James Donald wrote:
And this, of course, assumes that Professor Rat is real, rather than an american agent provocateur sshing to Australia. For an Australian, he seems oddly obsessed with US figures.
Based on when Rat began to post, and the gush of charges allegedly made against him elsewhere and in the US, James would appear to be probably right about the nut-case being an agent provocateur, either government run or self-appointed. Self-appointed provocateurs all too often wind up working for the authorities once they gain access to or credibility with enemies of the state. Still, some may recall that CJ was charged similarly, but still went to jail. Not that going to jail clears a rat, rather it may indicate a deeper deception. What happens to a person during jail, facing charges, being questioned, seemingly cleared, then reappearing behaving even more provocatively, fits the pattern of the agent provocateur. But inducing a party to behave like an agent provocateur is a methodology oft used by handlers of agents. Smearing a genuine dissident with charges of being a government agent is also a hoary technique. Fostering dissent is the favorite way governments assure their survival by being forever vigilante, forever being needed to protect the unwary, forever cooking up new threats to the homeland. Indeed without dissent, especially vociferous and verging on violence, governments might wither, as commies and fascists well know and backscratch each other. Professor Rat does indeed appear to be a pro, reminds of the gang that pokied Jim Bell before 9/11, and now are eager to keep the counter-cyber-terrorism careers aflowering. Witness Jessica Stern and a host of others, feeding and being fed by the justice cartel worldwide, pleased as shit at the bountiful evidence-provocation-fabricator: the Net. If cypherpunks did not exist, prosecutors and rats would have to invent it, in the narc lab, oops, DARPA.