Last week we covered some great work by Lee Stranahan in identifying “The Protectors” referenced by DNC operative Alexandra Chalupa.
Today we’ll cover why I am not completely ready to dismiss Cassandra Ford’s claims of weird things happening to her account. During our conversation, she had started naming certain people she was conversing with. A few of them are linked to Anonymous, and a few have been suggested to be FBI informants.
The reason I am not going to delve into these other individuals is simply a lack of research material available online.
As Ford and I discussed “The Protectors”, Ford mentioned that one, and only one, of her DM conversations had been deleted somehow. That conversation was with Neal Rauhauser.
What are the odds that Ford, someone thrust into the center of a crazy story by taking the moniker of Guccifer2 would just happen to be in contact with someone presumptively connected to Alexandra Chalupa, who was in the thick of the Russiagate saga and who was also suggesting she was a primary target of the “Russians”?
As I looked into Rauhauser, I got into a series of old blog posts accusing Rauhauser of being a confidential human source for the FBI, despite an apparent affiliation with Anonymous. An old video exists where Rauhauser is chatting with Kirtaner (Aubrey Cottle), the self-described founder of Anonymous who was raided last year after claiming credit for hacking GiveSendGo.
Kirtaner is also suspected in some corners in being involved in the Anonymous-linked hack of Epik, a third-party vendor to Gab, Parler, and other platforms that resulted in hundreds of gigabytes of data being leaked to an organization co-founded by Emma Best.
The same Emma Best was once sought out by Guccifer 2.0 during the 2016 election.
The oddities don’t end there, Rauhauser is also connected to Infragard, a public-private partnership between the FBI and cyber professionals that has generated thousands of tips to the FBI. Infragard has come up repeatedly in research around the Alfa Bank researchers and the disinformation space. The organization was founded by someone named Chet Uber.
Rauhauser is also tied to an organization called Project Vigilant, also headed by Chet Uber (who once made news after advising Adrian Lamo to inform the federal government about Bradley Manning being the source of leaks appearing on Wikileaks). Project Vigilant prompts alot of familiar questions after what we have been looking at for years.
Who was the general counsel for Project Vigilant?
Mark Rasch. One of David Dagon’s attorneys. It appears plausible that Rauhauser is likely connected to some degree to the Alfa Bank researchers.
Is it all coincidence?
If there was something odd going on with Ford’s account, what does it mean? I’m wrestling with the possibility that Guccifer 2.0 is someone connected to Ford.
Though still speculative, Rauhauser is interesting to keep on the radar for other reasons, which are a bit esoteric and requires a keen familiarity with the finer details of Russiagate. I’ll share a little more research on this and more in the future.
Happy holidays.
Keep up the good work
https://substack.com/@ginabradbury/note/c-45989462?r=a3l86&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action