Did Orca Project intend to violate Ohio election laws?

Although Orca Project infamously failed on Election Day, its stated intent may have been in violation of election laws in Ohio - and, perhaps other states, as well.

Days before the election, Deborah Charles reported for Reuters on November 2nd, how poll watchers were "becoming as much a part of elections as voters and precinct workers."

State laws permit poll watchers "to ensure a fair election," but the intent behind the secretive "Orca Project" seemed to be a multi-state effort to spy on voters in order to inform "get out the vote" teams in the places where Republican candidates were in danger of losing on Election Day. In other words, instead of just watching, Orca Project volunteers may have been working to influence it.

The Reuters article noted that "some voting-rights advocates and others are questioning whether such monitors could become an intimidating presence that leads some people - namely minorities and the elderly - not to vote, and slows down the voting process for others."

"Some of the observers are credentialed by local governments to monitor the election from inside polling sites and will be allowed to challenge the right of people to vote. Some are lawyers representing the presidential campaigns and their parties, looking out for any irregularities that could be cited in a legal challenge of election results.

...

'You can be just as harmful outside as inside by creating disruptions,' said Eric Marshall, of the Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights Under Law. 'We shouldn't be having bullies creating disruptions or intimidating voters at the polling place.'"

"For months now, the Romney campaign has been putting together a high-tech voter monitoring operation to use on Election Day that will identify which of their committed supporters have voted -- and then corral those who haven't," Margaret Warner reported for PBS on November 5th, a day before Election Day 2012.

In a column titled "Romney's fail whale: ORCA the vote-tracker left team 'flying blind'," Maggie Haberman and Alexander Burns reported for Politico on November 8, that the "mega-app for smartphones that would link the more than 30,000 operatives and volunteers involved in get-out-the-vote efforts" had been "created and managed by the Romney campaign and was kept a secret among a close circle in Boston, according to POLITICO sources."

"It was supposed to be incredibly efficient and allow the campaign to streamline, from its War Room at the Garden in Boston, the efforts to maximize turnout of Romney backers," Haberman and Burns noted. "State officials were kept in the dark about exactly how it would work in the lead-up to Election Day, and there was never a dry run that included early voting, said one of the sources."

Politico linked to a November 8th post at the Ace of Spades HQ blog written by John Ekdahl, Jr., a conservative who signed up with the Orca Project.

"The entire purpose of this project was to digitize the decades-old practice of strike lists. The old way was to sit with your paper and mark off people that have voted and every hour or so, someone from the campaign would come get your list and take it back to local headquarters. Then, they'd begin contacting people that hadn't voted yet and encourage them to head to the polls. It's worked for years."

At Breitbart.com, Joel B. Pollack wrote, "As Republicans try to explain their Election Day losses in terms of policy, tactics, and strategy, one factor is emerging as the essential difference between the Obama and Romney campaigns on November 6: the absolute failure of Romney’s get-out-the-vote effort, which underperformed even John McCain’s lackluster 2008 turnout. One culprit appears to be 'Orca,' the Romney’s massive technology effort, which failed completely."

"A source within the Romney campaign," told Pollack that "Project Orca was supposed to enable poll watchers to record voter names on their smartphones, by listening for names as voters checked in. This would give the campaign real-time turnout data, so they could redirect GOTV resources throughout the day where it was most needed. They recruited 37,000 swing state volunteers for this."

Referring to the blog post at Ace Of Spades HQ, Pollack added that "Ekdahl describes how volunteers were expected to print their own materials, and were mistakenly not told to bring their poll watching credentials to polling places."

"Romney volunteers in Virginia confirmed that the campaign had relied entirely on Project Orca to turn out the vote in key areas such as Roanoke, where Romney and Ryan had made appearances. Volunteers who had driven to Virginia from safely-Republican Tennessee were shocked at the disorganization they encountered.

While the Romney campaign waited for Orca to function as planned, the Obama campaign had placed signs outside every one of the city's thirty-three polling places, and was fully staffed with two volunteers outside each polling place, and a strike list volunteer inside, all day long from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. The best that the short-handed Tennessee volunteers could manage was 40% coverage of polling places; the local GOP, they said, had relied entirely on the campaign's centralized Orca system in Boston to turn out the local vote."

In recent years, especially since the controversial 2000 presidential election, both parties have been using poll watchers to do more than watch, but the Orca Project seems like it was intended to go even further.

"There was, in fact, massive suppression of the Republican vote--by the Romney campaign, through the diversion of nearly 40,000 volunteers to a failing computer program," Pollack concluded.

On November 16, Wonkette's Rebecca Schoenkopf blogged about an unsubstantiated claim that "Anonymous had stopped Karl Rove from hacking the election by hacking Orca," and added "we think" to the headline.

Although anyone can claim membership in Anonymous, the "Anon2Rove" video which "warned" Karl Rove before the election wasn't released by any of the unofficial but recognized sub-factions. It was uploaded to YouTube by someone using the name "Charlene Zooz" who opened the account on October 22nd, and hasn't even signed back in since that date.

"Oh cool, Anonymous (we think it is Anonymous?) says Karl Rove was gonna vote fraud all the Machines, and that’s why he was so flabbergasted and refused to believe it when Fox called Ohio for Bamz, but they stopped him from stealing all the Machines by jamming up ORCA, because it was not actually a GOTV system but a 'steal the vote' system, but they stopped him, we are pretty sure that is what the following letter, which we guess is from Anonymous probably, says. Seems legit! But here is our question! If Anonymous hacked ORCA and caused it to explode miserably on Election Day, how could Anonymous ever prove that ORCA was actually a vote-thieving program? If they hacked in, couldn’t they have planted code to make it look like Rove was gonna fraud the election? (Not that we believe for a second that Rove wasn’t trying to fraud the election, we are just saying, it seems like 'logic.')"

Former Democratic operative Neal Rauhauser - who has spent the last two years trolling and harassing conservatives and even liberal critics [including me] - has claimed responsibility for many political hoaxes, in the past, and appears to be one of the driving forces behind this one.

But whether or not the Orca Project failed, its intention may have been in violation of laws in many states regarding elections and regulating poll watchers.

Ohio Election Law 3599.24 [A][4] Interference with conduct of election states that, "No person shall...[l]oiter in or about a registration or polling place during registration or the casting and counting of ballots so as to hinder, delay, or interfere with the conduct of the registration or election." "Whoever violates division (A)(1) or (2) of this section is guilty of a felony of the fifth degree. Whoever violates division (A)(3), (4),(5), or (6) of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree," Ohio Election Law 3599.24 adds.

Since both major political parties use poll watchers and also operate and regulate the elections at state levels, alleged violations are usually routinely winked at, and hardly ever investigated. Even the FEC and FBI tiptoe around alleged violations, since it's a political mine field. While many supporters of losing candidates grumble and blame voting fraud by the winning side, the Democratic and Republican parties generally try to keep their distance, and only push for investigations if out-and-out violations can be proven.

The media is always quick to mock grumblers, and conservative SuperPAC honcho Karl Rove was ridiculed for what was referred to as a "melt down" during the Fox News 2012 Election Day coverage. The LA Times called it "sublimely weird television," but many conspiracy theorists on the Internet point to it as proof that the Orca Project may have been subverted by the so-called "Protectors."

An article at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law, written by Director Mike Shecket notes that, "An examination of the laws in the 28 most competitive states in this year's election reveals a wide variety of approaches to the question of who may observe the voting process on Election Day."

"...Some state statutes are quite permissive in that they allow virtually any member of the public to enter a polling place to observe as long as they are not engaging in certain prohibited activities. For example, Section 7.41 of the Wisconsin Statutes is entitled 'Public's right to access' and provides that '[a]ny member of the public may be present at any polling place for the purpose of observation of an election, except a candidate at that election.' Other statutes are highly restrictive, listing only specific persons who may be present, generally the voters (sometimes for a limited period of time), election officials, and possibly law enforcement officers. An example from this restrictive end of the spectrum is Section 3-1-37(a) of the West Virginia Code, which reads in part: 'Except as otherwise provided in this section, no person, other than the election officers and voters going to the election room to vote and returning therefrom, may be or remain within three hundred feet of the outside entrance to the building housing the polling place while the polls are open.'

In Ohio, other than voters casting their ballots, only election officials, employees, witnesses, challengers and police officers are permitted to enter the polling place. Ohio Rev. Stat. § 3501.35. In Ohio, a challenger is a person selected by a political party or group of five or more candidates who is allowed to observe all election proceedings while the polls are open. Witnesses, on the other hand, are only allowed to be present for the counting of votes after the polls close. Both challengers and watchers are required to take an oath of office. Ohio Rev. Stat. § 3505.21"

Ohio Election Law 3501.35 No loitering or congregating near polling places [A] [1] states, "During an election and the counting of the ballots, no person shall...[l]oiter, congregate, or engage in any kind of election campaigning within the area between the polling place and the small flags of the United States placed on the thoroughfares and walkways leading to the polling place, and if the line of electors waiting to vote extends beyond those small flags, within ten feet of any elector in that line."

"Except as otherwise provided in division (C) of section 3503.23 of the Revised Code, no person who is not an election official, employee, observer, or police officer shall be allowed to enter the polling place during the election, except for the purpose of voting or assisting another person to vote as provided in section 3505.24 of the Revised Code," Ohio Election Law 3501.35 [B] adds.

Poll watchers working for the Orca Project may have violated Ohio election laws - and perhaps laws on the books in other states, as well - since they seemed to be focused on affecting the national and state election results, instead of just watching for fraud.

Politico's Chief White House correspondent Mike Allen leaked Washington Post articles to Raw Story when he worked at Time

Update at bottom: Excerpts from bogus lawsuit regarding Allen's leaks to RAW STORY, which redacted his name

Last fall, I tweeted that Mike Allen, the chief White House correspondent for Politico, leaked Washington Post articles to RAW STORY, while he was working for Time Magazine.

Even though Mike Allen is one of America's most famous journalists, and has done many exclusive interviews with politicians such as former Vice President Dick Cheney, not one blogger or media organization reported on my tweets.

One of my tweets from November of 2011 - which convicted hacker Adrian Lamo claims may have resulted in a $500,000 judgment against me over the summer, even though I was never told about it - was "thanks @mikeallen for helping us scoop @washingtonpost on their own reporting."

I haven't heard from RAW STORY or any of its lawyers since February, when the judge ruled against them, initially. So I have no clue if they really obtained a default judgment against me for $500,000 without even sending me an email. And I fail to see how they can show cause that they lost even a nickel for tweets that no one in the media ever reported on.

(Editor's Note: RAW STORY publisher Roxanne Cooper broke the NDA first in the summer of 2011, when she spread lies about me at a Netroots convention to notorious cyber-bully Neal Rauhauser. At at hateful blog called "Breitbart Unmasked", Matt Osborne repeated these smears in an article bashing me. In 2012, I was also wrongfully sued for being in a conspiracy with Rauhauser and convicted bomber, Brett Kimberlin. The "evidence" tying me to Kimberlin was his alleged links to RAW STORY. Rauhauser bragged that he played a role in the RAW STORY lawsuit, and he has threatened me and harassed me, trying to get my address, so that he can make false complaints to the police about me. Since Rauhauser has a relationship with RAW STORY, I refused to share my address with them, after I had moved to another city. In truth, the main reason why RAW STORY sued me was because they didn't want me to probe their ties to Kimberlin, but I had to since I was being smeared over it, and falsely accused of crimes related to the convicted bomber.)

I'm a reporter and my main focus has always been on propaganda and media criticism, even before I was hired by RAW STORY in 2005, and was promoted to Managing Editor and then Executive Editor from January of 2007 to October of 2010.

Earlier today, ABC News reporter Jason Ryan thanked me for notifying them about key information they left out of an article related to - an ongoing story that some are calling - PetraeusGate. "Petraeus Affair: Shirtless FBI Pic Appears to Be Playful" now includes the fact that "Youssef Megahed was acquitted by a jury in 2009," which "Veteran FBI Agent Frederick Humphries Got Ball Rolling on Petraeus Probe" failed to note.

Also, Daily Dot's Kevin Morris credited me for tipping him on a story he published today: "Gen. John Allen didn't troll Jill Kelley on Wikipedia."

In October of 2005, I wrote an article called "Does the New York Times Have a Learning Disability?" which ran at New York University Professor Jay Rosen's highly regarded media criticism blog Press Think. The subtitle was "Why-the-heck-is-it that after six years, at least four major controversies, and two we’re-gonna-fix-it committees--each coughing up its lessons--the editors of The New York Times haven’t seemed to learn a blasted thing?"

Here are some of my tweets from May of 2012:

Excerpts from bogus lawsuit regarding Allen's leaks to RAW STORY, which redacted his name

RAW STORY founder John Byrne wrote that he sent me an email which "discussed a confidential source relationship with an individual who provided us with information about upcoming news items to be published by the Washington Post Company and its family of sites."

"This information allowed Raw Story to plan its own coverage of news items in light of its coverage by other news organizations, which, in turn, helped us find ways of making our own stories distinct or connect to the items slated to appear elsewhere," Byrne added, which is not entirely true, since the majority of Raw Story articles based on Mike Allen's tips, especially those not written by me, contained nothing but Washington Post excerpts.

Byrne added, "According, our relationship to this reporter as a source of information informed our coverage and what news topics we emphasized, which in online media has a direct relationship to visitor traffic and thus also revenue from advertising. At present, this source is a correspondent at a Washington, D.C.-focused publication."

Proof Jason Leopold still uses socks to smear and pimp

Last October, I left some comments at the Kid Kenoma blog which referred to Jason Leopold, a former colleague of mine at RAW STORY who infamously published a bogus story at TruthOut in May of 2006 about Karl Rove being indicted after he stopped reporting for us. I didn't get promoted to an editorial position at RAW STORY until January of 2007, but because there were obvious flaws in his story, I refused to link to it, and - after arguing strenuously - we never did.

Unfortunately, for many years after, the albatross of Leopold's much maligned story hung around our necks, and we probably should have done more to distance ourselves from him than the December 15, 2005 Editor's Note called "Examining Raw Story's leak reporting."

Along with plagiarism, making up stories, and drug issues which he confessed to in his autobiography, Leopold also has a history of using "socks" to smear critics and pimp links to his stories. Conservatives and liberals have busted him for sock puppetry to promote his work or attack bloggers and journalists who criticize it, and some links to articles about Leopold's socks include "Jason Leopold, Sockpuppet Extraordinaire" at The Last Hurrah, "Because You Can Never Read Too Much About Sock-Puppetry" at Patterico's Pontifications and "Leftist Hate Campaign Against Blogger Gets Deadly Serious" at Newsbusters.

In March of 2006, Leopold admitted that he used at least one sock, and apologized for it:

"I might as well out myself and say that, yes, I am the 'harry shep' that posted comments here that were inflammatory and rude and obnoxious and mean and crude and were directed toward some of the people who run this site. It was a cowardly thing to do and I apologize. I acted impulsively because I had interpreted some of the analysis to be a direct "hit" on one of my stories. However, it became obvious to the people who run this site that my pseudonym was not a good cover because the IP address revealed my true identity. It was a total immature reaction and there was truly no excuse for it. So to the people who run this site I sincerely apologize for being such an immature, thin-skinned prick. I hope you can forgive me."

Not long after that confession, Leopold attempted to blame me as his sock, even though I had once refused his request to post a comment at Daily Kos attacking liberal blogger Empty Wheel for criticizing a story he wrote.

"I'm investigating the recent campaign to discredit Jason Leopold, and whether or not people were impersonating other people," a blogger emailed me in July of 2006. So I called that blogger, answered his questions, and we argued a bit, but he ended up deleting a story based on Leopold's lies.

That same blogger wrote other people at RAW STORY claiming I "had posted all this stuff as Jason," and one editor told me, he "looked at it, and said, '1. Where is the proof? I'm not seeing any., and 2. How did Ron's name even get brought into this?'"

"Upon re-examination, he had no proof, and Jason was a liar," the editor told me in late 2006. "And, he never answered the second question."

A couple days ago, on November 13, after I tweeted that I could prove Leopold smeared me using a sock a year ago, he denied it: "I don't need a 'sock' to smear you. I can and will and have done so easily under my own name. You're pathetic and also a lunatic."

I wrote some harsh stuff about Leopold at the Kid Kenoma blog last October, partly because I'd been getting smeared by conservative bloggers and accused of absurd crimes, and a few bloggers I knew refused to help me, but strangely defended Leopold instead.

However, I used my own name when I left the harsh words about Leopold, and I didn't lie.

On October 3, 2011, someone left the following comments at the Kid Kenoma blog using the name "siouxZ":

"Ron Brynaert is a lunatic who was fired from Raw Story because he is a lunatic and a conspiracy theorist. One only need to read his tweets from the past six months to arrive at that conclusion. No one will ever hire Ron to work for any news organization EVER."

"Ron Brynaert used to work at Kim’s Video in Manhattan and was caught in the bathroom smoking crack and masturbating. He was fired from there too. He’s actually one of the shittiest 'reporters' out there.There’s a reason he doesn’t have friends."

"I am not joking. There’s a reason Ron does not step foot in Kim’s or walks around St. Marks. Guy is a laughingstock. And a raging prick. You will not meet a bigger asshole than Ron Brynaert."

I've never smoked crack and I've never been caught in the bathroom masturbating, and I didn't leave RAW STORY or Kim's Video for any of the reasons "siouxZ" claimed. At times, I can be a "raging prick", and I acted like one when I mentioned Leopold in that same comment section, which I do apologize for.

I got mad at Leopold the other day because he gave a hat tip to another former colleague at RAW STORY for something she obviously saw on my Twitter timeline. And I was probably behaving like a "raging prick" when I did so, but Leopold just won't stop smearing me. And I think it's shameful that a person who has been fired for plagiarism, drug abuse and making up stories still is trusted by many liberal bloggers, who ignore work I do, because I go after both sides.

I have no idea who is behind the Kid Kenoma blog - but whomever it is - was kind enough to send me the IP address attached to the defamatory comments left under the name "siouxZ", after I sent him or her links to other posts on the web that suggested it was Leopold's sock.

On March 2, 2011, siouxZ left a comment at Cafe Whispers noting, "No one here in Australia seems to realize that David Hicks gave an exclusive interview to Jason Leopold to weeks ago," and left links to the interview and the story, with a short excerpt.

On March 23, 2011, siouxZ complained at the American Everyday blog, "Please IMMEDIATELY remove the pictures you re-posted without permission from the TO article," after a blogger criticized a story by Leopold.

The blogger "Willy Loman" aka Scott Creighton argued back that "there are NO pictures taken from the TO article without permission," and added "sioxZ, if you want to claim you have sole rights to a photo handed over by your Manchurian candidate, I would suggest you tell the guy to take it off his open sourced information sharing Wikipage…"

"See these stories by Leopold that the Australian mainstream media ignored, which inspired the SMH reports," siouxZ wrote at Neil's Final Decade on August 23, 2011 and included links to three of Jason's articles.

All those comments were left on blog posts that mentioned Jason Leopold, and the IP address Kid Kenoma sent me is from where he lives in Los Angeles, California.

But the most damning proof that Jason Leopold is "siouxZ" can be found on his own Wikipedia page, where he has apparently broken the rule against self-editing.

There were only 4 contributions attached to that IP address, and all were done on November 7. 2011 to Leopold's Wikipedia entry.

The first contribution was the subtraction of the following two sentences:

"According to a Washington Post report, the press release for Leopold's unpublished book 'Off the Record' stated that 'He says he was fired by the Los Angeles Times 'for threatening to rip a reporter's head off.' Leopold says he quit Dow Jones Newswires in a dispute over his beat but later learned the news service was planning to fire him because of a correction to one of his Enron stories: 'Seems I got all of the facts wrong.'"

The second contribution centered on two paragraphs referring to Leopold's book:

"Prior to the publication of 'News Junkie', Leopold's book was titled 'Off the Record'. The book's publisher, according to the Washington Post report, said the book has been dropped for 'business reasons.' The Post wrote that it was canceled following reported legal threats from Steven Maviglio, the press secretary to former Governor [[Gray Davis]], who, according to the manuscript, invested in energy companies using inside information. The author of the Washington Post story about Leopold's book, Howard Kurtz, was featured in News Junkie. Leopold called him 'lazy.'

In the book, Leopold also revealed many secrets about his life such as a prior [[drug addiction]], bouts with mental illness and suicide attempts. He also disclosed how he lied to employers about a criminal conviction for larceny that took place when Leopold was in his 20s and working in the record business."

Those two paragraphs were edited into a single, shorter one:

"Prior to the publication of 'News Junkie', Leopold's book was titled 'Off the Record'. In the book, Leopold also revealed many secrets about his life such as a prior [[drug addiction]], bouts with mental illness and suicide attempts. He also disclosed how he lied to employers about a criminal conviction for larceny that took place when Leopold was in his 20s and working in the record business."

The third contribution just cleaned up a section dealing which referred to him "as a senior editor and reporter" who had "returned to 'Truthout' as Deputy Managing Editor."

The fourth contribution was related to an article written by Leopold that Salon removed from its website after accusations that it had been plagiarized. Originally, the Wikipedia entry stated,

"According to Salon, Leopold's article 'used seven full paragraphs amounting to 480 words, virtually verbatim, from the FT. There were two attributions to the FT within the passage, but they appeared to apply only to the specific sentences that contained them, not to the full passage.' Leopold later admitted that he had been careless by not providing the 'FT' with additional credit, but insisted that Salon's editors had all the relevant documents, including the disputed White email, before the story was published.'"

But it was changed to:

"According to Salon, Leopold's article 'used seven full paragraphs about a specific contract amounting to 480 words, virtually verbatim, from the FT. There were two clear attributions to the FT within the passage.' Leopold later admitted that he had been careless by not providing the 'FT' with additional credit even though he had already credited the publication twice. He insisted that Salon's editors had all the relevant documents, including the disputed White email, which he later posted online on the New Zealand website Scoop, before the story was published."

The following lines were also removed:

"Commenting on the case, Kerry Lauerman of 'Salon' said that 'Leopold definitely represents the dark side of the web ... he became this sort of hero for throngs people online.' {{cite book|last=Russell|first=Adrienne|editor=S. Elizabeth Bird|title=The anthropology of news & journalism: global perspectives|url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=J6-dXBf76RkC&pg=PA278|chapter=Salon.com and New-Media Professional Journalism Culture|year=2010|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0253221269|pages=278-€“9}}"

"Reverting possible vandalism," a Wikipedia editor wrote in response to the edits on November 7, 2011, and added some of the deleted parts back to Leopold's entry.

There are other interesting things at Wikipedia's revision history page for "Jason Leopold" connected to California IP addresses including the July 1, 2010 claim, "I am Mr. Leopold's attorney and Wikipedia has a complaint citing recurring defamation in this article with regards to the stated claims about Salon. A show cause order was issued as well."

Another comment by that same IP on June 21, 2010:

"I am Mr. Leopold's attorney. The passage BONEWAH included on Salon contains defamatory and libelous information. The context of this passage is wholly taken out of context. Mr. Leopold sued Salon in 2003 for false statements the organization made about this episode. It is covered in great detail in his book, News Junkie, as well as a legal letter to Columbia Journalism Review on this discussion page. Mr. Leopold ultimately prevailed and Salon apologized. In fact, a simple lexis search will show this article is still available from Salon. User BONEWAH has waged a war against Mr. Leopold extending several years now and have gone above and beyond to malign my client. You state that Mr. Leopold is only known for the Karl Rove episode. Perhaps that is true for you but not for the tens of thousands of people who read Mr. Leopold's work on a daily basis and invite him on television and radio to discuss his work. Your commentary is evidence of bias and in cherry picking passages to fit your agenda you have defamed Mr. Leopold and in doing so caused him serious harm. I demand this passage immediately be removed as it does not state the true nature of the facts. Moreover, this entire article is nothing short of a hit job by a select group of individuals who have made a career of sorts of defaming and libeling my client. There is absolutely no balance to this entry and the authors seem to have knowingly avoided including the accolades, particularly on issues related to Mr. Leopold's work in other areas as well as an award he received from The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an organization nominated for a Nobel Peace prize for 2010. A simple search of this organization's website will provide you with the information you need. By continuing to keep this passage intact wikipedia is now a party to defamation. I would advise all interested parties to read the letter on the discussion page. My contact information can be found on the letter cited above to Columbia Journalism Review."

But on July 29, 2010, the same IP address argued, "I am not a representative nor associated with Mr. Leopold and you have no basis to suggest that I am. I am simply trying to add balance to this article that has long been biased and the neutrality questionable. The village voice story is relevant and must be included, particularly the quote from Paul Krugman."

In August of 2010, that IP address was blocked for "Block evasion: Disruptive editing: and long-term edit-warring on Jason Leopold."

Normally, I don't allow anonymous smear comments on my blog, but since they might be left by Jason Leopold, I'll make an exception for this article.

PS: "Cities in Dust" is the best song ever released by Siouxsie & The Banshees, and these lines sound appropriate: "We found you hiding we found you lying/Choking on the dirt and sand/Your former glories and all the stories/Dragged and washed with eager hands."

Updated: Team Romney Did Not Quietly Fire Social Media Director Bill Murphy

Update 12/3: The Pre-General report for Romney For President Covering Period 10/01/2012 Through 10/17/2012 shows that Bill Murphy received $5,541.66, so he was not "quietly fired" as I speculated might have have happened in September. The Social Media Director stopped tweeting @BillMurphy a day before Mitt Romney gave his speech at the RNC in late August, a few days after I reported he had made some controversial tweets about race. On August 26 I tweeted, "Fact @BillMurphy used 'race war' to link to Buchanan op-ed that never even uses that term should concern @TeamRomney" link. He also had been using the account to hype @Ali Akbar, his colleague in many political related ventures over the last few years, a convicted felon who just got off probation in May.

(Editor's note: I also updated this article's original title "Did Team Romney Quietly Fire Social Media Director Bill Murphy?" which is why the title is what it is, if this is your first time reading it. Mr. Murphy took his personal blog off the Internet and removed his resume from LinkedIn and replaced it with a slightly edited one, after I first asked him if he was working for Team Romney in early August. Other than blocking me on Twitter and mysteriously not tweeting @BillMurphy for the campaign from August 29 to November 6, Murphy and the rest of his former colleagues on the losing side have ignored all my questions.)

Update 11/10: Just after MSNBC called the election for Obama on November 6, Bill Murphy began tweeting again at his eponymous Twitter account, pretending like his radio silence for nearly three months wasn't bizarre. "What a team. Great job tonight. #RomneyRyan2012," Murphy tweeted after Romney lost. And his sycophantic buddy, Ali Akbar, oddly tweeted the next morning, "@billmurphy You built THAT!"

On November 9, the Social Media Director who stopped tweeting after I reported his tweets about a "black-on-white race war", then announced, "Just got off the phone with @JWBritten, @MattLira and @KarlRove. Stay tuned. @tvuljaj: @billmurphy is back!"

October FEC filing indicates Murphy may have been terminated after I reported he used same Twitter account he was getting paid to promote Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to tweet about "black-on-white race war"; Salary dropped from $8,294.76 in September to $2,770.83 in latest filing.

On August 13, I reported an exclusive story called "Former Leadership Institute operative linked to a convicted felon now works for Romney campaign" about Social Media Director Bill Murphy, a day after he scrubbed his blog and temporarily took down his LinkedIn resume after I tweeted him. Aside from a few bloggers seemingly tied to Democratic consultant Neal Rauhauser - who now has a blog devoted to "Hypertrolling The Wingnutosphere" - the media completely ignored my reporting. I contacted a handful of reporters during the RNC, and tweeted links to many others, but my reporting was largely ignored.

Even after I reported that Mitt Romney's Social Media Director Bill Murphy had used the same Twitter account @BillMurphy to tweet about "black-on-white race war", not one reporter would touch my story.

But my reporting evidently produced results, regardless.

Early in the morning on August 29 at 12:39 AM, Bill Murphy stopped tweeting at his eponymous Twitter account. It was a day before Mitt Romney delivered his speech at the RNC.

"A July 20th tweet by the official @TeamRomney twitter account (http://twitter.com/TeamRomney/status/226361975628767232) indicates that Bill Murphy is the Social Media Director for Mitt Romney, even though he has ducked questions, blocked me on twitter, scrubbed his resume, and deleted his blog since I started reporting on him August 12," I reported in August.

My story continued, "The latest monthly filing by the Romney for President campaign to the Federal Election Committee reveals that a William Murphy was paid $2,770.83 for his work in July (http://query.nictusa.com/pres/2012/M7/C00431171/B_PAYEE_C00431171.html). Since another Team Romney member - who was just recently hired in June - has been earning precisely double that amount, the FEC filing suggests Bill Murphy joined the campaign in mid-to-late July and is getting paid $5,541.66 a month."

The August filing did indeed show that Murphy was getting paid $5,541.66 a month, and the September filing indicates that his salary was boosted to $8,312.49.

However, the October filing shows that Mitt Romney's Social Media Director Bill Murphy only received $2,770.83 for - assumingly - the month of September. This might mean that he was fired in late August, but received a few weeks severance pay. Hopefully, a reporter for a major media outlet will contact Team Romney and find out if it's true, since the campaign officials ducked all my questions and blocked me on Twitter.

In an August 16 update I asked, "Did @TeamRomney even know @BillMurphy worked for 'charlatans' at American Liberty Alliance since he left it off his resume?"

More from my August article:

"Aside from working for years with a convicted felon who was on probation until May, Mr. Murphy has been closely involved with Tea Party lawyers involved with Super PACs who are working with the RNC to overturn donation limits. (See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-lawsuit-challenges-campaign-contribution-caps/2012/06/27/gJQAqtVf7V_story.html and http://www.iwatchnews.org/2012/03/15/8416/gop-super-pac-men-seek-overturn-donation-limits ) Murphy also is linked to sketchy charities and groups that skirt FEC regulations.

Mr. Murphy and his colleague Ali Akbar also worked for the American Liberty Alliance when it was founded in June of 2009. ALA launched a Liberty Tour in late 2009 which sought to teach conservative activists to use deception and commit dirty tricks on the Internet in order to "control the dialogue," as I will soon be reporting.

Together, Murphy and Akbar have worked for at least five groups over the last three years, four of them while straddling opposite sides of the Mitt Romney for President debate. In 2012, New Jerseyite Murphy worked in Akbar's Texas-based Vice and Victory firm, and also with a group called Blog Bash that organizes parties at conservative conventions, while serving as Director for the National Bloggers Club and the National Finance Director for the Breitbart Scholarship Fund, all alongside Akbar who was on probation until May.

On Tuesday, Romney Digital Director Zac Moffatt blocked me on Twitter - even before Murphy did - rather than reply to simple questions about Team Romney's Social Media Director, such as when he was hired and how much he is paid.

After discovering tweets between Moffatt and Akbar, and Murphy before he joined Team Romney, I tweeted, "No wonder @MittRomney Digital Director @ZacMoffatt ignores my tweets. He apparently is pals with @BillMurphy and convicted felon @Ali Akbar!"

"MT @billmurphy: @ali save us all the trouble and come on board tonight. we have a lot of work to do. cc @justin_hart," Moffatt tweeted on January 29, 2012 ( http://twitter.com/ZacMoffatt/status/163832573561274368 ). This was in reference to Akbar's leadership in the NotMittRomney protest campaign, at the time.

Moffatt blocked me immediately after I tweeted, "Why did convicted felon @Ali MT Romney Digital Director @ZacMoffatt plea for resumes days before forming NotMittRomney?" On March 11, at a blog he purchased last October, Akbar wrote, "I lead the most prominent and largest contiengent of “Not Mitt” folks over at NotMittRomney.com" before declaring, "It’s over though." Akbar also paid "special thanks to "some Romney supporters: Bill Murphy, Austin James, Zac Moffatt, Saul Anuzis, and Chandler Epp for keeping your heads screwed on tight while [Akbar] lobbed cannon balls at [their] castle." As others have observed, the www.notmittromney.com website now goes to the official campaign site, and some speculate there may have been a "pay-off" involved.

I tweeted, "More tweets between Romney Digital Director @ZacMoffatt and convicted felon @Ali Akbar: http://topsy.com/twitter.com/zacmoffatt/status/177261205273067521 … How long have they been pals?"and "Convicted felon @Ali Akbar was psyched 441 days ago when @MittRomney campaign hired @ZacMoffatt to be Digital Director."

The latest monthly filing by the Romney for President campaign to the Federal Election Committee reveals that a William Murphy was paid $2,770.83 for his work in July (http://query.nictusa.com/pres/2012/M7/C00431171/B_PAYEE_C00431171.html). Since another Team Romney member - who was just recently hired in June - has been earning precisely double that amount, the FEC filing suggests Bill Murphy joined the campaign in mid-to-late July and is getting paid $5,541.66 a month."

An August 17 update added, "Team Romney still ducking questions about their Social Media Director, but FEC filing suggests Bill Murphy was hired in mid-to-late July and is getting paid $5,541.66 a month. Digital Director Zac Moffatt avoids questions about his relationship to both Murphy and his frequent colleague, convicted felon Ali Akbar, who just got off probation in May." Murphy has been working since at least 2009 with Ali Akbar, who Slate recently reported was "convicted of credit card fraud in 2007", and just got off of probation in May for a reported "crime spree," which he has lied about. (More to come on Akbar's crimes, which are alluded to in the Slate article on the battle between convicted bomber Brett Kimberlin and right wing bloggers: http://www.salon.com/2012/07/10/brett_kimberlin_versus_right_wing_bloggers/ )

On August 26 I tweeted, "Fact @BillMurphy used 'race war' to link to Buchanan op-ed that never even uses that term should concern @TeamRomney" link.

"4/24/12 @BillMurphy 'joked' it's 'obviously racist' to note 'blacks don't score as well as whites' on firefighter test https://t.co/Pl3fAdHm," I tweeted that same day.

Other tweets I made included, "Does @TeamRomney agree with @BillMurphy who linked to @RushLimbaugh "Jared Loughner Has Full Support Of Dems" story? https://t.co/GTp8EOun" and "@EWErickson contacts FEC & blasts ALA - which @BillMurphy & @Ali Akbar helped raise cash for - as "charlatans" http://t.co/CUY7anpm."

In May, Pat Dollard tweeted a link to a copy-and-paste of the first ten paragraphs from a commentary published at Townhall called "A Censored Race War?" which he renamed "Thomas Sowell: Those Who Deny The Black-On-White Race War Do So At The Nation’s Peril" at his blog.

Sowell's article didn't even include the word "peril" or suggest that the nation was at risk. At worst, his strongest sentence suggested an "explosion of white backlash."

"If and when that pressure leads to an explosion of white backlash, things could be a lot worse than if the truth had come out earlier, and steps taken by both black and white leaders to deal with the hoodlums and with those who inflame the hoodlums."

Bill Murphy was one of 18 to retweet the 5/15/12 PatDollard tweet, and he added hashmarks #TCOT (top conservatives on Twitter) #P2 (progressives 2.0) and #GOP.

However, he must have changed his mind - before or after being hired by the Romney campaign a few months later - because Bill Murphy scrubbed that tweet when I first discovered it at Topsy.com in August.

A few days before that tweet, Murphy retweeted a tweet by Michelle Malkin's TwitchyTeam, "Race-baiting Al Sharpton @TheRevAl: GOP has 'war on blacks, time to fire back.'"

On April 1, Bill Murphy tweeted, "Trayvon: Race war over justice http://j.mp/H24hrU," and on Jan 1, he tweeted, "If a conservative made a racial comment about a heavily minority region imagine the backlash http://t.co/OPhM7Lpx #CrackerCountry #FLprimary," which linked to a Rush Limbaugh article, about how Politico's Jonathan Martin said on MSNBC's The Daily Rundown, "As you know, Chuck, a lot of those counties in the Panhandle, in north Florida, the "cracker counties" more resemble Georgia and Alabama than they do Florida" (Martin was one of the reporters who ignored my tweets about Murphy). Murphy's tweet - ironically, I presume - included the hashmark #CrackerCountry even though Martin was only talking about counties in Florida.

This is a cache of one page from the blog Bill Murphy took offline the first day I began reporting on him:

This March 2, 2011 response to a tweet by Ali Akbar, who would start a group called NotMittRomney months later before redirecting it to the official Mitt Romney campaign site at some point this year, is interesting, since it shows that Murphy evidently changed his mind, too.

"Romney is the guy no one wants to touch twice," Ali Akbar tweeted, referring to Romney's unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid. "Noticing that?"

Future Social Media Director Bill Murphy responded, "More people coming to that conclusion every day."

On June 1, 2011, Murphy tweeted - and Ali Akbar retweeted - a link to an article called "Democrats admit Herman Cain is for real," so Cain might have been his chosen candidate at the time. However, he scrubbed that tweet before I found it on Topsy in August.

Much more on Bill Murphy can be found at my original article, "Former Leadership Institute operative linked to a convicted felon now works for Romney campaign."

Fawkes Security aims "to combat and disrupt the anonymous community"

10/29 Update: Who's that girl?

"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'."

How come the real Robin Sage doesn't follow Provide Security's Tom Ryan on Twitter or Facebook?

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"

Developing...

10/28 Update: Has Fawkes Security Facebook administrator Jodie Rushforth been identified or is it just a woman that they took photos from? Or another Fawkes Security hoax?

Someone left a comment to a pastebin dox that contains a name, date of birth etc. but I'm not publishing it or linking to it. And the avatar for the account matches a photo from Rushforth's Facebook page, which has been moved to a new link: jodie.fawk3s.

There are 21 pictures at this woman's Facebook account (including some that weren't at Rushforth's), all uploaded on February 19, 2012, but there is nothing written on the wall, no comments on the photos, and no activity since that date. The pictures that also appear at Rushforth's account didn't go up until June. It smells like another red herring.

[Editor's Note: I deleted a paragraph referring to another woman who shares the same name as the person named in the dox, since she lives in a different country and a larger version of the avatar attached to her photo doesn't appear to match.}

10/28 Update: According to her bios and multiple social network accounts scattered all over the web, LulzMouse aka Emyylii Guest studied psychology and neuro-linguistic programming, but as I reported, she made a death threat a few days ago, and has traded joking tweets with a group that made a bomb threat. The Alex Jones fan who has many explicit videos online is now going on a scorched earth campaign to smear and go after me because I'm reporting on her disturbed past. Emyylii likes to pretend she isn't in Anonymous, and maybe she isn't anymore, but she weirdly brokered a phone call between Jake Davis aka Topiary (who was hit with unauthorized computer access and conspiracy charges on July 27, 2011, is currently under house arrest and banned from the internet, and may be working with UK police) and Barrett Brown days before his arrest.

Even though she has been heavily involved with Anonymous for over four years (her involvement seemed to have something to do with her ardor for NLP which is similar in many ways to Scientology teachings), she claimed that she didn't know who Barrett Brown was until last month, and told him so, as she detailed after his arrest in a bizarre pastebin called "Barrett Brown betrayed by Topiary". When I showed proof that Brown was discussed in an IRC chat she was in earlier this year, Emily still denied knowing who he was, and her answers to other questions about why she turned against her alleged pal Topiary were also contradictory, as I'll show in a future article (along with other tweets she deleted, including one to an account that adds followers to your Twitter account and strange accounts she owned such as one called "Th3Mol35st3r").

"Hey I'm lulzmouse, I predict it'll take less than a week after this hits the net that I'm v&, Anonops isn't safe either, people have reported that even the PMs on the server are available to law enforcement and I advise people to make loads of different IRCs and places to plan and network together, use Tor hidden services to speak to each other and spread information, it's a bitch for the feds to track down, that's the whole reason pedos use it for making sick CP chans."

Emyylii also told Brown, who seemed taken aback, "oh something you might find funny I just remembered a month or 2 ago, I was texting Topiary, and we got onto talking about his leg bracelet so I tell him all the specs for it and the tamper protections it has that I'd found on tor and he had a van parked outside all night, and the firm that does the tracking bracelets text him telling him they're gonna examine it on the same night he was freaking out about it."

"jesus," Brown responded.

Emyylii replied, "I like to keep them on their toes," and later claimed, "being monitored is fun sometimes, can troll the agents of control with long encrypted messages of sports scores or cooking recipes."

If Emyylii really gave specs to Topiary's leg bracelets while he was under house arrest, she probably would have been arrested, since that would be a crime. But she refused to answer questions about that part of her alleged conversation with Barrett Brown.

She sent me a disturbing email this morning, which referred to herself as a "massive troll," and that said, in part, "I'll tell you the truth, Topiary is my master now, and I am his sex slave - I must obey...I AM DEEPLY FUCKING OFFEND THAT YOU THINK I LOOK ANYTHING LIKE LAURELAI. Your blog post read like an Encyclopedia Dramatica page, but yes, now you have a new enemy. Me."

"I am a real person, and I have no affiliation to government agencies or corporations, I'm just a random anon that you have pissed off, Hell I'm not even an anon anymore, I left my mask at the door when I went to court and sat and watched the louuusesec mispronunciation. I am a random computer user who spends her time working on comical games and trolling people you should check THAT out. I will make sure I allow others to share in the lulz you bring."

Since last night, Emyylii - who tweeted that she is scared of being tied to FawkesSecurity who claims to belong to be the new LulzSec but may be an international security firm or feds trying to entrap Anons - has tweeted Adrian Lamo, who works at Project Vigilant, a security firm that menaced Barrett Brown before his arrest and has ties to Bradley Manning's arrest, FawkesSecurity, who made a bomb threat at the end of the last Obama-Romney debate; Patterico, a Deputy District Attorney who has smeared me as a criminal and had strange conversations with Brown that Barrett recently leaked; ZAPEM, who sent me emails using an e-dress from the hacked HBGary Federal rootkit.com database; Jennifer Emick @AsherahResearch, who Barrett Brown accused of working for HBGary Federal and claims to be an FBI informant and an account called @QualitySec which belongs to her friends from the 4chanesque d2k5 boards.

An IRC chat by @QualitySec set up by "erika!nazidomin@tr.ix" announced, "Topic is 'welcome to our reich, r to the gas chamber, take the second left, to the showers, take the second left also. your new friends in trenchcoats will escort you to your designated area of work.'" The names in the chat - which appeared to be a test of bots - all included a variation of "gorenigger" and the avatar for the twitter account is dressed up like a Nazi. QualitySec joined Twitter on February 12, 2012, which was 74 years - to the day - after Hitler took over Austria.

At a new Facebook account that LulzMouse opened today - in response to my reporting - she posted a picture of a Nazi looking at a computer as her avatar. My family and I have been harassed by anti-Semitic trolls sporting Nazi imagery, which Adrian Lamo and others refuse to condemn, but instead link to and joke with; it's unreal that so many people would find anti-Semitism directed at a Jewish reporter to be a laughing matter. Anyone exchanging tweets with LulzMouse should ask themselves why they would trade jokes with a person that believes Nazis are funny or cool.

Before today, @Quality Sec only had one tweet left on its account, but has become active again. On February 12, the same day they joined twitter, Emyylii and her friends tweeted about Facepunch.com being hacked and linked to a list of passwords.

A few weeks ago, LulzMouse traded tweets with @NewLulzSec, but deleted them. One of the tweets implied that she had spoken to someone affiliated with them privately.

Just before she temporarily left Twitter, LulzMouse liked a video by @FawkesSecurity which announced, "[t]he Arab Spring turns to The American Fall," and tweeted the link, too.

This morning, Emyylii Guest @LulzMouse and Jennifer Emick @AsherahResearch traded weird tweets about this article, and a self-confessed troll actually was the voice of reason. Oddly enough, Jaime Cochran outed herself as @Asshurtmacfags a month after smearing me when I revealed her name was "Richard Cochran" which she denied, at the time.

"Anyone thus compared would be outraged," Emick said about my article which asks if Emyylii belongs to the new LulzSec, works for a security firm or is a federal agent of some sort. "WTF, really."

Emyylii's tweets included, "@asherahresearch I know I was so fucking hurt. I was actually upset at that.... since my fucking porn videos are on xtube" and "that's what makes me feel like I'm getting set up."

In response, @asshurtmacfags tweeted "@LulzMouse @asherahresearch HOW DO YOU GET SET UP ON TWITTER?! FUCK JUST UNPLUG JESUS SHIT TIT."

I've been helping Barrett Brown behind the scenes since the day he was arrested, and I'll talk more about it, probably after his trial concludes. While others close to Brown have taken my advice and done things to help him, his girlfriend ElviraXMontana has done the complete opposite, and - in some ways - made things worse. She tweeted that I was helping Brown a few weeks ago, but she is now attacking me, just like she has smeared other activists working to free Bradley Manning, Barrett Brown and others, who have criticized her for spending so much time talking to informant/security firm adversary characterization expert Adrian Lamo. But Elvira apparently believes helping Emyylii smear me is more important than freeing Barrett Brown.

10/28 Update: LulzMouse returns to Twitter after scrubbing every significant tweet from her timeline, and Barrett Brown's girlfriend ElviraXMontana takes time off from flirting with Adrian Lamo and Tom Ryan, to tweet, "ron b please never come back to twitter thank you sincerely everyone."

I've refrained from mentioning ElviraXMontana on Twitter and this blog, because I was trying to give her the benefit of the doubt. But since she has done little-to-nothing to help Brown since his arrest, except attack friends of Barrett who criticize her nonsensical tweets to Lamo (LulzMouse has joined her in some of those attacks, as well), I'm about to drop some tidbits from Direct Messages we've exchanged. But only what I said to her.

I was kind of wary of Elvira since she oddly shut off Barrett's laptop during the raid, and then when she made weird video that joked about him having pot plants, but what really concerned me was her tumblr account of the raid and how Neal Rauhauser somehow got Part 4 of the Patterico/Barrett Brown chats (at his blog, Rauhauser claimed the log was in his "possession four or five weeks", but on September 21 he had complained that he "wanted him to post the final installment of the set of four logs, which he did not have time to do", which implied that he didn't have it, yet). I was also bothered by the fact that she was attacking friends of Brown who criticized her for talking to Lamo, her RT of "A Message to the US Government" by LulzMouse which said that "we shall fight on the streets", and that she - for some strange reason - tweeted screenshots of texts sent by Topiary.

Elvira's posting of the raid account was an incredibly stupid thing to do, since the prosecutor can use her words against Brown without even having to call her to the stand. It was strange that she didn't appear to be giving any interviews to the press, but told her story on her own like that. The most damaging part of her account was when she wrote that she heard what "sounded like two people wrestling or struggling in the hallway," and that Barrett "seemed to be struggling" after one of the agents apprehended him. Brown's best defense against the alleged threats he's accused of making is that he wasn't armed and didn't resist arrest, but Elvira's own words could hurt him.

I didn't understand why Elvira spoke to one of the agents for "approx 30 minutes", without asking for a lawyer or remaining quiet, either. Everything she said to the agent can be used in court against Brown, so telling her that he had "fixated on agent s, and that i wished he would not do that," certainly isn't helpful.

But I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, and I had been helping Barrett behind the scenes - believe it or not - since the day of his raid. More on that later. It also struck me odd that she was going through his emails, since it didn't seem to be a wise thing to do.

"thanks for unblocking and follow...sorry i mocked your video..but the reference to pot plants unnerved me even though i know it was a joke," I said to Elvira by DM, after someone else close to Barrett put us in contact, earlier this month, " also..when you said you saw barrett struggling...you gotta realize that the prosecutor can use your tweets or blogs against you without even calling you to testify."

I added, "i believe barrett was menaced, given misinfo and pushed to do shit by a security firm.... i was misled into thinking he worked with neal [rauhauser]...i'd rather just ask you questions now then have you look through barrett's emails"

I continued, "my number one question is what journos have even contacted you...since there is a media blackout .....the times and post haven't done one story yet....and those are the two biggest papers there are... it doesn't seem like the ap contacted you but spoke to trolls instead. getting the press to cover barrett is extremely important...and most of his friends seem to have ignored this story."

"lamo lies and uses social engineering and probably played some kind of role in pushing disinfo to bb and scaring him," I said. "remember that no matter what barrett did or said, he is guilty until proven innocent...so you really should try not to say stuff like he did this to himself....lol...im tired..i mean innoncent until proven guilty obviously..."

I told Elvira, that in my opinion, "entrapment is a reasonable defense...and his lawyer really needs to see all these bizarre anonymous accounts fucking with him." I added, "since he didn't resist the raid there's no intent....so i don't think a jury will convict on those counts if his lawyer argues that barret was on and off drugs, menaced, given disinfo and has history of satire such as writing jokes and hyping things...and if his mom can testify that she was threatened or harassed by the fbi it will help too."

I advised Elvira, "personally, i think you should be publicly tweeting liberal bloggers and journalists who haven't reported on this story...just beg them and guilt trip them... folks like glenn greenwald and justin elliott.... and any reporters barrett liked...but be nice to them.....and i think you will be able to get them to do stories....which will help barrett. he needs good PR."

But, apparently, Elvira prefers spending her time having long conversations with Lamo, which have disturbed many Barrett Brown supporters, and appear to be an attempt to help him win back some cred from Anons, even though he still "volunteers" for Project Vigilant.

As I reported on Twitter, Project Vigilant Assistant Director Jeff Bardin sent many tweets mocking Barrett Brown about being paranoid, but claimed that he was "watching" him before deleting the tweets.

Elvira is apparently smearing me because I wrote about LulzMouse who is now laughing it up with Jennifer Emick. Again, somehow my asking questions is stranger than the stupid tweets and feuds they all seem to have with each other. LulzMouse is - apparently - so "afraid" of being raided for my reporting on how she applauded Fawkes Security for trolling other Anonymous accounts that she changed her name to "FawkesLulzMouse." How long before Elvira starts including Emick in her Lamo round robin chats? Something tells me that Barrett Brown might not be too forgiving of that.

This might be my last update for a few days. But there is much more to come...

10/27 Update: "Are you 12? Does your mom know your using the internet?" is an insufficient response to my questions, Laurelai Bailey. I apologize for distracting you from tweeting as @stuxnetsource.

My response: "So instead of answering one question, you're going to act stupid. You could have at least put some thought into your crack. That one's older than the Internet. Are you an informant, Laurelai? Do you work with Jennifer Emick? Why does at least one of Emily's pictures look exactly like you? You seem too stupid to be a fed. At least your pal or your doppelganger answered some questions..."

Let's add someone new to the mix.

And an interesting link: "AnonyMiss, the yin to the Anonymous yang."

Asking questions somehow makes me a conspiracy theorist, according to very serious-minded people like ru3d [w34p0n1z3d] ‏@ru3d_, Tom Ryan and Adrian Lamo.

Some observations: Laurelai and Neal Rauhauser are both from Iowa. Emily Guest and Emma A. are allegedly in England. LulzMouse uses socks to talk to herself like Neal. It sure is strange Laurelai wasn't charged with any crimes after she was allegedly raided by the FBI, and that she discussed LulzSec with Project Vigilant Intelligence Directorate James Smith who monitors #AntiSec in IRC chat rooms, as I recently reported.

And for added measure, it's kind of funny that "grown-ups" like convicted bomber turned voting activist Brett Kimberlin uses the name "Storm" in his fantasy rock band Op-Critical and Laurelai used "Storm", too (see Emily Guest's GooglePlus circle). I don't believe either one knows how to control the weather. But I could be wrong.

My key question to Bailey was, "Why do some pictures of LulzMouse - aka Emily Guest aka Th3Mol35t3r aka Emyylii aka Emmy Manson aka other names, the Hypnotist, NLP master Practicioner who is a big fan of Alex Jones and Ron Paul and who has been involved with Anonymous since Scientology (and I can barely tell the difference between NLP and Scientology), uses socks to talk to herself, and who probably had something to do with exploiting my Twitter account just before an election - look like you?" I have more questions, so that very serious people named GonzoPhD, Dr. Krypt3ia and DirkDigglerD0g ‏@p0rnoPuppy can make more tin foil jokes.

Who is Kayla?

Why is Emma_ A shyer than Patterico? At least Deputy District Attorney Patrick Frey showed his whole face in a picture posted at The Brad Blog. Now he ducks on camera requests from CBS and wouldn't turn on his camera when he joined a Romney, Ryan Buzz Rally chat online. Frey's absurd excuse is that his job demands it, but I assume he can be identified by gang members when he prosecutes them in a court room. What's Barrett Brown's ex-girlfriend's excuse for hiding her face?

If Laurelai Bailey, Emyylii Guest, Emma A and Neal Rauhauser were all in the same room together, how many chairs would they need?

Why did Emyylii talk with Jennifer Emick about the Jester?

Why did Laurelai help spread bullshit cover story that @FakeGreggHoush wasn't Jennifer Emick but a man named Donald Wasylyna?

Is everyone from LulzSec a fed or a security firm bozo, or do they just all act like that?

Is Fawkes Security a security firm, the feds or a resurrected LulzSec?

Laurelai's second response: "Your questions are based on incorrect assumptions and thus do not merit answers. Ive done some googling about you and I am not going to answer any of your questions."

Bailey included a link to a video that a Deputy District Attorney has been using to try to frame me - on the Internet - as a criminal: link. The caller sounds nothing like me, and Frey's told a pack of lies about what happened that night (My version vs. Patterico's). Read Qritiq's blog post which shows how Frey cherry picked his "audio expert's" report. That same expert helped Jesse Ventura morph his voice into a 9/11 victim to prove a 9/11 "Conspiracy Theory", but apparently only did it for the money, and isn't a truther.

Laurelai added, "I have some questions for you instead, do you have any plans on attempting to swat me? Or emily? Why were you fired from raw story?"

Strange how a person who only just did some "googling" on me would ask about Raw Story. It's kind of like how Adrian Lamo obsesses over that, instead of answering my questions. I've publicly told the story about what happened many times on my Twitter timeline. Google it, Laurelai.

"Have you considered getting therapy?" Laurelai concludes.

Come to think of it, expecting the truth from weird hackers and liars like Adrian Lamo, Neal Rauhauser, Jennifer Emick is fucking insane. Maybe "Dr." Kenneth Lipp does house calls.

And people wonder why serious journalists don't cover Bradley Manning, Barrett Brown, and Anonymous anymore.

Only the very serious-minded Adrian Chen handles the wackadoo beat.

If asking questions to unravel absurd conspiracies gets me smeared as a crazy conspiracy theorist who is falsely accused of crimes, so be it. I'm not going anywhere.

10/27 Update: Look Alikes?

Jennifer Emick @AsherahResearch, who infamously lied about being @FakeGreggHouse tweeted, "how the fuck can he think any of those pics are the same person?!" The top and bottom photos are attached to social network accounts belonging to the same person (who put explicit videos on the web that hide her face, so the first picture could be an old photograph taken years ago, which means she is lying about her present age), while the middle one is her friend or frenemy. Since Emick wears glasses, perhaps she has better eyesight, but the bottom two photos look alike to me.

If I'm wrong, then I apologize for the error, but I'm just trying to get to the truth by asking questions, and instead I'm smeared by liars who get off on trolling.

10/27 Update: After vowing to quit Twitter since Barrett Brown was arrested, @LulzMouse, who contacted the former Anonymous spokesman - allegedly - on behalf of Topiary - but then smeared the latter as an informant - suspended her account early in the morning (which would only last a day, see update up top). The eve before I was suspended by Twitter, I interviewed her - after she threatened to kill FawkesSecurity - and I'm going to be publishing a story in a few days or so related to that. The picture to the left was taken on the day LulzMouse allegedly first met Topiary, when she gave him a book written by conspiracy theorist David Ickes, who writes about "Illuminati lizards" secretly controlling the world.

It's not what you might expect.

Consider the following screenshots a teaser:

PS: If something happens to this blog, Emyylii, I'll start a new one. I don't know if you work for a security firm, an agency or a resurrected LulzSec. Yet. But you're not half as clever as you think. Feel free to email me before I publish, Emyylii, so I can shovel some more snow.

10/25 Update: Twitter sent me an automated message which, partially stated, "If your account was suspended for aggressive following behavior, you should have received an email notification to the address associated with your Twitter account. You'll need to confirm that you've removed all prohibited following automation from your account, and will stop any manual aggressive following behavior." Twitter's rules add, that you can be suspended "[i]f you have followed and unfollowed people in a short time period, particularly by automated means (aggressive follower churn)."

Of course, I've never used any "following automation" and I believe a similar tactic was used against two of Neal Rauhauser's "enemies": @FarRightOfLeft and @JamesOkeefeiii. On August 31, O'Keefe tweeted, "Clever tactic of whoever considers me an enemy to add 35K fake followers to my twitter over the last 48 hours."

I'm assuming this was done by Neal Rauhauser or by @Zapem and her friends who want me to blame him. Hopefully, Twitter will reinstate me soon, where I can continue to remind convicted felon Adrian Lamo @6 - who absurdly tweeted that I haven't "committed any major crimes" - that he was the one who committed crimes and was institutionalized by the police, not me.

Fawkes Security - who claimed, as ZDNet reported on March 26, that they were resurrecting LulzSec for April Fool's Day, which seemed unlikely since Sabu became an "FBI mole" and helped entrap other members - tweeted in response to this latest update, "#Lulz Did we hack @ronbryn and @ronbryn2 with a Twitter exploit script... Who knows? :P @AnonyOps @th3j35t3r @YourAnonNews."

Since my second twitter account was suspended within 15 minutes, and a few tweets mentioned @FawkesSecurity, it seems likely that they probably did play a role in both suspensions. But the Fawkes crew also claimed they managed to log 20,000 debit card details after taking credit for the HSBC site take down, that the Amanda Todd bullying story was a hoax before playing a role in naming the wrong culprit, and that they created a "Legion Exploit Kit" back in December 30, 2011, so they seem to mostly get off on playing hoaxes to make Anonymous look bad.

10/25 Update: My twitter account @ronbryn was suspended early this morning probably because of my reporting on @FawkesSecurity and a 2nd account @ronbryn2 was suspended within 15 minutes after I complained to Twitter and mentioned Fawkes again; My last tweet was to former HB Gary Federal CEO Aaron Barr @AaronBarr, asking him what US military group he bragged about "burrow[ing] into" (See 2/5/11 Financial Times article) and did his friend Tom Ryan @TomRyanBlog - who used social engineering to allegedly trick NSA and DoD employees in the Robin Sage hoax - help him; I recently reported that a troll named @ZAPEM sent me emails from an e-dress that was included in the hacked HB Gary rootkit database mi-chelle@comcast.net

Fawkes Security seems similar to Ryan's "Robin Sage" hoax and he stopped tweeting a few days ago but he recently favorited two tweets which link Fawkes to Anonymous (who have pretty much unanimously condemned Fawkes for making a bomb threat); The Jester @th3j35t3r, who as I reported below may have been hacked by Fawkes Security working with Jennifer Emick (who also has been suspected of working with HB Gary Federal's Team Themis) in July, exchanged DMs with Fawkes Security in which they joke that they may be law enforcement or a pro Muslim hacking group; I've also been reporting on convicted criminal hacker Adrian Lamo @6 - who has exchanged many tweets and DMs with @ZAPEM since September, and anti-Semitic trolls who have menaced my family - and he is exulting about my suspension.

A troll called @AnonymousDown was the first to tweet - at around 9 AM EST - about my suspension, but then he/she deleted the tweet. He/she has gone after both The Jester and Barrett Brown, and appears to play both sides of Anonymous. His/her conspiracy blog contains many posts accusing Anons of being informants, and self-identifies him/her as a "[b]ehind the scenes e-hacktivist; Professional data miner; Engaged in cyber defenses of critical infrastructure & key resources. irc.reapersecurity.net #graveyard."

And before I posted this update specifically referring to AnonymousDown, he/she linked to my blog and tweeted, "heh cc: @tomryanblog @th3j35t3r @fawkesSecurity @AaronBarr @Zapem @AsherahResearch."

Emick and Fawkes Security responded quickly, as well. Emick, who changed her name not long ago to "Team Themis" perhaps as an ironic joke, tweeted, "@AnonymousDown It's like our own custom-written sitcom." And Fawkes Security - who made a few seemingly-sarcastic tweets after the bomb threat which may have also been ironic about working with Emick - tweeted, "@AnonymousDown @TomRyanBlog @th3j35t3r @aaronbarr @ZAPEM @asherahresearch Lulz, That is all."

On Twitter @AnonymousDown only follows 39 accounts, including Tom Ryan, Ryan's security firm Provide Security, Adrian Lamo, Jennifer Emick @AsherahResearch, Emick's troll pal Sanguinarious, ReaperSecIRC, RevMagdalen (who I also mention in this article), Aaron Barr, ReaperSecIRC and many others related to Reaper Sec - who recently claimed Emick isn't a member. Emick claims that she filed a personal protection order against Ryan, but she makes lots of claims that she never backs up, and she may just be pretending to feud with Ryan, who has befriended many members of Anonymous and Operation Wall Street who dislike her. The "Team Themis" plan was to have Twitter accounts promote and attack each other to create convolution and to use the controversy to spread their attacks against Anonymous and liberal bloggers.

I'm liberal but I have always reported on both sides, and am not a member of Anonymous, and don't approve of hacking online or using trolls to menace. But many people on the left and right have been smearing me, and falsely accusing me of working with Lamo's former colleague, Neal Rauhauser, at Project Vigilant who hoaxed Barrett Brown and Anonymous, and uses sock trolls on Twitter to do similar things that "Team Themis" planned to do. Many of the people attacking me on the left work with or defend Rauhauser. Those same alleged liberals have ignored my reporting on Barrett Brown, Fawkes Security and Bradley Manning, even though I'm supported by people who knew both Brown and Manning in real life and respect my reporting. "Team Themis" was allegedly disbanded, but Barrett Brown and others believe that they are still around, and/or perhaps work for someone else now.

DEVELOPING... Fawkes Security is aligned with QT Security who were formed "to combat and disrupt the anonymous community". QT Security released a video in July threatening to release "names and addresses of 300 active anonymous members" and "data recently breached from the wikileaks website." However, since their targets include Anonymous, WikiLeaks and The Jester - who have all been targeted by Jennifer Emick and who claims that she knows who the administrator for the Fawkes Security Facebook page is - this might be another of her hoaxes.

This is a work in progress which I thought was important to publish as soon as possible. Check my Twitter timeline @ronbryn to see some other things I'll be incorporating into this article, with much more to come.

Just as the third Obama, Romney presidential debate was ending on October 22nd, an alleged Anonymous group called Fawkes Security released a video and pastebin ominously warning "200 kilograms of composite Nitroglycerin and commercial explosives have effectively been concealed in a government building, situated in the united states of America," and that "on the 5th of November 2012 the device will detonate remotely via the transmission control protocol, leaving behind severe consiquences."



Transcript from YouTube page - with misspellings left intact - follows.

"@FawkesSecurity
Dear citizens of the world,
We are anonymous. As of today 200 kilograms of composite Nitroglycerin and commercial explosives have effectively been concealed in a government building, situated in the united states of America. on the 5th of November 2012 the device will detonate remotely via the transmission control protocol, leaving behind severe consiquences. We would like to advise that the contraption is built inside a tamper proof apparatus sensitive to physical intrusions or attempted disarmament, thus resulting in the desired effect, if the military grade device is found before the 5th of November. there is no intention, risks or circumstances what so ever to cause harm to innocent people, but we can not, say the same for the people who are the real terrorists, oppressors and war creators.

we are anonymous
we are legion
we do not forget
we do not forgive
on the 5th of November, you will expect us."

The pastebin called the alleged operation #OpV.

Almost immediately, more established Anonymous accounts on Twitter began to disavow itself from the bomb threat and the group itself. Fawkes Security had only joined Twitter on December 17, 2011 and the Facebook account is locked to members.

A pastebin response stated,

"This message is to the media:

Earlier tonight, the Twitter account @FawkesSecurity posted a link to a pastebin and a YouTube video that stated the following:

"As of today 200 kilograms of composite Nitroglycerin and commercial explosives have effectively been concealed in a government building"

Let us be perfectly clear: Anonymous is not a terrorist organization. Anonymous does not use bombs. Anonymous does not condone violence in any way. Anonymous supports justice and universal equal rights. We support peaceful protest.

At this time, we are not sure whether or not @FawkesSecurity is trying to troll, or if he's trying to discredit the name of Anonymous in the eyes of the world. Maybe @FawkesSecurity's twitter and YouTube account was hacked. Perhaps this is the FBI's way of trying to label Anonymous as terrorists so they can begin using the NDAA against us.

Either way, fuck whoever posted that threat.

We are Anonymous
We are legion
We do not forget
We do not forgive
Expect us"

Also, on December 17, 2011, Jodie Rushforth, who is listed as the administrator of Fawkes Security, joined Facebook, and three days later began posting sexy photographs - allegedly of herself and a girlfriend.

The Facebook profile contains few details other than claiming Rushforth allegedly lives in New York, New York and that her hometown is San Diego, California.

On July 8th, 2012 Fawkes Security administrator Jodie Rushforth shared a link of a video called "Message to Anonymous from QT Security" with The Security-Ray Facebook account [which joined Facebook on December 6, 2011].

The video was a message which stated that "an estimated 6 months ago, a hacker group was constructed amongst an array of like minded individuals, with the sole purpose to combat and disrupt the anonymous community for our own exsclusive entertainment."



Transcript from YouTube page - with misspellings left intact - follows.

"Friends around the globe, We are QT security. this video is a direct warning to the anonymous collective, regarding the fun we have planned for you and your future downfall. an estimated 6 months ago, a hacker group was constructed amongst an array of like minded individuals, with the sole purpose to combat and disrupt the anonymous community for our own exsclusive entertainment. before you assume that this is a fabricated notion, we would sincererly advise you to look past the words, the music, the name, and take us seriously. unlike other hacker groups that have targeted anonymous in the past, QT Security currently has genuine and accountable information leading to the names and addresses of 300 active anonymous members, including the real details of the your anon news twitter admin and the anon message who commonly broadcasts on youtube. we also have data recently breached from the wikileaks website that consists of listed financial transactions and emails between government organisations. q t security is presently operating on numerous social engineering attacks towards anonymous affiliated sites, which will inevitably lead to some defacements in the near future. we would like to take this time to inform other internet users and the media that during our online expedition against anonymous, q t security will display significant examples of corporate, financial and government breaches to show the world what we are capable of, in a bid to embarrass the idea that is anonymous. anonymous at one point had meaning and a direction, but now it's concept is purely persued by misguided people, who believe that hacking is actually a positive response to the causes that you agree are worth facing, at least we have the dignity to admit that by hacking in the name of freedom, will only cause more censorship for the citizens you say you support. on the other hand, QT security is going to systematically impair the anonymous collective in it's current online form, just because we can and we know how. to those who choose to ignore our statement and disregard the facts, then, you will expect us."

Also, on July 8, 2012, a video called "Anonymous - Message to QT Security" was released by AnonymousAmerica1776, who joined YouTube on May 1, and hasn't posted any videos since July. "Please realize the size of the pile of shit you have stepped in," is posted with its response video.



QT Security joined Twitter @QTSecurity on July 8, 2012, and issued tweets threatening Anonymous, WikiLeaks and 4chan. It also said "hai" to The Jester - who once hit WikiLeaks with a XerXeS DoS Attack - a day before his/her Twitter account @th3j35t3r was compromised.

"@wikileaks You think your website is secure, Think again #OntheQT," @QTSecurity tweeted on July 8, along with "Rumors are brewing about a DoS on 4chan, Should we or not?", and "@th3j35t3r Oh hai ;)."

On July 9, Fawkes Security tweeted "Thejester got PWND! by @FawkesSecurity it's been a long time waiting #Anonymous," and "Thejester HACKED! http://pastebin.com/h35HpfzZ" and "@th3j35t3r Umad? Lulz." Just prior to those tweets, Fawkes Security apparently released a "D0X of @crystalmcraven aka @th3j35t3r's e-girlfriend https://pastee.org/np8ec #stayfrosty #whoswidme."

Deputy District Attorney John Patrick Frey aka Patterico posted an article called "The Jester Hacked?" on July 9, which is kind of strange, since he normally doesn't post Anonymous articles. "'The Jester' is a fairly famous opponent of Anonymous; a 'Hacktivist for Good,'" Patterico blogged, "Looks like someone has gotten a hold of his Twitter password."

Fake @th3j35t3r included "To all my followers, I am sorry. I really am a fraud.: Please forgive me, I did it for the lulz bit.ly/NdPzlI #anonymous #wise," and "Anonymous: I am sorry for running my mouth all this time. Please spare me. @YourAnonNews @AnonymousIRC bit.ly/OonIxj #anonymous #wise," and "It’s been fun.: I am in for a LOAD of drama. Next my personal details are unleashed. #wise bit.ly/NBmJdQ #anonymous #wise."

On July 10, the Jester explained at his blog, "that a rather nice ‘sideways hack’ was deployed against my twitter. Aside from that no breaches or relevant information, 'personal' or otherwise has come out of this episode and my position remains uncompromised."

Two days later, in an update, the Jester appeared to blame Jennifer Emick aka @AsherahResearch.

"As we all know, this whole thing has been the work of the usual suspects, namely @asherahresearch (aka J.Emick), ReaperSec led by @cryptkper a newcomer and a few others. Those are the same core of folks who have spent the majority of their time over the last few months/years accusing all manner of people of being me, if you look you can see this for yourselves, while basing it on the most sporadic of circumstantial evidence"

The Jester added, "for those worried about @crystalmcraven, saying I left her to burn etc. Firstly yes the whole conversation was disinfo, secondly I didn’t hack my own abandoned email account and I didn’t dox her or persecute her. Thirdly you really think any of the shit in that email box is real?? Clue is in the name – ‘Crystal Meth Cravin’??? – (she’s gonna be just fine) – keep up trolls. Everything for a reason eh? And thats been sitting there over 2 years."

"So @asherahresearch and ReaperSec hacked a long abandoned decoy email account and a lot of folks put 2+2 together and got 9, causing everyone who wants a piece of me to target the one of the 120 people named CrystalMCraven in the United States who follows me on twitter.

I hope you can all leave the real woman alone now. But I see she is handling herself nicely.

To the real CrystalMCraven on Twitter: I apologize for not contacting you. I hope you understand, I did not think your twitter account was tied to a real person. Unfortunately, at this time, I do not know who originated impersonating you. I regret you were dragged into these attacks on me."

Earlier today, at its blog, Reaper Security wrote a post called "FawkesSecurity – Your Days Are Numbered" about the bomb threat, noting that "there are several things that stuck out about the pastebin that lead me to believe this is a hoax or some other sort of sick prank."

"Just an FYI, in the US we don’t commonly use the Metric system. Without getting all technical, you got somewhere around 441 pounds of nitroglycerin, which by its self is unstable, and commercial explosives into the US through customs? You have this ‘device’ that would have to be about the size of a refrigerator or drink machine, connected to the Internet? You couldn’t use something like a cellphone cause the battery would die maintaining a data connection that long, so you would have to have it plugged into a LAN or WiFi, inside a government building… wait a minute. Haven’t I seen this movie before? This sounds vaguely like the movies Sum of All Fears, and Die Hard with a Vengeance. Oh and by the way, you spelled consequences wrong.

....

Hoax or not, you’ve made a threat, a bomb threat against the United States Government. Not something they generally find funny. But you need not worry about us, here at ReaperSec, or those behind the Jester mask. Nope, neither will have anything to do with you being arrested. Like the recent demise of Barrett Brown, this you have done all by yourself. The FBI and/or Interpol will be picking you up soon enough, for a nice extended stay at one of their many luxurious facilities."

Emick tweeted today, "@raincoaster Heh- but tbh, that is no fed. That group's been around, and is kinda nuts. The girl's a massive attention whore, too." Later Emick - who has targeted Anonymous and The Jester - retweeted @RevMagdalen tweet warning, "#Anonymous all you can know for sure is that for 2 years straight you've been inciting every kook on the planet to revolution."

The Twitter profile for @QTSecurity states, "QTS Hacker group ---LulzSec on Steroids---- Email qtsecurity@hushmail.com" and its YouTube profile claims it hails from Germany. QT Security only released the one video, and hasn't tweeted since July 9, 2012.

Another Facebook group called Anonymous Occupy The White House [who joined Facebook on November 5, 2011] posted the "Message to Anonymous from QT Security" video on July 9, adding, "Lulz ;p have you seen this shit?? Anons watch out QTSecurity is coming..."

On October 1, 2012, the Anonymous Occupy The White House Facebook page shared a link to Fawkes Security Twitter account via administrator Jodie Rushforth, but her name was later scrubbed from their page, as this cache link originally shows.

The link was liked by Cody Fawkes and his Facebook page at "Purified.in.the.storm." claims that he lives in Alma, Michigan, attends Central Michigan University and that he is the "Head Public Relations Coordinator" for Anonymous and that he "coordinates, info, protest info, news and meetings to better inform the public of What is events are taking place in Government, and other country's, states and cities. ect." and that he has been a "Wicked Ninja Juggalo" since 2005.

Cody Fawkes might not have any connection to Fawkes Security, but he left a message on August 2, 2012 to Anonymous and BackTrace Security - a firm which Jennifer Emick used to belong to and that she used to out Anonymous members including FBI informant Sabu - at his Facebook page.

"THIS IS A MESSAGE TO ANONYMOUS AND BACK TRACE SECURITY:

PLEASE SHARE THIS SO THAT ALL MEMBERS OF ANONYMOUS AND BACK TRACE WILL SEE THIS FOR THE SAKE OF FREEDOM AND WHAT IS RIGHT

I am not in a position of power, i am not a leader in Anonymous or hacker, but i am Anonymous i do not hide myself per say but i do try to keep out of the site of the corrupt leaders that control our world. i have millions of idea's on how to make things better and one day i hope to be able to put these idea's tp the test. I have a dream of a better world where i do not look around and see people constantly miserable, crying, heart broken, worn out because of the struggles they face trying to stay alive in this failing economy. I believe our Government is to blame for the state in which our country is in. along with the major companies, and more to blame; the banks...

....

But now Sadly as i finally start to fall asleep and trust me its not easy for me to sleep anymore i scrolled through facebook to see whats new and i see that there is a war going on between people who all called themselves Anonymous, it makes me terribly sad to see this, i call my self Anonymous, and i coordinate efforts in my area to make it to occupy movements especially for November 5th but im also a member of the Zeitgeist Movement, i believe in a bigger and brighter future, but if we are at war with ourselves how can we make change, how can people take us seriously, How can the people trust us, if we continue fighting amongst ourselves how long will it take till we start to be seen as terrorists instead of hacktavists, or freedom fighters, or the small glimmer of hope that the world needs. this needs to stop i may be small in what i can do. i do not hack i refused to learn that from all the skills ive learned about computers i will not hack but instead i choose to speak my words are many yes, but my hope is my words speak loud, i hope that someone is reading this right now, because at this moment my eyes are poofed up burning my back aches my head is pounding and my ears are ringing but im am here writing this hoping that it is making it to someone higher up, someone who can stop all this stupidity, i hope that this spreads like a wild fire to every corner of the web, ....

Anonymous, Back trace Security it is time for this war to end and the real war to truely start you've lost your focus, get your heads right. for the sake of the people who need us most i ask you to stand strong unite once more, because there is no former members of Anonymous, because we are all Anonymous no matter age race color or faith.

With Peace of Mind, Body, and Soul, while being true in my words and to myself, with Love for the people the earth and the animals, my actions and words are Respectful with respect to the people the planet and myself i so hear do swear to fight for what is right and speak the truth for the sake of truth, i will stick by the Values of PEACE. TRUTH. LOVE. and RESPECT
Signed Cody Fawkes of Michigan"

At Daily Dot, Lorraine Murphy - aka @RainCoaster on Twitter - noted that Fawkes Security had "recently...somewhat implausibly, claimed responsibility for attacks against HSBC, the largest retail bank in the world."

On twitter, @Asher_Wolf noted that "Jodie Rushforth says she's 'right wing' in her bio" at Facebook. Just over a week ago, on October 15, the same day she changed her profile picture, Jodie Rushforth added dubious claim to her profilethat she studied at West Virginia University and that she "went from being 'in a relationship' to 'it's complicated.'"

DEVELOPING...