MIT: Hoax caller cited revenge for hacker's death

A person who called in a hoax about a gunman on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus over the weekend said the gunman was a staff member looking for revenge after the suicide of an Internet activist accused of illegally using MIT computers, the institute said.

MIT executive vice president Israel Ruiz wrote in a campus-wide email on Wednesday that the caller indicated the gunman "was retaliating against people involved in the suicide of Aaron Swartz," the Boston Herald reported. Ruiz wrote that MIT's president was identified as the target.

Swartz killed himself in New York last month while awaiting trial on charges he used MIT's computer network to illegally download nearly 5 million academic articles from an online clearinghouse for scholarly journals. Critics blame federal prosecutors for his suicide, saying they insisted he plead guilty to all 13 felony charges he faced and serve four to six months in prison or go to trial and face up to 35 years. Prosecutors have defended the charges against him and said they acted appropriately.

Police in Cambridge, where MIT is located, said the hoax report about the gunman came through a Sprint Internet relay service generally used by people with hearing or speech impairments. They said a Sprint employee called them to relay the message and gave them the name of a possible suspect mentioned by the caller.

MIT said investigators determined the staffer named in the Saturday call was "found not to be connected to the incident."

The message indicated a man dressed in body armor and carrying a rifle was in a main building on campus. The campus went on lockdown for about three hours.

Read More @ Source

McCain Pushes Forward With His Campaign Of Hate

Watch more clips at www.theyoungturks.com

Video Rating: 4 / 5



Fraudulent Stories Here

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Woman pictured in Te'o hoax talks about perpetrator

Image
Two of the people linked to an expansive hoax involving Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o attended the same Antelope Valley high school, according to the Southern California woman whose photos were used in the ruse. Diane O'Meara, who now works in marketing at STN Media Group in Torrance, spoke to NBC's "Today"  about the incident in a segment that aired Tuesday. In the segment, she said she met the supposed hoaxer, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, in high school but added that the two were not friends. Paraclete High football coach Norm Dahlia confirmed to The Times that Tuiasosopo played quarterback for the Lancaster school in 2007. A Deadspin.com report published last week first revealed the hoax but did not name O'Meara. The report claims that Tuiasosopo used photos of a girl he met at Paraclete High School in Lancaster as part of a Twitter account for a "Lennay Kekua," a fake woman whom he connected with Te'o. "My name is not Lennay Kek...
Keep reading

Iran Denies Space Monkey Phony

Image
After Iran announced last week that it had launched a monkey into space, web sleuths compared before and after photos of the furry astronaut and cried hoax. They claimed the monkey that made public appearances after the space flight in a bespoke suit looked nothing like the animal that had been shot into space, which seemed to have lighter fur and a mole above its eye. Did a monkey die in flight, asked the conspiracy theorists? Or did no primate ever leave the ground? Now the Iranian space agency has stepped forward to clear up any confusion. According to space official Mohammad Ebrahimi, it's true that the pictures don't match, and that they show two different monkeys. But Ebrahimi said that's not because of a hoax – it's because the pre-flight photo of a light-furred monkey was actually an archival photo and not a picture of the actual animal, Pishgam, who rode the rocket. According to the Iranians, Pishgam took a 20-minute flight and returned to earth s...
Keep reading

College Place Police Call Walmart Bomb Threat a Phony

Image
COLLEGE PLACE, Wash. - College Place Police are investigating an apparent bomb threat hoax at Walmart over the weekend.   Saturday night, police say the College Place Walmart called 911, reporting a bomb threat the store received, set to go off at 6:19 on Sunday morning. Officers and the College Place Fire Department arrived on scene and evacuated the store just before 1 AM that night. Officers and firefighters stayed there overnight blocking the doors, and didn't allow customers or employees back in until 7 AM.   Police say 6:19 came and went, but nothing exploded, no one got hurt, and they couldn't find any sort of explosive device, leading officers to believe the incident was an apparent hoax. Police say they don't know who made the threat, and while they're looking into leads, they don't have any potential suspects yet. Walmart returned to business as usual after 7 am on Sunday. Read More @ Source Sonic CD 510 (Earlies...
Keep reading