The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘Another Person Known to the Grand Jury’ in the Barrett Brown Indictment?

Posted on | November 18, 2012 | 16 Comments

Barrett Brown calmly explains why he’s going to ‘destroy’ an FBI agent

On Sept. 12, former Anonymous spokesman Barrett Brown was arrested in Texas after he posted a bizarre YouTube video rant in which he threatened to “destroy” an FBI Special Agent.

In March, Brown had been raided, but not arrested, by the FBI at the time that the feds busted the “LulzSec” hackers, a splinter of Anonymous.

About a week before Brown’s meltdown, on Sept. 3, he had accosted me on Twitter, threatening to sue me for having reported the widespread suspicion that he was cooperating with the federal investigation of Anonymous. I laughed off Brown’s absurd threat, telling him he needed a psychiatrist more than he needed a lawyer. His subsequent video freakout and arrest tended to confirm my judgment. On Oct. 3, Brown was indicted on three federal felony charges:

A federal grand jury in Dallas returned a three-count indictment . . . charging Barrett Lancaster Brown in Count One with making an Internet threat; in Count Two with conspiring to make restricted personal information of an employee of the United States publically available, and in Count Three with retaliation against a federal law enforcement officer.  Brown, 31, a resident of Dallas, was taken into federal custody last month for the conduct described in the indictment.

Click here to see a PDF of the federal indictment against Brown. While it is customary to make the disclaimer that Brown is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, I think anyone reading the indictment will conclude that the feds have got an open-and-shut case.

What I found intriguing, however, was Page Eight of the indictment, which describes Count Two against Brown for conspiring to publish “restricted information” about the FBI Special Agent and the agent’s family, “with the intent to threaaten and intimidate the Special Agent and to incite the commoission of a crime of violence against the Special Agent.” The indictment alleges that in September 2012, Brown “requested another person known to the grand jury to assist him find on the Internet restricted information” about the agent and the agent’s family “and that the other person agreed to do so, and furthermore, the other person did conduct a search on the Internet for the restricted information.”

Hmmm. Who is “another person known to the grand jury”? If Barrett Brown is facing federal prison time for conspiring to do this, why haven’t charges been filed against “another person known to the grand jury,” with whom Brown (allegedly) conspired?

This intrigues me because I know that Barrett Brown was in communication with Neal Rauhauser prior to Brown’s arrest. And we know that Rauhauser is rather notorious for his online research. If Barrett Brown wanted to “dox” an FBI agent, wouldn’t Neal Rauhauser be the sort of person whose assistance he might solicit?

Well, this is mere speculation, but whether or not Rauhauser was “another person known to the grand jury,” the question remains: Why hasn’t Barrett Brown’s unnamed co-conspirator been charged?

Category: Barrett Brown, Crime

LGF New Tune: Hurray for Pallywood!

Posted on | November 18, 2012 | 21 Comments

It may be necessary to explain that, once upon a time, Little Green Footballs was one of the most influential blogs, linked and cited by everyone from Rush Limbaugh to Matt Drudge.

Since 2007, however, LGF has imploded, following the apparent mental breakdown of its operator, Charles Johnson, who went psycho on Pamela Geller, embraced global warming, began attacking climate-change “denialists,” declared war on the Tea Party and presided over months of frenzied purges during which he and his henchmen banned thousands of the site’s former commenters, eventually banning even some of the LGF henchmen who had led the original wave of purges.

One thing the old LGF used to do was to debunk anti-U.S. or anti-Israel propaganda, including the staged or manipulated photos and videos known as “Pallywood.” For a recent example of “Pallywood,” consider the BBC News video showing an “injured” Palestinian man, allegedly a victim of Israeli air strikes in Gaza, being carried away from the scene, only to re-appear later walking and apparently uninjured:

Little Green Footballs used to devote entire threads to debunking that stuff but now? Ythey’re making elaborate defenses of Palestinian propaganda, doing frame-by-frame analysis, classifying skeptics as “far-right” and motivated by “bigotry,” and generally doing the exact opposite of what LGF did back in its glory days.

UPDATE: Diary of Daedalus chronicles the ongoing autobeclownment of Charles Johnson and Little Green Footballs.

Category: Charles Johnson, Israel

Rule 5 Sunday

Posted on | November 18, 2012 | 11 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


As usual, don’t follow the links if you’re at work or someplace else not appropriate for the viewing of nude women.


Blessed Blasphemy leads off with Jennifer Love Hewitt, Randy’s Roundtable follows with Evan Rachel Wood, and Reaganite Republican has “the REAL Miss America,” Vanessa Dobos. Laughing Conservative presents Vanessa Union, First Street Journal has a timely portfolio of IDF women, and the Jerseynut puts in a good word (and not a few pix) for the Unspeakable Armenian. Elsewhere, the Grumpy Old Man takes notice of Yvonne Strahovski.


EBL mourns the passing of Twinkie The Kid with this portfolio of girls eating Twinkies, some more tastefully than others. Also, Paula Broadwell reads from her magnum opus!


El Opinador Compulsivo returns after feverish work on the new telenovela, Real Housewives of El Opinador. Also, Holly Michaels, the ladies of “How I Met Your Mother”, neck exercises, on the balcony, having coffee, remembering last night, poetry, and girls with cameras.


A View From The Beach kicks off with Anne Hathaway’s Les Miserables diet, reasons for not learning Italian, midnight music with Joss Stone, Rio (which is always its won excuse), an ad for Zom-Be-Gone from Lollipop Chainsaw, useful how-to videos, and a Veterans’ Day pinup post.


Soylent Green begins with Great Moments In Advertising (comments are a must-read), then come Monday Motivationer Natasha, Tuesday Titillation Mia, a gross failure of comment stoicism, Humpday Hawt Jenni Lee, hidden treasure, Aussie Ugg peddlers, Overnighty Christine, Corsetcare Again, AM Awesome Amber, a nice afternoon for a ride, and Evening Awesome Katie.


At The Camp of the Saints, it’s Kelly Andrews, Lebanese Loreleis, and the Rule 5 News; Dustbury checks in with Laura San Giacomo and an appreciation of Petula Clark on her 80th birthday.


The Daley Gator’s DaleyBabes this week include Barbara Mori (with more Rule 5 linkagery!), Tiffany Hynes, Rosie Roff, Julia Ling, Stephanie Jacobson, Hitomi Kaikawa, and Sakura Sato.


Thanks to everyone for their linkagery! Deadline for next week’s Rule 5 Sunday is Saturday, November 24; all e-mail should go to the Rule 5 Wombat mailbox.

Category: Rule 5

Justice Delayed in Girl’s Murder

Posted on | November 18, 2012 | 6 Comments

In 1970, 9-year-old Donna Willing was kidnapped, raped and strangled in Milwaukee. The investigation of her murder failed to solve the crime, but in 2007, Donna’s younger sister persuaded detectives to re-open the case. The cold-case investigation soon identified a suspect: Convicted sex offender Robert Hill, who had lived next door to Donna’s family at the time of the murder. Hill was serving a prison sentence for his sexual assaults on four children between 1995 and 2002. Hill made two separate confessions:

Hill first told police he sexually assaulted Donna after she got into his car that night, according to court documents. She began to squirm and slapped him. He became angry, afraid she would tell on him. He strangled her and dumped her body in a garage. It all took about 10 minutes, he said.
In another account outlined in court documents, Hill said he molested Donna for years, and that night picked her up in his car and raped her. After she screamed, he put his hand over her mouth and strangled her.
Hill, who is now being in held a supervised facility, has since recanted both statements. But Balash said Hill’s statements contained specifics of Donna’s injuries that hadn’t been released publicly. . . .

Read the whole thing. Unfortunately, physical evidence in the Donna Willing was thrown away by police years ago, so there is no DNA or other forensic evidence available, but prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Hill, who is now 73 years old. It is sad that he was not apprehended immediately for that 1970 crime, which would have spared Hill’s other victims.

Category: Crime, Wisconsin

Will Israel Invade Gaza Again?

Posted on | November 18, 2012 | 10 Comments

Israeli air attacks now are, in the words of IDF Capt. Eytan Buchman, “part of our overarching goal of toppling Hama’s command and control capabilities.” That is to say, degrading the organizational infrastructure, which would hinder a concerted resistance to an Israel invasion on the ground in Gaza. The IDF has mobilized reserves and is clearly prepared to make such an invasion, but U.S. officials are worried:

The Obama administration is increasingly concerned about the escalating violence in Gaza, believing that a ground incursion by Israel there could lead to increased civilian casualties, play into the hands of the militant Palestinian group Hamas and inflict further damage to Israel’s standing in the region at an already tumultuous time.
Though President Obama uttered immediate and firm public and private assurances that Israel has a right to defend itself from rocket attacks emanating from Gaza, administration officials have been privately urging Israeli officials not to extend the conflict, a move that many American officials believe could benefit Hamas.

Frankly, I doubt Bibi Netanyahu will let his military options be dictated by worry-warts in Washington — or London, for that matter. Melanie Phillips notes that British Foreign Secretary William Hague is making concern-troll noises about the “international support” Israel might lose if it sends troops into Gaza:

So according to these leaders, Israel absolutely has the right to defend itself — but not actually to take the action that will defeat its attackers! And just whose international support might Israel lose by such a casualty toll? Why, the support of leaders like Hague and Obama!  What hypocrisy, furthermore, from those who have been bombing the living daylights out of Afghanistan but impose a totally different standard on Israel.

Western leaders who reserve to themselves the right to use military power as they see fit, evidently wish to apply a special standard to Israel, and if Netanyahu ignores them, perhaps it will disabuse Israel’s enemies of the idea that Israel is a tool of Western imperalism.

It was on the occasion of the three-week Israeli invasion of Gaza in January 2009 that I invoked Sonny Corleone’s famous warning to Carlo: “If you touch my sister again, I’ll kill you.”

Some people never learn . . .

UPDATE: In the aftermath of the 2009 Gaza War, the eminent hysteric Glenn Greenwald emitted some of his inimitable idiocy about “America’s ongoing, one-sided support for Israel generally and for Israel’s attack on Gaza specifically.” This prompted me to write one of the acknowledged classic entries in the category, “Gee, Stacy, Why Don’t You Tell Us What You Really Think?”

 Swear to God, if they ever want a Gentile prime minister, my first order would be to deploy the IDF in a north-south line, facing east. My second order would be “forward march” and the order to halt would not be given until it was time for the troops to rinse their bayonets in the Jordan. After a brief rest halt, the order “about face” would be given, and the next halt would be at the Mediterranean coast.
That’s my “Middle East peace plan,” and until it’s carried out, there will be no peace.

That post inspired Andrew Sullivan to nominate me for a “Malkin Award” and, in the final voting, I placed second to Glenn Beck that year.

 

 

Category: Israel

Geopolitics and ‘Amateur Assclowns’

Posted on | November 18, 2012 | 91 Comments

Daily Caller tech editor Josh Peterson quotes me accurately about the Anonymous hacker war against Israel:

“These people who engage in these attacks don’t know me from Adam, and all they know is ‘Oh, TheOtherMcCain.com has criticized Anonymous,” he said.
He is also critical of the severity of the impact that Anonymous’ activities have on geopolitics, stating that “we may be on the verge of Armageddon” in the Middle East.
“This is serious stuff. This is global geopolitics involved here, and for these amateur ass-clowns, the laptop brigades, to be fucking around here,” said McCain.
“Are they insane?” he said.

Read the rest. Excuse the blunt language, but if these Anonymous hackers think they can side with Hamas against Israel without consequence, they’ve got another think coming. Dude, if the FBI gets you, that’s one thing. If the Mossad ever gets you? Hey, accidents happen:

The Israel Air force struck Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh’s headquarters in the northern Gaza Strip early Saturday morning, according to the IDF Spokesman’s Office.

Oops. Here’s video from the guided missile camera:

PREVIOUSLY:

 

Category: Israel, Terrorism

Neal Rauhauser’s Sick Obsession and the #Anonymous #OpIsrael Hamas Scam

Posted on | November 17, 2012 | 67 Comments

Just got off the phone with a reporter who was wondering why this blog was named in the second paragraph of a press release from Anonymous about their support for the terrorist group Hamas:

It has come to our attention that conservative and pro-Israeli groups throughout the blogosphere have taken advantage of Operation Israel, attempting to solidify public opinion against Anonymous.
TheOtherMcCain.com posted an editorial this morning which stated the following: “If you ever doubted that Anonymous was a terrorist organization, they have now removed all reason for doubt.”

The post mentioned: “Thugs of a Feather: #Anonymous Supports Hamas Terrorists Against Israel.” Several news sites as well as bloggers have called attention to the pro-Hama declarations made by various accounts claiming to speak on behalf of Anonymous. So why, among all the sites reporting and commenting on this phenomenon, am I singled out in this press release that goes yammering on about the “oppression imposed by the Israeli government,” etc.?

The answer in two words: Neal Rauhauser, who has spent the past 24 hours figuratively high-fiving himself on his Blog Nobody Should Link, celebrating the fact that our site was targeted for an online attack yesterday that blocked or slowed traffic. This was not a DDOS attack, which requires the use of multiple accounts, but rather another method that can be done from a single computer.

In other words, it would appear, Rauhauser personally attempted to shut down our site, then tried to pretend that it was a collective attack by Anonymous, and has since carried on at his blog in an effort to convince others to join in on the attack. It’s a dishonest scam.

As for the press release from Anonymous, if Neal did not write it himself, it is almost certain that the person who did write it named my site so prominently at the prompting of Rauhauser, who has often boasted of his connections to Anonymous.

As anyone who has studied Rauhauser’s harassment methods knows, he has a childish love of the “you can’t catch me” game: He engages in surreptitious attacks on the targets of his cyberstalking and, if they publicly accuse him of it, Rauhauser then denies his involvement and mocks his target as being “paranoid” for suspecting him. Rauhauser did this in the 2010 “TwitterGate” scandal; after Neal’s involvement was exposed, he did the “you can’t catch me” trick, and succeeded in convincing some people that the orchestrated online harassment of Tea Party activists was just a “prank” that got out of hand.

Now, some people have suggested that I should just ignore Neal Rauhauser, as if ignoring him would cause him to stop his obsessive cyberstalking. It won’t, and this is not about me. When I ignore Rauhauser, his other targets — he has a long list of people with whom he is fanatically obsessed — continue to suffer harm and, in fact, even greater harm occasionally befalls those who assist Rauhauser in his harassment.

Former Anonymous spokesman Barrett Brown was arrested by the FBI after he got involved in one of Rauhauser’s operations. In recent weeks, Rauhauser has tried to gin up another one of his crazy conspiracy theories to explain Brown’s meltdown, but those of us who watched it happen know the part Neal played in that sad episode.

Neal Rauhauser is a dangerous person, perhaps more dangerous to his “friends” than to his enemies, and his latest apparent stunt — inciting Anonymous supporters against me — is a classic example. Anyone who permits themselves to be baited into criminal activity will  be subject to the same kind of prosecution that sent the “LulzSec” hackers to prison. And look what Anonymous is doing now:

Anonymous attacks over 650 Israeli sites, wipes
databases, leaks email addresses and passwords

Are these people insane? The United States government considers Hamas a terrorist organization. Not only is any U.S. resident participating in these criminal intrusions individually liable for those federal crimes, but Anonymous as an organization now must be considered a national security threat, giving aid to terrorists against a U.S. ally.

Indeed, what Anonymous calls the #OpIsrael project may be the work of foreign agents who have infiltrated the Anonymous collective. In an online space where people are intensively secretive about their identities, no one can be sure of another person’s actual motives. Therefore, in regard to #OpIsrael, the question is, “Cui bono?”

Who benefits from the online attacks on Israeli sites? Hamas. And who supports Hamas? Iran. The possibility that #OpIsrael is, in fact, a project of Iranian intelligence operatives cannot be dismissed. Any teenage techie who thinks it’s just a lot of lulz to get involved in this stunt — or any misguided idealist who thinks that hacking Israeli computers is a way to prevent “oppression” — is apt to learn a hard lesson.

It’s all just fun and games until someone ends up in federal prison. And if you don’t believe me, ask Barrett Brown.

UPDATE: A reader in the comments recommends Parmy Olson’s book, We Are Anonymous: Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec, Anonymous, and the Global Cyber Insurgency.

UPDATE II: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

UPDATE III: Geopolitics and ‘Amateur Assclowns’

 


Category: Israel, Terrorism

Harry Reid’s Benghazi Cover-Up

Posted on | November 17, 2012 | 29 Comments

Now that we know for a fact that President Obama deliberately deceived Americans about the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi — remember, the president promised to “get to the bottom of it” — now the Senate Majority Leader does his part to suppress the ugly truth:

If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid didn’t make it clear enough to Republicans that he opposes a select committee to investigate the Benghazi attacks, he said it again Friday: No way.
In letters to key Republican senators, Reid put his foot down — again — on the idea of a special panel to dig into the Sept. 11 assault that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three diplomatic aides in Libya. A select committee would need a floor vote to be created, and Reid said he wouldn’t permit it.
“I refuse to allow the Senate to be used as a venue for baseless partisan attacks,” Reid wrote in the three-page letter, released Friday evening.

And, of course, by “baseless partisan attacks,” what Harry Reid actually means is, the truth.

Category: Uncategorized
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