AntiOnline Thug Continues Deceitful Email Campaign
Tue Jun 22 18:25:38 MDT 1999
ATTRITION Staff


Part One

On or around June 22, 1999, Carolyn Meinel continued the now
joint Antionline/Happy Hacker harassment campaign against individuals
deemed 'hostile' to their criminal ways. A source at MSNBC forwarded
two pieces of email from Ms. Meinel to the staff at Attrition in an
attempt to gain clarity on why they were being targetted for the latest
wave of harassment.

The threatening letter to MSNBC comes shortly after a nasty note from
Ms. Meinel to Polly Sprenger of Wired, after she released an article
about AntiOnline. Meinel accuses Sprenger of being a "patsy" and participating
in "deceitful attempt to damage a competing business."

Editors at MSNBC arrived to work to find a much more threatening letter from
the designated thug of AntiOnline. In the initial note to MSNBC,
Meinel threatens that "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."

Interesting to note about this harassing and threatening letter, is that
the initial complaint is against a journalist Lew Koch. Mr. Koch
is not an employee of MSNBC at all. Utilizing 'pretzel logic', Ms. Meinel
and company apparently arrived at this conclusion:

	1. Lew Koch writes for CyberWire Dispatch
	2. Brock Meeks operates CyberWire Dispatch
	3. Brock Meeks works for MSNBC
	
	therefore

	4. Lew Koch must work for MSNBC

This 'logic' has lead many people to being harassed by Meinel or her group 
of malicious henchmen.

The hypocrisy of Ms. Meinel's unfounded allegations come as no surprise
after her track record. Using a standard bait and switch tactic, Ms. Meinel
tries to divert attention from the truth of the matter by resorting to
personal attacks, libel, and new levels of hypocritical accusations.

Some of the points of hypocrisy to note:

	* "This Web site is so bizarre, and so obviously full of fantasy"
	  Meinel is no stranger to fantasy.

	* "The second problem with Koch is his malicious attitude toward 
          people whom the owner of Attrition.org (Brian Martin) dislikes."
	  Much like the threatening mail to MSNBC among others?

Some of the personal attacks (some of which are libelous):

	* "News stories say Martin has been raided by the FBI as a suspect 
           in the ... attack on the New York Times.."

	  Meinel is a suspect and under investigation as well.

	* "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."

	  This is the same underhanded and illegal tactics used by Meinel to
	  convince her victims of our wrongdoing. In three years, she has not
	  been able to produce a single log showing any involvement by
	  Attrition staff.

	* "Koch's planned story for MSNBC may be an attempt by an unscrupulous
	  competitor, in collaboration with computer criminals..."

	  Meinel is no stranger to computer crime. She is guilty of that as well
	  as criminal conspiracy in the intrusion to several Denver based systems.


Ms. Meinel fails to offer any proof into her claims. Instead, she gives one
vague offer of proof in saying "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." What witnesses were there to the 
private mail between Brian Martin and Lew Koch? Either this offer is another lie,
or she is admitting to violating US Title 18 law by monitoring and reading 
intercepted mail.


Part Two

After the threatening and disjointed rambling mail to MSNBC, Brock meeks contacted
Ms. Meinel to straighten her out on several points, mainly that Koch was not
an MSNBC employee. Despite taking this to private mail, Ms. Meinel responded
not only to Mr. Meeks, but to several other MSNBC employees.

Starting off the second mail with "Your shady correspondent, Lew Koch" set the tone
of the entire mail. Not only has she begun to libel Mr. Koch, but she fails to
realize that as a target of her own FBI investigation, she is just as 'shady'
as anyone else. The second letter resorts to more personal attacks
like calling various Attrition staff "cybermob" members, and calling the 
web site a "computer crime advocacy group".

Ms. Meinel insinuates that Mr. Koch is involved in a "massive campaign to shut 
down [John Vranesevich]". This comes after Mr. Koch spoke with Mr. Vranesevich
at length, outlining his desire to write an article focusing on AntiOnline.
Koch has been nothing but up front regarding his article, and has given Vranesevich
every opportunity to tell his side of the story.


Meinel's three year wave of harassment and stalking various members of Attrition
has reached new levels. Threatening major news outlets like MSNBC is only a small
part of the deception and lies she caters to. Our deepest sympathy goes out
to the editors of MSNBC for being dragged into this fray.