Breaking News! Media inquiry about David Touretzky

[c***@yahoo.com]

A correspondent from a prominent national publication is doing a story
on David Touretzky and Carnegie Mellon University. They have posed some
questions for their article. If anyone wants to provide answers of
their own, in addition to ours, please email us at:
***@yahoo.com

Here is a copy of the email we received (questions follow). We have of
course redacted names and some other information.

From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Subject: David Touretzky
Date: Apr 22, 2006 XXXXX
Hello,
We have contacted and interviewed the former members of the CMU faculty you gave us.
Their stories were compelling. Our editor wants to do a follow up story on discrimination at
Carnegie Mellon. We are tracking down XXXXX, the student who was sent in on XXXXX, who
will corroborate the story XXXXX told us. We also left a voice mail for XXXXX and we should
hear back from XXXXX soon.
1. What exactly is Dr. Touretzky's expertise at CMU? Based on what we've read on his
website he's an expert in "rodent navigation". A researcher is combing through his
technical publications after looking through his web site which is quite confusing. He has
a mishmash of subjects there.
2. When we browsed through Dr. Touretzky's website the majority of its content is personal
issues. For example, he is critical of the FBI for having removed a web site containing the
exact bomb instructions he mirrored on his website, DeCSS decryption software,
Scientology and several other non-academic subjects. What is the policy at CMU regarding
the use of university's facilities for private use? You claimed that Touretzky's non-academic
activities are funded by student tuition and federal grants. How much money are we talking
about?
3. Do you know who supports Dr. Touretzky's non-academic projects at CMU?
4. Do you know if he is a tenured?
5. Is it true that Dr. Jared Cohon has received numerous complaints about Dr. Touretzky but
he has not reprimanded him? We have a print out from Wikipedia stating that Jared Cohon
supports Touretzky's activities, but when we checked Wikipedia again the statement about
Dr. Cohon had been removed. Do you know if Touretzky wrote his own Wikipedia page
and/or if he removes critical information submitted there?
6. We have contacted a law enforcement agency and their source said (the source being
quoted in our article) that if someone downloads Touretzky's bomb instructions and uses
them to cause harm both Dr. Touretzky and the Dr. Cohen are risk being found liable in a
court of law. The agency specifically commented that Dr. Touretzky's disclaimers won't
offer protection for either him or the university. If you know what is the University's policy
regarding such content on university servers?
7. One would think that Dr. Touretzky's racist statements violate CMU's affirmative action
policies. Are African-Americans, Muslims, Hispanics, or other minorities on campus aware
of Dr. Touretzky's racist remarks?
8. We have been told by sources and provided documentation that Dr. Touretzky visits
child porn sites. Can you tell us if CMU blocks access to child porn? We are familiar with
the Time's Cyberporn cover story from 1995 and the uproar it caused at CMU. Do you know
CMU's current stand on the subject of child pornography either being viewed or downloaded
from CMU?
9. You have a photograph on your web site of Dr. Touretzky, apparently in a university office
viewing a an image of nude male on his laptop. Do have any information as to the identity of
individual?
10. You indicated in one if your emails that David Touretzky purchased sexual implements
giving a university telephone number for contact. We have reviewed the image of the invoice
on your web site. Do you know if Dr. Touretzky has commented on this - has he denied or
confirmed the allegation? We have done our own fact checking on the invoice and have
determined it to be genuine (details will be included in our article).
11. A source told us that Dr. Touretzky had an insurance policy for his aircraft covering
bodily injury and property damage up to $2,000,000. Are you aware of any injuries or claims
on against this policy for any aviation mishap involving Dr. Touretzky, any of his passengers
or the aircraft?
Finally, we would like to interview some parents of current CMU students to get their
impressions of university policies and activities especially with regard to discrimination.
Please provide names you believe could give us credible information. We realize that you
may have all the answers to the questions we have posed. Please answer what you can or
point us the sources who would or might know. As mentioned we are in touch with other
sources. We don't yet know the publication date but it will be either at the end of May or the
beginning of June this year.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

[bossel]

Post by c***@yahoo.com
A correspondent from a prominent national publication is doing a story
on David Touretzky and Carnegie Mellon University. They have posed some
questions for their article. If anyone wants to provide answers of
Here is a copy of the email we received (questions follow). We have of
course redacted names and some other information.

From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Subject: David Touretzky
Date: Apr 22, 2006 XXXXX
Hello,
We have contacted and interviewed the former members of the CMU faculty you gave us.
Their stories were compelling. Our editor wants to do a follow up story on discrimination at
Carnegie Mellon. We are tracking down XXXXX, the student who was sent in on XXXXX, who
will corroborate the story XXXXX told us. We also left a voice mail for XXXXX and we should
hear back from XXXXX soon.
1. What exactly is Dr. Touretzky's expertise at CMU? Based on what we've read on his
website he's an expert in "rodent navigation". A researcher is combing through his
technical publications after looking through his web site which is quite confusing. He has
a mishmash of subjects there.
2. When we browsed through Dr. Touretzky's website the majority of its content is personal
issues. For example, he is critical of the FBI for having removed a web site containing the
exact bomb instructions he mirrored on his website, DeCSS decryption software,
Scientology and several other non-academic subjects. What is the policy at CMU regarding
the use of university's facilities for private use? You claimed that Touretzky's non-academic
activities are funded by student tuition and federal grants. How much money are we talking
about?
3. Do you know who supports Dr. Touretzky's non-academic projects at CMU?
4. Do you know if he is a tenured?
5. Is it true that Dr. Jared Cohon has received numerous complaints about Dr. Touretzky but
he has not reprimanded him? We have a print out from Wikipedia stating that Jared Cohon
supports Touretzky's activities, but when we checked Wikipedia again the statement about
Dr. Cohon had been removed. Do you know if Touretzky wrote his own Wikipedia page
and/or if he removes critical information submitted there?
6. We have contacted a law enforcement agency and their source said (the source being
quoted in our article) that if someone downloads Touretzky's bomb instructions and uses
them to cause harm both Dr. Touretzky and the Dr. Cohen are risk being found liable in a
court of law. The agency specifically commented that Dr. Touretzky's disclaimers won't
offer protection for either him or the university. If you know what is the University's policy
regarding such content on university servers?
7. One would think that Dr. Touretzky's racist statements violate CMU's affirmative action
policies. Are African-Americans, Muslims, Hispanics, or other minorities on campus aware
of Dr. Touretzky's racist remarks?
8. We have been told by sources and provided documentation that Dr. Touretzky visits
child porn sites. Can you tell us if CMU blocks access to child porn? We are familiar with
the Time's Cyberporn cover story from 1995 and the uproar it caused at CMU. Do you know
CMU's current stand on the subject of child pornography either being viewed or downloaded
from CMU?
9. You have a photograph on your web site of Dr. Touretzky, apparently in a university office
viewing a an image of nude male on his laptop. Do have any information as to the identity of
individual?
10. You indicated in one if your emails that David Touretzky purchased sexual implements
giving a university telephone number for contact. We have reviewed the image of the invoice
on your web site. Do you know if Dr. Touretzky has commented on this - has he denied or
confirmed the allegation? We have done our own fact checking on the invoice and have
determined it to be genuine (details will be included in our article).
11. A source told us that Dr. Touretzky had an insurance policy for his aircraft covering
bodily injury and property damage up to $2,000,000. Are you aware of any injuries or claims
on against this policy for any aviation mishap involving Dr. Touretzky, any of his passengers
or the aircraft?
Finally, we would like to interview some parents of current CMU students to get their
impressions of university policies and activities especially with regard to discrimination.
Please provide names you believe could give us credible information. We realize that you
may have all the answers to the questions we have posed. Please answer what you can or
point us the sources who would or might know. As mentioned we are in touch with other
sources. We don't yet know the publication date but it will be either at the end of May or the
beginning of June this year.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Forward my website to the reporter. It has interesting details/facts on
Touretzky.


http://www.thunderstar.net/~Schwarz/

(I am concerned about Dave Touretzky's activities. He also has bomb
instructions on the net.)
http://www.religiousfreedomwatch.org/extremists/

[John Ockerbloom]

Oh, the Scientology[tm] anonymice are here too? Well, here's
what I wrote in pgh.general, where they've been posting the
same stuff they've been trying to push here:

I suspect that readers of this group have by now caught on to
Scientology[tm] harassment techniques, given the lack of posted
followups to the last two "***@yahoo.com" posts. But for those
just coming in, or who are interested in learning more, what you're
seeing is a classic example of what Scientology[tm] founder
L. Ron Hubbard termed "noisy investigation". You can also
see how badly Scientology[tm] shoots themselves in the foot with them.

It may help to establiah some background:

Paulette Cooper was one of the first writers to reveal Scientology[tm]'s
"noisy investigations" in her 1971 book _The Scandal of Scientology_.
She wrote:

[Hubbard] wrote in 1966 that if someone gave Scientology trouble,
"find out where he or she works or worked ... and phone 'em up and say
`I am investigating Mr./Mrs. for criminal activities and he/she has been
trying to prevent man's freedom and is restraining my religious freedom
and that of my friends and children, etc.' "

Cooper would soon become familiar with the technique personally. As
former Scientology[tm] cramming officer Dennis Erlich put it in an
affidavit filed in the 1990s:

It is also a matter of Scientology doctrine that if someone
is publicly critical of or is investigating Scientology, the
correct response is to do a "noisy investigation" to find or
manufacture that person's crimes. For example, while I was in
Scientology, I knew Scientologists who participated in something
called "Operation Freakout" designed to frame author Paulette Cooper
(who had written negative things about Scientology) for a bomb threat.
I also know Scientologists who had infiltrated government offices to
steal documents in order to intimidate government agencies into
ceasing their investigations.

(Full affidavit at http://home.snafu.de/tilman/mystory/dennis_990216.txt)

A 1977 FBI raid on Scientology[tm] offices would reveal the existence
of Operation Freakout, as well as other schemes to infiltrate the US
government. The overall investigation eventually results in 11 prominent
Scientology[tm] officials going to jail, including Mary Sue Hubbard,
the wife of L. Ron Hubbard. (Hubbard himself was in hiding at the time,
and never went to court or to jail, but was still named an "unindicted
co-conspirator" in this case.) For more information, see

http://home.snafu.de/tilman/krasel/cooper/frk.html
for some "Operation Freakout" documents, and
http://www.wwwaif.net/scn/scn_GO_1.php
for details on Scientology[tm]'s "gang of 11"

Dennis Erlich's revelations on Usenet were so explosive that the
cult tried to silence him and the alt.religion.scientology
newsgroup he was posting to. And it was *that* attack on the Net
and its posters that brought the cult to the attention of many other
folks online at the time, including a number of people at CMU.
This was all documented thoroughly in Ron Newman's "Church
of Scientology vs. the Net" from 1994 to 1996. A copy is online at

http://www.spaink.net/cos/rnewman/home.html

And the most prominent CMU person who got interested then,
and the one that is now Scientology's chief foil at that university,
was... David Touretzky, who still maintains
a broad and robust Scientology exposure site, at

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Secrets/

and who Scientology[tm]'s been trying and failing to shut up ever since,
as you can see.

So, not only are Scientology[tm]'s heavy-handed attempts to silence
critics not working -- if you're reduced to trolling newsgroups
anonymously with nothing but conveniently "anonymous sources", while
your critic continues to openly post on the Web and be featured in
national media, you're getting pretty desperate -- but they're precisely
the thing that got Dave Touretzky investigating and exposing
Scientology[tm[ in the first place!

Thus, our anonymice are helping give fresh examples of how miserably
Scientology[tm] doctrines fail when put to the test in real life. Very
Well Done again, guys!

John Mark Ockerbloom