This statement is being made for
educational purposes for those who have questions about the author's
information found in certain places online, published without
authorization, by members and associates of a Portland "truther"
group.
To be clear:
1. I have never been a public figure in any type of activism.2. I have never given anyone permission to use my personal information and information obtained by the group was done under false pretences, in other words, obtained by fraud3. The parties responsible have been informed ALL this information should be removed because ALL of it was obtained under false pretences. They have refused to do so(as of the time of this writing).4. No group member of associate is to contact me in any way, shape or form.5. Numerous complaints have been made to ISP providers, webhosts and social media over the years. Much material has been removed as a result. Much still remains. Hence the need for this statement.
In 2006 I was invited under false pretences to join an activist group list that claimed to have a
liberal anti-war agenda. It was actually a fringe right "Tea
Party" friendly front run by con artists who had worked for
years to insinuate themselves in the left/radical Portland activist
scene. Though not obvious at first, the group's activities were
predatory, deceptive, and manipulative.
This is the first point: it's bad
enough if a group wants to be Pro Militia Nazi apologists, but they
should not pretend to be liberals to recruit leftists as their
shield.
The group claimed to be:
1. Mainly progressive leftists2. Anti war activists3. Had no relationship or connection with fringe right politics.
None of these things were true.
This was a time I was relatively new to
the Internet and wasn't as savvy about online security.
Nonetheless, I never published my personal information in connection
to any activism, not have I ever given anyone permission to do so. I
was never a public figure. After the deceptive nature of both the
group and the people who pretended to be trustworthy became obvious
and I severed ties, several people started to spread my personal
information with vindictive lies, the most ludicrous of which, apparently written jointly by Craig Lazo and Jennifer Wynhausen, is that
I was involved with blackmailing a man and his wife (I do not know
either of these people).
Most of this was done on private emails
lists that would later be accessed by anti-racist activists. As a
result I now have copies of most of these lies and, in many cases,
know exactly who was working with whom privately. One glaringly
inconsistency of these malicious stories is why a lawyer (who owned
and ran a couple of the lists) and a woman who works in a state
agency (with a DA for an ex-husband) did not try to pursue criminal
charges for the "stalking" I am repeatedly accused of
doing(at the same time Lamadrid was spreading these exact same lies).
The obvious reason is that neither one
of them(or Lamadrid) wants to be caught filing a false police report.
I severed ties with this group in
August of 2007. But even then I still had no idea how far the
deception went. For instance at least two individuals have direct
connections to the Libertarian Party and another has been using the
Indymedia collective as a base for running scams for years(since at
least 2002). At the time there was no information available for
anyone who tried to investigate the group's past or its members. It
wasn't until years after I disassociated with these people, around
2011-2012, that antifascists/anti racist activists discovered the
group's hidden and long standing connections to the far right. The
fact was this group was a front for "Tea Party" like
political activity. This is important: the nature of the group was
deliberately hidden from me and, had I been completely informed of
their interests activities and alliances, I would never have gotten
involved with these people.
The person who recruited me to the list was Sara Lamadrid. I have reason to believe she was fully aware of the
nature of the group and had been sharing confidential information
with third parties from the time I joined the list. Within the
first two months, during exchanges, Lamadrid would float ideas that
in retrospect were "testing the water" to see how open I
was to racist propaganda.
In one case the subject of Holocaust
Denial came up; I forget the context, but it was probably because of
accusations that people involved in "truthersim" were
Holocaust Deniers. Since I knew I wasn't a Holocaust Denier, the
strongly suggested idea that people making these accusations were
"agents" or "shills" seemed plausible. I do
remember in the course of an exchange expressing frustration that it
was hard to actually research the subject of Holocaust Denial; in
their zeal to quiet racists(which I support), many book stores didn't
have anything on the subject even for a comparison study. (Imagine
Hermione Granger's frustration researching Horcruxes). I was
however lucky enough to find Debrah Lipbstats book "Denying TheHolocaust", which, for the purposes of understanding Holocaust
Denial is more than sufficient. I purchased this book and shared my
insights, concluding Holocaust Denier's were gullible at best and
sleazy racists at worst. For the record, I have always abhorred Nazis, at least since I saw The Diary of Anne Frank broadcast on television in my early teens.
Nonetheless, even when Lamadrid was
aware that I was not sympathetic or open to Holocaust Denial or the
people endorsing it, she at no point informed me members of the group
were Holocaust Deniers and supportive of racist politics. Any group
claiming to be left liberal progressives while knowingly associating
with Nazi apologists is running a fraud.
Note: Lamadrid and others would
encourage me to contact a man called Tim Calvert(I never did).
Calvert was known through the "radical" communitiesLamadrid claimed to be expert about for being a Holocaust Denier. At
no point was I warned of this fact. They did this knowing I could attract potential deadly attention considering I look mixed-race (I don't identify as a "person of color", but violent racists have never been known for awareness of nuanced situations).
In another instance, during the first
couple weeks of association, Lamadrid inquired about my past activist
experience. While I was never involved with organizing, I did keenly
support the "No on Ballot Measure 9" and "No on 13" fights against the homophobic
legislation Lon Mabon's Oregon Citizen's Alliance attempted to pass.
This is important because the most active closet Holocaust Denier in
the group is connected to the Constitution Party of Oregon, the
people who are the friends of and direct political descendants of LonMabon's Oregon Citizen's Alliance. This fact was not discovered by
me until a couple years ago.
This omission is biblical in it's
scope. Lamadrid and her friends claimed to be informed and
experienced activists, familiar with the local scene. It would be
impossible for an "informed, experienced left " activist,
operating in Portland, to not know who Lon Mabon was, his OCA history,
and his then current connections to the Constitution Party. These
"experts" would also intermittently give vague warnings
that some members had "associations" with racists and
homophobes. It is impossible to imagine they did not know that
association was through the OCA Mark II. The only reason I can see
that they didn't simply say this is they were afraid I would have
bailed immediately.
And they would have been right.
Of course the bigger question is why
were they, while claiming to be progressive leftists, were even
involved with people who had a connection to the old Oregon Citizen's
Alliance. That they thought no one would ever find out simply speaks
to their pathological arrogance. A serial con man close to Lamadrid
was caught by someone(possibly Antifa) allowing one of these people to continue posting on their private list years later.
I repeat, Lamadrid and her "truther"
group, knowing full well the ties it had to the Constitution Party
and their history with the Oregon Citizen's Alliance and it's
anti-gay agenda, claimed to be left anti war activists with no
tolerance for homophobes and racists to recruit people.
This group and others like it are
deceptive, manipulative and predatory. They try to control members
and their image by spinning tales of "agents" and
"cointelpro". If you express scepticism, or hold out for
proof, they will stage drama to convince to "someone out there"
is trying to disrupt their activities. In other words, members will
pretend to fight with each other to convince marks there are really
"agents among us".
Why do they do it? There's no one
answer. Mostly money from selling fringe conspiracy books and DVD's,
but there is a political angle. Many of the people involved were Ron Paul supporters(< devastating link on Ron Paul's racist associations). This group had connections to the Libertarian
Party, the Larouche PAC, and individuals connected to a couple other
destructive cults.
Many members use their professions,
jobs and institutions to push the group's agenda. For instance,
one member is a lawyer and appears credible; another works for the State of Oregon. Lamadrid uses/used Portland State University as a
platform as well as the church her parents were pastors at. The
group has associates at Harvard University and University of MinnesotaDuluth. Any criticism of their activities is usually
countered with "free speech" by over educated, naive people
who cannot distinguish "free speech" from fraud. They have
other associates who spread lies about people anonymously, the most
most notorious being a man called Craig Lazo.
At no point when I joined an email list
did I agree to be part of, or have my information used to support, a
sprawling convoluted fringe political scam. I believe the
vindictive release of my personal information was a last ditch
attempt to convince me "agents" were out to get me, with
the hope I would become a good little soldier willing to shut up
about Holocaust Deniers and "fight the NWO". All it
actually did is drive me to find out who was behind these sleazy
activities. And because the people doing this are grandiose
narcissists, it was only a matter of time before they were all outed.
There are no "agents" or "cointelprol". It's
just these people playing games.
The bottom line: no one has the right
to trick people into getting involved with anything using deception
and withholding information. Needless to say, then vindictively
spreading information about people that were recruited with lies
isn't smart. And neither is ignoring all reasonable attempts in
private to resolve the issue.
The first attempt was in August of 2007
where the lawyer was told point blank her and her group were to not
contact me. The latest attempt was in 2010, where Craig Lazo himself
was contacted and instructed to get a legal representative to help
him resolve this. Other cautions have been given to persons who
unwisely helped this group spread information. Accounts have been
lost, and websites have been deleted. Law enforcement has been
contacted and the FBI has been given information on those members
probably involved with fraud. There is one advantage: I know
beyond a doubt when certain information is repeated, that party has a
direct connection to the group. Why? After Mr. Lazo's forum was
deleted for TOU violations, no one with intelligence outside the
group wants to be involved.
Nonetheless, even though banished from
the fringe "mainstream" (all things being relative, there
is such a thing), the core group is stubborn in it's erroneous belief
they do not have to remove their lies about people, or information
they had no right to publish in the first place. This seems to be a
strategy of dragging their feet until any statute of limitations runs
out, whereupon they imagine themselves to be "home free".
They are incorrect.
I have recently contacted a website
with associates who have worked with the group in the past. While
nothing is definite yet, I am cautiously optimistic I have contacted
adults who understand the seriousness of the situation and wish to be
part of the solution. These people sponsored many petitions of
dubious provenance and I've discovered it isn't just Internet naive
leftists who were sucked into this fringe fiasco.
Van Jones tricked by Trutherism
A member of President Obama's former
staff, Van Jones, was suckered into signing a petition in 2009.
Jones recalls at an event he was approached by activists claiming torepresent the 9/11 family members. Of course he supports the 9/11 family
members and so he signed. He says he had no idea of the crazy
conspiracy fine print. While some express doubts about Jones story,
I believe him 100%. Jones was targeted to push a fraud.
The person
who approached him could have been a scammer, but could have easily
been one of the many people misled into trutherism. In any case,
absolute proof of running a scam came to light when Salon, in reporting the Jones story, decided to contact over twenty people who were
listed as signatories and ask them if they would sign the petition
today. I was not surprised to read that most showed a pathological
loyalty, one going so far as denouncing Jones as a liar. But I was slightly surprised at the revelation that one signatory had
been added completely without his consent or knowledge:
Paul Hawken, author and co-founder of Smith & Hawken: (Editorial note: Hawken requested to have his name removed from the list of signatories) I don’t regret signing it because I never did sign it, and I am not sure Van did either. What might have happened is that an e-mail was sent around calling for an endorsement for a more thorough investigation into the events leading up to and on the day of 9/11. I have asked for any records showing that I signed anything and the 911truth.org committee says that they are unable to supply any such record. I was completely unaware of the press release or that my name was used until I was contacted during the Beck lynching. I do remember e-mails around that time but they were about the families of the victims feeling that their government (the 9/11 Commission) had let them down.
Even understanding the "trutherism"
fraud as I do, the brazenness of adding someone's name so cavalierly astounds me.
Did they think adding people's names without consent would never go
challenged? Especially when the petitions that are still up, are
full of names connection to far right, nationalist and racist
politics?
The people sponsoring and managing the petitions are
aware of this. In two cases the the individuals responsible for
founding these websites have personally made a note names have been
removed; some by request as a result of the Van Jones case, another
due to the Holocaust Museum Shooter having signed a petition. As a
footnote, that shooter was on a list run by a man who worked with the
Portland truther group's lawyer.
This is not to say the Portland groups
pushing "trutherism" are about to go postal on the local
Jewish center. They are far too cowardly for that. Their style is
trying to manipulate and incite people to violence for their cause,
but keeping their hands clean. A bit like Tom Metzger. For
instance, the group's lawyer was reportedly present at a meeting
where one member suggested, in the interests of promoting trutherism,
they should jam the 911 emergency lines. This was dropped after
being reported to the radical book store where the meetings were
hosted. But the point is the lawyer should have instantly shut that
idea down and she didn't.
So it isn't a surprise they do have a
disturbing obsession with trying to whitewash convicted bombers. This
is why information about the group has been leaked to various
Anti-racist persons and organizations. Under no circumstance will
anyone be allowed to bring convicted bombers into the community and
try to pass them off as "political prisoners" to an
unsuspecting public.
That gambit appears to have been
dropped. The group still remains active though they have lost their
radical/progressive platforms. Newer members have been recruited to
hide their past. The once passionate "activists" accusing
people of being "agents and shills" have dropped out, another
indication they knew they were making up lies about people. Frankly
I wouldn't care what they do, provided they stop lying about their
right-wing/racist associations to new members and remove all the lies
and information they gathered deceptively.
Since to date that last has not
happened, this statement is necessary to set the record straight.
The current terms that apply to current
and past members involved in the fraud, including their associates:
-Neither they nor their associates, are to contact me in any way, shape or form.-Nor do they have permission to use my information in any way, shape or form.-All information still published is to be removed as it, and my involvement, was acquired fraudulently.-All members, past and current, including associates, are to stay away from my intellectual property, copyrighted works and all business ventures. For this last there is a dossier of persons given to security at events to "help" individuals exercise the terms of "no contact".
There are no comments. This is not a
conversation.
Under no circumstances does any person
of group have the right to recruit people under false pretences and
then vindictively hound them years later spreading malicious lies.
I have no interest in ever discussing
"Trutherism" again... unless I have to.
If I have to, it will be with
authorities and journalists of credible publications.
JMCressy © 2015
