State Dept. spokesman fielded question about Hillary Clinton Deputy Chief of Staff after Huma Abedin 'quietly' left position

State Department and President Obama defended likely NYC mayoral candidate's wife in summer of 2012 after GOP Congress members questioned her alleged familial ties to Muslim Brotherhood, but no one told the press or public about her "new working arrangement"

Last Thursday, Politico and The New York Times broke the news that Anthony Weiner's wife, Huma Abedin, "quietly" reached a "new working arrangement" in her last months at the State Department, where she worked closely with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"The disclosure of the agreement that Ms. Abedin made with the State Department comes as her husband, former Representative Anthony D. Weiner, a Democrat, prepares for a mayoral run in New York City," Raymond Hernandez reported for The New York Times. That same day, news broke out on Twitter that Weiner and Abedin shot what appeared to be a TV commercial at his childhood residence in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

"[S]o @anthonyweiner & Huma (gorgeous!) are shooting a commercial on my block. i wonder what it's for.. #runanthonyrun pic.twitter.com/DW2OZqK6cJ," @chippygee tweeted, and posted the following picture:
"Ms. Abedin reached her new working arrangement in June 2012, when she returned from maternity leave, quietly leaving her position as deputy chief of staff and becoming a special government employee, which is essentially a consultant," Hernandez reported for The New York Times on May 16, 2013. "A State Department official said that change freed her from the requirement that she disclose her private earnings for the rest of the year on her financial disclosure forms. Still, during that period, she continued to be identified publicly in news reports as Mrs. Clinton’s deputy chief of staff."

Maggie Haberman, John Bresnahan and Glenn Thrush reported for Politico that "Abedin never would have had to make the information public had her friend not provided the details."

Some critics of Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin believe that there may have been another reason why a "new working arrangement" occurred in June of 2012.

"Did Huma Abedin ‘quietly’ step down as Deputy Chief of Staff in same month Bachmann letter sent to IG?" Walid Shoebat, asked at his blog on May 17, 2013. Shoebat notes that on June 13, 2012, a "letter sent by Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Trent Franks (R-AZ), Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), and Tom Rooney (R-FL) to the State Department’s Deputy Inspector General...specifically named Huma Abedin and her familial connections to the Muslim Brotherhood."

The letter sent by Bachmann and four other Republican congress members charged that "the Department’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Huma Abedin, has three family members – her late father, her mother and her brother – connected to Muslim Brotherhood operatives and/or organizations. Her position affords her routine access to the Secretary and to policy-making."

In an article which unknowingly wrongly reported Abedin was still Deputy Chief of Staff, Politico's Jonathan Allen reported on July 19, 2012, "Similar letters were sent to inspectors general at the departments of Defense, Justice, Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence."

"Had an announcement been made in June of 2012 that Abedin was stepping down as Deputy, it clearly would have fueled the controversy," Shoebat speculates.

Shoebat is "a Palestinian militant turned peacemaker", according to a 2004 BBC News profile, but a 2010 Washington Post column questioned his terrorist "credentials," and quoted critics who suggested that "Christian fundamentalists in the U.S. military" were "promoting terrorists-turned-Christians, with potentially deadly consequences" to "spew[] Islamophobic hatred."


At a July 18, 2012 daily press briefing, the Acting Deputy Spokesperson and Director of the Press Office Patrick Ventrell was asked a question by a reporter who specifically referred to Abedin as Deputy Chief of Staff, but he didn't correct him.

QUESTION: No? All right. Well, I was going to bring this up, but since Senator McCain took to the floor of the Senate this morning --

MR. VENTRELL: Yeah.

QUESTION: -- and delivered a rather stirring defense of the Secretary’s Deputy Chief of Staff, I’m wondering if you, speaking on behalf of her employer, would like to add your two cents to that.

MR. VENTRELL: Can you repeat your question? Sorry, I didn’t hear the --

QUESTION: Do you have anything to say about the allegations that are being made against Huma Abedin?

MR. VENTRELL: We think that – again, if you’re referring to the very specific thing that was about a member of Congress writing to the OIG --

QUESTION: Five members of Congress, yes. And Senator McCain --

MR. VENTRELL: -- I’ll have to look into it for more information on that. But, obviously, the Secretary very much values her wise counsel and support, and we think that these allegations are preposterous.

QUESTION: Okay. Do you know if the Inspector General, to whom Representative Bachmann and the others have sent the letter to asking for him to open an investigation, do you know if there is going to be an investigation being opened, or is it just so preposterous, in your words, that it doesn’t even warrant that?

MR. VENTRELL: I’ll have to check in with the Office of the Inspector General. I don’t have any information, but I’ll check in.

The next day Ventrell was asked, "anything new or any new development in terms of what may have transpired since yesterday in terms of this Department’s response to Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s accusation of Ms. Huma Abedin?"

"As I said yesterday, we find those allegations preposterous, and we continue to think so," the Director of the Press Office shot back.

The reporter followed up, "Were you able to get an answer from the IG? Are they actually going to look into this?"

"I have not yet, but I’ll continue to inquire," Ventrell responded, and that appears to be the last time the subject was ever broached at a State Department briefing.

Republican Senator John McCain defended Huma Abedin in a speech on the Senate floor on July 18, 2012, and - as a result - The New York Times published multiple stories online and in the paper about Huma Abedin, three of which that wrongly referred to Weiner's wife as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's current deputy chief of staff.

On July 18, 2012, KJ Dell’Antonia reported for The New York Times Parenting blog, "Maybe Friday’s People cover story will focus instead on how Ms. Abedin juggles a young baby and a high-profile job as a deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton."

On July 18, 2012, Kate Taylor reported for The New York Times City Room blog, "Now, for the second time, Huma Abedin, a deputy chief of staff in the State Department, has been thrust into the limelight under unlikely, and unpleasant, circumstances."

On July 18, 2012, Ashley Southall reported for The New York Times Caucus blog, "She stayed by Mrs. Clinton’s side in the Senate and during her 2008 run for the Democratic presidential nomination, and is now her deputy chief of staff."

Four more articles about Huma Abedin which unknowingly wrongfully reported she was still Deputy Chief of Staff were published in The New York Times that summer, but apparently no one in the State Department or Weiner and Clinton households informed the paper about the new "working arrangement," even though all have a history of reacting rather quickly to complain about factually incorrect errors.

On July 16, 2012, Robert Mackey reported for The New York Times Lede blog, "Ms. Ahmed then directed Mr. Bradley to a transcript of a recent conversation between two American conservatives who claimed that Mrs. Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, Huma Abedin, was participating in a Muslim Brotherhood plot 'to penetrate our government.'"

On July 27, 2012, Jennifer Steinhauer reported for The New York Times Caucus blog, "Ms. Bachmann and four other lawmakers last month sent a letter to the State Department charging that Huma Abedin, a deputy chief of staff in the State Department and a long-time aide to Ms. Clinton, may be a part of a group of Muslims with ties to terrorist organizations alleged to have infiltrated the federal government."

On August 8, 2012, Peter Baker reported for The New York Times Caucus blog, "Hosting an iftar dinner at the White House marking the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Mr. Obama singled out Huma Abedin, the deputy chief of staff to Mrs. Clinton who has come under fire from a handful of House Republicans who made unsubstantiated suggestions that she was among Muslim Americans with terrorist ties who have infiltrated the government."

On August 15, 2012, Ashley Southall - in an article about Chelsea Clinton - referred to Abedin as "Hillary Rodham Clinton's deputy chief of staff."

Last July, another State Department spokesman, Philippe Reines, released a statement to the media defending Abedin and Clinton, but not informing them that the former was no longer Deputy Chief of Staff: "These accusations are nothing but vicious and disgusting lies, and anyone who traffics in them should be ashamed of themselves. I would hope that hearing such a remarkable statement from someone of Senator McCain's stature gives [Bachmann] pause in doing so any further."

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Reines has been described as a "loyalist" and Hillary's right hand "hatchet man," and - like Abedin - he followed Clinton from her Senate job to the State Department, and is still working for her.

In his July 18, 2012 speech, McCain never referred to Abedin's actual job title, and neither did President Barack Obama when he defended her as an "American patriot" at the annual Iftar dinner on August 10, 2012. "And that includes a good friend, Huma Abedin, who has worked tirelessly -- (applause) -- worked tirelessly in the White House, in the U.S. Senate, and most exhaustingly, at the State Department, where she has been nothing less than extraordinary in representing our country and the democratic values that we hold dear," Obama said, adding, "Senator Clinton has relied on her expertise, and so have I."

The White House listed her under Administration members as "Ms. Huma Abedin, Deputy Chief of Staff, Department of State" when she attended the 2010 Iftar dinnar.

On August 13, 2012, Jeane Macintosh, Jennifer Gould Keil and Josh Margolin reported for The New York Post, "Some Weiner-watchers are stunned that the pol, who gave up his $174,000 salary when he resigned, and Huma, who makes around $155,000 annually, can afford the posh pad at 254 Park Ave. South at East 20th Street."

The New York Post story added, "Weiner hasn’t landed steady work since leaving office, according to sources. But some friends of the onetime rising star said he has consulting work and will have no problem exceeding his congressional salary."

Politico reported on May 18, 2013, "One source said that the $135,000 she identified on the couple’s joint tax return of just over $490,000 was the entirety of her payment from the State Department for the calendar year 2012.

"An associate of Ms. Abedin’s said on Thursday that the arrangement allowed her to work from her home in New York, rather than at the State Department’s headquarters in Washington, and to spend more time with her child and husband," Raymond Hernandez reported for The New York Times. "She earned approximately $135,000 from the department during 2012."

On her Twitter account, Politico's Maggie Haberman tweeted, "In NYT piece on his consulting, 'most of' Weiner's and his wife's combined $496k was described as from his work," then observed, "But $135k was hers from State, and she had other consulting retainers that comprised the $360k combined in income."

"If the most Abedin made over six months was, say, $100k, then Weiner made about $250k for year. They won't answer q's," Haberman tweeted, then added, "Won't answer questions on the breakdown of who made what, that is."

Last night, I tweeted to Haberman - who @AnthonyWeiner follows on Twitter, "In 2012, @NYPost reported Abedin earned 'around $155,000.' Huma then made $135,000 working from home?"

Anthony Weiner company led by former board director for firm investors blasted as 'CROOKS'

Updates at bottom: Investors Hub board calls firm that current Weiner business associate formerly worked for as Compensation Committee chairman a "criminal enterprise"; Bill Clinton met with another Anthony Weiner client, posed for photos at March conference where he allegedly "highly admired" firm; NY Post apparently misreported Weiner went to Florida sex addiction clinic instead of work trip for client in July of 2011

"It did not take Mr. Weiner long to embark on a new career after he left Congress on June 16, 2011," Michael Barbaro reported for the New York Times on April 29, 2013. "On July 7, he quietly incorporated a new firm, Woolf Weiner Associates, named for his great-grandfather, an Austrian immigrant to the Lower East Side."

According to Barbaro's article, former Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner - who I reported was mulling running for NYC mayor months before anyone else, based on FEC records a year ago - "counseled a biofuel firm about expansion into the emerging markets of Latin America and Africa."

The NY Times article continues,

"'Business is business,' said Harold Gubnitsky, formerly executive vice president at Parabel, a Weiner client that harvests an algae-like crop used for food and fuel."

....

"At Parabel, Mr. Weiner was credited with distilling the company’s complex business model into easy-to-understand sales pitches for potential investors and foreign officials, at times to the amazement of the businessmen in the room. Mr. Gubnitsky recalled how Mr. Weiner employed the concept of 'economic ecosystems' to highlight the positive impact of the firm’s technology on farmers and consumers. "

"We have very exciting projects and in both Asia and Latin America," Gubnitsky was quoted in a July 5, 2011 interview with Algae News.

Weiner apparently snagged Parabel as a client within two weeks after incorporating his firm, since he appeared to be doing homework on the way back from his reported sex addiction clinic trip. However, the New York Post story - which many media organizations unquestionably reported - assuming Weiner visited Florida in July of 2011 for therapeutic reasons related to the scandal appears to be wrong.

"A Post reporter spotted Weiner on Wednesday night flying first-class from Orlando to La Guardia Airport on a Delta flight, carrying nothing but his iPad and several documents," Josh Margolin, Brigitte Stelzer and Dan Mangan reported for the New York Post on July 22, 2011. "Orlando is near the Winter Park, Fla., offices of the New Leaf Center, which on its Web site says it provides outpatient therapy for sexual addiction and sexual compulsivity issues, including for 'politicians.' Staff there asked a reporter to leave when he asked about Weiner yesterday."

The following picture credited to Brigitte Stelzer noted, "Former Rep. Anthony Weiner -- worried about regaining the trust of wife Huma Abedin, her mom, Saleha, and his wife's boss, Hillary Clinton, after his sex-addiction treatment -- shields his face aboard a mystery flight from Orlando to New York."


"Bizarrely, during his flight home from Orlando, Weiner was carrying a detailed analysis of energy issues in sub-Saharan African countries, as well as what appeared to be real-estate listings for two different grazing and farming properties in Kenya," the July 22, 2011, NY Post article added.

On June 16, 2011 - the same day Anthony Weiner resigned from Congress - PetroAlgae (which changed its name to Parabel in 2012) hired Anthony Tiarks to be CEO. A few weeks before, at Seeking Alpha, hedge fund manager Edward Schneider noted that PetroAlgae had "net debt of $57M, total assets of only $4M, and last 12 months' net loss of -$38M. Petroalgae has not generated any revenues since inception in 2006."

Considering the fact that Weiner's infamous tweet was only captured by one person on Twitter, @PatriotUSA aka Dan Wolfe - who I interviewed in late June of 2011 before he mysteriously vanished - it also seems kind of "bizarre" that the former Congressman would name his firm "Woolf Weiner Associates."

Reporting for the Sunlight Foundation on May 2, 2013, Lisa Rosenberg observed, "Shock and outrage (and some really amusing if not-ready-for-prime-time bits on the Daily Show) accompanied the former representative’s slimy use of social media. But there’s no shock or outrage accompanying his even slimier use of his former position for profit. Indeed, the New York Times seems to think Weiner’s secret lobbying on behalf of corporate clients somehow serves 'as a compelling campaign credential' as he considers a run for mayor."

"Rather than touting it as a career booster, Weiner’s stealth lobbying should be seen as still more evidence for the need to strengthen current lobbying disclosure laws," Rosenberg adds. "The only people in Washington who seem to support secret lobbying are the members of Congress who want to keep that lucrative career path open to themselves when they leave government service."

Also, kind of "bizarrely", the same reporter who wrote a soft article about Weiner's post-Congressional "stealth lobbyist" work, worked on, perhaps, the most devastating NY Times article on Weiner, before he resigned.

Michael Barbaro co-wrote the June 9, 2011 article "In Reckless Fashion, Rapid Online Pursuits of Political Admirers" with Ashley R. Parker, who interviewed Weiner on the same day he sent Andrew Breitbart's future source his "full Monty" picture, as I reported in September of 2011. May 18 was the same exact day that fake teenager Starchild111 claimed she was unfollowed by Rep. Weiner after asking him to the prom, the same day one #BornFreeCrew member asked another, "Did that thing ever surface? I gotta go to work," and the same day that Meagan Broussard allegedly talked on the phone to Weiner and was sent two photos, including the one showing an erect penis; and the same day that a Republican contacted Drudge and Andrew Breitbart on Broussard's behalf.

The June 9, 2011 NY Times article was the first real interview with Gennette Cordova, who was the recipient - although she claims it was deleted before she actually saw it - of the May 27, 2011 underwear tweet that the mysterious Dan Wolfe saw and tweeted to Andrew Breitbart and Dana Loesch, who broke the story before anyone else.

"Ms. Cordova’s experience with Mr. Weiner appears to fit a pattern: in rapid and reckless fashion, he sought to transform informal online conversations about politics and partisanship into sexually charged exchanges, at times laced with racy language and explicit images," Barbaro and Parker wrote.

However, Cordova claimed she never sexted with Weiner and the underwear tweet wasn't extremely explicit. But the Times was unable to reach any of Weiner's actual sexters so they ran with the Cordova interview (I've interviewed two of them, as I will report at a future date). Also, "bizarrely", Cordova later hinted to me on Twitter that she shared screenshots of alleged Direct Messages with Weiner where he allegedly told her to get one of the fake teenage girls - I helped expose with New York Times reporter Jen Preston, who often RT's Barbaro's stories - to follow him, as I reported in April. Weiner allegedly asked Cordova to "lead her back to" him, and suggested that she ask @starchild111 "did you take my advice and follow anthony?"

Preston's story revealing the teens were fake wasn't published until the day after Weiner resigned from Congress. While my research only theorized they were fake, Preston reported that Mediaite's Tommy Christopher - who had written an article on the teens and nastily argued with bloggers who suspected they were fake - sent her a California driver’s license with the name of their alleged mother "Patricia Reid, at a Los Angeles address, as well as school identification for the girls.

NY Times reporter Preston reported all the documentation sent to Christopher was fake "according to California state officials and school district officials," but never posted screenshots or reported the potentially criminal deception to law enforcement, even though it's possible that the same fraudsters could have been involved in the Weinergate-related SWATtings of conservative bloggers. Preston and Christopher also "bizarrely" never reported on the fake 911 calls that sent police to conservatives' homes, even though they had exclusives on the first two a year before the news broke.

5/7/13 Update: No definitive proof Weiner went to clinic in Florida

Although part of the headline for the 7/22/11 exclusive New York Post was called "Weiner in Therapy," the tabloid never actually proved that Weiner's trip to Florida was to visit a sex addiction clinic. And there doesn't even seem to be any definitive proof Weiner spent all that much time in therapy, or even saw a doctor after leaving Congress and starting his firm just weeks later.

"It is unclear where Weiner is undergoing therapy -- and whether it's simply as an outpatient on a shrink's couch or involves more intensive therapy at a special clinic," the Post actually reported, about the 7/20/11 flight that photographer Brigitte Stelzer happened to catch Weiner on. The photograph oddly didn't show Weiner's face, as if he was embarrassed being captured on the trip, and it's strange that one showing his face wasn't used instead.

Brigitte Stelzer is the same photographer who happened to chance upon Weiner bizarrely packing a box into his car the day before Democratic candidate David Weprin lost to Republican Bob Turner in the special election held for Weiner's empty seat. Oddly, the caption under Stelzer's photo said Weiner "loads a chair," while the picture showed him carting a linen box, with a surprised look on his face. Perhaps Weiner was surprised to see the same NY Post photographer catch him outside a house he already had moved out of and who happened to be on the same Florida-to-New York trip two months before.


"Disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner did his fellow Democrats no favors yesterday -- moving out of his district just as his panicking party struggled to hold on to his endangered congressional seat," Jennier Gould Keil reported for the New York Post on September 13, 2011. "Weiner took the last remaining items from his Queens co-op just in time to remind voters why they have to vote today -- because he resigned in a sexting scandal that made him a national laughingstock."

The Post reported that Weiner "came back for an office chair and a box," but didn't explain why they weren't picked up by the moving van that he assumingly hired that "virtually emptied" his apartment on Friday September 9. Weiner "declined to comment on his move," so it's unknown why he waited three days to pick up the last remaining box and a chair.

"The Weiner seat, in the state’s 9th Congressional District, is likely to be chewed up by redistricting, so whoever is elected today will represent his Queens-Brooklyn constituents for only the unexpired one year of Weiner’s term," the September NY Post article correctly predicted.

A long, but mostly non-informative ten-page April 14, 2013 story in The New York Times magazine - that read like a P.R. piece - claimed that "Weiner started seeing a therapist almost immediately after the scandal broke." Weiner presumably revealed to Jonathan Van Meter that the only doctor he visited was in New York, since he wouldn't have been able to sneak out-of-state during the height of Weinergate.

"Therapy wasn’t something that came naturally to me," Weiner told Van Meter. "I am this middle-class guy from Brooklyn, the men in our family don’t hug each other, we don’t talk about our feelings. It wasn’t a comfortable place to be. And now I start sentences with, 'My therapist says....'"

Strikingly, Van Meter begins the next paragraph with, "What does your therapist say? I asked the next time we met," but Weiner responds in the past tense: "It’s none of the easy stuff. She didn’t tell me: 'You have a sex addiction! You were abused as a child!' None of that stuff, which in a lot of ways, I’d kind of prefer.' He laughed. "It’s an easy explanation that people intuitively get."

Another sentence uses the present tense to report that Weiner was "in therapy," but there doesn't seem to be any definitive proof that the potential mayoral candidate even saw a doctor after leaving Congress.

The corporate offices for Parabel Inc. are located at 1901 S. Harbor City Blvd. in Melbourne, Florida, so Weiner might have actually been on an all-business trip when Stelzer happened to catch him on an Orlando-to-New York flight. That's only about a 60 mile distance or an hour's drive from the airport in Orlando.

Yesterday, a May 6th New York Post article credited to Sally Goldenberg and Carl Campanile claimed, "Sugar daddies bailed out Anthony Weiner when he was down and out — giving him work after stuffing his many political campaigns with donations."

"Hedge-fund brothers David and Eugene Grin helped Weiner with consulting work after he resigned from Congress following his sexting scandal, The Post has learned," the article continued. "The Grins also assisted his mayoral and congressional races, raising nearly $50,000 for Weiner, who is now considering a mayoral run. Through two hedge funds, the Grins control Parabel, a company that claims to harvest an algae-like crop."

Goldenberg and Campanile report, "What Weiner failed to mention was that on Jan. 13, Parabel transferred nearly all of its assets to a subsidiary in the Cayman Islands — on the same day a United Arab Emirates firm pumped $15 million into Parabel, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission document."

Weiner's memory from only five months ago appears to be stinted since he told the paper, "I’m not even sure I was consulting for them during this period."

I found - through searching the NYC CFB website - $1,250 from Weiner's "sugar daddies" aka the brothers Grin in mayoral campaign contributions dating back to December of 2004 (link), about $10,000 in mayoral campaign contributions in May of 2008 (link), approximately $4700 from David Grin to Friends of Weiner in the fall of 2008 and 2009, and $2,000 from Eugene Grin in 2002 and 2003 and $2,400 in 2009 from Eugene Grin to Friends of Weiner (according to searches in FEC database). In 2008, David Grin collected $31,850, through intermediaries for the 2008 NYC mayoral campaign (as Gold pointed out to me on Twitter), which never happened but would apply to the current race if Weiner enters the field. For some reason, the Grins stopped contributing in 2009, but altogether the brothers - who appear to mostly donate to Republicans - gave and collected close to $53,000 in donations for Weiner campaigns dating back to 2002.

5/9 Update: Firm Weiner consulted for brags former President Bill Clinton "highly admired" its role in making healthcare more affordable and transparent

Anthony Weiner "signed up a New York firm called CureMD, an electronic medical records provider," the NY Times reported on April 20, 2013. The very first line of Michael Barbaro's article breathlessly reported, "Anthony D. Weiner has demystified the details of the 906-page Affordable Care Act for an electronic medical records company." The EMR provider tweeted a link to the NY Times story on Weiner.


According to its website, "At CureMD, healthcare technology is our core focus. This single vision has enabled us to continuously innovate products and services that facilitate care providers, while providing steady growth and profitability." Its FAQ page adds, "CureMD is the leading provider of innovative health information systems and services that transform the administrative and clinical operations of healthcare organizations. Our award winning solutions simplify decision making, streamline operations, and ensure compliance with industry standards and best practices; ultimately saving time and effort to maximize value and returns."

Just before election day, CureMD_EMR interestingly tweeted a link to a MedCity News article called "The impending disaster of the Obamacare health insurance exchanges." Sally Pipes argued, "Like so much of the president’s gargantuan healthcare entitlement, the exchanges are burdened by a spider’s web of confusing regulations, poor design, and a top-down, command-and-control structure."

"Like Obamacare itself, the exchange system is plagued by incompetent management, burdensome regulations, and inept political calculations," Pipes added. "Even if the president manages to eke out a victory on election day, November could still prove his undoing."


Another tweet by the firm on March 6 said, "HIMSS News Feed - Ex-President Clinton admires CureMD innovation and its role in making healthcare more affordable and transparent..." At its website, CureMD wrote, "CureMD unveiled innovative EMR technology at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Annual Meeting (HIMSS) in New Orleans, March 3-7. Former President, Bill Clinton was also present at the event and admired CureMD’s role in making healthcare more affordable and transparent. At the event, the rapidly growing New York based company also announced the completion of their third acquisition since January, 2013."

The firm's Facebook page modified its own press release claim to "Former President Clinton highly admired CureMD innovation and its role in making healthcare more affordable and transparent at the Annual HIMSS Conference in New Orleans," and includes four pictures of Bill Clinton posing with CureMD executives CEO Kamal Hashmat and CIO Bill Hashmat (pictured below, left and right).


CureMD CEO Kamal Hashmat contributed $2,500 to Weiner's 2008 NYC mayoral campaign fund, according to the New York State Board of Elections Contributions website.

"Bill Clinton Stumps For Health IT At HIMSS," a headline for a Information Week story by Neil Versel noted, after the former president's March 6 Keynote speech. "Clinton said that the ultimate outcome of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act depends on how the 2010 law is implemented, and on decisions that people make outside the framework of the law itself."

Versel added, "The former president's William J. Clinton Foundation last fall started the Clinton Health Matters Initiative, in partnership with General Electric, Tenet Healthcare and Verizon Communications, to work toward closing health disparities between different socioeconomic groups in U.S. communities." Clips of Clinton's speech can be viewed at these YouTube links: "President Clinton Introductory Remarks at HIMSS 2013" where he expresses "gratitude to GE and Verizon, who have partnered with the Health Matters Initiative," and "President Clinton at HIMSS on Reducing Obesity." Karl Rove, former President George W. Bush's Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff, also attended the HIMSS conference, where he had a debate with political consultant James Carville, who "helped Bill Clinton win the Presidency" in 1992, as a HIMSS press release notes.

I was unable to find a transcript of Clinton's speech and didn't hear the former president specifically mention CureMD in any YouTube video clips, but the following may be related to Weiner's client, CureMD: "One of the things that I like in the technology area is this new federal initiative Blue Button which makes data directly available to people who can use it for a number of applications," Clinton told the "standing room only" New Orleans crowd, Healthcare IT Connect noted. "Organizations that serve more than 80 million Americans have now pledged to make healthcare information available digitally."

A commenter at a Healthcare technology blog owned by Brian Ahier, a Health IT Evangelist at Mid-Columbia Medical Center - who posted some of the Clinton clips on YouTube - asked, "Do you know why he didn't mention the HIMSS involvement that was announced the same morning"? Ahier responded, "Andy, if you mean the HIMSS involvement with Clinton Global Initiative and the Healthcare Transformation Project he absolutely did mention it. Watch the first video above - right about 2:30 he talks about the $2.5 million commitment of HIMSS to the project."

"HIMSS, itself a member of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) since September, announced this week that it would commit $2.5 million over the next five years to its HIMSS Healthcare Transformation Project as part of its pledge to take action furthering the goals of CGI," Neil Versel reported in his Information Week article. "The HIMSS Healthcare Transformation Project is a collaborative forum of senior healthcare executives, while the CGI looks to address a variety of problems around the world, including inequities in the provision of public services."

A HIMSS press release stated, "The Healthcare Transformation brings senior healthcare provider leaders together, with year-round events, research and networking, as they decide and act upon their own commitments to action. HIMSS also announces its participation with CGI on March 6, the same day former President Clinton speaks to the conference attendees during HIMSS13 in New Orleans. More than 35,000 attendees and 1,200 exhibiting companies have come to the Big Easy for the conference."

According to its website, "HIMSS is a cause-based, not-for-profit organization exclusively focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare." The About page adds, "HIMSS Board members are leaders in the field of healthcare information technology—top executives in both vendor companies and healthcare provider systems--who serve a three-year term to help grow and lead the industry." CureMD was touted as one of the Corporate Members of the Week in an HIMSS newsletter that was released shortly before the annual conference in March.

Weiner's wife, Huma Abedin, began working for Hillary Clinton sixteen years ago. She "began working for Clinton as a White House intern in 1996, eventually becoming the former first lady's traveling chief of staff -- or 'body man' -- during her campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination," CNN reported on June 8, 2011, "joined Clinton's State Department staff in 2009, serving as a senior aide," and "Former President Bill Clinton officiated at their July 2010 wedding."

Huma Abedin and Hillary Clinton have also famously played the "good wives," and stood by their men. Bill Clinton weathered and survived his sex scandal and his wife's political career may have even been boosted by her unwavering support for her still extremely popular husband. The Weiners are - no doubt - hoping for similar results, which is probably why Anthony mentions Huma frequently in his post-Weinergate interviews with the media.

5/15 Update: Investors Hub board calls firm Weiner associate worked for a "criminal enterprise"


Harold Gubnitsky figured prominently in Michael Barbaro's April 29, 2013 NY Times article which revealed that "good capitalist" Anthony Weiner has a two-year old consulting firm. Along with the quotes up top, the former executive vice president at Parabel also "recalled how Mr. Weiner employed the concept of 'economic ecosystems' to highlight the positive impact of the firm’s technology on farmers and consumers."

Barbaro also reported "Weiner was credited with distilling the company’s complex business model into easy-to-understand sales pitches for potential investors and foreign officials, at times to the amazement of the businessmen in the room," but doesn't mention if his only source for that was Gubnitsky, since the article doesn't quote anyone else who worked or currently worked for Parabel, which used to be called PetroAlgae. As noted above, PetroAlgae hadn't "generated any revenues since inception in 2006," according to a profile written shortly before Weiner landed it as a client after leaving Congress.

Weiner, Barbaro reported, even created a new company - which isn't named, but is "a consulting firm led by Mr. Gubnitsky" which "will focus on renewable energy in Latin America." I searched through Florida and New York corporation databases but was unable to find any information on this "new company," created by possible NYC mayoral candidate Weiner.

"Biophan Technologies, Inc. (OTCBB: BIPH), a developer of next-generation biomedical technology, today announced that the Company has named Harold Gubnitsky to the board of directors," a press release issued on February 7, 2008 states. Biophan's PR also noted Gubnitsky "is a seasoned executive who has worked with and within several large, medium, and small corporations with a wide range of responsibilities spanning executive management and operations."

The moderator and many participants at a message board for Investors Hub Daily, which claims that it's "[o]ne of the most active financial forums in the world," believe that Biophan is a "criminal enterprise." The "About Us" page claims, "Investors Hub has been online for over 13 years and currently has 398,699 Members who have posted 87,953,548 Messages on 21,927 Boards. Our Members currently write on average 40,000 new Messages each trading day."

At the top of the Biophan Technologies Message Board on Investors Hub, the moderator's welcome message states, "As Biophan is now officially dark, having elected to go "Pink" and non-reporting, please note that none of the information below can be considered to be current, and quite possibly is inaccurate."

"And as the 'management' of Biophan transferred between $10 million and $17 million of shareholders' funds to private individuals just prior to going dark, some people (your Mod is one) think the company is essentially a criminal enterprise. Others don't, hence the content of the remainder of this iBox," the welcome message adds.

The last press release at Biophan's website, which was released on July 22, 2009 - 17 months after Gubnitsky became a board director - said that it "filed a Form 15 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, voluntarily terminating the registration of its securities and its obligation to continue filing reports under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934."

"The Biophan board of directors unanimously resolved to take this action to conserve its cash resources," the press release also noted. "Other actions taken by the board in this regard include management and staff reductions."

Apparently in response to this news, someone at the Investors Hub message board, wrote, "What a bunch of CROOKS that are involved with this POS!!" In response, a fellow complainer, said that he was "glad" he was out, and added, that he had spent "to[o] many years believing in good technology run by con men."

The forum's moderator "sunspotter" alleged that the Chief Executive Officer and President John Lanzafame had committed "an actionable breach of both fiduciary duty but also of securities legislation," and "must think Biophan shareholders are an extraordinarily naive and gullible group (!)." He alleged, "A more obvious and egregious breach of fiduciary duty was Mr. Lanzafame's extraordinary move to sell the Myotech CSS technology at a knock down price to his own shell company set up by him with his pal Frank Terrizzi." A week later, "sunspotter" argued, "The chaps (phew! close one there - I nearly wrote "crooks"!) running this show have decided that they've pretty well wrung you shareholders out, and now it's time for a new game...Frankly, anyone who doesn't acknowledge that the game is up, and that the ordinary shareholder has been fleeced, is either extraordinarily optimistic to the extent that they are in denial of the facts, or is not being entirely straigh[t]forward in their posts."

Still angry years later, on February 20, 2013, "sunspotter" wrote at the forum he moderates, that he "can only imagine that long-running scam BIPH is being lined up for a mega-pump, and that a $30-$50 day crew is being lined up for a promo blitz. Par for the course for the crooks behind the whole Technology Innovations/Biophan scam, Michael Weiner, Jim Wemett and John Lanzafame. As a buy-and-hold investment, empty shell BIPH will continue to stink, of course."

"And with a long line of previous marks lining up to exit this sorry criminal conspiracy, any strength in the pps will be unlikely to last long," the Investors Hub moderator added.

[Editor's Note: Michael Weiner left Biophan before Gubnitsky was hired, and doesn't appear to be related to Anthony Weiner, as far as I can tell.]

Although his name no longer appears on the Biophan website, an archive link reveals that Gubnitsky was still listed as one of four board members as late as September of 2009.

In September of 2008, Gubnitsky replaced fellow Board Director Stan Yakatan on the Compensation Committee, according to a press release. A May of 2009 filing lists Gubnitsky as "Director and Chairman of the Compensation Committee," and said that he received $14,000, so far, for chairing the committee, that year.

"The Compensation Committee is currently composed of Mr. Gubnitsky," the filing continued. "Ms. Labosky also served on this committee until her resignation from the Board on November 11, 2008. The responsibilities of the Compensation Committee is more fully set forth in the Compensation Committee Charter adopted in June 2005 and posted on our website at www.biophan.com, include reviewing our compensation policies, establishing executive officer compensation, and administering our stock option plans. The Compensation Committee met informally several times during our fiscal year ended February 28, 2009. Each member of the Compensation Committee attended all of the meetings during their respective period of service. None of the members of our Compensation Committee has ever been our employee."

[Editor's Note: On 5/16/13 I changed headline from "Stealth lobbyist Anthony Weiner worked during alleged sex addiction clinic trip" to "Anthony Weiner company led by former board director for firm investors blasted as 'CROOKS'" since the New York Post story that inspired the former appears to be wrong.]

Dan Wolfe on Weinergate and his beef with Breitbart reporter Lee Stranahan

On June 29, 2011, a month after - oddly - being the only Twitterer in the world who happened to see former New York Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner's infamous underwear tweet to a young Seattle co-ed, Dan Wolfe aka @patriotusa76 aka @dwp6776 began following me.

Dan Wolfe mysteriously vanished from Twitter after speaking to me for about a week. LA County Deputy District Attorney Pat Frey @Patterico claims to have exchanged DMs with him afterwards, but - if he did - it didn't sound like the same person I interviewed. Multiple users might have controlled the @dwp6776 account, but the one I spoke to had a consistent voice.

"I saw you requested to follow me," @dwp6776 told me in his first Direct Messages. "I just want to say, I know you won't believe me but I'll try anyway, I did not ask Artist or Razor to defend me. That was their decision. I did not pull strings as you suggest. You seem like a fair person who got a raw deal. I just wanted to try and let you know that. I'm sorry for any misunderstanding. I never asked anyone to harass you. I've been trying to lay low."

Wolfe was referring to two of his most ardent defenders at the time: @Artist_R and @Razor419. I exchanged many - mostly friendly - Direct Messages with @Artist_R aka @Clay_Arts in the days before @dwp6776 followed me, but after an argument about whether or not she could also be Dan Wolfe, she claimed she was going to file a complaint with the FBI against me. LA County Deputy District Attorney Pat Frey @Patterico claims that she sent him "proof" that she did file such a complaint, but he's never shared that alleged "proof" with me.

"I have not been tweeting," @dwp6776 continued. "I don't know why so many people have so much wrath for me. I'm sorry for any misunderstandings. I meant no harm. I have no interest in games people are playing. I just want to be left alone. I thought I had friends but many who I thought turned out not to be friends. I am not a sock puppet or a puppet master. I am not even tweeting anymore and have not been for a while."

Things had changed dramatically for Dan Wolfe since he RT'd @RepWeiner's 5/27/11 underwear tweet. He had two of his friends in the #BornFreeCrew send information they had gathered on Weiner to Andrew Breitbart, but while he was initially lionized by most of the right as a hero, Andrew Breitbart and one of his reporters Lee Stranahan - who used to be a liberal blogger but has changed his ideology a few times back-and-forth throughout his career - began to question him. Stranahan theorized that Dan Wolfe was actually a woman - a jilted ex-girlfriend (or sexter) of Weiner's - and Breitbart was disturbed that he refused to call him on the telephone.

Then Mike Stack aka RedGoat aka @Goatsred aka @CryingWolfeBlog, Wolfe's longest and closest friend on Twitter since he joined in January of 2011, sent some of their private emails to The Smoking Gun. Stack claims that he was "blackmailed" by The Smoking Gun's owner William Bastone into giving up intel, but then double-crossed when TSG later published intel they had on Stack on June 6. Stack blamed Wolfe for the June 6 article, and turned against him, as well.

"You seem like a very reasonable person and I hope you can understand I mean what I'm saying," @dwp6776 added. "I won't bother you after these messages. I just wanted to let you know that since I saw your request to follow me. That's all. Thank you for your time."

Another Breitbart reporter, Mandy Nagy aka @Liberty_Chick, agreed with Stack's theory that the person who sent his intel to The Smoking Gun was a mysterious porn (and sometimes anti-porn) blogger named Darrah Ford. Ford and Stack had been battling for years at the porn forum he used to moderate and at her blog. Stack didn't think that the private emails he shared with Breitbart and Bastone should be considered betrayal, but became consumed with the notion that The Smoking Gun's outing of him as a porn moderator who Ford - and a few porn stars - accused of harassment and his arrest record and mug shot were acts of sheer villainy.

"I believe you...I think you've been threatened by people that are pushing conspiracies on the web...please remain in contact with me," I replied after Wolfe's initial messages.

Wolfe continued, "Ron, I never sold info or gave info to Smoking Gun. I really wish some reporter would clear this up behind the scenes for me. Stranahan keeps pushing this lie. There must be a way to confirm with Smoking Gun that it was not me that did that."

"In fact," Wolfe argued, "Smoking Gun themselves posted an email from Smoking Gun to ME in which I said 'How did you get this email? Private' and Smoking Gun went on to say that I would not cooperate and did not return their email requests. I wish someone would prove Stranahan a liar. He lies so much. He lies and lies and lies."

One lie that Stranahan later admitted making was that he had hired private detectives to track Wolfe down. Stranahan often presented his theories as facts, and used terms like 99 or 100 percent certain when making his arguments on Twitter, at his blog and during his podcasts.

I told Wolfe,"Ive been threatened and my family as you can see from my twitter friend...I'm in same boat as you and others." I also told him that @Artist_R might not really be his friend and "may be connected to clowns threatening people including you." I told him I was unsure about her, but that she acted overemotional during our DMs and she could just be his "helpful friend."

Behind the scenes, I spent weeks working with New York Times reporter Jennifer Preston on Weinergate related stories. The only one published - "Fake Identities Were Used on Twitter in Effort to Get Information on Weiner" - was criticized by @Patterico and others on Twitter, and some of the trolls attacking Preston were quite nasty, so she asked me to publicly defend her. After I did, everyone pretty much began leaving her alone - oddly - and focused on me. Preston used Stranahan as a source, and he hooked her up with a woman who claimed she lived in Boston and had gotten death threats because she shared the same name - Jennifer George - as a journalist in California. I had matched the name Jennifer (or Jenay) George to the Twitter account of someone who apparently pretended to be a teenage girl who asked @RepWeiner to take her to the prom. Although Stranahan initially claimed that the Boston Jennifer George accused him of making the death threats, the woman - who later contacted me - said that she had only reported to the police that it might have been one of his followers on Twitter.

Another source of Preston's, Neal Rauhauser, is a former Democratic operative who claimed to have worked on at least 44 campaigns, and had been posting weird diaries at Daily Kos making bizarre accusations against Patterico, Breitbart and Stack. After I began publicly sparring with the trolls and conservatives who had hounded Preston, Rauhauser began following me and sent me his phone number via Direct Message. He didn't respond when I initially called him, but I received weird texts that I believe were attempts to hack my phone. Rauhauser ducked me for a few days but when we finally spoke on the phone, he said he worked on 29 campaigns in secret. I angrily cut him off and told him that was a FEC violation and that he could email me but I didn't want to hear about possible crimes during a phone call, so I hung up on him. Then Rauhauser began sending me weird quasi-threats about my friends and family, and I later learned he had contacted my last employer and smeared me to them. Rauhauser later claimed that RAW STORY publisher Roxanne Cooper - who I only worked with for about two weeks - badmouthed me and spread lies within earshot of others at Yearly Kos.

Wolfe continued, "I am so sorry about your threats, Ron. I can empathize. That's why I don't tweet. I am stuck here because if I leave twitter people say 'Oh Dan has something to hid[e] he deleted his account' but if I stay on twitter I keep getting tortured by these maniacs. I don't know how to get off twitter. I honestly now wish I never saw that Weiner tweet. I'm serious. I wish I never saw it. I wish I never RT it. It ruined my life. I didn't realize what I unleashed when I did that. And I'm sorry for all the hurt and harm I've caused and the collateral damage."

I told Wolfe that "troublemakers" were "attacking both sides...and causing mischief," but that he might be able to help find out why so that the harassment against me, and my multiple sources at the time, would cease.

He then mentioned Gennette Cordova, the Seattle co-ed Weiner had tweeted, who referred to Wolfe in her May 29,2011 statement that was published by the New York Daily News.

"Friday evening I logged onto Twitter to find that I had about a dozen new mentions in less than an hour, which is a rare occurrence. When I checked one of the posts that I had been tagged in I saw that it was a picture that had supposedly been tweeted to me by Congressman Anthony Weiner.

The account that these tweets were sent from was familiar to me; this person had harassed me many times after the Congressman followed me on Twitter a month or so ago. Since I had dealt with this person and his cohorts before I assumed that the tweet and the picture were their latest attempts at defaming the Congressman and harassing his supporters."

An accompanying article, written by Alison Gendar and Seattle stringer Sara Kiesler added, "Cordova said she has been harassed for weeks online after she started following Weiner on Twitter and the congressman added her to the list of about 200 people he follows. Her harrasser 'started posting about me, saying, 'Oh, the congressman is following school girls,' tweeting it over and over. It was very annoying,' Cordova told the Daily News. When the crotch shot appeared online, she said the same Twitter user was the first to comment on it."

However, on May 30, Cordova publicly tweeted to Wolfe, "I'm sorry for saying your twitter name to nydn. You are a very annoying human being but I dont think you're behind this" and "Can I just clarify that, although @patriotusa76 has been a nuisance, I never said or implied that he was behind the tweet."

Cordova later sent Stack screenshots of Direct Messages she allegedly exchanged with Weiner, in which they referred to Wolfe and his #BornFreeCrew, the fake teen, and a real teen and porn model the former congressman - who is mulling a NYC mayoral bid two years after shamefully resigning mostly for lying during Weingergate - did DM.

On May 12, 2011, Weiner allegedly DM'd Cordova about @starchild111 aka Nikki Reid aka Betty (an alias Mediaite's Tommy Christopher bestowed upon her in order to "protect" a teen girl who turned out to be a fraudster), "yeah, a bit. this is a troll who has been bragging elsewhere that he has dirt on me. the profile is a fake."

"Obviously it's fake. They only follow celebrities and girls you've followed."

Weiner allegedly replied, "also these insanely obvious girlcrush follows. part of me wants you to engage 'her.'"

"Wouldn't that be sort of obvious? What would you say? Oh, you want ME to engage her. I read that wrong."

Later that same day, Cordova allegedly DM'd Weiner, "So what do you think about this whole thing?" Even though she suspected Nikki Reid was fake, she never publicly stated that until after Weiner resigned and the Preston article revealing the hoax was published.

Preston reported for The New York Times,

"In an interview, Ms. Cordova said she was contacted on Twitter by “Nikki Reid,” who said she admired one of her posts and then began exchanging private messages with her almost every day for three or four weeks starting May 5. “There was something weird about it,” Ms. Cordova said. At the beginning of their exchanges, Ms. Cordova said, there was no mention of Mr. Weiner. Then the user began to ask her for advice saying, “I’m a fan girl too,” and “How did you get him to follow you?”

When Ms. Cordova saw that Mr. Weiner was following “Nikki Reid,” she said, she expressed her suspicions about the girl’s identity to him in a private message and he stopped following the account.

....

Ms. Cordova said that as she looked back on their exchanges, she saw other signs of a fraud. For example, “Nikki Reid” did not have a Facebook account, like most girls her age. And she made references to “The O.C.,” the television show (featuring the young Hollywood actress Nikki Reed) that was popular among teenagers but ended in 2007.

“There is no way this girl is in high school,” Ms. Cordova said. “No way.”"

Weiner allegedly responded, "still think its a troll thing. remember the attacks on henning, gingerlee and you all started at the same time."

"I know. I just don't get her interactions with me."

Strangely, Weiner allegedly asked Cordova to "lead her back to" him, and suggested that she ask @starchild111 "did you take my advice and follow anthony?"

"I never contact her first that'll be weird. She'll message me in the afternoon probably."

Weiner allegedly responded, "you are too concerned about" but the screenshot cut off the rest of the DM.

Cordova also didn't mention in public that "Nikki Reid" sent her an email on May 29, 2011 which claimed, "Andrew Breitbart and those same crazy nutjobs all set this up...They wanted us to make up lies and say rep weiner and one of his top DEM donors were asking/paying us to go on dates with these dems as underage girls." Cordova claims she informed a few reporters about this email, but attacked Stack for publishing it - and the screenshots - at his blog.

The fake teen - who Cordova suspected may have been Dan Wolfe - allegedly emailed Cordova, "I know that was a hack. They actively hacked him and I am working to prove that now too." When I asked the liberal Cordova multiple times why she didn't contact the police or even tweet about the claim that a Democratic Congressman was "actively hacked" by conservatives tied to Andrew Breitbart, she never really provided a convincing or responsive answer.

Wolfe told me on June 29, 2011, "I feel so sorry for all the innocent people being harmed like those two JG's and Gennette. They are all innocent. Stranahan needs to stop. I never was about harassing women despite that lie that has been perpetuated about me. That is what I am against. I feel strongly against harassing anyone, especially women. Somehow I've become the devil. I just want the harassment of these 3 women to stop."

Direct Messages with Wolfe shared by Stack appear to show he was a bit disingenuous to me, and that he had privately prodded others in the #BornFreeCrew to act more aggressive towards some of Weiner's female followers.

Wolfe continued, "If it would take me making a statement to take the heat of those 3 women I would be happy to do it. I can take it. I'm a big boy. I just don't want innocent women harassed anymore. This has got to stop. Those three women did nothing. The 2 JG's and Gennette dont deserve this. Any ideas on how I can help with that? I really want to help."

Of course, Wolfe could have called a reporter or spoken to at least one person on the phone, to take the heat off of the "three women" but he refused to and no one ever heard his voice.

I told Wolfe that "two of those three women follow me" on Twitter. Soon after, the third woman - Jennifer George from Boston - contacted me, complaining about how Stranahan and Preston treated her, as well. I suspect that since both @dwp6776 and the Boston Jennifer George "disappeared" about a week or so later, that they were most probably connected to one another.

"Yes, I saw you defending all three and that's why I followed you and accepted your request. I admire that about you most of all. You are the ONLY member of the media defending these 3 women! It is outrageous! Whether you believe it or not I really do have a daughter that has been victimized and this is a personal issue for me. Very personal. I hate seeing women, children victimized. So anything I can do to help, just name it. I'd be happy to do or say anything to help those 3."

I asked Dan Wolfe if he was @johnreid9, which was the account "Nikki Reid" used to contact Cordova after she shut down her @starchild111 account, and that lied to Mediaite's Tommy Christopher, sending him fake driver's licenses. This same account also was the source of real and - what appear to be - hacked Direct Messages between Weiner, Cordova and his "fake" daughter, Nikki, which Patterico oddly posted at his blog in the summer of 2011. On July 2, 2011, Stranahan who guest blogged at Frey's Patterico blog, had his account "disabled," in part, because of a feud they had over Reid. Patterico was upset that Stranahan "ridiculously accused [him] of providing JohnReid9 with an uncritical platform to spout lies." At his blog on June 30 - hours before Patterico was SWATted during a phone call with me - Stranahan was mad that John Reid claimed "Nikki never pushed any story about Breitbart or Dana" Loesch. "Publishing this sort of lie – totally unchallenged — from a person confirmed to be a fake seems very questionable on Patterico’s part."

"No I am not johnreid9 and I don't operate all these accounts that Stranahan accused me of. I honestly just wanted to be a member of bornfreecrew and I was enjoying that life. I never had intentions of bringing rep weiner down despite what people think. It was not a plan."

Wolfe's Twitter timeline was consumed with attacks on Weiner, so he was obviously not being honest about his intentions for closely monitoring the former Democratic congressman.

He continued, "We were just a group of friends. Now that is all destroyed. I have no friends now. People think I'm the devil. Stranahan lies about me. But honestly, Ron, I don't care about STranahan lying about me. What I truly care about are those 3 women. This truly upsets me. I want that to stop That must stop I would like to work with you to stop the harassment of those women. It upsets me very much I can't tell you how much."

I told Wolfe that I believed - in regards to threats received by Jennifer George, Patterico, Stack and another conservative blogger Ace of SpadesHQ - that Stranahan was "either in on it, a fool or being used." I later told him that I considered Neal Rauhauser the other leading suspect, since Preston had sent me a strange Direct Message warning me that he was "very dangerous." I then told Wolfe that I had read nearly all his tweets from January to June of 2011, so I knew that he didn't only focus on Weiner. I didn't mention that his monitoring of Weiner was obviously a near-obsession, though.

"I appreciate that you said that," Wolfe told me. "I saw you said that. You are the ONLY member of media who noticed that about my tweets. I don't understand why other members of media just focused on Weiner tweets. And they take tweets out of context like the tweet I said about how we have "fun planned" -- that was not what people think it is. This is an inside joke of bornfreecrew and any of them could tell you that. We would mention "any fun planned today" -- quite frequently. What the inside joke referred to was Tammy - tamale would frequently get attacked by left wing people and she would fight back. So I and the reset of the crew would say to her "any fun planned Tammy."

Stack later confirmed what Wolfe claimed about the "fun planned" tweet.

Wolfe added, "That tweet of mine was not the only time we mentioned "fun planned" but it has been taken completely out of context and twisted by STranahan. I have no respect for that guy. Early on in this he DM me and lied multiple times. Then he lied about getting PI's after me. He is not nice."

I asked Wolfe about his dealings with Dana Loesch, who told him publicly on Twitter after the underwear tweet, "I have screenshots of all of it. Just ... so ... weird." While many assumed that this meant Loesch saw the Weiner tweet live, she later revealed that Breitbart called her and she was sent screenshots, which blogger Dan Riehl recently took credit for.

"That's another thing that has been mis reported," Wolfe told me. "Dana DM me first. I did not DM her. Then she asked if Andrew could see the screen caps I took. I said sure. I emailed them. They decided not to use them. That was the end of my association with Andrew, Dana and everyone else at biggovernment. I did that on purpose I did not want to be dragged into this by the media so that people would say 'well Dan Wolfe is teaming up with Breitbart to take down Weiner.' No. I didn't want that."

But Wolfe was lying to me, or he accidentally revealed that he was @tamale102280 or Stack, since Wolfe didn't email anything directly to Breitbart or his staff. Tamale later bragged on Twitter that she "saw RepWeiner’s tweet before Andrew Breitbart. So did DLoesch" and that she had "a copy of the tweet sent by RepWeiner." She also told merreee1 and redrivergrl (the other two female #bornfreecrew members) that she was "not surprised, we knew it was going to happen sooner or later." Stack wasn't awake when the underwear tweet was sent, and he didn't catch up until the next morning.

Wolfe continued, "So I showed them my caps - they decided not to use them and that was it. I did not agree to even talk to them. They tried to talk to me but I never agreed to talk to them. Then I heard thru the grapvine that Stranhan thought I was out to get Breitbart - which is absurd. That is another thing Stranahan made up. I have no opinion on Breitbart. I never talked to him and was never out to get him. So many lies."

Again, Wolfe claimed he was mostly concerned about the harassment of the "three women": "Sure I will be happy to help you. Listen Ron, I mean this. I will take all the heat if it means 3 innocent women can be spared pain." At the time, Neal Rauhauser and trolls were making a lot of noise about how the "three women" were being smeared by conservatives, however the liberal woman who actually sexted with Weiner was menaced by mostly liberals, as I reported in 2011.

"I am not kidding about that," Wolfe continued. "Victimization has been a personal cause for me since my daughter. I am passionate about that. It is my life. I don't want women, children harmed. I don't want anyone harmed. But these 3 women are being tortured now. I want to help so badly. People have made fun of me and my story about my daughter that I shared. They mock that. Which is sick. But it is not a joke to me."

I asked if I could publicly tweet one of Wolfe's DMs ("I feel so sorry for all the innocent people being harmed like those two JG's and Gennette. They are all innocent. Stranahan needs to stop.") and he said, "Yes you can retweet that about the 3 women - you have my permission. You are the ONLY person that asked permission. That's classy. People have shared private convos without permission for their own selfish motives. It's sad. I've been hurt over and over again."

"You know, I honestly never believed there would be a sex scandel," Wolfe continued. "People focus in on my tweet about that where I mentioned Weiner but they fail to mention I also included Rep Frank, Rep Rangel as well. They conveniently leave that out. I was joking. Blind items come out all the time. I never took that blind item seriously. It was just another way for me to joke/tweak Weiner. That's all. When I saw that tweet I was truly shocked. I never thought there would be a scandal at all. And now as I said I wish I never saw that tweet."

Anyone who read the triumphant and manically obsessive tweets Wolfe sent after the underwear picture knows that the following claim isn't honest, at all: "I dont take pleasure in watching other people's lives get destroyed. Sure I disagreed with Weiner's politics and cant stand the guy. But that doesn't mean I wanted his life destroyed and I certainly did not celebrate when his life came crashing down. People wont believe me when I say that. But it's the truth believe it or not. I don't get gleeful at people's misery. Rhetoric is one thing Enjoying others pain is taking it to a whole other level. I do not enjoy others pain. That is not me and it never will be me I'm not perfect but I know that much."

I told Wolfe that I needed to take a break for food, but that hopefully we'll get to the bottom of why Stranahan was smearing me, even though I was working with him and Patterico to find out who had sent threats. This was the day before Patterico's SWATting, and I didn't learn about the 6/23/11 SWATting of Stack until Mike told me months later. Hours before Patterico was SWATted, Preston sent me a strange email that said, "Innocent people, like Mike Stack is getting screwed." I've theorized that some of the DMs and emails I received actually were sent by Neal Rauhauser or others, but I've never been able to confirm that.

I also complained to Wolfe about how Preston had oddly turned against me. She refused to talk to me on the phone again, even though she claimed she wanted to on public tweets. She was livid that I leaked the Direct Message from her that called Rauhauser "dangerous" and she would tell me on June 30 that this somehow "caused a lot of damage."

Dan replied, "I didn't see those tweets yet I can't keep up with all the insanity around this case. I'm sorry you are being treated like this. You seem like a very fair person. You didn't even know me and you made some very fair statements about me. I appreciate that. That was classy."

To be continued...

'Shut the Chamber' may be offshoot of Brett Kimberlin's 'Stop the Chamber' campaign

A week ago, on March 15, I received the following fundraising email from 'Democracy News, a service of the Liberty Tree Foundation,' a non-governmental organization incorporated in Wisconsin. The subject header was "The Chamber spied on us," and the senders were listed as Sarah, Adam, Dave and Ben.





"We’ve never told you this before, but thanks to Wikileaks and Anonymous, we have evidence that the Chamber of Commerce spied on us," the email states. "We’re not intimidated."

"Some things just have to be done. it may be that the task is big, and you are small - but the task has to be done. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has to be removed from American politics.

As you know, we here at Liberty Tree are raising money to launch a campaign to Shut the Chamber. Liberty Tree is a small organization. Compared to the Chamber, we’re tiny. But together with our allies - with you - we can and will succeed.

Three years ago, we thought about taking on the Chamber. But we didn’t because we didn’t have the resources. We talked with friends and potential partners. And that’s all we did; talk."

On February 10, 2011, Lee Fang and Scott Keyes reported for the liberal blog ThinkProgress - which is a "project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund" - that "a law firm representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the big business trade association representing ExxonMobil, AIG, and other major international corporations, is working with set of 'private security' companies and lobbying firms to undermine their political opponents, including ThinkProgress, with a surreptitious sabotage campaign."

"According to e-mails obtained by ThinkProgress, the Chamber hired the lobbying firm Hunton and Williams. Hunton And Williams’ attorney Richard Wyatt, who once represented Food Lion in its infamous lawsuit against ABC News, was hired by the Chamber in October of last year. To assist the Chamber, Wyatt and his associates, John Woods and Bob Quackenboss, solicited a set of private security firms — HBGary Federal, Palantir, and Berico Technologies (collectively called Team Themis) — to develop tactics for damaging progressive groups and labor unions, in particular ThinkProgress, the labor coalition called Change to Win, the SEIU, US Chamber Watch, and StopTheChamber.com."

The Liberty Tree Foundation email continues, "It turns out that even then, the Chamber was listening. They hired private security firms made up of former military intelligence specialists to spy on our friends, and to spy on us. These firms, HBGary Federal, Palantir, and Berico Technologies (collectively called Team Themis) — developed tactics for damaging progressive groups and labor unions, produced a report that revealed that our executive director, Ben Manski, had met with another pro-democracy activist named Brett Kimberlin."

"Here’s the kicker," the March 15 email adds. "When Ben and Brett met, the Chamber’s spies were watching. Ben and Brett had never met before and had never even heard of each other until that day. And they didn’t have contact with one another afterward either."

Curiously, the fundraising letter doesn't mention that Brett Kimberlin was convicted of bombings in Speedway, Indiana that were committed in 1978, or anything at all about his past, which also includes being convicted of a "conspiracy to distribute marijuana." There is nothing in the email explaining why recipients should care that Liberty Tree executive director Ben Manski was being linked to Kimberlin. It only refers to Kimberlin as a "pro-democracy activist," which is oddly how Manski describes himself, according to his Wikipedia entry.

After ThinkProgress published its exclusives in February of 2011 - based on emails purloined from HBGary Federal by Anonymous hackers in a group called LulzSec - Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Patrick Frey, who blogs under the name "Patterico", wrote a blog post complaining that they were "censoring any mention" of Brett Kimberlin.

"Think Progress is making Brad Friedman into a martyr by pretending that the Chamber of Commerce is targeting Friedman and his 'family," Frey was referring to the owner of "The Brad Blog", who often writes about voting and voter fraud issues, and who has been at odds with Patterico and reporters from Breitbart.com for close to four years. "But what Think Progress isn’t telling you: the Chamber of Commerce was far more interested in Friedman’s business partner, convicted bomber Brett Kimberlin."

"Think Progress published parts of internal Chamber of Commerce e-mails talking about Friedman. But what Think Progress hides from you is that the Chamber was actually primarily interested in Kimberlin. They described Kimberlin as having 'a bit of a checkered past and has been associated with some more radical and violent activities.' That’s a pretty mild description of a guy who set off several bombs, one of which blew off a man’s leg. Meanwhile, they were very kind to Friedman, describing him as 'much more mainstream' and someone who 'can often be seen on many of the political talk shows.'

Their focus was Kimberlin. But Think Progress cut out any mention of Kimberlin. Entirely."

Frey added, "The left has been covering up Kimberlin for years. Friedman himself is deathly afraid that people will learn about Kimberlin’s past — so much so that he censors mention of Kimberlin in his comments. For my efforts in shining the spotlight on this violent and dishonest man, Kimberlin has threatened to sue me, and has written numerous letters to my bosses at my office, accusing me of stalking him and the like. It is guaranteed that this post, which makes a legitimate point about a site’s censoring of important information on a topic of public interest, will lead to another e-mail to my boss."

A week before being arrested by the FBI, Barrett Brown - a satirist/journalist who "spent several months studying" the hacked HBGary emails - published a conversation he had with Frey in early 2011. "This is the kind of thing that interests this fucking prosecutor after HBGary caught going after journalists, me, Anonymous, Greenwald, etc.," Brown complained before posting the chat.

"How is it that Think Progress is reporting that the Chamber of Commerce dug up info on Velvet Revolution -- yet we only see e-mails about Brad Friedman and not about his partner, convicted bomber Brett Kimberlin?" Frey had asked Brown, who claimed not to know anything about either Kimberlin or his group, but suggested that there were other things uncovered in the hacking that might be worth investigating.

Brown complained that HBGary Federal was doing "illegal shit...to those who've done nothing except for present opinions," and, alluding to Anonymous in general, added, "whereas we do it to people who try to wrongly accuse people to the FBI."

"The only thing that got my attention about all this was the angle having to do with the convicted bomber," Frey responded.

Brown said, "I'll bet."

Later in the conversation, Frey argues, "Friedman's association with Kimberlin discredits him when people find out who Kimberlin is [s]o they try to squash it."

Frey asked Brown for a link to "some place on the Web where all this shit is" so that the Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney acting as a blogger whose day job had been threatened could look through the hacked emails to see if "they looked into Kimberlin if they looked into Friedman." Brown tells Frey that "anonleaks.ru is shaky" and "was up all week but been up and down depending on one's location today," but "if you have problems, let me know and I'll see what else is available."

After finding what he's looking for, Frey tells Brown that Kimberlin "set off bombs and blew off a guy's leg" and the "guy later killed himself." Brown - who is not a fan of Republicans or Democrats, and has long reported on propaganda - tells him, "frankly, I can see why as an editorial decision they would keep the info out of the story even without knowing who the guy is."

"Sure," Frey responds. "Doesn't help their cause."

Brown asks, "your background is in law, I guess? [N]ot media or it could be what you're saying" but that "there's not going to be any way to prove it by seeing the e-mails unless I'm missing something."

Frey fires back, "They want to make the Chamber look bad. If the Chamber was gathering info on one of these people being a convicted bomber, that doesn't help."

DEVELOPING...LINKS BETWEEN BRETT KIMBERLIN'S "STOP THE CHAMBER" CAMPAIGN AND LIBERTY TREE'S "SHUT THE CHAMBER" EXAMINED...TO BE CONTINUED...

I'm hoping to hear back from Liberty Tree Foundation and Ben Manski, so I'm giving them another day to respond to some emailed questions before reporting on the links between Brett Kimberlin's "Stop the Chamber" campaign and the new "Shut the Chamber" effort. I'm also hoping former Ohio Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich gets back to me, since he appears to be working with "Shut the Chamber." Finally, Kevin B. Zeese - an attorney affiliated with Velvet Revolution - is also involved with "No More Stolen Elections", which is "[a] Project of the Liberty Tree Foundation," so I'm waiting for him to respond to a request to chat about his ties to Kimberlin and Manski.

(Editor's Note: For the last twenty-one months, I've been falsely accused by some conservatives of being in some kind of elaborate criminal conspiracy with Brett Kimberlin, that would take at least 100,000 words to somehow explain. Meanwhile, Kimberlin and allies of a former security firm volunteer who worked on progressive Democratic campaigns - Neal Rauhauser - have smeared me from the other side. There are other stories at this blog which attempt to unravel why both sides have come after me, and I've been accused of absurd crimes, sued in a crazy conspiracy theory lawsuit and private information about my family and my past has been leaked. Even though there have been countless blogs from the left and the right, and Congressional letters to DoJ, and stories in the mainstream media, not one journalist has ever reported my side of the story.)

Meet the 'real' Robin Sage and Provide Security's "Senior Research Analyst"

Avatar for alleged "Provide Security" Senior Research Analyst "Anna Ferreira" was taken from porn site, just like "Robin Sage": Tom Ryan's infamous and "fictitious femme fatale"

Thomas Ryan sells himself on the Internet as a "20-year security veteran" but in real life he seems to do little else but pull pranks and make up fictitious agents using pictures from porn sites.

"Call her the Mata Hari of cyberspace," Shaun Waterman reported in his July 18, 2010 Washington Times article "Fictitious femme fatale fooled cybersecurity."

"Robin Sage, according to her profiles on Facebook and other social-networking websites, was an attractive, flirtatious 25-year-old woman working as a 'cyber threat analyst' at the U.S. Navy's Network Warfare Command. Within less than a month, she amassed nearly 300 social-network connections among security specialists, military personnel and staff at intelligence agencies and defense contractors.

A handful of pictures on her Facebook page included one of her at a party posing in thigh-high knee socks and a skull-and-crossbones bikini captioned, 'doing what I do best.'"

"'Sorry to say, I’m not a Green Beret! Just a cute girl stopping by to say hey!' she rhymingly proclaimed on her Twitter page, concluding, 'My life is about info sec [information security] all the way!'

And so it apparently was. She was an avid user of LinkedIn - a social-networking site for professionals sometimes described as 'Facebook for grown-ups.' Her connections on it included men working for the nation’s most senior military officer, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and for one of the most secret government agencies of all, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which builds, launches and runs U.S. spy satellites. Others included a senior intelligence official in the U.S. Marine Corps, the chief of staff for a U.S. congressman, and several senior executives at defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. Almost all were seasoned security professionals.

But Robin Sage did not exist.

Her profile was a ruse set up by security consultant Thomas Ryan as part of an effort to expose weaknesses in the nation’s defense and intelligence communities - what Mr. Ryan calls 'an independent ‘red team’ exercise'."

At DEFCON's Black Hat Technical Security Conference - held in Las Vegas during July of 2010 - Ryan gave a presentation called "Getting in bed with Robin Sage."

His bio at the Black Hat website claims,

"Thomas Ryan: A 20-year security veteran, Thomas Ryan is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Cyber Operations and Threat Intelligence for Provide Security. The company was formed with the concept of the convergence of both physical and cyber techniques for Executive Protection, Advanced Red Teaming, Crisis Management, Threat Profiling, Threat Assessments and Penetration Testing. In his role, Mr. Ryan leads a team called Black Cell, a team of the most-highly trained and capable physical, threat and cyber security professionals in the world. Prior to founding Provide Security, Mr. Ryan had functioned as a security instructor for US Army INSCOM, USNORTHCOM, USSOUTHCOM and several other military and government agencies. His corporate experience has evolved from working at numerous security consulting companies. Mr. Ryan's passion for information security had him elected as the Chapter Vice President for OWASP NY in 2004, Board Member for NJ Chapter in 2005, then merging the two chapters in 2007 while still retaining his Board Member role in 2010. His contributions include participating as a co-author's of the OWASP Test Guide v2, and speaking at several industry events including the OWASP, INFRAGARD, ICCS, and ISSA."

The briefing for Ryan's July presentation states,

Given the vast number of security breaches via the internet, the experiment seeks to exploit the fundamental levels of information leakage—the outflow of information as a result of people’s hap-hazard and unquestioned trust. The experiment was conducted by creating a blatantly false identity and enrolling on various social networking websites. By joining networks, registering on mailing lists, and listing false credentials, the conditions were then set to research people’s decisions to trust and share information with the false identity. The main factors observed were: the exploitation of trust based on gender, occupation, education/credentials, and friends (connections).

By the end of this Experiment, Robin finished the month having accumulated 100’s connections through various social networking sites. Contacts included executives at government entities such as the NSA, DOD and Military Intelligence groups. Other friends came from Global 500 corporations. Throughout the experiment Robin was offered gifts, government and corporate jobs, and options to speak at a variety of security conferences.

Through this 28 day experiment, it became evident that the propagation of a false identity via social networking websites is rampant and viral. Much of the information revealed to Robin Sage violated OPSEC procedures. The deliberate choice of an attractive young female exposed the role that sex and appearance plays in trust and people’s eagerness to connect with someone. In conjunction with her look, Robin Sage’s credentials listed on her profile resulted in selection perception; people’s tendency to draw unwarranted conclusions in their attempt to make a quick decision. By acquiring a large number of connections, Robin had the ability to identify the individual who was positioned to provide the most intelligence based on their involvement in multiple government agencies. The false identity combined with carefully chosen false credentials led to a false trust that could have resulted in the breach of multiple security protocols.

Video of the hour-long presentation:



In July of 2010, Kelly Jackson Higgins reported at Dark Reading,

"Meanwhile, the real woman in the Robin Sage LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter profile photos has agreed to show up at Black Hat USA later this month to introduce Ryan for his presentation. Ryan says he confirmed that using her photo for the social network accounts was legal, as long as none of her personally identifiable information was used, and it was not. The woman apparently posed for photo shoots for a pornographic site, according to Ryan. He found the woman's photo by searching 'emo chick' via Google, a reference to the punk/indie style and music."

Ryan told a slightly different version of how he found the photos to Forbes reporter Kashmir Hill, who reported in November of 2011 that he "grabbed photos of a ­Lisbeth Salander-type from a pornography site after a Google image search for 'Goth girl.'"

In another article for Dark Reading - "Would 'Robin Sage' Have Made So Many Friends Without The Hot Pics?" - Higgins wrote, "In reality, the pictures were actually of a woman who posed on pornographic websites (but those who fell for her didn't know that part)."

Highlights [or high lowlights] from Old ReaperSec log /w Tom Ryan Lulz Nov 2011, posted on pastebin by former or still-current Project Vigilant "volunteer"/"hypertroll" Neal Rauhauser:

"Nov 21 20:46 wanna see Robin Sage's tits?
Nov 21 21:01 Only drug I have ever done was Ecstacy when going to raves
Nov 21 21:03 X is the shit !! A Few lady Gs , hot russian girls, some Deadmau5 or Armin Van Buuren
Nov 21 21:03 end up in numerous 3somes and 4somes
Nov 30 22:22 chif I feel like I need some drugs of somesort
Nov 30 22:24 we need them at a BlackHat Party

Nov 30 22:27 I hate the crash of MDMA
Nov 30 22:28 sleep 14 hours
Nov 30 22:28 I ended up in several 3somes and 4somes on MDMA
Nov 30 22:30 it's weird cause it takes like an hour to blow your load
Nov 30 22:31 One year at the DEFCON CDC Ninja Strike Force party they had nude hookers going around and these geeks paid them $20 to eat out hookers
Nov 30 22:32 I almost puked"

Ryan posted a link to a profile of "Katya" at an alt porn site called Gods Girls. The @robinsage avatar can be found on her Personal Photos page.

I tried contacting the real "Robin Sage" on her real social media accounts, but she didn't respond. This is a more current photo of what she looks like today:

"Can you email me so I can ask you questions about Tom Ryan from Provide Security and your portrayal of Robin Sage for article that I'm working on?" I wrote the real Robin Sage, who never responded after I tried contacting her via Facebook and Twitter. "It's strange that no one seems to have actually reported on the woman whose photos were used to allegedly hoax Dept. of Defense and NSA employees...and I was surprised to see you protested Prop. 8 and would love to hear more about you."

In July of 2010, the pornographic model was asked, "[H]ow does it feel to be Robin Sage's alter-ego?"

"[T]otally kick ass! :)", Kat Karver aka "meeeowkat" responded in the July 7, 2010 formspring chat which linked to a myspace account called teez_bunny.

Kat Karver's real name is Katharine Cole, and her Facebook account claims she was born in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The infamous Robin Sage avatar can also be seen on her Facebook account [Editor's Note: I removed the link because my blog post was mysteriously scrubbed. Mike Stack tweeted that Tom Ryan "reported" me. I also removed a picture taken from a public site of Jen Emick, since she might have "reported" me, too] and Cole wrote that it was from her "dready days...", and one of her friends implies it was taken when she attended the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising. Cole's resume indicates that - when she's not posing - she currently works in retail, and volunteers at a homeless shelter.

A few weeks ago, Ryan "disappeared" from Twitter @tomryanblog, but his @providesecurity and @robinsage accounts - which are mostly automated - are still active.

"@LeidermanDevine sometimes I think a witch cast a drama spell on me @backtracesec," was Ryan's penultimate tweet which was sent to a law firm known for representing hackers and a sketchy security firm that Jennifer Emick @AsherahResearch worked with to out Anonymous hacktivists. Emick is an aficiando on Paganism and calls herself an "occultist." Ryan, Emick and a woman known as Mi-chelle - who used to tweet @ZAPEM - all appear to be "working" together to "social engineer" and chase Anonymous activists, but they spread "convolution" and many Twitterers believe they engage in fake feuds.

In August of 2012, Emick sent a tweet to blogger Seth Allen aka "Socrates" @Prepostericity claiming she had filed a personal protection order against Ryan, but then deleted it. She has referred to the PPO on other occasions, but gave strange reasons, at the time, for why she scrubbed it, and then she made her public @asherahresearch Twitter account private for a few months. Emick was with Anonymous in the early Scientology battles before seemingly turning against them; Ryan "infiltrated" an Occupy Wall Street mail archive, but now is friendly with many OWS activists; Mi-chelle allegedly told Andrew Breitbart in an email dated February 29, 2012 hours after his fatal collapse that she wanted to infiltrate Anonymous and "cause a rift" by "provid[ing] them with enough information to ultimately attack the left," and may be a source for the emails and phone calls regarding InfraGard leaked to http://par-anoia.net.

A few days before his last tweets, @TomRyanBlog cryptically tweeted, "I wonder what the record is for the most amount of people and most amount of women trying to SE a person at one time."

Avatar for alleged Provide Security Senior Research Analyst was taken from porn site

According to her Linked In profile - which was just recently scrubbed but can still be viewed at this cache link - "Senior Research Analyst" Anna Ferreira began working at Tom Ryan's Provide Security in June of 2012.

Ferreira's profile claims she was a Crypto Tech - short for Cryptologic Technician - in the US Navy for 6 years and 1 month from May of 2006 to May of 2012, and attended the American Public University System. According to its website, APUS is a private online university, which "consists of two online universities: American Public University (APU) and American Military University (AMU)."

"APUS’ origins reach back to 1991, when James P. Etter, a Marine Corps officer who taught at Marine Corps Base Quantico, retired from active service and launched one of the first 100% online universities, American Military University. AMU was designed to meet the unique educational needs of the military – transient, working adults needing a range of program offerings from traditional courses such as criminal justice to unique courses such as counterterrorism and military intelligence, which are not readily available at most institutions.

In 2002, after ten years of growth and service to thousands of students and hundreds of graduates, AMU expanded into the American Public University System, adding American Public University. APU is designed to extend the system’s outreach to better meet the needs of those interested in public service related programs, such as criminal justice, public safety, national security and other adult learners seeking to advance their education through a robust, online curriculum."

Ferreira's LinkedIn profile also claimed that Anna spoke four other languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Persian and Russian.

According to a January 2008 European Union brochure, Anna Ferreira was a member of the Portuguese Permanent Representation or Portuguese Presidency, but it most probably is not the same Anna Ferreira, provided the one at Tom Ryan's security firm even exists.

"Cryptologic Technician (CT) is a United States Navy enlisted rating or job specialty," an article at Wikipedia notes. "he CT community performs a wide range of tasks in support of the national intelligence effort, with an emphasis on cryptology and signal intelligence related products."

"Most CT personnel are required to obtain and maintain security clearances. Due to the highly classified work environment, it is not always possible to share resources with other commands, leading to their shipboard nickname, 'spooks'. Almost every detail surrounding the CT world from administration to operations to repair requires dedicated technicians with appropriate security clearances"

The LinkedIn profile also claimed that Anna Ferreira resided in McLean, Virginia, and a search on Google turned up a document posted under that name and location called "The Queen v. Julian Paul Assange," which was posted on July 7, 2012. Assange is the founder and editor-in-chief for the whisteblower website WikiLeaks, and Ryan frequently bashed both at his Twitter account.

The document is the transcript of a December of 1996 Melbourne, Australia hearing where Assange pleaded guilty to 24 computer-related hacking charges. "Justice Ross said he was satisfied Mr Assange had not used his skills for personal gain and so he would not hand down a jail sentence, instead ordering him to pay a reparation order of $2100," the Herald Sun reported in January of 2011.

A Google image search on the avatar on Ferreira's scrubbed LinkedIn profile reveals that it belongs to another porn model who calls herself "Bashful Brittany."

The photo was a crop of this picture of "Bashful Brittany" taken from the adult website hottystop.com or from her eponymous website:

The short bio for "Bashful Brittany" says nothing about working for Provide Security or serving as a Crypto Tech in the US Navy:

"Hey guys, glad you found me! Let me tell you a little about myself. I turned 18 six months ago, i'm only 5 feet tall and weigh 97 pounds!! I'm a true socal girl who loves the sun, shopping, hiking, and partying with my friends whenever I get the chance. I also LOVE modeling, it's fun to get dressed up, dressed down, and as you can see not dressed at all!"

More risque photos of "Bashful Brittany" can be viewed at her website - where she claims to be 19 years old - provided you become a member and trust her security enough to pay with a credit card.

Another LinkedIn profile for an "Anna Ferreira" appears to be taken from the same "Bashful Brittany" photo shoot, and can presently be seen at this link. This "Anna Ferreira" also appears to be wearing the same top, same earrings and posing in front of the same colored background.

The second "Anna Ferreira" LinkedIn page claims she currently works as a recruiter at Express Employment Professionals in the London, Canada area, and that she was formerly the Website and Social Media Manager for London Therapeutic Massage Clinic, but the only language she speaks is English. This profile is more detailed than the scrubbed one for Provide Security, and doesn't include anything that matches it.

Perhaps if Tom Ryan returns to Twitter under his name, he can provide a reasonable explanation for why the "Senior Research Analyst" for his security firm filched her photo from a pornographic website.