ABC News has now picked up on the story of the SWATting of bloggers, reporting that Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) has written to the Department of Justice asking for an investigation into the incidents. I thought the story would stop there, but ABC told the rest of the story, including the possible connection of the Speedway Bomber Brett Kimberlin.
The Bibb County District Attorney’s office in Georgia currently is investigating the [Erick Erickson] case and could not offer comment on it. Asked who he suspected was responsible for the phone call to police, Erickson declined to speculate.
But several conservative bloggers have been vocal about who they believe is responsible for the SWAT-tings and other forms of harassment — Brett Kimberlin, a man who was convicted of a series of bombings in Speedway, Indiana in the 1980s and made headlines in 1988 when he claimed to have once sold marijuana to then-vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle.
The group of conservative bloggers organized “Everybody Blog About Brett Kimberlin Day” on May 25, during which they urged the blogging community to write about the actions of Kimberlin.
Kimberlin, who is now the director of a non-profit organization called Justice Through Music, told ABC News that he did not commit or ask anyone to conduct the SWAT-ting hoaxes that were perpetrated against Erickson and Frey.
“Of course not, it’s ridiculous. It’s totally irresponsible for them to even say this,” Kimberlin told ABC News. “There is no truth to anything about the SWAT-ting.”
But some conservative bloggers contend Kimberlin and his associates are responsible for other forms of harassment as well. Robert Stacy McCain, a contributor to the American Spectator and founder of The Other McCain Blog, wrote about Kimberlin, and shortly after, his wife’s place of employment received a phone call from Kimberlin accusing McCain of harassment. Based on Kimberlin’s ability to find his wife’s employer, McCain became concerned Kimberlin also knew the location of his home, so the McCain family relocated to an undisclosed location.
“If I was going to continue doing this story, I couldn’t do it from my home,” McCain told ABC News. ”This kind of intimidation — it’s a threat to protected first amendment expression.”
Go read the whole thing, it’s a pretty thorough article. Of course, Kimberlin claims he has no online presence and that he’s just a victim.
Kudos to ABC News for covering this story, and also to Senator Chambliss for getting involved. The text of his letter is included in the article linked above.
Update: Chambliss published the full text of his letter here. Oh, and via Michelle Malkin, read what happens when these SWAT incidents go wrong.
Memeorandum has a thread with links to The Other McCain, Nice Deb, “The Lid” and Examiner. There’s also a link to the site Kimberlin denies running. He denies a lot of things. There’s also a sub-thread linking to The Other McCain, American Power, Riehl World View, Political Insider, The Jawa Report, UrbanGrounds, The Camp Of The Saints, Pirate’s Cove, Mediaite, and Examiner.
Update: Smitty at The Other McCain weighed in (Stacy’s in an undisclosed location) and That Mr. G. Guy is still waiting to hear from his representative. He’s not the only one
This is a good entry for the LMSM into the Kimberlin saga. The comments after the report were interesting as well. In this political theater, private investigators or the FBI is the only hope for action, IMO.
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The FBI hasn’t done much in Patrick Frey’s case. Could be that he’s in LA so they probably have bigger fish to fry. The local authorities are looking into the Erickson case, as well as the implied threats made to Ali’s family.
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Oh, and the ABC article also noted that in 2009 a man was investigated for a SWATting conspiracy and he was convicted and sentenced to 9 years.
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It might be interesting if a PI would FOIA the 911 calls and submit them for voiceprint forensics. Who knows?
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Frey hired a voice expert who is pretty certain the voice on his 911 call is a guy who is an associate of Kimberlin. The FBI knows about it but hasn’t done anything.
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It is more likely that the only reason for the FBI to investigate Kimberlin would be to get him a job at the DOJ, to make sure that he is rotten enough for Holder’s empire.
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It’s about time that a member of congress step up and add some authority to the request for investigation!
Go Saxby Chambliss!!
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[...] truth.”Read the whole thing.In related news, Da TechGuy and The Other McCain note how CNN got scooped by ABC on the news of the swatting of Erick Erickson, who is a CNN contributor.NRO’s David French [...]
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