-----Original Message-----
 From:	Carolyn Meinel [mailto:cmeinel@techbroker.com]
 (mailto:[mailto:cmeinel@techbroker.com])
 Sent:	Monday, June 21, 1999 5:32 PM
 To:	(various people at MSNBC)
 Cc:	mcacas@freedomforum.org
 Subject:	Max Cacas suggested I write to you
 
 Max Cacas of the PBS Freedom Forum suggested that I write to you about a
 potential problem brewing with Lew Koch, who says he is writing for MSNBC
 (presumably for ZDnet).  He says he is researching allegations that John
 Vranesevich of http://www.antionline.com paid someone to break into and
 deface the US Senate Web site in exchange for getting the right to be the
 reporter who breaks the story.  Sorry, I don't know who Koch's editor is.
 My concern is that Koch's sources are the hacker staff and associates of
 http://www.attrition.org.  This Web site is so bizarre, and so obviously
 full of fantasy, who would think any reporter would use it as a source?
 Yet on June 7, Polly Sprenger of Wired ran a story "Hacker Pundits
 Squabble" (http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/20062.html)
 alleging that Vranesevich committed this felony.  Wired refused to retract
 the story, even though Sprenger's editor, James Glave, has admitted that
 they made no effort to verify the Attrition.org claims.
 Because of Sprenger's story, two advertisers pulled out from Vranesevich's
 web site, putting him into the red.  
 The second problem with Koch is his malicious attitude toward people whom
 the owner of Attrition.org (Brian Martin) dislikes.  I know-because in
 1996 I was a target of Koch's nasty emails and phone calls stemming from
 his relationship with Brian Martin.  News stories
 (e.g.http://www.forbes.com/penenberg/0301.htm) say Martin has been raided
 by the FBI as a suspect in the $1.5 million attack on the New York Times
 computer system of Sept. 13, 1998.  This assault was a retaliation against
 NYT reporter John Markoff. Even a casual reading of the Attrition site
 makes it clear that they favor computer crime, and harassment of reporters
 who fail to toe their party line.
 Over the last few months, Vranesevich's Antionline.com also has been
 targeted by an avalanche of computer crime.  Logs suggest complicity by
 Attrition.org staff.  Corey Gallatin (a Sprint network engineer) and I
 have been providing volunteer computer security consulting and free loans
 of hardware to keep Antionline running despite this barrage of crime.  
 Koch's planned story for MSNBC may be an attempt by an unscrupulous
 competitor, in collaboration with computer criminals, to put Vranesevich
 out of business.  My concern is that an assault by MSNBC would put
 Vranesevich out of business.  This can make a MAJOR news story-a news
 story I hope never has to be told, because I hope you will make certain
 that anything that MSNBC/ZDnet publishes about Vranesevich is factual and
 fair.
 I would be happy to share with you any further information, including
 phone numbers of witnesses, that you may need to verify this complaint
 against the tactics of Koch.

 
 Carolyn Meinel
 http://www.happyhacker.org
 505-281-9675