Bonum Certa Men Certa

Impersonating Journalists to Conduct Denial of Service Attacks and Muddy the Water in Techrights

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Nov 06, 2023,
updated Nov 06, 2023

A truly terrible plan or strategy in hindsight

Fox In The Street: Urban street fox in close-up

As this morning's teaser/meme hopefully made very clear, CoC rules may have been broken (not that broken CoCs matter when corporations stand to gain), plus actual laws appear to have been broken in an effort to deplatform us (not from some social control network) as in take us offline completely, even hijack the site at DNS level - a truly insane aspiration (IBM tried this proposition against Daniel Pocock and failed). Perjury and impersonations are not "for the lols", they bear serious consequences, but autistic people have a poor grasp of the law and authorities thus don't tend to hold them accountable. They are constantly deleting things they wrote, hoping that past actions will simply vanish, but we've collected close to 1,000 screenshots and have amassed thousands of lines in notes (textual). We're patient. We pay attention to details and facts. I started my Ph.D. over 20 years ago and I'm fluent at the scientific method. No need to made shallow hypotheses and assertions (or make stuff up) when you have verifiable, connected evidence linked to the original source/s. Credit goes out to my wife too, as she was like a diligent paralegal, exposing a fraud who had committed crimes against her while this vicious attacker was falsely identifying as a paralegal. Mental delusions and falsifying one's credentials apparently makes one qualified to run the GNOME Foundation, but that's a story for another day. In this post-truth era some Free software projects are taken over by undoubtedly unqualified people; they're not about science and technology. Remember who's running the Linux Foundation for over 15 years already (rife with serious scandals, hence easy to dethrone if or when the masters or corporate overlords wish so).

Today we'd like to focus on one particular aspect of this past year's attacks on our site - attacks that greatly intensified each time we reported on conspicuously suppressed information, such as Microsoft layoffs. Threatening behaviour against constructive and factual journalism is not an acceptable tactic, nor is it permissible in civilised nations that aren't autocratic with unofficial vigilantes of the regime.

The people who tried to deplatform us have made many mistakes for over a year, failing to cover their tracks when they doxed, defamed, and publicly peddled illegal (very hard) drugs. All these mistakes will cost them as we shall cover them and provide hard evidence, leading us back to the series about Sirius Open Source and crimes committed by the company against its very own staff (it didn't help that the CEO signed some secrecy deal with the Gates Foundation and money changed hands).

The militant elements we've dealt with are cruel but reckless. If their efforts or their "goal" is to "destroy" us (while coordinating this in public with the likes of Miguel de Icaza and other Microsoft employees), as they publicly stated several times, they've failed miserably and they've already begun looking for other "targets". Sometimes they publicly confront FSF Board members (pressure and blackmail tactics). They're not even hiding their agenda too well... they think they are being clever or even "funny" when they are in fact digging their own grave, deeper and deeper as they go. Sooner or later no company wishes to associate with them anymore, so they become unemployed and then send lawyers to people who merely wrote about their despicable actions.

Today we'll focus on systematic defamation against me. We started this a week ago, showing that fictional people were simply fabricated, claiming to be my "ex" and having kids with me (complete lie). Then, to make matters worse, these fabrications were being spread by E-mail, impersonating a "journalist". This "journalist" was also used to harass people who know me and to file false reports to my webhost. That's an actual crime. Some time next year we'll debunk the copyright claims in video and text, explaining how truly ludicrous this is and why the perpetrators should be prosecuted for their unlawful actions.

Here's an E-mail received in August:

Foster impersonation

Notice the false claim of 1) being a journalist. 2) being affiliated with that one site (The Intercept, see text below). This was most likely done by the same people who had created the defamatory, hateful (created for the sole purpose of harassment) blog.

And this was then sent onwards to other E-mail accounts (forwarding oneself to these):

Foster impersonation

For the sake of completeness, here is the full text of the message (with defamation link removed):
Fw: Subject: Seeking Understanding: A Heartfelt Inquiry

Sent with Proton Mail secure email.

------- Forwarded Message ------- From: Cade Foster <cade.foster117@proton.me>
Date: On Friday, August 11th, 2023 at 4:21 AM
Subject: Subject: Seeking Understanding: A Heartfelt Inquiry
To: [redacted]

> Dear Roy Schestowitz,
>
> I hope this message finds you well. I understand that this might be a sensitive and personal topic, but I feel compelled to reach out and address a matter that has been causing concern within our shared community. Recently, it has come to our attention that there has been speculation and discussion surrounding your relationship with Amelia Williams and your child, Emily Williams.
> Namely, you abandoning your ex and child back in 2006.
> [redacted]
>
> As someone who deeply respects your contributions to the open-source world and the principles you advocate for, I find myself grappling with the questions that have arisen. While I acknowledge that personal matters are inherently private, the abrupt change in your public presence has raised eyebrows and given rise to various conjectures.
>
> I write to you with genuine concern and a desire to understand. The open-source community has long been a place where collaboration, transparency, and empathy thrive. If you are comfortable sharing, I would appreciate hearing your perspective on the recent developments and your reasons for the decisions that have been made. This is not an attempt to pry, but rather a sincere effort to offer support and to foster an environment where open communication can lead to understanding.
>
> Of course, I recognize that this might be a delicate subject, and I respect your right to privacy. If you choose not to respond or to address this matter, please know that my intention is solely to reach out with empathy and a genuine desire to connect.
> With sincere regards,
>
> Cade Foster
> Investigative Reporter
> The Intercept
> Cade.Foster117@proton.me
> https://theintercept.com/

The Intercept? No.

Investigative Reporter? No.

Cade Foster? No.

Fake fake fake. Linking to one's fake and defamatory fabrications.

While adding many other (additional) defamatory pieces, falsely claiming I was involved in some crimes, admired Hitler, admired Unabomber etc. the very same imposter account sent me E-mail again (to be clear, I never ever responded to this account, which was reused and repurposed a lot later, as we shall show in the future):

Foster impersonation

Here is the text sent:
Dear Roy Schestowitz,

I hope you're doing well. Following up on my previous email, I wanted to touch on a recent development that has been causing a stir within our community. Amelia's blog has been notably active over the past week, and the content has sparked conversations and concerns.

Topics of concern from [redacted]

The similarities of two high tech dads: Roy Schestowitz and Steve Jobs
The child custody and child maintenance battle with the belligerent Roy Schestowitz
How Roy Schestowitz and I infiltrated a government office and stole an e-mail database and laptop
How Roy Schestowitz made an amazing Lobster Thermidor through dumpster diving
Almost caught: How Roy Schestowitz and I cloned cell phones for free service
Roy Schestowitz and his love for the Unabomber
How I helped save Roy Schestowitz from an addiction to methamphetamine
Dumpster diving for computer parts with Roy Schestowitz
Dating an extreme cheapskate: Roy Schestowitz
Roy Schestowitz got me pregnant and abandoned us

Given your influence and role within the open-source world, the community is genuinely interested in your perspective on this matter. While we respect your privacy, sharing your insights could help alleviate some of the growing unease.

Please understand that our intention is to offer support and understanding during what might be a challenging time. Your voice matters to us, and your perspective could provide clarity within our interconnected community.

Whether you choose to respond or not, I sincerely hope that you and your family are finding the strength and support needed. Our community stands ready to offer empathy and assistance whenever you're ready to reach out.

Best regards,

[Same false identification as before]

Well, fabricating or impersonating journalists to link to LIBEL (of one's own creation) is a crime, not merely a "serious matter", but we'll get to the legal aspects of those things some time in the future. The police departments here (in the UK) still have several open cases to deal with even worse crimes, connected to that same militant group. This was escalated to a more senior team, due to the complexity and severity of the matter.

Next Monday we'll show that the same sockpuppet/impersonation account was also used to contact people whom I've known for decades. At a later point we'll show forged formal reports made to the webhost, in effect breaking the law by means of identity theft and brigading/misusing a legal procedure by sockpuppeting.

In an effort to cover up many of these things, all (or by far the most) of the accounts have been self-nuked or terminated for abuse (typically only after we had made authenticated copies). This sort of 'digital suicide' shows not only a sense of guilt but a realisation that illegal things were done, so maybe due to shame and embarrassment (or fear of law enforcement) the persons behind it chose to 'vanish'.

OK, we get it, so we are effective enough to have meticulously documented all this, with credit to our community (which does a lot of the legwork), but will anyone be punished by law? If not, what do laws exist for? Selective enforcement for and by the powerful?

Will we take legal action? Maybe, but not yet. Suing takes a long time and it doesn't pay for itself when the militants ('fodder') are poor and clinically autistic (the latter can be used as a legal defence, at least to lessen the jail sentence or damages).

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