Read on, Gentle Reader. I promise you, this will be worth your time.
See if you see any similarities between the following comments, from three completely different people. (Or are they?)
Listen to their amazing praise for the great Glenn Greenwald . . . and note how similar all the comments sound.
First, we have this comment on Ace’s blog, from “Ellison” (scan down for “Ellison”):
Greenwald only has a New York Times Best Selling Book on the Bush Administration and its abuses of power. And he has one of the most-read blogs on the Interent, after 9 months of blogging. And Senators read from his blog at Senate hearings and his posts lead to front-page news stories in major newspapers.
Why would anyone think what he has to say matters? It’s not like anyone listens to him. It’s not like he’s Ace, or Jeff Goldstein, or Patterico, or Sister Toldjah or Glenn Reynolds, or someone who really matters.
Great advice, you super-important bloggers should only to each other and about each other. Don’t bother with anyone in the Left because if you ignore them, they’ll just go away.
and this comment on Dan Riehl’s blog, from a completely different person named “Sam Mathews”:
Greenwald’s book has been on the N.Y. Times Best Seller List for 6 weeks now or more. He is a graduate of a top 5 law school and worked at the most prestigious law firm in the country. In 9 months, he’s managed to become one of the most cited and heavily-trafficked bloggers on the internets. His posts have led to front page news articles and are read by U.S. Senators during Senate hearings.
You-by your own account are a marketing and sales manager. And your favorite movie is Something About Mary.
Can’t you just admit that you(and Patterico and Reynolds & Goldstein and the rest of your bitter insult-spewing irrelevant losers) are drowning in jealousy? It isn’t pretty to watch. But it sure is obvious.
and this comment on Jeff Goldstein’s blog, from a completely different person named “Wilson”:
Lets see, a New York Times bestselling book on executive authority. Breaks a story on his blog about wiretapping that leads to front-page stories on most major newspapers in the country. Russ Feingold reads from his blog during the Censure hearings.
Maybe that has something to do with why. Any conservative bloggers with credentials like that? All compiled in 9 months or however long its been since he started blogging?
Jeffy’s funny poems are great and everything, and im sure your anonymous lawyer friends are really smart and all, but hard to say they compare to those things.
Boy, we sure do have a dedicated Glenn Greenwald fan there.
Or should I say “fans”?
Because these comments are, after all, from three completely “different” people. Again: the first comment is from a guy named “Ellison.” And the second is from a different guy, named “Sam Mathews.” And the third is from a different guy still — one named “Wilson.”
But here’s the weird part: they all sound so very similar! All of these various fans of Glenn Greenwald seem very familiar with his curriculum vitae. And they seem to emphasize the same points. His New York Times best seller. His amazing success in just 9 months of blogging. The fact that Senators read from his blog during Senate hearings! The fact that he breaks stories that appear on the front pages of newspapers!
And here’s the very weirdest part of all: Ellison’s IP address is the very same IP address as that of one Glenn Greenwald.
The coincidences are . . . extraordinary.
But this is where I should really turn things over to Ace, who is blogging this amazing coincidence as we speak — and who has some relevant screenshots (one of which I just e-mailed to him).
Why, just compare the IP address in this Ace screenshot of a comment from “Ellison” to the IP address in this Patterico screenshot of a comment from one Glenn Greenwald.
They sure seem like the same IP address to me. And I’m guessing that the evidence will continue to roll in as the day goes on.
Dan? Jeff? Do you have anything to say?
Anyway, I’m going to turn it over to Ace forthwith. Go read his post, now. (A big tip of the hat to Ace commenter Shawn.)
UPDATE: Add a few more to the list.
First, we have “Ryan.” Dan Riehl e-mails to say that three comments from someone claiming to be “Ryan” were left on his blog using that IP address. All three comments defended Greenwald. In one of them, the commenter actually claimed to have e-mailed Greenwald for his response to certain allegations, and printed the reply as part of his comment!
That comment is here:
I e-mailed Greenwald yesterday about this, pasted BumperStickerist’s accusations, and asked Greenwald if it was true. This is what I just received in response:
“Thanks for sending that.
I worked at Wachtell, Lipton as a Summer Associate after my second year at NYU, as a pre-Bar Associate during my entire third year at NYU and once I graduated, and then as a practicing Litigation Associate once I was admitted to the New York Bar.
Anyone who says that I did not practice law there after I passed the bar is lying — and deliberately so, I would think, since nobody who says such a thing could possibly have any basis for knowing that.
In any event, I can’t imagine what point anyone thinks they’re making. Wachtell is known to be the most selective law firm in the country. What point do they think they’re making, exactly?”
You people are morons, seriously. You run around claiming things without having any idea if there true. And then when you get exposed as liars, you slink away and repeat the next lie.
Good Lord.
There’s also this comment:
What’s happening here is obvious. Instapundit is so full of frustration and anger towards Greenwald’s criticisms that he links to every loser and sicko who writes a single negative thing about Greenwald, no matter how extreme, deranged, bitter, etc.
So now they’re all trained that if they want attention and traffic from their master, they need to be good little attack poodles and write about Greenwald – the more personal and inane, the better. Insty has linked to 10 posts like this, at least, in the last week.
Dan needs attention and traffic – he doesn’t exactly have a lot of either – and this is the only way he can get it. Greenwald is his meal ticket.
and this one:
Or, better yet, head on over to Sadly No where they are mocking the utter idiocy of Xrlq’s “frisking” –
http://sadlyno.com/archives/003294.html#comments
Xrlq is exactly one of those guys I was talking about. He has been whining away in obscurity, averaging 200 visits a day. 200 a day! That’s basically his mom and her friends. But then he wrote about Greenwald, got links from everyone, and, like Riehl and others, is now trying to milk it for all it’s worth. This tells you everything you need to know about xrlq:
http://www.sitemeter.com/a=stats&s=s15xrlqcounter&r=35
He should be thanking Greenwald, just like Rehil should. Let him try not to write about Greenwald anymore and see how many people go back to reading him.
Riehl blogs it here.
Jon Henke writes to say that numerous comments from Greenwald defender “Thomas Ellers” were left in this thread using the same IP. There are too many to quote. Just go to the thread and search for “Ellers.”
Cassandra from Villainous Company has written me to confirm that Greenwald left comments on her blog using the same IP as he used on mine. And, to make it clear: the only comments ever left on my site from the IP address in question were several comments from Glenn Greenwald. Cassandra says the same is true for her blog.
UPDATE x2: Kevin Aylward e-mails to note that the IP address in question comes back to Brazil. That’s no surprise. Here’s some background from Greenwald himself:
The country in which I have now lived for a year, Brazil, is by far the largest and most populous country in South America, and Brazilians had, prior to the war in Iraq, an overwhelmingly favorable view of the United States.
(h/t Henke and Bill from INDC.)
I should note, as I did in the Hiltzik affair, that the issue here is not pseudonymity. That’s fine. But commenters should not use pseudonyms to pretend to be something or somebody they aren’t. That’s just dishonest.
Well, this is a fast-moving story, and I’m going to miss the next several hours. Keep an eye on Ace, Goldstein, Riehl, and others.
UPDATE x3: Goldstein’s “Wilson” comment matches an IP used by Greenwald at my site and “Thomas Ellers” at Henke’s. A screen shot is forthcoming.
I should note: I’m not making any claims here. I’m content to let the facts speak for themselves.
UPDATE x4: Greenwald denies the charges.
UPDATE x5 7-24-2006 4:42 p.m.: A brief summary of the IP evidence is here:
Greenwald (and nobody else) used one IP address to make five comments on my site on July 13. He (and nobody else) used the same one to make 2 comments on Villainous Company. “Ryan” used that IP address to post 3 comments at Riehl World View. And “Ellison” posted a comment using that IP address at Ace’s. And “Thomas Ellers” posted numerous comments using that IP address at Q&O.
Greenwald (and nobody else) used a second IP address to post 3 comments on my site on July 12. He used the same IP address to post as himself at Confederate Yankee. And that same IP address was used by “Wilson” at Jeff Goldstein’s site.
Ace and I plan to have much more on why we think it’s Greenwald and not the boyfriend. The basic argument is this: the evidence points either to Greenwald, or to a person who is his carbon copy in personality, writing style and verbal tics.
The suspected sock-puppet comments from Greenwald’s IP are clearly by the same person, going under names like Ellison, Ellers, and Ellensburg. The sock-puppet commenter knows intimately the details of Greenwald’s site, including Greenwald’s arguments, his commenters, and the content of his posts and updates. He knows which Greenwald commenters used to like Greenwald, and why they stopped liking him. He is savvy about the Internet and is fully conversant with the names of all Greenwald’s critics.
His English is idiomatic and quite flowing. Like Greenwald’s own comments, there are occasional mistakes of spelling and verb-subject agreement, but the English shows strong signs of someone fully conversant with idiomatic expressions. He uses phrases that Greenwald uses, like “to recap:” and “I love how . . .”
Although Greenwald often comes on to comment threads to defend himself under his own name, Greenwald and his sock-puppets don’t seem to show up in the same threads. Apparently, when a same-IP commenter shows up to defend Greenwald, Greenwald himself doesn’t feel the need to defend himself in the same threads. As Ace has shown, it has happened that the same-IP commenter says things in comments one day, and these observations show up in Greenwald’s posts the next day.
There is a motive: the same-IP commenter gets to say things about Greenwald’s greatness that would be unseemly if they appeared over his name.
The evidence goes on and on.
Is it possible it’s Greenwald’s boyfriend instead of Greenwald — as Greenwald has intimated (but has not affirmatively claimed)? Yeah, it’s remotely possible, based on the facts we know now.
But if it’s Greenwald’s boyfriend, then Greenwald participated in a charade of not knowing who the boyfriend was, and allowing him to “e-mail” him for a response that the boyfriend could have simply asked him for.
I think it’s him. And I think there’s a reason he’s not telling us more: people who know the boyfriend wouldn’t buy it. And I also wonder why a boyfriend this obsessive about protecting Greenwald’s good name hasn’t yet stepped up to the plate and taken the heat.
An explanation of how this all came about is here. And a full summary of all the evidence is still to come. Stay tuned.
While laying out the evidence is necessary, I agree with Instapundit that the WuzzaDem puppet show is the best link on this so far, followed by the poster at Ace’s.
