"Urban Badger"(not his real name) was referred to me by a trusted source. He lives in England and works with people who question the July 7th, 2005 attacks:
http://julyseventh.co.uk/
An apparently wholesome interest in the public good. Which would mesh with wanting to help stop activist harassment.
"Urban Badger" told my source he knew something about the activist group I asked about. I was investigating a person of interest in this group. This group is like a psycho ex boyfriend: months after members leave, they find their personal information posted on-line as form of personal revenge. Presumably for leaving. No wonder they left in the first place.
"Urban Badger" knew this was a harassment inquiry and claimed he had a contact in this group willing to discuss the group's activities. Not impossible. Even if the group's leaders are jerks, most people aren't. If the activism has anything to do with "social justice", the hypocrisy factor would be enough to make some spill. After some email back and forth, "Urban Badger" said his contact would prefer to me to email him first. Fine.
The reader should know that all attempts to contact the person of interest(technically innocent until proven guilty) had been met with stonewalling. Inquires of group members had been met with the "run around". I was ready to give "Urban Badger's" contact a shot. Worst that could happen was he could waste my time.
Waste my time he did, as detailed in my previous blog.
Cutting my losses, I continued digging elsewhere. Truth was, the clients had moved on. This was follow up work. After the arrogant stonewalling, I was ready to do this for free. Checking one thing lead me to double check another. And I found a shocker: "Urban Badger's" contact was "Urban Badger" himself. They had the same IP address(edited to respect TOS):
Received: from [82.70.xxx.xxx] by web46104.mail.sp1.xxxxxx via HTTP; Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:31:01 PDT
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:31:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: First Last <insidejob91153@xxxxxx>Thu, 3 Apr 2008 04:28:20 -0700
Message-ID:C2F70@phx.gbl>
Return-Path: urban-badger@xxxxxx
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary=\"_79d8c747-8517-4133-8722-967574d0a61e_\"
X-Originating-IP: [82.70.xxx.xxx]
From: Urban Badger <urban-badger@xxxxxx>
Why'd you do it, Urban Badger? Why are you helping these people hide? What kind of people attack former members long after they left? And what kind of person helps them get away with it? How do you justify that to yourself?Hostname
82-70-xxx-xxx.dsl.in-addr.zen.co.uk
Geo-Location Information
Country United Kingdom 
State/Region L2 City Rochdale Postal Code Latitude 53.6167 Longitude -2.15 Area Code
I don't think that's how they do things in England. Your July 7th buddies are going to wonder: why is "Urban Badger" trying to protect the unethical, and possibly illegal, activities of an American activist group?
Watch out for "Urban Badger". He'll waste your time and his moral compass is off line.
For the record, Saturday, April 12th I gave "Urban Badger" a chance to come clean and make it right by Monday. He never emailed back.
Not taking it personally. I get it:
End note: "Urban Badger": If you have a crisis of conscience and want to come clean, email me with everything I asked. I'll hide this blog as a draft while I review what you say. But its too late to take down the Indymedia posts; I don't control those.
7 comments:
Your reasoning in this case may be faulty. I am in quite close contact with Urban Badger, and believe him to be a sincere truth activist, regarding both 9/11 and 7/7. As it is with me, the truth is what concerns him, and we both realise that any disinformation which is being spread around is preventing the truth from emerging. You must realise that caution is advisable, when asked to supply any information which one has gathered about other people. Perhaps your method of approach concerned him.
Anthony Lawson, author of "WTC7 -- This is an Orange"
Hello, Anthony.
Thanks for weighing in. I've seen enough BS to disagree.
Caution I get. That's why I can't break client confidentiality. Which he demanded I do. That's a flag.
The method I used was the same one I always use: the polite question approach that works with everyone except the guilty or paranoid.
He had a chance to make it right. He didn't take it. I'm sorry if he's a buddy but he screwed up. And he did it in a way consistent with helping someone hide from consequences.
He has a connection with the (CITY) group. That means he already knows what's happening. He's protecting them, ergo he's part of the problem.
Sorry.
Forgot: demanding who hired me in a harassment case sounds like someone fishing for information to continue harassment.
Hello T. Brown,
You sound like someone who has already made up his or her mind, without first considering that you and your methods could give cause for concern on what many regard as very sensitive issues, because it seems that the judge and jury had done their job, before any witnesses for the defense had been heard. No surprises there, it's been going on since day one in each of the cases under discussion: 9/11 and 7/7.
If this is how you go about "investigating" things, you could be a danger to yourself, in that you could slip up and break something, jumping to conclusions.
I suppose I'll be next on your list, so I'll give you a kick start: Some of the no-planes theorists, for example: Webfairy, a staunch supporter of Killtown, Nico Haupt and Simon Shack, of "September Clues" infamy, have already "discovered" that I am a paedophile and child rapist and have made some videos about me. Of course their "findings" have nothing to do with the fact that I disagree with these people, it is because I happen to live in Thailand and I am 73 years old.
I'm sure you'll understand their reasoning, because you seem to be one of those people who just "knows" about such things. Of course I must be what they say I am, just as Urban Badger must be what you say he is. So there's a start. See what else you can dig up on me.
Anthony Lawson
Hello Anthony,
Remember what you see and read here is the very end of the story.
No, I do not just know things. Neither am I going to divulge how I know them unless they become a matter of public record.
You keep mentioning my "methods as being cause for concern". I don't know what you mean. The main method is asking the right people polite questions.
Why do you think you'll "be next"? That makes no sense. Are you doing something you shouldn't be? If so I don't know about it.
UB, as "First Last", acted like someone fishing for information. I know the difference between an exchange in good faith and "fishing". Had he come clean and apologized maybe we wouldn't be writing about this.
Here's something for nothing: UB complained to another source that I "wouldn't play ball". By which he meant I wasn't going to pass out information to anonymous people through him.
Ask him about that.
Use your common sense. Maybe he's a saint everywhere else, but he screwed up here. I'm not a telepath. I can't assume he meant well when he acted badly and won't even cop to it.
To respond to the rest of your comment:
I suppose I'll be next on your list, so I'll give you a kick start: Some of the no-planes theorists, for example: Webfairy, a staunch supporter of Killtown, Nico Haupt and Simon Shack, of "September Clues" infamy, have already "discovered" that I am a paedophile and child rapist and have made some videos about me. Of course their "findings" have nothing to do with the fact that I disagree with these people, it is because I happen to live in Thailand and I am 73 years old.
I'm sure you'll understand their reasoning, because you seem to be one of those people who just "knows" about such things. Of course I must be what they say I am, just as Urban Badger must be what you say he is. So there's a start. See what else you can dig up on me.
"Discovering" (assume you mean "making up") stuff out of thin air is not the same as being caught red handed trying to fish for confidential information.
The irony is one of the people you list was a person of interest. Exactly for(among other things) making stuff up and posting it on-line.
email me if you want:
tambroATgmail.com
Post a Comment