It appears that even federal agents are not above internet messageboard trolling. According to a posting on Antipolygraph.org—a website dedicated to “the abolishment of workplace [polygraph] testing”—site administrators have banned a special agent with the Seattle Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) after he allegedly began trolling the site’s forums, possibly during work hours:
From the site:
The poster LieBabyCryBaby has been banned. The decision to ban him from these forums comes after numerous violations of AntiPolygraph.org’s posting policy. In his own words: “I come around every now and then to ruffle your feathers and laugh at you, and then I find other entertainment.”
At this time, we feel it is appropriate to disclose LieBabyCryBaby’s true identity: Special Agent Shawn Hacking of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), currently assigned to DEA’s Seattle Division.
The sort of behavior displayed on these forums by SA Hacking is particularly disturbing coming from a federal law enforcement officer. In view of the fact that SA Hacking at times posted from IP addresses registered to his employer, it is not clear whether his activity here is sanctioned by his superiors in the polygraph unit, Seattle Division SAC Arnold R. Moorin, or DEA senior management.
It should also be noted that before registering as “LieBabyCryBaby,” SA Hacking had trolled here as AnalSphincter (he later deleted this registration). He simultaneously created a female sock-puppet and putative CIA employee, LoopyLuWho, to agree with and praise his posts as AnalSphincter.
Here is a sample of Hacking’s alleged nutty conversation with himself:
Analsphincter: I’d like to “challenge” this forum. All of you who actually lied your asses off on relevant issues in a polygraph and passed despite your lies due to countermeasures, speak up now. Which relevant questions did you lie to, and which countermeasures did you use to pass?
LoopyLuWho: ok anal I will accept that. I just love your wit and humor!!! Are you single by any chance?
Analsphincter: Loopy, I have just one question for you: What are you wearing? Wink
Site administrator: Posts by “Anal Sphincter” and “LoopyLuWho” in this message thread originated from the same IP address.
According to Antipolygraph’s site administrators, Hacking repeatedly posted from government computers. Hacking, reached at the Seattle DEA office earlier today, declined to comment on his alleged messageboard antics.
The site administrators are huge jerks for releasing his personal information. This would only be news-worthy if he were trolling on behalf of his organization.
I wonder what kind of trolling he did, other than post under multiple names. I mean, the first post saying he’d like to “challenge” the forum doesn’t actually seem that troll-ish…
I agree that posting his personal info seems a bit off to me. Saying that posts originate from the same IP address is a good idea, but, even if he was a huge dick on the site, why wouldn’t they just keep banning his registration instead of revealing his info?
I can’t imagine Slog posting Loveschild’s or ecce homo’s personal info, no matter how trollish they are or who they work for…
what a potty mouth he is.
ecce homo is my foster brother’s second college roommate’s half-sister ex-gf, I think.
Slog should post the IP addresses of anonymous posters, so we can identify the sock puppets posting under different names.
SHIT! I comment at Slog all day long at work!
PLZ dun rat me out, Slug!!
Why should anyone care if their employee posts anonymous nonsense, about anything, anywhere? This business about acting all violated because they used a workplace computer for whatever is silly. It’s not like the computer has become all used up and jaded now because somebody violated it’s innocence. It’s just a tool.
If the DEA is annoyed that their guy wasn’t getting enough work done, that’s a (boring to me) internal personnel matter. The rest of this story is of no interest at all.
When I first consider my distaste for the DEA and what it stands for I say fuck this guy and let it be known what and asshat he is. Then I stop and attempt to get over it. I haven’t. Fuck em.
Ah, you’ve got to love the interwebs. Hey, do you suppose he could have been one (or more) of our trolls?
Polygraphs don’t work.
Had to get that out there.
I think you should all eat more bacon, and I say so as an citizen and not as an employee of Amalgamated Pork Products, Inc.
@6: Oh, I don’t know, I can think of at least two reasons why this is relevant. First, it’s one thing to waste a private company’s time, but the fact that he’s wasting time on the public’s dime should concern every taxpaying citizen. And second, I think this episode shines a little light on the DEA mindset—that this guy is so invested in the unshakable validity of the polygraph is pretty scary, especially to the extent that his opinion is shared by his non-troll colleagues.
Um, it’s entirely possible that the DEA office uses NAT, and therefore every computer on their network has the same public IP address. There is no evidence at all that Anal Sphincter, LoopyLuWho, and LieBabyCryBaby are the same person. People don’t have IP addresses.
l
o
l
Responding to yourself with your various troll handles is a special kind of stupid. Flirting with yourself is just sad.
@13 Yeah, that’s the only part of the story that really struck me. If I’m ever so determined to waste time that you catch me anonymously flirting with myself on an anti-polygraph website, please stage an intervention.
@11
That’s one of the things that I think is so silly: the idea that every worker sits at their desk every minute of the day being productive. Or that they should.
This started with computers, because they can leave such detailed tracks of how you spend every second. But the truth about people has always been that nobody works like a rat in a wheel for 8 hours solid per day. Did people used to flip out because they heard that some government worker took smoke breaks or stood by the watercooler and talked about sports? No.
And there’s no evidence that a dime of taxpayer money was wasted anyway, so relax. They’re not even sure if he ever posted to the site during work hours, and even if he did, that does not in any way prove tax dollars were wasted.
whocares dot com forwardslash informationfrommessageboardsisnotnews
I think the point is he was trying to get people to fess up about what they have lied about so that they could go in a investigate them.
But I find it kind of offensive that the site outed him. Afterall ‘trolling’ is sort of considered a constitutional right and protected like what you tell the priest and your lawyer.
Well, personally, I care because lie detectors don’t bloody well work. I’m concerned that someone who works for a law enforcement agency is so totally invested in them working that they would do this.
@18 constitutional right my arse
Polygraphs work on the gullible. Those who worry about getting caught in a lie.
Which makes them pretty useless for catching the amoral people who cause most crimes.
What is the irony factor of a dimwitted government police agency messageboard troll with the name of “Hacking”?
@ #19, speaking as someone who has trolled many a message board – doing so does not at all imply any sort of loyalty to anything but being obnoxious.
Is this post a gentle first step to breaking the news that Loveschilds IP address is in The Stranger’s offices?
4 why do you let it bother you?
“abolishment”?
The interesting thing is that some FBI agents, including specialists who once relied on polygraph tests, have also come out opposed to the technology as wildly inaccurate.
27
it measures stress, not honesty
Dude,
Cut the guy some slack.
He was obviously high off of some confiscated stash.
Who among us has never had a fictitious cyber conversation with ourselves before? Wink. You look sexy. Wanna blow me – oooooh yeah big guy. Im so wet….
Smoke em if you got em