preamble to the following:

• If any of my friends should receive communications conveying negative information about me, be advised that I am apparently the target of a dishonest smear campaign. Others who have written about the Kimberlin/Rauhauser saga report that they have experienced similar smears. Be on the alert for any such deception.
• Understanding that attacks like this may be an attempt to distract me from my regular work, I intend to continue focusing on the presidential campaign, reporting on further developments in “The Kimberlin Files” only as time permits.
• This story is not over, and no one should mistake a momentary period of quiet for the end of the story.

Finally, I had hitherto resisted the temptation to do something I’ve only ever done once before. After what happened today, I resist no longer, and invoke the dreaded War Oath of Clan Cameron:

Chlanna nan con thigibh a so’s gheibh sibh feoil!

Good luck with the translation, Neal.

THE KIMBERLIN FILES:

• May 17: Is Democrat Operative Neal Rauhauser an ‘Associate’ of Convicted Terrorist Brett Kimberlin? (And Why It Matters)
• May 17: Convicted Terrorist Brett Kimberlin Received $70,000 From Tides Foundation, $10,000 From Streisand, $20,000 from John Kerry’s Wife
• May 18: Who Warned Us About Brett Kimberlin?
• May 19: Domestic Terrorist Now Using ‘Lawfare’? Convicted Felon Kimberlin’s 501(c)3 Raised $1.8 Million in Six Years UPDATE: ‘Convicted of Perjury’
• May 20: Deadline Loometh, and the Raven Is Croaking Brett Kimberlin’s Name
• May 20: ‘Other Computer Savvy Activists’
• May 21: Never Doubt That God Answers Prayer
• May 22: Brett Kimberlin Saga Takes a Bizarre Turn, Forcing Me to Leave Maryland
• May 23: ‘He Has No F–king Soul’
• May 24: Lying Felon Can’t Stop Lying
• May 25: KimberlinFiles.org
• May 26: Kimberlin v. Walker Hearing Scheduled: 8:30 a.m. Tuesday in Rockville, Maryland
• May 27: Brett Kimberlin’s Heiress Aunt Helping Fund His Tax-Exempt Harassment
• May 27: ERICK ERICKSON GETS SWATTED
• May 28: Somebody Tell Nina Totenberg Her Buddy Brett Kimberlin Is Making News Again
• May 29: Matthew Vadum Talks Brett Kimberlin
• May 29: REPORT: Aaron Walker Arrested After Maryland Hearing on Kimberlin Case UPDATE: Walker Now Released
• May 31: Aaron Walker Court Hearing Confirms Kimberlin-Rauhauser Collaboration
• June 1: Radicals Justify Their Evil by Invoking Their Presumed Moral Superiority
• June 2: When Neal Rauhauser Complained About ‘Menacing’ and ‘Cyberstalking’
• June 3: The Profoundly Dishonest Brett Kimberlin
• June 3: Raw Story Disavows Ties to Kimberlin
• June 3: Inside Neal Rauhauser’s Twisted Mind
• June 4: ‘A Faint Whiff of Vigilante Hysteria’: Weinergate’s Kimberlin Connection
• June 5: Ali Akbar Says, ‘World War Three’
• June 5: Fear and Loathing on Capitol Hill: The GOP Caucus Is Decadent and Depraved
• June 6: Walker Files Appeal in Kimberlin Case; Ali Akbar Says: ‘We’re Not Stopping.’
• June 6: Sen. Saxby Chambliss Requests DOJ Investigate SWATting
• June 7: CNN Gets Scooped on Its Own Story UPDATE: ACLJ Joins the Fight!
• June 8: NATIONAL DAY OF BLOGGER SILENCE UPDATE: Remember Seth Allen
• June 8: @AceOfSpadesHQ BREAKS SILENCE: #BrettKimberlin’s Escalating Threat
• June 10: Brett Kimberlin, Neal Rauhauser, and Their Transparent Empire of Lies UPDATE: ‘Anonymous’ Connection
• June 11: Florida Rep. Sandy Adams Leads 85 House Republicans in ‘SWATting’ Letter
• June 11: #BrettKimberlin Says He Was ‘SWATted’; Why Do Maryland Cops Say Otherwise?
• June 11: HUGE! Neal Rauhauser’s Vicious Lies Exposed by Yet Another Leaked E-Mail
• June 12: ‘Team Kimberlin’ Meltdown Continues
• June 13: A High Time on the Low Road: Smears Target Brett Kimberlin’s Enemies List UPDATE: SWATting Supect ID’d?
• June 13: Time to Ask: What Did Brett Kimberlin Know and When Did He Know It?
• June 14: Patterico: ‘Certain Big Media Reporters Are Scared to Write About Kimberlin’
• June 14: ‘Real Reporter’ @NYT_JenPreston vs. Blogger @Prepostericity (Seth Allen)
• June 14: Neal Rauhauser’s Online Slander Factory
• June 15: Neal Rauhauser’s Game Plan Involving Velvet Revolution and Anonymous
• June 16: Team Kimberlin’s Busted Hustle Now Beginning to Unravel Rapidly UPDATE: Perhaps Not a Coincidence
• June 17: ‘Scrubbed’ Writings Show Kimberlin Associate Neal Rauhauser’s Obsessions
• June 18: The Kimberlin Files: Ali Akbar, the Fight for Liberty and … a Disturbing Silence
• June 19: Neal Rauhauser’s Criminal Complaint Against Blogger Greg W. Howard
• June 19: Neal Rauhauser: Internet Super-Spy!
• June 20: ‘Persona Management’ for Wackjobs: Rauhauser’s Methods of Deception
• June 21: Recording: Leader of Anti-Limbaugh Effort Brags About Obama Campaign Ties
• June 21: ‘Iowa Boy,’ ‘Stranded Wind’ and the Sadistic Personality of Neal Rauhauser
• June 22: E-Mails Expose MSNBC Host’s Involvement in #StopRush Boycott
• June 22: BREAKING: Motion Filed Seeking Federal Injunction on Behalf of Blogger
• June 23: Imani Gandy, #StopRush and Neal Rauhauser: Confirmation and Credibility
• June 23: Neal Rauhauser’s Bizarre Suspicions, and Profiling the (Hypothetical) ‘UnSub’
• June 24: The Silence of Mark Singer; Also: Kimberlin v. Walker Hearing Monday
• June 25: UPDATED: Aaron Walker Granted Emergency Order in Maryland Hearing, Calls Ruling ‘Important Victory’
• June 25: Aaron Walker SWATted?
• June 26: Conspiracy Theorist ‘Qritiq’ Conspires Against Neal Rauhauser’s Targets
• June 26: #TCOT #BrettKimberlin #SWATting Important Event 9:30 p.m. ET Tonight!
• June 27: Professor Glenn ‘Exhibit E’ Reynolds
• June 27: ‘The Gaped Crusader’: Brett Kimberlin Associate Neal Rauhauser Stalked and Taunted SWATting Victim Patrick Frey
• June 29: Convicted Perjurer Brett Kimberlin Has 8:30 a.m. Hearing in Maryland Today
• June 30: UPDATE: Lying Felon Brett Kimberlin Scores a Draw in Maryland Hearing
• July 1: How Stupid I Was: 2011 Edition
• July 1: ‘I Know This All Sounds Crazy, But …’
• July 1: Ten Questions for Brandon Darby
• July 2: Neal Rauhauser’s War on Women
• July 2: A Drawer Full of Sockpuppets: Another Neal Rauhauser ‘Persona’ Exposed
• July 5: Aaron Walker (and Freedom) Win Maryland Appeal vs. Brett Kimberlin
• July 5: When ‘Jessica’ Was 10, 11, 12
• July 12: Brett Kimberlin: ‘I Want to Be Left Alone’