FTW (Michael Ruppert) OFFICES BURGLARIZED, All Computers Destroyed

[Up2Late]

(For those who don't know Mike Rupert work, he's heavily involve in getting out the stories about Peak Oil, The Bush Crime Family, and a lot of other topics that the MSM is not covering.)

FTW OFFICES BURGLARIZED, All Computers Destroyed

FTW Crippled But Not Dead
by Michael C. Ruppert

July 5th, 2006 4:09pm , ASHLAND – Sometime after 7:30 PM on the evening of Sunday June 25, 2006, an unknown number of suspects entered the FTW offices by means of two passkeys. Once inside, a sledgehammer was used to smash through four solid-core doors secured with deadbolt locks to gain entry to our webmaster’s office, my office, the administrative office and a storage area. All seven FTW computers were ripped or disconnected from peripherals and transported to a central unoccupied area of the building where their covers were unscrewed and removed. After the covers had been removed, all seven computers were smashed with sledgehammers. My monitor was also smashed at my desk. The computers were totally destroyed.

There are suspects and the Ashland, Oregon police department (APD) is conducting an active criminal investigation. For that reason I am not at liberty to either discuss or disclose certain details, especially the extent of damage to hard drives, back up status before the burglary, or whether data from damaged hard drives is, or will ever be, recoverable.

To date I have been impressed by the cooperation and thoroughness shown by APD and I intend to cooperate with them fully and provide whatever assistance I can as their investigation continues. In previous statements I have mentioned a meth ring operating locally and have also stated that I had seen no direct evidence of US government involvement. Those statements are still correct, although I will add that I also have not ruled out US government involvement.

The only way to describe the damage is that it has been utterly devastating from business, emotional and professional perspectives. My residence was vandalized a week before the burglary. As I write this report, a full ten days after the burglary, we are still unable to download orders from the internet, and we are also unable to ship any products. We have a large number of orders out there but unfortunately we cannot get any of that money into our checking account at present.

(more info and photos at link) <http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/070506_offices_burglarized.shtml>

[WiseButAngrySara]

1. Oh, this is so discouraging! Maybe he should join Palast in the UK, as

that seems to be the only way to get the truth out about the evil cabal currently occupying the WH. Leave the country in order to report the truth!...Some 'free' press! :sarcasm:

:kick: and R! and Well wishes and good luck to Mr. Ruppert!

[uppityperson]

2. k&r, I hate hate crimes, "not ruled out US gvt involvement"?

[in_cog_ni_to]

3. OMG...surely he had data backed up? This is frightening.

:scared: I too would blame the U.S. government and if they did do this, they will never be caught or punished for it. Why would people running a meth lab care about Ruppert and his important work?

[burythehatchet]

18. That's the first thought to come to my mind

Better have back-up, especially with the dirt he has on the BFEE

[liberalla]

25. My first thought also

There must be a backup kept safely off site, right? and I wonder if there was some video surveillance.

I hope they learn something about who did this. He certainly has a big target on him for the work he does. Very worrisome. I hope they recover from this soon.

[icymist]

4. Makes me wonder what stories were currently being worked on.

Or is this a prediction of the future. How secure are DU computers?

[Up2Late]

21. The "Pat Tillman series" is all he mentions in this post, but he's...

...almost always got something big in the works that the Bush Cabal would not want reveled to the general public.

"...As we restore our operations, piece by piece, we will resume the publication of new stories. We promise to finish the Pat Tillman series. Other than that, as those of us who have made FTW work arrive at a plan, we will keep you advised...."

[corbett]

44. Clearly, He Struck A Nerve!

That's why I intend to use a 100% hosted solution for my site next year.

http://www.democrats.org/democracybonds.html

[EFerrari]

5. I'm so so sorry to read this.

:(

[niyad]

6. no meth ring did this, that much is obvious.

[Cha]

12. Really! But, sometimes

it's wise to be considering all avenues to instill false security in the perps.

[helderheid]

7. They need donations:

"We are insured and it appears as though most of the losses will be covered. However, there are going to be significant cash outlays required to resume even a semblance of normal operations before insurance reimbursement takes place. This includes expensive data recovery from certain damaged hard drives. For the time being, please send any donations to our mailing address, 655 Washington St., Ashland, OR 97520, Please indicate if you would like your donation returned once we have received reimbursement from our insurance carrier. We do need all the help we can get."

[KittyWampus]

22. Oh, I was SURE there'd be a call for donations. Ruppert probably did it

himnself and posted pictures of some old crap he found somewheres.

Ruppert has never broken a story. All he has ever done is take information, weave it together and throw in some bullshit of his own.

Edit- there's a reason his stuff isn't allowed to be posted here on DU. Which begs the question why this thread is here.

[Up2Late]

31. Ruppert has never broken a story?!? Really!

I have a tip for you, NEVER use the words like NEVER in a post, because you will almost always be proved wrong by someone.

Ruppert has help break plenty of major stories over nearly 40 years, long before DU ever existed.

And "...All he has ever done is take information, weave it together and throw in some bullshit of his own...."

That's call "Investigative Reporting," that what they do! Or as the RW likes to call it, "Connecting the Dots!"

God, get a clue, without people like Ruppert, and the solid investigative work he does, we would have to depend on "The Government" and the Corporate controlled media for most of our information and clues.

[Emit]

33. His stuff isn't alowed on DU?

I wasn't aware of that.

[readmoreoften]

34. So is info from McKinney also not allowed on DU?

Because she's a big supporter.

[Emit]

35. I don't know

I belong to FTW website -- visit it frequently -- get the updates, etc.


The only reason I don't post any of FTW's stuff here is because FTW has a strict policy of reposting their articles on other sites -- I think I may have posted a portion of one of Rupert's pieces in the articles section on DU. I was never told I couldn't.

[petgoat]

40. Let's find out.

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/

[yodermon]

41. Perhaps you're confusing him with Madsen? n/t

[KittyWampus]

48. You are correct! Apologies to Ruppert and Thanks for correcting me.

:thumbsup:

[Cha]

8. This is heartbreaking and

I'm just so happy he's not suicided ala James Hatfield!

Please Please be careful, Michael C. Ruppert..these dirty slugs play for keeps.

[mnhtnbb]

9. This puts the Watergate burglars to shame. What a mess

If he wants to continue his work, maybe he should think of leaving the country.

[lonestarnot]

10. What does FWT stand for? I'm sorry about your losses

and hope that you fully recover! Truth is a tough burden these days.

[mnhtnbb]

11. It's FTW --From the wilderness

[havocmom]

13. ,

[jarnocan]

14. He wrote Crossing the Rubicon !

How silly I've been to the website bought the book- read some of it and gave to son- a faster reader. I didn't realize it was the same guy. WOW!

[oasis]

15. It seems that a portion of the missing Pentagon money is being put to use.

Or Scaife-paid thugs, Halliburton, hoodlums funded by foreigners.

Passkeys?

[Straight Shooter]

16. I hope someone as astute as Ruppert would use online storage.

For example, iOmega has online storage for a very reasonable charge. As important as the work of FTW is, I feel confident that there is a solid backup on a remote server far, far away from the sledgehammers of the troglodytes.

[Up2Late]

19. Most of his finished research is posted on several websites mirrors...

...around the world, but in these days of 50-350GB Hard Drives, and if you've ever tried to rebuild a big hard drive after a crash, you'll know that it takes a long time and a lot of work to get everything working correctly again.

I've crashed two 120GB hard drives and one 40GB hard drive (which was my system drive) a few years ago, and I'll tell ya, it's not a fun recovery process. It took about a year to fix all the bugs from the 40GB.

[Zhade]

17. Crazy!

I just got lost in Ashland (well, ON Ashland Mountain) a week or so ago, on my way to Vancouver.

Best wishes to Rupert! His confrontation of the LAPD's drug-running was an act of heroism.

[IndyOp]

20. Crack the CIA - Video of Ruppert's confrontation with Deutsch

and lots and lots of the content of the video are from Ruppert's research.

Crack the CIA

[AntiFascist]

42. This is one of the stories that could...

bring down the Bush Cartel once and for all. No wonder they want a foreign government with a shady background to take over control of our ports! I wonder how many covert agents controlled the tunnels that go into Mexico? What was/is being imported other than illegal aliens? What are the connections between drug money, government corruption, and stolen elections in Mexico? Weren't there reports a while back about heroin usage suddenly increasing in New York City? What government-run transportation system may be ultimately responsible?

[annabanana]

23. to help out:

snail mail (from the link)

We are insured and it appears as though most of the losses will be covered. However, there are going to be significant cash outlays required to resume even a semblance of normal operations before insurance reimbursement takes place. This includes expensive data recovery from certain damaged hard drives. For the time being, please send any donations to our mailing address, 655 Washington St., Ashland, OR 97520, Please indicate if you would like your donation returned once we have received reimbursement from our insurance carrier. We do need all the help we can get.


http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/070506_offices_burglarized.shtml

[EFerrari]

24. Thank you, anna.

kick

[Reckon]

26. Sounds like the work of brown shirts.

Hang tough!

K&R

[MagickMuffin]

27. Yikes, what a shame

I bet he wishes he had stayed in Sherman, Cali.

Isn't Oregon infected with Freepers?

[cprise]

28. Be skeptical

..and wait before you send any money.

Rupert has ads right on his FTW website for a data security/backup service that he himself promotes (click on the ad, you'll see his mug there along with testimonial quotes).

At the very least, Rupert seems to be a big boy and probably has his data situation addressed.

Further, the websites he runs, while informative, are extremely simplistic by today's standards and could all be run on a single very cheap computer.

Let his insurance handle the losses. Regardless of what it originally cost, I'd expect the equipment on display to all be replaced for well under $5000.



On Edit: I count 7 maybe 8 2002-vintage Dell workstations. Replacing them with similarly-capable machines ought to be a piece of cake.

As for the data service he plugs, you can see it here: http://armorware.directtrack.com/z/24/CD13/

Lastly, he is now advertising a job opening for Director of Operations (managing the advertising and web sales end of the websites). If it has any connection with the vandalism, that would indeed be interesting.

[Up2Late]

32. It's not about data loss, this crime is about Time.

If you ever had a system hard drive crash, you will know how much time it takes to get the computer back to the way it was before the crash.

I had CD-ROM back-ups of my system drive when it crashed, but it had been several weeks since my last back-up, and not all the back up programs worked perfectly, so I ended up getting very little new done for almost a year as I was working to fix bugs caused by some of my security programs, among other things.

This is more a warning and disruption, if they really wanted to totally destroy his research and business, they would have burned the building too.

[earth mom]

29. If Ruppert has backup data, he'll never admit it.

Because then whoever did this will go after that too.

[grannylib]

30. If his residence AND his place of business were both broken into,

my money's on some connection to the BFEE/Cheney the Dick/unelected official involvement.

[mirandapriestly]

36. Another man is being threatened in Wisconsin

Kevin Barret. You have to wonder what they are afraid of people finding out.

"The author of an article about the attack on the World Trade Center has found himself under attack for having published it in a new on-line publication, Journal of 9/11 Studies. Entitled "The Third Elephant", the article discusses evidence that a third airplane was captured on video at the time of the WTC attack. He has now received a thinly-veiled threat against his children, who are cited by name, suggesting it would be a good idea if his article were to simply "go away"."
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/7/prweb406904.htm

[readmoreoften]

45. Also, a man was arrested by federal agents for distributing

Alex Jones DVDs. He sold gun kits for a living, but that is completely legal. They are really worried about 9-11, I think.

[OneBlueSky]

37. I don't know enough about Ruppert to take sides here, but . . .

it seems that there are vastly differing perceptions of him and his work . . .

Mike Ruppert - 9/11 Savoteur
http://www.wingtv.net/ruppertwingtv.html

as I said, I don't know enough to take a side here . . . just reporting something I ran across recently . . .

[readmoreoften]

46. That guy criticizing Ruppert sounds certifiable.

I can't even figure out what he is villifying Ruppert for, except for maybe brusqueness when dealing with people who present him with shoddy work or who are hawking products. Seriously, he sounds mentally ill.

[Up2Late]

49. The 911 "Truth movement" people hate him, because he's pointed out...

...so many flaws in their crack-pot theories, and a lot of them won't face the truth that some of the info they preach is just wrong. Rupert has spent a good amount of time trying to convince some of them that most of the bad info is being deliberately planted within.

I think a lot of it is just the same type of people who are pushing "evidence" that NASA faked the Moon Landings to sell DVD's and books.

[GreenPartyVoter]

38. hope there were hardcopies of stories stashed all over

[eppur_se_muova]

39. No doubt the work of "overzealous staffers"...they're always the ones. nt

[upi402]

43. k/r n/t

[greiner3]

47. Time to take the gloves off;

Round up every freeper, waterboard them and get a DNA sample. It probably won't work but I'd pay to see it done.

[Up2Late]

50. Yeah, and no need to use the CIA's new Brain Scanning machine...

...well, because....ahhhh....need I say more?:evilgrin:

BTW, I'm serious about the Brain Scanners, the ACLU has filed a FOIA request to get more info: <http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=219651&mesg_id=219651>

[pinto]

51. Locking.

Sorry, but Democratic Underground finds this website to be either highly unreliable and/or bigoted and it is our policy to limit their publicity here.

Thanks for your consideration.