The Other McCain

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

Neal Rauhauser Again? Yet Another Conspiracy Theory Smear Emerges

Posted on | August 19, 2012 | 12 Comments

Neal Rauhauser was a speaker at the 2010 Netroots Nation conference

When last we encountered Neal Rauhauser, the “TwitterGate” instigator and Brett Kimberlin associate was e-mailing false and defamatory claims about Brandon Darby to public officials, including law enforcement agencies and members of Congress.

There was a remarkable resemblance between Rauhauser’s crazytalk smear of Darby and the “Breitbart ISR” conspiracy theory that Rauhauser published in February. Anyone can examine and compare the style and content of those documents.

Now, in an anonymous 1,000-word document published on Pastebin (which we can expect soon to be deleted, as has been Rauhauser’s habit whenever his vicious online activities are exposed), Rauhauser has evidently promulgated a new smear, accusing Patterico of exploiting the mentally ill for nefarious purposes:

Pity poor John Patrick Frey aka @Patterio, owner of http://patterico.com
His despicable practice of identifying vulnerable adults and using them to do his dirty work has finally backfired on him in a truly impressive fashion.
Seth Allen, a troll who long carried water for Frey, is now deemed to be a “libelous cretin”. Less than a year ago he was begging Frey for enough money to appear for a damages hearing due for a civil suit he faced over a conflict that Frey and Islamophobic hate talker Aaron Walker had stage managed, with Allen as the fall guy. Allen’s specific defect appears to be schizotypal:
“Schizotypal personality disorder is a personality disorder characterized by a need for social isolation, anxiety in social situations, odd behavior and thinking, and often unconventional beliefs.”
Allen is on psych disability.

Mike Stack, a troll with a history of frequenting porn blogs, was left holding the bag for operations aimed at former Congressman Anthony Weiner in response to his reporting an extortion attempt by Congressman Michael Grimm, who represented NY-13 at the time. Stack was outed, publicly humiliated, trolled long and hard by Democratic Underground, and finally swatted by Brandon Darby in an effort to silence him.
[Further material deleted at request of Mike Stack — RSM]

Ron Brynaert, a former journalist who worked with Megan Carpentier and Mike Rogers at Raw Story, faced a framing attempt by Frey, in which he paid for an audio forensics expert to attempt to shift the blame from Brandon Darby. Brynaert lost his job in the summer or fall of 2010 due to the onset of an inability to control his behavior coupled with a drastic reduction in his investigative abilities, per multiple conversations involving Carpentier and Rogers, which others have overheard.
“The acts of those who have OCD may appear paranoid and potentially psychotic. However, OCD sufferers generally recognize their obsessions and compulsions as irrational, and may become further distressed by this realization.”
Brynaert is on psych disability.

“Michele Lessick” aka @ZAPEM, a troll who publishes enormous conspiracy theories, has been fed information by Frey in order to lead her into attacking targets he selects. Sooner or later she turns on anyone foolish enough to work for her and this happened for Frey in early summer of 2012.
[Further material deleted at request of Mike Stack. — RSM}

Aaron Walker, an Islamophobic troll who formerly operated http://everyonedrawmohammed.blogspot.com, has appeared more as a collaborator than a victim, but Frey uses him in a similar fashion, leading him into harm’s way and trusting that his delusions and obsessions will do the rest. Walker long attempted to provoke reactions from Muslims in America, he has made statements in court to the effect that he fears something called “The Kookpocalypse”, and he has attempted to involve himself in the Swatgate conspiracy theory.
“In cases where reporters of stalking behavior have been judged to be making false reports, a majority of them were judged (by the same people) to be delusional.”
There are no recent screen shots of Frey interacting with or discussing Walker.
Aaron Walker is not on psych disability yet, but his hate speech coupled with his poor courtroom demeanor will cost him his career as a lawyer.

Where is Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley when Frey, who is a Deputy D.A., is engaged in this pattern of finding and manipulating vulnerable adults? Cooley is not up for election and has endorsed Democrat Jackie Lacey against Republican Alan Jackson. There have been multiple internal investigations of Frey, but nothing has stuck yet.
Where is California Attorney General Kamala Harris? If Cooley is unable to touch this problem for some reason it would seem natural that Harris is the next stop.
Where is Washington D.C. U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen? There is a grand jury evaluating election fraud on the part of James O’Keefe and Frey has attempted to obstruct the investigation by intimidating a key witness, Nadia Naffe. Frey used the Scribd account of his wife, Deputy District Attorney Christi Frey, dumping medical records that reveal she, too, is a vulnerable adult.
Where is Eastern District of New York U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch? There is a grand jury evaluating a racketeering case against Congressman Michael Grimm, and the swatting of Mike Stack is clearly part of a payback scheme that Grimm aimed at former Congressman Anthony Weiner. While executed by Brandon Darby and Lee Stranahan, Frey had knowledge of this extremely dangerous stunt after the fact and did nothing to bring justice to the perpetrators.
The particulars of the story change with each event, but Frey’s modus operandi is quite clear – find someone who is either on psych disability or who could easily qualify if their stable living/working situation were disrupted. Learn their specific weakness, manipulate them into a conflict, and stage managing them via a cutout persona that disappears once Frey’s objectives are met.
Frey’s behavior is either that of an extreme ideologue, willing to destroy the lives of anyone he can lure into his schemes, or he is an outright sociopath/psychopath.
If the Washington D.C. grand jury or Staten Island grand jury don’t put a stop to Frey’s dangerous, unethical, illegal conduct, either Jackie Lacey or Alan Jackson will have to deal with him after one of them is elected as the Los Angeles County District Attorney.
Have a good day, Deputy District Attorney John Patrick Frey.

* * * END OF DOCUMENT * * *

In calling attention to this document, of course, I must caution that it is either (a) 100% false, or (b) a carefully crafted concotion of fact and fiction, created so as to discredit witnesses who might possibly provide testimony implicating Rauhauser in the lawsuit that Aaron Walker has filed in Virginia: “All of these people are crazy!”

This is yet another twisted permuation of what I’ve called the “accuse the accusers” strategy that Kimberlin and Rauhauser have repeatedly used against their targets: As soon as someone appears on their radar as a potential enemy, that person is targeted for character assassination in this manner, and the accusations against the target — however unsubstantiated and improbable — are then recycled as needed.

Unproven claims made by Kimberlin in his various court cases have been cited as “evidence” in his subsequent cases, and you see how Rauhauser now recycles these in the counterfactual assertion that Seth Allen was involved in “a civil suit he faced over a conflict that Frey and Islamophobic hate talker Aaron Walker had stage managed.”

How to even begin to untangle that Gordian knot of lies? Start with this: Brett Kimberlin had been out to get Seth Allen for years before Patterico appeared on Kimberlin’s radar.

Allen (aka “Socrates”) is a progressive blogger who, circa 2007, began calling b.s. on the claims about “election integry” promoted by liberal blogger Brad Friedman. Allen subsequently discovered that Friedman was funded through the Velvet Revolution 501(c)4 non-profit co-founded by Kimberlin, and Allen then learned that Kimberlin was a convicted terrorist. As a result of his whistleblowing, Allen was banned from various liberal blogs (including Democratic Underground and Daily Kos), which he blames on Kimberlin’s influence.

In 2010, Kimberlin’s Velvet Underground called for the prosecution of Andrew Breitbart, James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles over their famous 2009 ACORN exposé. Breitbart.com contributor Mandy Nagy (aka “Liberty Chick”) then published a carefully documented 3,600-word exposé of Kimberlin, which Patterico linked at his own blog. Kimberlin threatened to sue both Mandy and Patterico, accusing them of relying on Seth Allen’s account. Kimberlin never followed through on those threats, although he did sue Allen. Anyone with knowledge of the facts understands how ridiculous it is for Rauhauser to claim that Patterico and Walker “stage managed” Kimberlin’s conflict with Allen. In fact, both Patterico and Walker attempted to assist Allen, although it seems Allen has since been manipulated into believing that Patterico and Walker are somehow his enemies.

This is an aspect of the Kimberlin-Rauhauser “accuse the accusers” strategy that has gotten very little public attention: By disseminating negative information about their targets, Kimberlin and Rauhauser have been surprisingly successful at fostering animosity between their targets, so that the targeted individuals make accusations against each other that can then be recycled in new attacks. Among the targets named by Rauhauser here — his authorship can be safely assumed from context, “anonymous” though the document may be — a  bitter schism has developed: Stack and Zapem despise Patterico, Walker, Mandy, Darby and Stranahan.

Notice that Rauhauser cites “multiple conversations involving Carpentier and Rogers” as the source for negative information about Ron Brynaert — why bring up their names? We might guess that Rauhauser is attempting to mark Carpentier and Rogers as targets for Brynaert’s notoriously bad temper.

In the same way, Rauhauser attempts to inflame hostility between Stack and Darby by accusing Darby of “SWATting” Stack, and to foment conflict between Zapem and Patterico by accusing Zapem of having “been fed information by Frey in order to lead her into attacking targets he selects,” and then saying Zapem “turns on anyone foolish enough to work for her.”

These claims can only be described as deliberate falsehoods. Zapem and her allies compiled nearly all the information available about Rauhauser prior to July 2011, and so it is much more likely that Zapem “fed information” to Frey than the other way around. There is no credible evidence, nor any plausible logic, to support the absurd claim by Rauhauser that Darby SWATted anyone, least of all Mike Stack.

So, where is this all coming from? What are Neal’s motives? What does he hope to accomplish by this? We can only speculate, but as to why he is promoting the accusation that Brandon Darby was involved in SWATting, this is obvious enough: Darby has worked with the FBI as an undercover informant in the past; Darby has an Internet radio show with Lee Stranahan; it was Stranahan who came up with “Everybody Blog About Brett Kimberlin Day”; and — bonus! — Stranahan was involved with Bretibart.com’s coverage of the WeinerGate scandal.

Darby is thus a very convenient target: The Left hates him already, he’s got the requisite Breitbart connections, and making an FBI informant the SWATter adds an “inside job” element that any consipracy theorist can’t resist: COINTELPRO! “Fire can’t melt steel!”

Notice, however, that Darby is only collateral damage in this smear, as are Seth Allen, Mike Stack, Zapem, Aaron Walker and the others named in Rauhauser’s document. The real target is Patterico, and why? Because Patterico is a public employee, and therefore political pressure can be brought against him in the workplace.

Ever since 2010, Neal Rauhauser has been looking to collect scalps, to “take down” somebody on the Right, thus to establish himself as a progressive hero. He began obsessively fixating on Patterico in July 2011 during the WeinerGate scandal, in a series of posts under his “Stranded Wind” alias at Daily Kos:

By July 27, 2011, Rauhauser declared that Patterico “looks to be a pretty good candidate for the planner/operator behind Weinergate.” So here were are, more than a year later, and Rauhauser is still obsessed with his attempt to “take down” Patterico.

Meanwhile, and speaking of Patterico: A suspicious attempt to delete Brett Kimberlin’s Wikipedia entry.

UPDATE: I contacted Megan Carpentier at Raw Story, who briefly replied, pointing out that she did not start working at Raw Story until March 2011. Brynaert left in October 2010. So Carpentier and Brynaert never worked together, and thus the claim of her having had “multiple conversations” about Brynaert makes no more sense than any of Rauhauser’s other claims.

UPDATE II: Mike Stack contacted me and asked me to remove some specific elements of Rauhauser’s libels against him and Zapem, which I have done. As I previously made clear, I don’t believe anything Rauhauser says, and called attention to his  bizarre claims for the very reason that they are so clearly false and outrageously defamatory. Rauhauser has repeatedly made false accusations against a long list of people, myself included. Remember what Patterico explained:

Rauhauser compiled a large packet of defamatory material accusing me, Walker, Nagy, and others of participating in criminal activity, and said he had sent it to state police in New Jersey and the FBI in Baltimore. He made the entire packet available as a torrent.

The fact that Rauhauser, who has repeatedly boasted of his FBI contacts, could repeatedly sent this kind of stuff to the FBI, other law enforcement agencies and even to members of Congress and yet not be in custody as a potentially dangerous criminal ought to raise alarms about the failure of officials to take this kind of malevolent behavior seriously.

If Rauhauser has broken no law, we need some new laws.

Category: The Kimberlin Files

Comments

12 Responses to “Neal Rauhauser Again? Yet Another Conspiracy Theory Smear Emerges”

  1. Kristi
    August 19th, 2012 @ 11:09 pm

    Ay-yi-yi! 🙁

  2. Dianna Deeley
    August 19th, 2012 @ 11:31 pm

    Some of the wording is identical to other Rauhauser posts; if the writer is not Rauhauser, Rauhauser should sue for plagiarism!

    Good job. Nice, clear exposition, and I have not felt the need to correct your spelling!

  3. Adjoran
    August 20th, 2012 @ 12:09 am

    If you could find a fruitcake nuttier than Rauhauser, buy it! Because it would have to be so chock full o’ nuts that there wouldn’t be any room for all those nasty mystery fruits, and danged little for cake.

    Of course, most of these guys are nuts, or “mentally challenged” or “differently balanced” or whatever the PC term is for bat shi’ite freakin’ crazy these days. You can be crazy and evil at the same time.

  4. Dandapani
    August 20th, 2012 @ 6:14 am

    Scary, just plan scary. He needs to be on pysch disability. In the loony bin.

  5. Monday Morning Grumpy Daily Headline News | Grumpy Opinions
    August 20th, 2012 @ 6:23 am

    […] Neal Rauhauser Again? Yet Another Conspiracy Theory Smear Emerges : The Other McCain […]

  6. TC_LeatherPenguin
    August 20th, 2012 @ 7:39 am

    Hey now! If anyone is gonna drag Mikey Grimm into this soup, I believe it should be ME! After all, I’m the only one who actually voted for him. (How the hell did he get caught up in this without me being informed?)

  7. The #BrettKimberlin Report D+87: The Lunatic Is On Pastebin And Wikipedia « The Camp Of The Saints
    August 20th, 2012 @ 9:17 am

    […] McCain has reproduced the full raving here. From his introduction: Now, in an anonymous 1,000-word document published on Pastebin (which we […]

  8. JeffS
    August 20th, 2012 @ 9:25 am

    An excellent article, Stacy. While NR is practically giving interviews through his antics, your analysis and efforts to tell the story of BK and NR in a clear fashion, stripped of their evil machinations, is invaluable.

    Thank you for continuing to cover the story of these creatures.

  9. Dustin
    August 20th, 2012 @ 10:27 am

    An ‘operation aimed at Anthony Weiner’?

    It was Weiner publicly showing that young lady a lewd photo.

    Sigh.

    A lot of the people named and smeared together in this screed are not getting along.

    “Notice that Rauhauser cites “multiple conversations involving
    Carpentier and Rogers” as the source for negative information about Ron
    Brynaert — why bring up their names? We might guess that Rauhauser is
    attempting to mark Carpentier and Rogers as targets for Brynaert’s
    notoriously bad temper.In the same way, Rauhauser attempts to inflame hostility between Stack and Darby”

    Excellent observation. I’ve seen these manipulations work over and over and over again. It drives potential allies apart, and it complexifies the story and makes it harder to follow. Except that at this point it’s so over the top and hysterical that I don’t see it working on honest people.

    The obsession with ruining Patterico and Aaron’s lives makes it easier to see who is on the level.

    But some will play along with this, I think insincerely in some cases.

    So Neal gets two things. He gets some of his critics to rob themselves of credibility and he also gets a display of infighting, paranoia, and viciousness.

    Anyway, I’ve interacted with Patrick many times. Even when it hasn’t been easy, he has been honest and sincere in his effort to expose truth and help those who have been mistreated. He has a good reputation and is much better known than I am, so I doubt it helps a lot that I vouch for him and I vouch for Aaron, but I’m not the only one doing so.

    At this point, I think these smear efforts just impact those who attempt to promote them.

    Great post, RSM.

  10. frank
    August 20th, 2012 @ 1:33 pm

    Teh crazy is strong with this one, Stacy. How long before he starts leaving, “In case I’m found dead, I didn’t commit suicide…Patterico murdered me! Find the proof before it’s too late!” notes with all of the people he thinks are his friends?

  11. EarlScruggs
    August 20th, 2012 @ 1:50 pm

    So, you have this, and then the attempted deletion of Kimberlin’s wiki page, and now (don’t click on these links) breitbartunmasked.com is gone, and velvetrevolution.us and jtmp.org are also down.

    Looks like some hasty sanitization going on.

  12. CryingWolfeBlog
    August 21st, 2012 @ 7:55 am

    They were taken down by Anonymous because the servers are in the UK, as a protest for Assange.