Open letter to NYPD regarding terroristic threats at HuffPost

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August 1, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 

WATCHDOG SITE SENDS DETAILED LETTER TO NY LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS RE TERRORISTIC THREATS AT HUFFINGTON POST

Today HUFF-WATCH, a comprehensive watchdog site that documents and exposes Huffington Post's incitement and tolerance of hate, sent an open letter to the District Attorney of New York County, Cyrus Vance, and NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

The purpose of this letter, linked here, is to provide these law enforcement officials with physical evidence of:

• What appears to be terroristic threats posted by HuffPost users, against attendees of the upcoming conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council, Charles & David Koch, and others.

• The fact that by HuffPost's admission, not a single user comment is published without being pre-moderated, meaning they are all reviewed prior to publication, and only those that it approves are published.

• The fact that while HuffPost reviewed, approved and decided to publish those threats, it held back a comment submitted by another user, asking if one of the threateners realized he's a coward - then banned the non-offending user, but left the offenders free to continue.
  

• The fact that HuffPost has a longstanding practice of enabling and protecting the worst-of-the-worst violators of its comment policy, while censoring and banning non-violating users who attempt to speak out against or complain about them.

The following screencaps provide a glimpse into the most current volley of what appear to be terroristic threats, focused on attendees of the ALEC conference, to be held on August 7-9 in Chicago.  The first screencap is from a user (whom HuffPost has enabled to repeatedly urge that the Koch brothers be murdered) who indicates plans are underway to "intimidate" the attendees of the ALEC conference:

Another user, "Libs_Wreck_Everything," asks here to expand on this threat.  In reply to this, HuffPost reviewed, approved and decided to publish a comment submitted by another user, "waukone," that the intent is not to scare, but "to kill" (ALEC attendees):

 

Beneath that, "Libs_Wreck_Everything" submitted a comment asking "waukone" if he realizes he is a coward.  HuffPost, however, sent that comment to pending, meaning it was being reviewed:

This screencap shows that HuffPost banned "Libs_Wreck_Everything" soon thereafter:

Additional screencaps in the letter to the Mr. Vance and Commissioner Kelly show that HuffPost left both of the other users are still active --- the first of which has a very long history of posting threats and solicitations of violence against public figures with whom she disagrees.

The reason for HUFF-WATCH's open letter to Mr. Vance and Commissioner Kelly, specifically, however, is because:

• HuffPost is located within their jurisdiction.

• The NYPD recently arrested a Queens, NY man for posting what it contends* were terroristic threats on Facebook, which only moderates comments after-the-fact.  (*See Sec. 490.20 of the NY Code.)  In contrast, it would appear that HuffPost is actively facilitating the publication of such threats, in that by its own admission, no comments are published until and unless they are approved beforehand, via moderation.

• The ALEC conference is scheduled to begin in only six days (on August 7), and as one of these violators has made it publicly known that she lives north of Chicago, there is a reasonable basis to be concerned for the safety of attendees to this conference.

It is, of course, up to these law enforcement officials to determine if these specific HuffPost users, and possibly HuffPost itself, should be prosecuted.

The full letter contains deep background data to place this current documentation into context, and demonstrates that this was not a one-time anomaly, but rather, is part of a continuing, disturbing, dangerous pattern of behavior, of HuffPost users being allowed to post explicit and implicit threats and solicitations of violence against public figures and institutions with which they disagree, politically.

Read the entire letter here:

To NYPD: Will you also prosecute HuffPost for enabling & publishing terroristic threats?

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FoxInRetreat's third return - Full screencap documentation

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Continued from "Introduction: For the third time, HuffPost allows murder-threatening Moderator to return, resume threats"

Background

As we documented in this special report in December 2010, for more than three months:

• HuffPost reviewed, approved and decided to publish "comments" by "foxinretreat" that contained explicit threats and solicitations of murder and violence against notable conservative public figures, including Rep. John Boehner, Charles & David Koch, Karl Rove and others. Examples include:
  

  “Time to kill the Kochs and Boehner!!"
  
  "Time to reveal Karl Rove's home address, and take down the Cheneys. I'm serious, as radical as I sound."
  
  “Time to cut Bohners knees to the bone, destroy him [...] kill the drunk before he destroys us!!"

• HuffPost actively protected and emboldened "foxinretreat," on a minute-to-minute basis, by rapidly censoring and banning other users who attempted to complain about or mock him, while leaving him free to continue posting his threats.

• Soon after our first report was published, HuffPost banned "foxinretreat." Five days later, however, HuffPost allowed him to return, under a slightly different screen name, make known who he is, and resume posting his threats and solicitations of violence. It again banned him, after our second report was published.
  

• As documented in the Jan. 27 update here, however, HuffPost allowed him to return for the third time, soon thereafter, openly admit his identity, and resume posting his threats. Once again, after our update was published, HuffPost again banned him.
  

Rather than being an isolated incident, this is all part of a far broader pattern of HuffPost behavior --- to enable and protect the worst of the worst violators of its policies (if not the law)

Then, in this follow-up report, we documented the fact that rather than being an isolated incident, HuffPost's actions regarding "foxinretreat" are representative of a broader pattern of its enabling and protection of Moderators to create a climate of danger, hate and threats --- which would appear to be a violation of numerous federal laws. And as we documented in this special report, HuffPost has been knowingly enabling and protecting users to post threats against public figures and other users for years --- while censoring and banning their victims, and those who attempt to speak out against them. These protected users even includes one, "kevenseven," whom it knew had been interviewed in his home by the Secret Service for his repeated threats against its protectees, on HuffPost. Yet it protected and emboldened him to continue posting his threats for another eighteen months. See a summary here, and a detailed report here.

HuffPost, predictably, let "foxinretreat" return --- just as it had twice before; and predictably, it allowed him to resume his exact same threatening behavior

In late February, we received a tip from a reader ("CassVT") that HuffPost may have once again allowed "foxinretreat" to return (for the third time), this time as "kochsarecrooks," and resume his prior behavior.

We began to periodically monitor his comments. It didn't take long before he openly confirmed that he is, in fact, "foxinretreat" (alternatively known as "FIR" or "FIT") --- that he returned on Feb. 26 --- and his threats against the Kochs and other conservative public figures resumed.

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February 2011: "Foxinretreat" returns, and almost immediately, HuffPost enables him begin admitting his identity --- and indicating its complicity in allowing him to return

In late February 2011, we received a tip from one of our readers that it appeared HuffPost had allowed "foxinretreat" to return, for the second time, this time, using the screen name "kochsarecrooks."

Feb 26, FIR's very first post (see "Oldest Post First" on display) resumes his vulgar obsession with the Koch brothers, on Wisconsin protest thread:


March 9: To demonstrate that HuffPost was essentially allowing FIR to "live" on the site at this point, by March 9 --- 12 days after he returned --- HuffPost had permitted FIR to post 1,028 comments. This is an average of 86 comments per day, or, assuming 10 hours a day, or one comment every 7 minutes for 10 hrs straight:


Feb 26: FIR's first day back, HuffPost allowed him to post 134 comments. Assuming he was there for twelve hours, this means HuffPost enabled him to post one comment every 5 minutes, straight through --- and as you can see below, he came right out of the chute admitting who he is:

Feb 26: Announcing his identity (1):

Feb 26: Announcing his identity (2):

Feb 27: He again confirms he is FIR; another user, "Hoopers X," specifically asks whether the accusations against him, here on HUFF-WATCH, are true:

April 14: FIR once again confirms that it is him --- and claims that a HuffPost insider he refers to as "lardini" "left the door open" to him getting a new account:

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Feb. 27: One day after his return, HuffPost allowed him to resume posting implicit threats against the Kochs --- on a news thread dedicated to discussion of... the Oscars:

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March 9: HuffPost resumes approving and publishing FIR's explicit threats against the Kochs

While 165 other comments were stuck in "Pending," meaning HuffPost was reviewing them and deciding whether to publish or reject them...


... HuffPost decided to approve and publish this post, containing an explicit threat against the Kochs, by the reincarnated "foxinretreat":

"The Koch's HQ in Witchita will be under siege shortly. They can't stop what's headed their way."

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March 10: HuffPost allowed FIR to claim that protests are being organized at the homes of Wisconsin Republicans:

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March 28: HuffPost allowed FIR to post more explicit threats against the Kochs

While other users' comments were stuck in pending, HuffPost reviewed, approved and decided to publish this raving maniac's newest explicit threats:

"Take out the Kochs and their puppets!!"

"Open warfare on the Kochs! Bomb them!!"

"Time to destroy the right wing - bomb Koch HQ!!"

By March 28, HuffPost has now allowed FIR to post a total of 1,928 comments --- 900 since March 9:


And yet, at the same time, HuffPost was censoring and banning users who attempted to speak out against this insanity, on a minute-by-minute basis --- just as it has been doing for years.

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April 11: HuffPost promoted FIR to Moderator, once again --- and continued enabling him to post his explicit threats against conservative public figures, and other users who attempt to speak out against him:


April 12: HuffPost allowed another Moderator whom we've documented has repeatedly posted threats and solicitations of violence, "GOPTakesEllisDee," to say he wants to "start burning gated communities," with a thinly-veiled reference to the home of George W. Bush... and "burning stuff":

To which HuffPost allowed FIR to replies, he is "so ready! (to take it to the streets)"

And as shown below, HuffPost allowed FIR to again state his desire to cause physical harm to the Koch brothers:

"We intend to take down the Kochs and their ilk."

April 13: Threatening to ban another user for speaking out: And once again, as we documented in our original report, when other users began attempting to speak out against FIR's threats and solicitations of violence, HuffPost allowed him to begin threatening that he, as a Moderator, was going to have them banned:

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April 12-13: HuffPost allows FIR to begin posting comments describing his proximity to Rep. Paul Ryan's district, and his desire to work "to get rid of him":

"I'm 10 miles south of WI in IL, it would be fun to see what parades he's participating in unless he's too much of a coward to show up."


"I'm in IL over the border but I plan on working on getting rid of Ryan as well."

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April 15: HuffPost allows FIR to threaten/urge others to use "moltov cocktails," and attack people, homes; "terrorize them"

"Moltov cocktails to hit WS (Wall St.) and the banksters soon. I have no problem with that, I'm serious."

"Time to hack their systems, cause real havoc, what's the harm at this point?"

(Do you think the CEO of Discover Cards is aware that it appears as if his firm is supporting these threats? You might contact him and ask.)

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April 17: HuffPost allows FIR to openly threaten Andrew Breitbart:

"CLASS WARFARE... you better believe it bagger boy Breitbart, we'll come after you first, time to shut you up and all your lies."

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April 20: On a thread dedicated to discussion of Rep. John Boehner, HuffPost allows FIR to again express his desire to attend public events with Rep. Paul Ryan --- and his concern about how to get through security:

"I'll have to find out if you have to show an ID to attend a Paul Ryan town hall meeting. I can cross state lines and infiltrate one very easily..."

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Some key questions:

• Are FIR's concerns about security at Ryan events related to the open, explicit threats that HuffPost has allowed him to repeatedly post, against the lives of Rep. John Boehner, and other top conservatives?

• Does he have a criminal record?

• Do FIR's and/or HuffPost's actions constitute violations of federal law? It would appear so. See Sections 3, 4, 5 here.

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ACTION ITEMS

Apparently, HuffPost believes it can continue to engage in this behavior because so far, the public --- and its advertisers --- have remained unaware of what it is really facilitating on its "comment" pages.

Part of the reason why we've researched and documented this in such great detail is because we are deeply concerned that if this situation is allowed to persist, HuffPost's acts and omissions are going to lead directly to someone getting hurt, or killed. We believe this concern is particularly apt, given the fact that the vast majority* of today's political violence is perpetrated by the radical left --- the very constituency that HuffPost attracts, enables and protects. (*The Media Research Center recently completed a report on the proliferation of left-wing violence; more data here, here, here, here, here, here.) Furthermore, as we documented here, while HuffPost enjoys running fake stories of conservatives perpetrating violence, it refuses to run stories that account for the explosion of real acts of left-wing violence.

If you share our concerns, we urge you to do three things:

(1) Make your voice known to HuffPost's senior management here.

(2) Write or call one or more of HuffPost's top advertisers, to let them know your thoughts on what their ad dollars are enabling.

(3) Forward the link to this report to others that you think should be aware of it.

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