ATS History: COINTELPRO and "WhispersInTheDark"

Whispers In The Dark may still be lurking in the depths of ATS somewhere but, the dragonrider has left the physical plane and can not defend his name.

RIP Dragonrider


Oh and if some of you want to know for sure. Netchicken was not involved in the WITD hoax. So skepticoverlord can cross his name off his most wanted list.

You know/knew him personally and he is dead?



Not for nothing, but how the heck would you know???

Innocent question: is SO as William not a coincidence as WITD was the user name?

What is SO's initials? does anybody know?

Let's put this to rest.

I remember WITD becouse I joined ATS the following month he appeared, and was immediatly captured by the hoopla and goings on. I found it quite interesting yes.

DR was a fabled member at that time, and if I recall I may have had a U2U or 2 sent to me in my first month from some members that were still on the witch hunt. You know, U2U's using very similar catch phrases that WITD had used and basically trying to see if I was involved or something.

I was a new guy on the block, and I had no clue lol.

I wish I had saved those U2U's for a good laugh now and then, today.

Ahh, those were the days.

A friend of a friend told me about Dragonrider.

Netchicken is a friend and he says he wasn't involved but wished he would of been.

Skadi, Thank you!

Your posts have filled in any blanks surrounding this event. Things have become much clearer since reading Skeptic's original post and your work.

I can say WI as his initials but then what is TD (touch down) hmmm the football the president was holding. Wow we could make another conspiracy here.

How does he know him, out of curiousity? Thats sad to hear he is dead. I am not familiar with him, but sad nonetheless.


I don't see how that settles anything, not that anyone that I know of thinks he was involved anyway.

Nygdan, I don't know how he knows him. I just wanted to let ATS members know he is gone.

Yes it does settle something. Conspiracynut posted that he read a thread that mentioned about Netchicken being involved and SkepticOverlords response was...



Even though SO hadn't considered NC at the time, he did say he felt it was a older member that knew their way around and he also mentioned he could add him to the list.

If you want to see NC's response, get me permission to post a link to his site.

Dragonrider is dead?????????????????????????

Please tell me this is some sort of sick joke?

Ive havent been able to get a hold of him for a while...................maybe this is why??????????????????

Please tell me it ain't true........

Sorry but it's true, Dragonrider is gone.


RIP Dragonrider

R.I.P. Dragonrider. At least i know for a fact he lived his life with the belief that at anytime, all we love and cherish could be taken away from us, so he lived without denying himself the joys and simple pleasures we love. I know he has no regrets, and I have none knowing him. He was a one of a kind person.



I remember there was a time DR thought that WITD was a mod working for the government. I remember there was a stir about this as well.

Another piece of aftermath from the WITD disaster was a major site hack on a Sunday, where suddenly, Skeptic Overlords u2us were made public, along with several other peoples u2us, and the board was going haywire. There were a few u2us that I believe were supposedly between Skeptic and Bob88 discussing that Bob88 was WITD. Thats another thing that set alot of people off. When it was over and done with, skeptic overlord got control of the board back, and explained what happened. Alot of the u2us in SOs box were faked, and some from the hacker themselves.

It was this incident that sparked off alot of speculation that one of the mods, admin, or a close associate of theirs was behind the WITD hoax. I think the main names they were throwing around were Bob88 and Net Chicken. It was a while ago, so forgive my memory problems. Dragonrider even thought Bob88 did it.

It was that incident that started a whole bunch of accusations that the admin and mods were behind the whole WITD thing, and combine that with those who felt WITD was a real insider, and thus you have: ATS is COINTELLIPRO.

If I remember correctly, SO and Springer found out the identity of the sunday hacker, and took care of the matter, though I dont think his identity was ever disclosed.

Damn Skadi,

Once again I have to thank you for this trip down memory lane.

I never realized some of the hurdles ATS has overcome throughout the years. I can just imagine the skepticism of members when these events played out.

Would of been a tough time to be a member and worse to be the one the fingers were pointed at.

Hmmmm.. All this is exceptionally interesting to me and now I understand why my ATS a Conspiracy thread was met by such negativity.

I shall research further still.

All the best people,

NeoN HaZe.

i dont think it was, but i recall it being said he/she wasn't a member of ATS.

as for D.R...man, thats a shock for the system.

R.I.P

This is sad news about Dragonrider indeed. While he did cause us a great deal of grief and crossed several lines... no one would could possibly wish this... very sad.

Here's an interesting side note...

This all happened at a time with ATS was growing fast and was being 100% funded by me. The strain of handling the growth, securing the code/servers, and then this episode caused me to send a resignation letter to Simon (primarily because of the financial stress, combined with the added stress of this episode). Within one or two days, we then received conformation that we were approved for Google ads... and after integrating them, it became clear the ads would eventually pay for the bulk of the server costs. -whew- I withdrew my resignation and the rest is history.

so Google saved ATS??

*goes and removes his anti-google thread in RATS*

It wouldn't be the first time Google saves the day.

However... Google does have to by LAW turn over search information to the US government - this information does not include personal data on it's users as this would be in contravention of data protection act.

The whole truth is far scarier than the Google element of the truth.

With the advent of Data Warehousing it became possible for anyone with access to the tech to pull up info on a person down to what they purchased at their local shops.

The Key issue there is not if it is possible but how an authority could use the knowledge without infringing on civil rights.... but of course we all know that our rights are gradually being eroded away.

I was interested in your admission of Total financial support of ATS at that time Skeptic, since I am sure the bandwidth costs alone must have been back breakingly heavy.

All paid off in the end though huh?

All the best,

NeoN HaZe.

Along those lines, anyone heard from Pisky in the past year or so?

Maybe we shoudl have ATS funerals for our much missed members.

SkepticOverlord, if these script kiddies were able to change the date stamps on their own posts as WITD, using the old, super-sloppy XMB 1.6 and 1.8 code. Would it also give them the ability to change other members date stamps when quoting WITD posts? Wouldn't that be much more difficult for a script kiddie?

Another question, do script kiddies use the term beltway in their hacks? or is that a term used mostly by experienced and pro hackers?



You say you almost resigned because of the strain from financing, coding, growth of the site and WITD episode. On that day you also came to my chatroom. Do you remember? The first thing you asked me was "would you like to take over hosting of a disfunctional conspiracy website?" and then you told me you were quitting. I tried to discourage you from leaving ATS, I'm glad you stayed, no one could of done a better job with it. Also during that chat you said "let the TBATS retards know they won" As I remember that group defaced the site on that day. Why would you give them the victory? Wasn't the WITD episode and the FBI flood a much bigger deal then these kiddies?

IMO it was a government group/agent probably CIA to test response of members or the one person who knows this forum and code better then anyone else. U