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Steven Hatfill's Strange Trip From Accused Terrorist to Medical Adventurer
Newsweek ^ | June 18, 2014 | Cameron Bird

Posted on 06/29/2014 12:05:43 AM PDT by John Faust

... Across a series of blogs and far-right message boards, someone going by the moniker of “the Real Luigi Warren” (a.k.a. “Luigi ‘Anthrax’ Warren”) had operated a lurid rumor mill about Hatfill for more than a decade—promoting, in particular, hearsay about the years he lived and worked in southern Africa during the throes of apartheid. In 2010, after the aggressor surfaced in the comments section of theatlantic.com, Hatfill’s lawyers made their move. They sent a six-page letter to the man they assumed to be the real Luigi Warren, a stem-cell researcher at Harvard Medical School named, not incidentally, Luigi Warren. They gave him 14 days to delete the online attacks or have his “reproachable conduct” exposed in litigation.

But Warren flipped the script. In fact, he had been a prolific post-9/11 commentator on his own woolly blog, The Hatfill Deception, where he posited that “the campaign to promote Steven Hatfill as a ’person of interest’…was a bureaucratic ruse or diversion to maintain a useful strategic ambiguity.” But Warren said to Hatfill’s attorneys that he was not the source of the latest diatribes against Hatfill; someone, he said, was impersonating him. In a quest to triangulate their way to the troll, whoever it was, Hatfill’s attorneys roped Google into the lawsuit. The company eventually cooperated, handing over the IP address behind the “Luigi Warren” blogs, hosted by Google’s blogspot. That numerical fingerprint—142.232.65.7—was traced to a computer in South Africa, at Stellenbosch University, where Hatfill had earned a master’s degree and completed a medical residency in the early ’90s. School officials reported that the machine in question belonged to a radiation oncologist named John Michie. The defendant agreed to a confidential settlement. (Michie did not respond to an interview request from Newsweek; Hatfill voluntarily dismissed Google from the suit.) ...

(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...


TOPICS: Anthrax Scare; Crime/Corruption; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 2010; 2014; amerithrax; anthrax; apartheid; comey; google; hatfill; johnmichie; luigiwarren; michie; mueller; oncologist; robertmueller; rosenberg; safrica; southafrica; stellenbosch; stellenboschu; stemcell; stevenhatfill; tgs; thegreatsatan; warren
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Who else remembers The Great Satan? Somehow I don't think Newsweek has the whole story.
1 posted on 06/29/2014 12:05:43 AM PDT by John Faust
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To: Khan Noonian Singh; Shermy; Battle Axe; TrebleRebel; jpl; Allan; Mitchell; cgk; angcat; nicmarlo; ..

Ping... Anybody still here?


2 posted on 06/29/2014 12:07:21 AM PDT by John Faust
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To: John Faust

Does anybody know what the comments were on theatlantic.com? Better yet, is there a link, or a link to the Wayback Machine?

To my recollection, the troll was trolling Warren, not Hatfill.


3 posted on 06/29/2014 12:17:39 AM PDT by John Faust
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To: John Faust

So far, what I got out of the article is that The Atlantic is a far right publication.


4 posted on 06/29/2014 12:26:35 AM PDT by OldNewYork
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To: OldNewYork

I think it was a comment some reader posted that generated Hatfill’s complaint, not the Atlantic article itself.


5 posted on 06/29/2014 12:35:37 AM PDT by John Faust
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To: John Faust

Still getting curiouser......................

Article in question: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/05/the-wrong-man/308019/

Howsoever, offending comments by LW are all deleted, every one o’ them.


6 posted on 06/29/2014 12:49:15 AM PDT by Khan Noonian Singh
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To: Khan Noonian Singh; John Faust
Correction... Offending comments << NOT >> by LW, just claimed by the troll to be by LW. Still all deleted, every one o' them!
7 posted on 06/29/2014 1:00:03 AM PDT by Khan Noonian Singh
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To: John Faust

I do remember The Great Satan, and his interest in Project Hatfill - indeed, I have a vague memory that it was his blog - or maybe not, I can’t get the details right.

This is a fascinating story, and it shows the limits of the anonynimity of the internet.


8 posted on 06/29/2014 1:56:55 AM PDT by BlackVeil ('The past is never dead. It's not even past.' William Faulkner)
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To: BlackVeil; John Faust
You remember correctly. << Project Hatfill >> was TGS's blog on blogspot. I think earlier called << The Hatfill Deception >> on Angelfire.

Offending blog vis-a-vis Newsweek was the << Luigi Warren >> blog, which was << NOT >> by Luigi Warren aka TGS, but by some stalker who accused him.

Newsweek says the stalker was Michie.

Both blogs are gone gone gone. Warren's was at hatfill.blogspot.com, now innocuous pap. The stalker's was at luigiwarren.blogspot.com, just gone.

Still mysterioso: Why did Hatfill sue over the stalking, when the stalking was aimed at Warren???

9 posted on 06/29/2014 2:20:33 AM PDT by Khan Noonian Singh
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To: BlackVeil
This is a fascinating story, and it shows the limits of the anonynimity of the internet.

Yes, it's a fascinating story.

The limits-of-anonymity point you brought up is interesting:

John Michie's identity was revealed through Internet sleuthing, requiring a lawsuit and perhaps Hatfill's gravitas to get Google to give in.

However, Luigi Warren as TGS's real name was revealed the old-fashioned way: someone who knew him spilled the beans.
10 posted on 06/29/2014 2:51:20 AM PDT by John Faust
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To: Khan Noonian Singh
Why did Hatfill sue over the stalking, when the stalking was aimed at Warren???

Good question, Khan. Who benefited most from this?

I think Warren benefited more than Hatfill: Warren found out who had been stalking him for years and got him to stop (even if Warren knew or guessed before who the stalker was, he couldn't have proven it or done anything about it).
11 posted on 06/29/2014 2:57:56 AM PDT by John Faust
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To: John Faust
The whole affair remains a fascinating story. A series of fascinating stories, actually.

There is The Steven Hatfill Experience, itself.

There was The Pointed Finger, by Dr. Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, born of some kind of dubious (and inexplicable) hysteria.

Then, there was The Final Resolution Of The Whodunnit (Dr. Bruce Ivins done it) -- more a solution of convenience than a true resolution.

And, in all the smoke and dust (and mirrors), there remains The Great Amerithrax Mystery. Unsolved still today.

We don't know where the anthrax came from, nor who was responsible for delivering it. It remains Nine Eleven's matryoshka.

12 posted on 06/29/2014 10:02:26 AM PDT by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: Ignorance on parThe whole affair remains a fascinating storyade.)
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To: John Faust; okie01; BlackVeil; OldNewYork
<< I think Warren benefited more than Hatfill: Warren found out who had been stalking him for years and got him to stop (even if Warren knew or guessed before who the stalker was, he couldn't have proven it or done anything about it). >>

Exactamente. Two potzibilties:

1 - Did Warren and Hatfill agree that Hatfill would file suit against Warren, just so Warren could get Google to reveal his stalker's IP address?

or

2 - Did Warren bait Hatfill to file suit against him, again so Warren could get Google to reveal his stalker's IP address?

I.e., are Warren and Hatfill in collusion, or not?
13 posted on 06/29/2014 11:00:08 AM PDT by Khan Noonian Singh
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To: John Faust; okie01; BlackVeil; OldNewYork
<< However, Luigi Warren as TGS's real name was revealed the old-fashioned way: someone who knew him spilled the beans. >>

Whosoever revealed TGS's true identity? Were it Michie, or somebody else?

Didnt the diatribe spelling out Luigi's name mention Stellenbosch? But Michie wouldnt have known, hm?

More likely somebody Warren knew, who turned?

Very strange... Warren takes pains for years, secretively hiding behind multiple IDs and sockpuppets. Then suddenly one day, badaboom, his real name is revealed.
14 posted on 06/29/2014 12:12:22 PM PDT by Khan Noonian Singh
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To: Khan Noonian Singh; okie01; BlackVeil; OldNewYork
Very strange... Warren takes pains for years, secretively hiding behind multiple IDs and sockpuppets. Then suddenly one day, badaboom, his real name is revealed.

Warren might have decided that his best option was to reveal his own name, anonymously of course.

1st, the secretiveness may have been attracting too much unwanted attention.

2nd, being willing to reveal his own name was an implied threat that he was willing to reveal anything.

The "Let the chips fall where they may, old chap" theory.

15 posted on 06/29/2014 12:46:15 PM PDT by John Faust
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To: John Faust; okie01; BlackVeil; OldNewYork

Not 142.232.65.7 ... IP address was 146.232.xxx.xxx.

Accuracy in every thing. But I am just a lowly FR poster without a fact-checker.

Please remind me -—— What do those big-media editorial gatekeepers add again?


16 posted on 06/29/2014 5:05:02 PM PDT by Khan Noonian Singh
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To: Justice Department; Dark Wing; Gene Vidocq; Mother Abigail; Prince Charles; swilhelm73; ...

Ping to a few more people who might be interested if they’re still around.


17 posted on 06/30/2014 7:41:02 AM PDT by John Faust
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To: John Faust
<< Warren might have decided that his best option was to reveal his own name >>

May be ...... He did plai a good game of chicken, learnt from the master.

Still, still... personal best guess that some body wary exercized his right to defend. No attornees needed for that one.
18 posted on 06/30/2014 9:31:13 AM PDT by Khan Noonian Singh
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To: John Faust

Thanks. Check out John Ringo’s pasting of DOJ and the FBI on this in his _Under a Graveyard Sky_. Their attitude is that, if you can explain how a crime occurred, you must have done it. No one in medicine or biology in their right mind will now talk to them about anything remotely related to biological terrorism or warfare.


19 posted on 06/30/2014 10:36:42 AM PDT by Thud
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To: Khan Noonian Singh
Yes, a very good game of chicken.

But don't you wonder... what was his actual game?

Probably more than ten thousand posts on FR and elsewhere. A well-maintained blog with articles carefully thought out and persuasively written. Nearly a full-time pursuit.

Why?

20 posted on 06/30/2014 11:05:35 AM PDT by John Faust
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