FC: Denver Post on cypherpunk list subscriber "threatening" Feds

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Here's our own Politech archive on mattd/proffr/professor rat, and his 
run-ins with the Australian cops:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=proffr

-Declan

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http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~1497971,00.html

Article Published: Monday, July 07, 2003 - 12:00:00 AM MST

Online threats target Denver investigators
Anarchist says e-mails harmless; feds disagree
By Jim Hughes, Denver Post Staff Writer

   An anarchist using the online moniker "Professor Rat" has threatened
   the lives of two federal terrorism investigators in Denver, advocating
   that they "need killing."

   The threats name an FBI agent assigned to the local multiagency Joint
   Terrorism Task Force and the government's lead prosecutor of terrorism
   cases in Colorado.

   Although those who travel in the same online circles as Professor Rat
   say his provocations are not to be taken seriously, officials say they
   are concerned about the threats, which were sent to an e-mail listserv
   and posted on the Internet in April.

   "The recipients of the threats have no way to discern their validity,"
   said Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office. "They
   cause fear and they disrupt lives, and it's for that reason that
   they're taken very seriously.

   "It's more than the individual targets. It's the families and those
   associated with them," he said.

   That is the purpose of the postings, an Australian man who admits to
   using the Professor Rat name and to posting these kinds of threats
   said in a telephone interview and a series of e-mails: To scare people
   out of working for the government.

   [...]

   Most current Cypherpunks subscribers have set up their e-mail in-boxes
   to block any messages coming from Taylor, said Declan McCullagh, a
   reporter for the high-tech website CNET.com. He has subscribed to
   Cypherpunks for 10 years, he said.

   Taylor exists on the "radical fringe" of online anarchists, McCullagh
   said. "He's routinely ignored and 'kill-filed' by just about everyone
   on the list. I'd be surprised if more than a small handful of people
   are reading his postings, let alone taking him seriously."

   Taylor acknowledged that he does not not have much support in
   anarchist circles.

   [...]




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