The Other McCain

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

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

Bob Belvedere Hates Trees While Being The Most Beautiful Man On The Planet

Posted on | June 19, 2012 | 16 Comments

by Smitty

I am nearly reduced to a weeping outburst of Smalley-ism:


*sniff* Thank you *sniff*

In better news, the Kindle version is actually perking now. I made what was a not unreasonable, yet wrong, assertion when it jumped me from CreateSpace.com to Kindle Direct Publish: that it new I was the author. As I tried to submit the .pdf without a listed author, they kicked it back to me about five times before I contacted them via email to see if we could dance a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

I blame Dan Collins. (Whose book you should buy, BTW: I picked up two copies when it first came out.)

Update:

Category: Camp of the Saints, Dan Collins

Two French Female Police Officers Murdered by Adbdallah Boumezr

Posted on | June 19, 2012 | 13 Comments

A 30-year-old North African immigrant is under arrest after French authorities say he confessed to shooting two policewomen, Alicia Champion and Audrey Berthaut. Bare Naked Islam offers this translation of a French news article:

The policewomen were responding to a call about an Arab who had robbed a purse from a female neighbor. Abdallah . . . struck the police sergeant, stole her gun, and shot the 35-year-old mother of two with several shots to the face.
The second policewoman, newly married, ran to hide in a small alley, but the killer shot her to death with at least 7 bullets to the back, using her own gun.

Eric Dondero has much more at Libertarian Republican, explaining:

As of this writing, there is zero news on the murders in any American media. Nothing from the Washington Post, New York Times, LA Times, Huffington Post, Drudge, CNN, MSNBC, even Fox. Not even blogs are covering it.

A complete blackout by U.S. news organizations!

Category: Crime, France

Neal Rauhauser’s Criminal Complaint Against Blogger Greg W. Howard

Posted on | June 19, 2012 | 16 Comments

“People engaged in provocative online conduct feel insulated; they’re in the comfort of their own home, if they’ve engaged in a little bit of caution they may feel completely anonymous, and this emboldens them. Specifying the strategy we’ll use to break their anonymity won’t permit any mitigation on their part without adjusting their behavior, which counts as a win for us. 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.”
— Neal Rauhauser (aka “Stranded Wind”), Aug. 29, 2010

“What I describe here is a textbook application of the principles of Open Source Intelligence. We’re going to observe, collect, and collate information. An orderly, professional effort here will counter the Open Source Stupidity we’re seeing from the radical right, providing an invaluable resource for civil and criminal actions.”
— Neal Rauhauser (aka “Stranded Wind”), Aug. 31, 2010

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
Neal Rauhauser has attacked his enemies with a “lawfare” strategy similar to the methods his client, Brett Kimberlin, used to get blogger Aaron Walker arrested last month. Last year, Rauhauser filed a spurious criminal complaint against an Alabama man whom he accused of “inciting people to find and harm me.”

Rauhauser last year joined forces with Kimberlin’s 501(c) tax-exempt non-profit Velvet Revolution and has evidently been engaged in a relentless Internet-based effort aimed at critics of Kimberlin, a convicted felon notorious as Indiana’s “Speedway Bomber.”

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.

One of the primary targets of the TwitterGate harassment — by a group of Twitter accounts Rauhauser called his “beandog militia” — was an Alabama resident named Greg W. Howard. A Marine veteran and financial advisor who is also a political blogger, Howard is a popular Tea Party activist on Twitter, where his account has more than 20,000 followers. As part of an apparently orchestrated campaign of provocation, a series of vicious and obscene messages were directed at Howard in 2010. (Warning: Extremely graphic language.) Read more

Category: The Kimberlin Files

Announcement: S.A.L.V.E.

Posted on | June 19, 2012 | 23 Comments

by Smitty


Shameless Acts of Literary Vandalism and Entertainment is surely the Publishing Event of June 19, 2012! Collected in one tidy package, and available just in time for West Virginia Day, you can now spare yourself the toil of navigating to 45 different URLs, and instead have a handsome, consolidated unit for your entertainment needs. You can settle the age-old question: Is this thing better employed as the target, or the missile?

Featuring an introductory essay/mea culpa/mercy plea from Robert Stacy McCain, S.A.L.V.E.breaks new ground where wiser heads see thin ice. Birtherism is far too tame, as S.A.L.V.E asks:

  • Could the Secretary of State really be the President’s mother? (OediPOTUS Wrecks)
  • Could co-bloggers sustain a Samuel Beckett riff while sending up Obama’s stimulus program? (Waiting for O-Dough)
  • Can you make a post-apocalytpic road trip in an obscure Sean Connery vehicle? (Czar d’Oz)
  • Do infamous forgeries and pulp horror mix? (The Protocols of the Elders of CTHULHU)

Critics being critics, they have come after the author with tar, feathers, a live cattle prod, and a Dremel:

  • Simón Bolívar: Smitty needs calibration by my ‘infinitely firm hand’.
  • Kurt Schlicter: If this book was any better, it’d be as good as mine.
  • The Taco Bell Chihuahua: Yo quiero, barf-o bag!
  • Tywin Lannister: I’d sooner have a crossbow bolt for a laxative than this.
  • Khal Drogo: I, for one, would prefer a molten crown.
  • George W. Bush: Me? I’m heading to the Pike Place. . .Market.
  • Meddle: One of these days, I’m going to cut Smitty into little pieces.
  • Frank J. Fleming: Easily the second most important conservative political humor book of all time. Barring most others.
  • Severian: Were Smitty my client, I could offer him a thousand remedies.
  • Rutherford B. Hayes:
  • Larry Niven: Smitty should be decked by the long arm of Gil Hamilton.
  • Smaug: I’d like to light up Smitty’s life.

I hope that the critical blowback doesn’t reach Mrs. Other Smitty’s photo site. She was gracious enough to donate the cover photo. This is available on CreateSpace.com right now, and will be available via Kindle whenever the unspecified blockage that keeps getting it kicked back from “in review” to “draft” is alleviated. Not that I’m bitter or anything. Not me. Nope. Any readers who have a point of contact within Amazon are welcome to chime in.

Update: Thanks, Fausta!

Category: Blogging, Farce, humor

LIVE AT FIVE – 06.19.12

Posted on | June 19, 2012 | 5 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
Centrist Coalition Forming In Greece

New Democracy Party's Antonis Samaras

Tentative agreement with socialist PASOK, Democratic Left parties

GOP Enthusiasm For Romney Growing
Getting out on the road

Aussie PM Brushes Off Barroso Comments
Says EU head’s irritated comments aimed at US, not Australia



POLITICS
Report: Asians Eclipsing Hispanics In Immigration To US

Gurdarshan Gill (L), others take the oath at a San Feanscisco immigration ceremony

Poor economy diminishes demand for low-skilled Mexicans while high-skilled Chinese, Indians still wanted

Leaking Steam Tubes At San Onofre Nuke Plant Not Properly Tested



Interim President Chosen For UVa After Sullivan’s Sacking; Did Breitbart.com Claim A Scalp?

Supremes Split Over Defendants’ Right To Confront Lab Techs

Romney Predicts Win In Wisconsin

Student Restraints Latest Flash Point In Nevada Senate Race

Judge Considers Delay In Nidal Hasan Court-Martial

Holder Seeking Deal With Issa Before Contempt Vote?



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Crude Oil Resumes Slide On Europe Concerns; NYMEX $82.99, Brent $96.05
Much Speculation, No Certainty As Fed Policy Meeting Approaches
BoA Likely To Sell Overseas Wealth Unit To Julius Baer
Oracle Rises As Earnings Beat Estimates
Blue Chips Beating S&P By Most In 13 Years On Dividends, Falling P/Es, And Fear
State Pension Shortfalls Ballooned In 2010; 34 States Failed To Adequately Fund Pensions
CFPB Launches Credit Card Complaint Database
J.C. Penney President Abruptly Resigns
Hong Kong Stocks Sink, Led By Esprit, HSBC
Corn Prices Surge As Crops Wilt In Midwest Heat
Facebook Buys Facial-Recognition Startup
IBM Supercomputer Overtakes Fujitsu As World’s Fastest
India Demands Google Censor Objectionable Content
Samsung CEO: Software Key To Device Wars
Facebook Pays $10 Million To Charity, Settling “Sponsored Stories” Suit
First Look At Microsoft’s New Surface Tablet



SPORTS
WP: Clemens, Save: Pettitte; LP: Holder

Roger Clemens: not guilty on all counts

Jury finds star pitcher not guilty on all counts of lying to Congress

Dickey K’s 13 In Second Shutout As Mets Pound O’s 5-0

Goodell Hears Bounty Appeals From Players

Aaron Hill Hits For Cycle As Snakes Romp 7-1 Over M’s

Flyers GM Holmgren Rules Nothing Out

Cain Far From Perfect But Earns Hard-Fought Win Against Angels

Sharks Make It Official: McLellan’s Back

Sabathia, Jeter Lead Yankees To Tenth Straight Win

Vets’ Advice Leads to Success For Nationals’ Rookies



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Katy Perry Finds Bodysuit A Little Too Revealing At MuchMusic Awards

Obviously not the bodysuit in question

Proof that it’s possible to look even more naked with not enough clothing than with none at all

Some B-List Actor Gets Naked For Sigur Ros Video

Stitched-Up Clubgoer Suing After Rappers’ Brawl In Club

Channing Tatum’s Stripper Buddies Upset Over “Magic Mike”

Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles Expecting First Child

Mel Gibson Parties Hard With Maria Menounos

Lindsay Parties Until 1 AM Day After Being Treated For Exhaustion

Nick Stahl Missing Again After Skipping Out On Rehab

How Britney Spears And Demi Lovato Are Bonding On “X Factor”

Mommy Porn “Fifty Shades Of Grey” Passes “Harry Potter” To Become Fastest-Selling Paperback Of All Time

Male Model Files $1 Million Lawsuit Against Abercrombie & Fitch

Emma Stone To Debut As Vogue Cover Girl In July



FOREIGNERS
EU Leaders Tired Of Being Lectured By Others
Few Concrete Solutions Expected From Rio Sustainability Conference
Obama, Putin Call For Peace In Syria
Hamas Applauds Morsi’s Victory In Egypt
Analysts Warn Of New Egyptian Political Crisis
Tense Iran Nuke Talks Resume In Moscow
Another Day, Another Green-On-Blue Attack In Afghanistan
Eighteen Dead In Turkey As Kurdish Rebels Attack
Death Sentences For Muslims In Murder/Rape Case That Set Off Riots In Rakhine State
Suspect In Body Parts Case Returns To Canada
Suicide Bomber Kills Army General Leading Fight In South Yemen; Al-Qaeda Takes Credit



BLOGS & STUFF
Soopermexican: Another Ridiculous Lie From Media – Distorting Romney’s Wawa Speech
Moe Lane: What To Take Away From MSNBC’s Fake Romney Wawa “Scandal”
Ed Driscoll: MSNBC Gets Caught Cooking The Books
Professor Bainbridge: Kevin Drum’s Crocodile SCOTUS Tears
Volokh Conspiracy: Does Scalia’s New Book Reveal His Vote On The Individual Mandate?
Althouse: “Obama Picks Kerry To Play Romney In Mock Debates” – This seems like a terrible idea!
Weasel Zippers: Ann Romney – I Doubt We’ll Take As Many Overseas Vacations As The Obamas
Lonely Conservative: West Virginia Democratic Brass Sitting Out Democrat Convention
NewsBusters: Scott Brown Agrees To Debate With Fauxcahontas, But Not If MSNBC Involved
Allahpundit: Overhead – Romney Would Do A Better Job Running The Country, Says Mayor Bloomberg
Power Line: The Sad Demise Of The Occupy Movement
Jawa Report: Occupy Oakland Protests In Favor Of Child Sex Trafficking
NRO Corner: Poisoning The Well
PJ Tatler: Allen West Dejected By Romney’s Answers On Immigration, Compares Obama To King George III
Gateway Pundit: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Trace Adkins, Kid Rock To Play Republican Convention
Pat Dollard: Holder To Meet Issa, Try And Talk His Way Out Of Contempt Charges
American Thinker: Border Patrol Council Calls For Holder’s Resignation
American Glob: Jon Stewart Mocks Romney’ Wealth As Stewart Rakes In Millions, Hides Houses In Trusts, And Fails To Pay His Taxes

Category: Live at Five

Yes, Dan Riehl: Slavery. To Materialism!

Posted on | June 18, 2012 | 24 Comments

by Smitty

Dan Riehl brings some dainty new footwear to the discussion. However, we need to dig a little deeper here. The message may not be limited to simple 19thcentury bondage. No.

Does Dan Riehl secretly dream of this sort of restraint?

Chattel slavery? Worse--possessions!

As Lawrence O’Donnell (my intellectual guide) points out, we’re all socialists now:
This new line of footwear clearly underscores the American enslavement to possessions, bling, and physical nonsense. We must rightly reject this bourgeois notion of private property! Let the shackles come off, and let there be community footwear! From each according to his mobility, to each according to his feet!

For too long, this weird combination of Imelda Marcos, sports, and melted crayons has gripped the American foot. It is time American toes to join in liberty, equality, and fraternity: “LACES OF THE AMERICAN SHOE UNTIE!”

Category: Dan Riehl, Farce

The Kimberlin Files: Ali Akbar, the Fight for Liberty and … a Disturbing Silence

Posted on | June 18, 2012 | 71 Comments


 

“If Rauhauser and Kimberlin aren’t under investigation by the FBI yet, why not?”
— Robert Stacy McCain, June 4, 2011

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
During the Right Online conference, National Bloggers Club president Ali Akbar was interviewed by Christina Corbin of Fox News:

“What they’re clearly trying to do is dampen down free speech, but it goes beyond that — it’s putting people’s physical safety in jeopardy,” said Ali Akbar, who heads a group called the National Bloggers Club made up of conservative online writers.
Akbar told FoxNews.com that he believes he is a target after he claims his mother’s home address in Texas was posted on various Internet sites to “incite someone crazy on the fringe left to do something absolutely awful to one of us for what we’re talking about.”

(Via Memeorandum.) There is a limit to what can be accomplished by defensive measures to protect against such dangerous intimidation tactics. We have seen in the cases of Seth Allen, Mike Stack, Patrick “Patterico” Frey and Aaron Walker that courts and law enforcement agencies have repeatedly failed to take appropriate action against the thugs who seek to stifle First Amendment freedoms. Indeed, in the May 29 Maryland hearing that exemplified the bizarre success of Brett Kimberlin’s abusive “lawfare” tactics, Aaron Walker was arrested — ! — on the basis of dishonest claims made by Kimberlin who, among other things, is a convicted perjurer.

Mike Stack and Patterico were both SWATted nearly a year ago, and yet no arrests have been made in those cases. Patterico demonstrates that he was being harassed on Twitter in September 2011 by Neal Rauhauser’s associates who made specific references to SWATting before Patterico had ever made public mention of having been SWATted.

The FBI knows all about this, and yet they refuse to act.

Patterico has clearly identified those whom he suspects of complicity. Has the FBI inquired with Twitter to find out who was behind the “LulzShack” handle in August 2011? Or who was behind the “Stormpedo” Twitter handle in September 2011?

We are at the point of the story where, if this was a TV crime drama, the detectives would have the suspects locked in a room, confronting them with the evidence and interrogating them for 14 consecutive hours until they cracked.

Is the FBI incompetent? Or — I hesitate to suggest this — has the Justice Department become so corrupted that even the FBI’s hard-won reputation for integrity has been compromised?

This is why Neal Rauhauser’s repeated boastings about his contacts in the FBI disturb me. We know that Rauhauser is a liar and a braggart, but what if he’s actually telling the truth about his cozy relationship with law enforcement? What if the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have actually bought into Rauhauser’s deceptions?

Perish the thought. I have spoken to at least three people who say they have talked to the FBI about what is, supposedly, an ongoing investigation of these matters. These people tell me to be patient, and assure me that the FBI is doing their best. But if they’re doing their best, how to explain the lack of action?  Read more

Category: Shoe Leather Fund, The Kimberlin Files
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