Ali Akbar with Tea Party candidate Doug Hoffman, October 2009

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
Monday afternoon I was off the grid when Ali Akbar called to tell me that “Breitbart Unmasked” had published a photo and the address of his mother’s home in Texas in a viciously mendacious attack on the National Bloggers Club. While I had no Web access at the time, I was able to send a Tweet from my cell phone, and pardonnez mon français.

Does the phrase “Don’t mess with Texas” ring a bell? Maryland courts have been incredibly lenient with the Kimberlin/Rauhauser axis, but Ali assures me that Texas won’t take too kindly to the purposeful harassment of one of its law-abiding citizens. Ali’s mother has harmed no one, and whoever thought up this sick stunt might find themselves prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law — Texas law. IYKWIMAITYD.

As to the absurd delusions propagated by “Breitbart Unmasked” that the National Bloggers Club is rolling in mega-bucks from Republican fat cats — it’s simply not true.

The truth, to the best of my knowledge, is this: Melissa Clouthier began working last year to organize the National Bloggers Club. If conservative bloggers were Cub Scouts, Melissa would be our den mother. And she also has also played a key role in helping Ali in put on the annual “Blog Bash” at CPAC. This year’s Blog Bash was such a monster success in terms of sponsorships that they finished with a couple thousand bucks surplus, and it was agreed that this money would be used to fund the start of the National Bloggers Club.

So any disinformation you hear about the National Bloggers Club being lavishly funded by secretive Republican gazillionaires is bunk.

The Kimberlin/Rauhauser axis are experts at disinformation, and another lie they’ve told is that the National Bloggers Club is shoveling big money to Aaron Walker and others, myself included. It’s simply not true. The National Bloggers Club is trying to help Aaron, especially in terms of providing him with legal assistance in his court fight against Brett Kimberlin, but nobody’s getting rich off this and, as for me, I haven’t asked for a cent from the Club yet.

Nobody’s sued me and I haven’t sued anybody. Our readers here have been extraordinarily generous in hitting the tip jar to help with the extraordinary expenses, and I’m doing OK so far. But nobody knows what will happen next in this rapidly escalating online war, so it’s nice to know that the Club is available to help — and, we must hope, their ability to support and defend conservative bloggers in situations like this will prove valuable in the future.

The point is that the “Breitbart Unmasked” attack on Ali is as misguided as it is dishonest, and if Brett Kimberlin or Neal Rauhauser or any of their evil trolls think Ali is going to be intimidated by their vicious games, they’ve got another think coming.

What kind of liar is Brett Kimberlin? Check out Patterico’s post about the lies Kimberlin told to get Aaron Walker arrested.

Expect blogging to be light here today, as the Undisclosed Location will be re-locating temporarily while I conduct some important and highly relevant business.

One other note: Sources inform me that Aaron Walker filed Monday for an appeal of Judge Vaughey’s ruling in last week’s Maryland hearing. No word yet on when the appeal will be heard.

Please give generously to the National Bloggers Club, and also remember Ali and his family in your prayers.

– Robert Stacy McCain, Whereabouts Unknown

by Smitty

I cannot believe this. #BrettKimberlin‘s associates have now literally gone after my family. Prayers please.

— Ali A. Akbar (@ali) June 4, 2012

Ace of Spades: National Day of Blogger Silence — This Friday

On Friday, this site will be absolutely dead-silent, which is what Brett Kimberlin and his stalker crew seeks, and what the media and our supposed Representatives in Congress would permit.
The only post on Friday will be a bold-faced Open Letter to Congress, urging them to act and not attempt to pass the buck to others.
They are our representatives; we would like some representation.
They vowed to defend and protect the Constitution; they can honor that vow now.
I will post links of Congressmen’s and Senator’s email addresses and offices and phone numbers, and urge every concerned American citizen to let them know, in no uncertain terms, that a crime in progress against the First Amendment (and people’s safety) is occurring, and we humbly request they take this seriously.
They are literally going to get someone killed. That is their endgame here.
Will the media and Congress pretend “we didn’t know” when this happens?
ABCNews knows.
The Weekly Standard knows.
The Daily Caller knows.
And many, but not yet all, Congressmen and Senators know.

This blog will (likely) follow Ace’s lead. I’m sure my Congressman will listen to a polite petition. He could surprise me and take action, too. That hope exists.

Update: linked at The Daley Gator

Update II: More at American Power. Furthermore, Stacy spoke to Ali and got this quote:

“World War Three.”

The nature of the offense is that the allegedly Brett Kimberlin-linked site “Breitbart Unmasked” (no linky love for these clowns) apparently thought it was cool to post photos of the location of some family members of Ali.

Now, I have not ever seen Ali in an other-than-gentlemanly mode. I shall strive to keep it that way.

Update III: linked at The Camp of the Saints

Update IV: linked at The Conservatory, Da Tech Guy, and The Lonely Conservative. Plus reporting at Twitchy.

Update V: linkage from The Fellowship of the Perpetually Aggrieved, hogewash, Ameryx le Gallois, Conservative Hideout, and The Rio Norte Line.

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
The phrase quoted in the title is from a Firedoglake diarist who accurately calls the Brett Kimberlin story a “complex saga, as densely peopled and subplotted as a 19th century Russian novel.” While I resent the suggestion that I’m involved in any sort of “hysteria” — vigilante or otherwise — I’m linking the FDL diary because it offers a rather concise summary of how this story connects to the WeinerGate scandal.

As explained in a previous post, Neal Rauhauser’s involvement with Brett Kimberlin apparently began in 2011. In February of this year, Rauhauser published a bizarre eight-page document (“Andrew Breitbart’s ISR Cell?”) expressing the belief that he and Kimberlin were targets of a conspiracy involving Andrew Breitbart and many others, including Mike Stack, who played a key role in exposing Democrat Rep. Anthony Weiner’s online sexcapades.

Rauhauser is a fanatical “Weiner Truther,” believing in a conspiracy theory version of the WeinerGate scandal in which the congressman was the victim of a “set up” hoax perpetrated by Andrew Breitbart and/or shadowy Republican operatives. This left-wing tinfoil-hat stuff doesn’t really interest me, but it explains Rauhauser’s apparent obsession with Mike Stack, who is believed to be the only person who knows the true identity of “Dan Wolfe,” the guy who first spotted the incriminating Twitter message from Weiner. It also explains some other things, as reported by Rosie Gray at BuzzFeed in her story on the “Weiner Truthers”:

A major locus of modern Weiner trutherism is BreitbartUnmasked.com, a site “dedicated to unmasking the underbelly of Andrew Breitbart and his crew of rogues, criminals, wannabe journalists, various right wing extremists and the religious intolerant,” per its “About Us” section. Breitbart Unmasked features a large GIF of Breitbart’s face morphing into a mask, and lists the name of everyone in Breitbartworld, from editors of Breitbart.com to people only tangentially related.
One of its related Twitter accounts, @OccupyRebellion, regularly tweets about Weinergate and the alleged conspiracies therein. . . .
[Joseph Cannon observes:] These twilight warriors are obsessed with hacking and related matters. Some of them claim to have worked with Anonymous and LulzSec and allied organizations.

There is widespread suspicion that Brett Kimberlin is behind the “BreitbartUnmasked” site, which has access to information that could only have come from Kimberlin, and which is fixated on Kimberlin’s enemies to the exclusion of nearly everything else. Continue reading ‘A Faint Whiff of Vigilante Hysteria’: Weinergate’s Kimberlin Connection →