Leopold (left) and Johnson.
Posted on 07/26/2006 5:32:29 PM PDT by RatherBiased.com
Leopold (left) and Johnson.
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Since I last updated NB readers on this story (you really need the post to understand this one), Leopold or a minion posted more of Sexion's personal information as well as his parents' address and his mother's name late night on his blog and at Ace of Spades, ensuring it would remain overnight.
Sexion then received an email apparently from Larry Johnson, a former CIA officer and state department guy who now seems to spend his time peddling conspiracy theories and promoting Jason Leopold and Joe Wilson. After divulging more of Seixon's personal information, Johnson all but threatened the blogger to stop his reporting :
I am willing to accept a written apology and move on. If you refuse to retract your statements about me I am prepared to ratchet this up several levels. I have not spent the last twenty years working with the U.S. military and the intelligence community to accept this kind of nonsense from a wet-nosed 24 year old coward, who is an armchair warrior but does not have the courage to enlist in the military when his country is at war.
Asked if that was a threat, Johnson replied:
I know where you are living. You forget that I do work for the European Union and friends in Interpol. I've offered you a mature way to deal with this situation. You're obviously too immature and inexperienced to recognize the offer for what it is. Too bad.
(This type of behavior isn't exactly unknown from Johnson. He has a habit of emailing critics in a similarly empty and pugnacious manner.)
Things got worse early this morning when Seixon received a phone call from someone who said he had written "naughty things" on his blog. When asked to identify himself, the caller laughed. "You're a dead man," he replied.
Questions: Now that a blogger is getting death threats and intimidating email which his local law enforcement considers serious, will liberal media reporters like Howard Kurtz, Bill Carter, and Jim Romenesko sit up and take notice of a very real threat to press freedom? Will a clearly disturbed individual like Johnson finally be banished from ever appearing as a credible commentator or informed source as he surely deserves to be? Will the lefty hand-wringers who complain about "Bush undermining our freedoms" denounce this?
Jeff Goldstein (who received a threat from a leftist professor earlier) is on the money about all the recent left-wing sock puppet scandals and how they reflect on the far left's reporters and public figures:
Many of those being cited as “experts” on issues that will shape public opinion and could, in theory, manifestly impact public policy and law, are in fact puffed up creations of an organized message machine whose goal it is to shape the official public narrative—even if doing so requires behind the scenes machinations. Because to adherents of such a worldview, anything is acceptable once you’ve decided that it is up to you to fight for the “greater good”—an impulse that I imagine grows even stronger once it joins forces with others who share that same tinpot Machiavellian’s sense of social pragmatism.
And now, with this new story, what we have is several reporters and a former CIA agent using base intimidation that has escalated into a potentially actionable—and quite serious—offense.
So while I agree with Brian that the public discourse is not particularly better for having sunk to its current level, I think it is important to cover these stories nevertheless—particularly when some in the “unified messaging” community are simply unable to keep their true natures hidden.
People who don’t follow politics closely need to see beyond the easy “progressive” bromides about supporting “tolerance” and being against “hate”.
Because the truth is, many so-called “progressives” are absolutely saturated with hate and will tolerate nothing that doesn’t hew to their idea of what the world should look like. And their impatience is beginning to show.
Ace has more a lot more news so be sure and check his site out, too. Confederate Yankee notices accused sock puppeteer has been rather silent on this subject.
That Leopold is so hot!
O.K. I lied.
When rogue bloggers like this guy upset the plan and expose the players, they have to silence him quickly.
-PJ
I have similar thoughts. As much as I think I would welcome the day that The Houston Chronicle, NY Times and such "stop the presses" for good, they do have an army of reporters that bring issues to light. Although reported with liberal bias, once issues are exposed, conservatives, bloggers and concerned citizens can do research and learn the truth(too bad "reporters" can't tell the truth). Ideally, the internet will force the MSM to report neutrally and I could buy a newspaper again, it's been about five years. Of course The Houston Chronicle would have to quit posting homosexual "nuptuals" and accept firearm classifieds from individuals before I'd buy their rag.
Cheers
This is amazing. I've spent 2 hours going thru the hot links in this story which has more layers than any onion I've run across. I hope Howie Kurtz will do the same thing but I'm not holding my breath.
I got a similar call from a local after I dared suggest a few uncomfortable questions that people should ask Kerry "band of brothers" member Jim Wasser when he came to town. The guy blocked the caller ID, asked me if I'd been in 'Nam (he knew I hadn't been, I'm only in my thirties and it's obvious from the head shot that runs with my column) and then he said, "You'd better be careful what you write about Jim Wasser."
I said, "You're mighty brave calling my house and making threats with a blocked caller ID. Listen up, boy: You try to make good on your threat and you will need a coroner. This is the only warning you get."
He hung up without saying anything else. I never heard from him again...and the harassing calls that had begun as soon as my column started its run stopped immediately. I have no idea why such a person would be scared off by li'l ole me...maybe he knew I wasn't bluffing, or maybe he had easily intimidated others before and had no idea what to do when someone pushed back.
He claims to do work for the EU, so shouldn't he be registered as a foreign agent? A foreign agent threatening a US citizen?
Mark
In all seriousness, he probably said that because Sexion is in Norway and he wanted to emphasize that he'd have no trouble getting to him. It's probably bravado, but it's better to be safe than sorry.
BUMP!
BTTT
Isn't it amazing that Larry threatened Mad Mammoth on or about this same exact date 1 year ago? What's the deal with that?
I just love it! For some strange reason, cops and ex military seem to think they're the only ones who can defend themselves.
Larry Johnson and his ilk, Interpol and the EU are the embodiment of three of the five major problems in the world.
Keep on kicking sand in the faces of the perceived 90lb weaklings Mr. Johnson. If you REALLY are with the CIA/Interpol, you've just outed YOURSELF. I think you're a big sack of leftist drivel and not very much more. Valerie Plame could get up from her copier and coffeemaker duties at the CIA and kick yours out the door.
nudge
I haven't been following this, but I did post some silly pics of the Plame dame...suppose I'm a dead man too, am I? Oh well, if it gets too hot here I can always move to Tasmania...and take up astronomy at the University there, LOL!
We are all Dead men. Jerry Garcia lives!
In my area, you hit *69 after the caller hangs up. Then an automated voice from the phone company relays the phone number to you. The cost is 75¢.
What you say is true for most people here at FR. By its very nature, it attracts people who are politically aware and who are seeking out information for themselves.
But, you have to remember that the MSM nightly broadcast news still reaches 10's of millions of people each night, while FNC is still around a million (on average) with the other cables far behind. It's those other people who hear the news as background noise that are influenced by these tactics.
-PJ
Unfortunately, in my area, *69 calls them back without giving you the number. Thanks for helping, though.
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