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.