Free Republic

MILWAUKEE - A man who called himself "Dr. Chaos" online was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in federal prison for hacking into computers and causing power failures in northeastern Wisconsin. Joseph D. Konopka, 29, already is serving a 13-year federal prison sentence for pleading guilty in 2002 to chemical weapons possession for storing cyanide near a Chicago subway. The former computer systems administrator pleaded guilty in August to 11 felonies, including conspiracy, arson, creating counterfeit software and interfering with computers in Wisconsin. Prosecutors said Konopka, formerly of Hobart, and an "anarchist group of boys" called Realm of Chaos were responsible...

Federal agents are investigating the possibility that an electrical outage at a Utah Power relay station on the final day of the Winter Games was caused by an explosive device. State and federal authorities are looking at whether explosives wrapped in railroad spikes hurled shrapnel upward, shattering a circuit breaker. Railroad spikes were found at the substation near Salt Lake City International Airport, but officials have not settled the question of whether the explosion was a result of faulty equipment, vandalism or terrorism, The Salt Lake Tribune has learned. Material taken from the scene was being analyzed at a federal ...

From the National DeskPublished 5/8/2002 12:10 PM MILWAUKEE, May 8 (UPI) -- A self-styled Wisconsin anarchist who used the Internet nickname "Dr. Chaos" to recruit teens for his "Realm of Terror" was indicted by a federal grand jury for causing more than $800,000 damage in a more than two-year vandalism spree across the state.Joseph Konopka, 25, faces a maximum 30 years in prison if convicted on all 13 counts against him. FBI documents showed the one-time computer technician met teenaged boys on an Internet site called "Teens for Satan." He allegedly would invite them to his job in Green Bay,...

A man was charged Monday with storing deadly powdered cyanide in an underground passage that is part of the city's mass transit system. Joseph Konopka allegedly took over a Chicago Transit Authority storage room under the downtown district and stored sodium cyanide and potassium cyanide there. University of Illinois-Chicago police arrested Konopka and a juvenile Saturday night for allegedly trespassing, according to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court. They were found in a steam tunnel under the university's education building, according to the FBI. The FBI said Konopka was wanted on charges of fleeing to avoid prosecution in Wisconsin...