Vincent Bridges AKA "Dr. Strange"
Psychotherapist? Or Hacker and Thief?
This
article may be freely
copied and shared only if the original text is retained in its totality,
and a link back to the original is posted.
Vincent Bridges sez:
"[...]
Dr. Margaret McCoy...turned me on to hypnosis, an old fascination,
and I soon went from Ericsonian ..."
"Dr.
Joan Essic ... because
of our work together on hypnosis... introduced me to Ericsonnian..."
"I
studied with Milton Ericson years ago..."
So now,
we turn to Mr. Bridges’ claims of being a therapist. He states:
“As
for therapy and being a therapist, that started with three years of
therapy with Dr. Margaret McCoy, a Transactional Analysis psychologist.
[NOTE: Mr. Bridges seems to be the patient here, not the therapist. A good "school" for learning therapeutic jargon and techniques.]
She turned me on to hypnosis, an old fascination, and I soon went from
Ericsonian to NLP to holotropic breathwork and so on. I am a certified
hypnotherapist in the state of North Carolina with my own "school"
of therapeutic techniques and applications. I also hold certifications
in TA and advanced NLP. I am one of the pioneers of psycho-acoustic
brain entrainment trauma abreaction, having worked with both Tom Kenyon
- I was one of Acoustic Brain Research's early experimental subjects
- and Dr. Martin Wutke, a clinical physiologist using some of these
techniques to treat addiction and depression. When I was doing therapy,
I worked with Dr. Joan Essic of the Bowman-Gray Medical School's MPD
clinic and Dr. Jean Templeton who inherited my techniques when I gave
it up."
Aside from
the fact that the above is written in a very slippery way, so that it
is difficult to infer whether Mr. Bridges is the patient or the therapist,
so far we have not been able to verify any of Mr. Bridges claims. We
cannot confirm that Mr. Bridges is a certified hypotherapist. Searches
on North Carolina websites listing such have come up negative, though
this may show up in the North and South Carolina Public records searches
that are underway. The same holds with his possible certifications in
TA and advanced NLP. We will keep you informed. We have received an email from an individual who claims to have known Mr. Bridges for a long time, and who asserts that Bridges was a patient in a psychiatric hospital for a lengthy period.
UPDATE! Regarding the above claims about his training as a therapist, Mr. Bridges
has stated the following subsequent to the publishing of this report:
Bridges
writes: Other quick points on that front include: The MPD clinic was
an informal group of psychologist and psychiatrists that met at the
Rose and Thistle Cafe in W-S twice a month to discuss their Disassociative
Disorder and MPD clients.
Mr. Bridges
has here stretched our credulity to the breaking point again. Keep in
mind that his clear statement was:
"When
I was doing therapy, I worked with Dr. Joan Essic of the Bowman-Gray
Medical School's MPD clinic..."
The question
we would like to ask is "who is trying to confuse and mislead whom?"
Bridges
writes: Dr. Joan Essic, Wake Forest 1988 I believe, was a friend first
who, because of our work together on hypnosis - she introduced me to
Ericsonnian - recommended that the group try me out on a few of their
incorrigibles. When I got results that they couldn't explain, they started
to send me more clients. I was never asked to the meetings, and so
don't remember their names. All of that is in another collection of
boxes and files yet to go through.
We have
found a Dr. Ellyn Joan Essic, who obtained her Ph.D. in 1999 from University
of North Carolina at Greensboro. At this point, we are unable to connect
her with the Bowman-Gray Medical School but will keep trying. We have
sent written inquiries, including the entire transcripts of all Mr. Bridges
claims to a selection of individuals at Wake Forest/Bowman Gray. We will
update them with the further information about the psychologists and psychiatrists
meeting at the cafe who were sending Mr. Bridges their clients so that
they can investigate this matter.
“…Dr.
Joan Essic of the Bowman-Gray Medical School's MPD clinic and
Dr. Jean Templeton who inherited my techniques when I gave it up…”
and:
"I
was gaining credibility with the Bowman Gray Med School's MPD clinic..."
What we
did find that the Bowman-Gray Medical School DOES have an MPD clinic.
However, this MPD Clinic has nothing to do with psychology – clinical,
behavioral, or otherwise. As it happens, "MPD" as used by Bowman
Gray refers to Hematology research, a branch of which includes the study
of "Myeloproliferative Disorders"… "Myeloproliferative
- Concerning abnormal proliferation of bone marrow elements either in
the bone marrow or extramedullary."
This would
not appear to have anything to do with counseling. Nevertheless, an "MPD
Clinic" of such a large and prestigious Medical School would be just
the ticket to attach to a list of credits for someone claiming to be an
authority on the subject of Multiple Personality Disorder. He just didn't
check far enough to find out what the clinic really did.
Bridges
writes: My former therapy partner, Dr Jean Templeton, (who blew Laura's
crap off as clearly delusional - everyone please note that not a word
of that exchange has been mentioned) claims me as her hypnosis teacher
on her own hypnotherapy certification application.
Regarding
the above: There has not been an "exchange" between any of the
Perseus Foundation researchers and Dr. Jean Templeton. Three inquiries
to Dr. Templeton have resulted in no response. If Dr. Templeton has responded
to Vincent Bridges himself, why hasn't he published her verifiable confirmation
of his claims? Vincent Bridges has also told us:
From:
Vincent Bridges
Mon, 26 Feb 2001 11:58:25 -0500
I
went and checked my appointment book for 1996. I was still practicing
then, and practically every moment of every day is recorded. On Wednesday,
April 24th, 1996 I was in Tampa, the book says University of Tampa,
but all I remember is a large and funky 1890's hotel deep in downtown,
doing a seminar with my partner Dr. Jean Templeton for a group of therapists
and psychs on early childhood abuse and our light and sound entrainment
procedures for treating it.
Strangely
enough, that was my last seminar with Jean. She went off to Masters
and Johnson that summer and became famous for our technique. I manned
the store while she was gone and then that fall I decided I had had
enough. I started pulling back on clients, keeping only those that were
willing to do the work. By early'97 I was officially retired. I kept
my Tyler Texas family because I had two sisters and a mother with serious
problems and a history of involvement with the Program with going back
to the 1930's. Their family connections, including William Bailey III,
an oil man who was a friend of Prescott Bush's and the first person
J. Edgar Hoover called after he was notified of the assassination, led
me to the core of the whole JFK thing. That's how I know that the Cs
interpretation is correct. They were just not telling you the whole
story. So, while it's fine for me to dig the story out of other people's
unconsciousness, it's too dangerous just to spill the whole thing out
to you through the Ouiji board.
Again,
despite our REPEATED efforts to obtain a recommendation for Mr. Bridges
from his "former partner," Dr. Jean Templeton, giving every
opportunity to her to offer him support in his claims. the silence is
deafening. Even if, as Mr. Bridges claims, Dr. Templeton "blew Laura's
crap off as clearly delusional - everyone please note that not a word
of that exchange has been mentioned," the fact is that she has made
not a single effort to respond to our requests to verify his claims. And
more than one member of the research group have contacted her. But, there
is one claim that we do have a return on. Vincent Bridges makes the claim:
“I
am one of the pioneers of psycho-acoustic brain entrainment trauma abreaction,
having worked with both Tom Kenyon - I was one of Acoustic Brain Research’s
early experimental subjects - and Dr. Martin Wutke …”
From: office@...
Subject: Vincent Bridges
Date sent: Thu, 22 Nov 2001 07:08:56 +0000
In response
to your inquiry, I am afraid I cannot be of much assistance. I do not
recall this name, though I cannot say that he was never a client of
mine, as I practicied psychotheraphy for many years and his statement
saying that he was a "subject" sounds more like a client than
a fellow researcher.
Acoustic
Brain Research was an independent research organization that I operated
from 1983 until 1993, though my tapes and CDs from that period are still
in production and are utilized by individuals and clinics around the
world. These were produced and conceived by me, without assistance.
They were sent to independent labs at Universities and locations for
verification of brain shifts.
I cannot
say this man did not work for one of those labs but he certainly wasn't
a principal at any as I recall.
But I
have no recollection of this name, certainly not as a collaborator or
researcher during that time.
Cordially,
Tom Kenyon
An inquiry
to Dr. Wuttke (misspelled in the above quote) has not come back yet.
UPDATE:
I would like to bring some other important matters to the reader's attention.
The reader may wish to read and listen to the "Mirror
Session," which includes the following information, which
we felt needed to be included in this official report, so it is repeated
here.
As
even the most casual observer will note, when listening to the sound
clips from the hypnosis/mirror session conducted by Mr. Vincent
Bridges, his lapses of professional demeanor in relation to a subject
in a state of hypnosis induced and controlled by him, are not merely
reprehensible, they are legally actionable.
Nevertheless,
in his usual style of diverting attention from his lies by attacking
his victims rather than producing any requested documentation of his
own claims, Mr. Bridges, has recently written and posted on a public
message board, the following:
*Note
on the practice of hypnosis in Florida - The state of Florida has strict
laws concerning hypnosis. Florida Statute 456 outlines who can practice,
and who cannot: Florida Statute 456 on the Practice of Hypnosis, LIMITS
this therapy to LICENSED practitioners of the healing arts, including
physicians, psychiatrists, dentists, chiropractors, podiatrists, and
optometrists "within the perview of the statutes applicable to his respective
profession." A patient may be referred to a "qualified practitioner"
by a licensed practitioner of the healing arts, but that "qualified
practitioner" must employ hypnotic techniques under the SUPERVISION,
DIRECTION, 'PRESCRIPTION', and RESPONSIBILITY of such referring practitioner.
(66) FLORIDA STATUTE 456 Practice of Hypnosis 456.005 Penalities: Misdemeanor
of the second degree: (456).
Laura
writes: Mr. Bridges is quite correct. However, what he has failed to mention
is the fact that hypnosis - or other counseling modalities - performed
under the aegis of religious practice, are not being described in the
above paragraph. Perhaps Mr. Bridges might have checked out the above
statute before traveling to the State of Florida to perform therapeutic
hypnosis on me - which I ought to add was taped and the tapes are in our
possession and will be produced when the situation warrants. After all,
Mr. Bridges is the one claiming to be a "psychotherapist," not
me. And thus far, we have been unable to discover a single piece of evidence
or validation for his training and claims.
Mr.
Bridges goes on to say:
"In
the second volume of her voluminous and on-going autobiography, Adventures
with the Cassiopaeans, Ms. Knight-Jadczyk informs us that she has no
training in hypnotherapy, or any other kind of therapy. 'I admit that
I have none freely. Well, that's not entirely true. I have certification
in hypnosis; until I quit in 1996, I was listed in the directories of
The American Counselors Society and The National Society of Clinical
Hypnotherapists, neither of which is any kind of major endorsement.'"
What
Mr. Bridges fails to note is that the above quoted remark from me (Laura)
is a footnote to the following statement:
"So,
on the one hand, we have six respectable people, none of whom has ever
even "fudged" their credentials..."
The
reference was to "credentials" in terms of degrees and other
claims, including publishing credits, such as those falsely made by Mr.
Vincent Bridges. It made no reference whatsoever to any lack of training
in hypnotherapy or any other kind of therapy. In fact, I described quite
clearly the training I received in those areas through the years in Amazing
Grace. What we are seeing is another example of the semantic
aphasia of the psychopath who, as one expert put it: "knows many
words, but not the meanings."
Bridges
writes: Indeed, since the first organization no longer exists, and seems
to have had a very small and completely non-professional membership,
and the second has no record of a Laura Knight or a Laura Martin ever
taking any sort of training or receiving any kind of certification,
then we must ask just what does this certification consist of?
This
is a case of deliberate falsification since I have on my desk the directory
which includes many professional members in all 50 states.
Bridges
writes: A Laura Martin was indeed a member of the Society in 1994 and
1995, but simple membership and directory listing explicitly carries
with it no certification or even a recommendation.
Unfortunately,
Mr. Bridges is incorrect again. The societies named above, are composed
of members who have graduated from the training programs of St. John's
University, an accredited institution formed long after I received
my training from its founder, Dr. Arthur Winkler. As it happens, over
the many years since I took the courses, I had lost my certificates and
wrote to Dr. Winkler to ask if it could be replaced. He remembered me
and my certificates were replaced though, again, they are "lost"
in the house somewhere, packed in a box in storage. Nevertheless, I have
copies of the correspondence in my files, as well as the brochure for
St. John's. (See brochure and letters)
Bridges
writes: If therefore Ms. Knight-Jadczyk has any type of certification
in hypnosis, which is doubtful as no positive evidence of such certification
has been presented or can be found in the records of the institutions
cited by her, it does not in the state of Florida entitle her to practice
Hypnotherapy without the direct supervision of a licensed practitioner
of the healing arts, as listed above. If she has been practicing such
hypnotherapy without any supervision, then it is a violation of Florida
law, and is a second-degree misdemeanor as noted above.
Since
we have dealt with the issue of MY certification, perhaps Mr. Bridges
ought to apply these standards to himself since, as noted, I have never
claimed to be a "psychotherapist" as he has done, repeatedly.
A psychotherapist is a counselor or support person who helps people with
their emotional/social/mental processes. Usually, a psychotherapist has
a Masters level degree either in social work or psychology and is
generally licensed or certified by their state licensing board.
We
have already determined that Mr. Bridges has no such degrees, nor have
we been able to discover any license or certification in the state of
North Carolina in which he claims to have practiced as a "psychotherapist."
And
again, hypnosis practiced as religious counseling is entirely legal in
the State of Florida, and in fact, that is the aegis under which nearly
all hypnotists who are not psychologists or psychiatrists or other medical
personnel, practice.
Furthermore,
Spirit Release Therapy and Past Life Therapy, and exorcism, are not accepted
as "therapeutic modalities" by standard psychological therapy
and are not even covered under the above statute. However, therapeutic
hypnosis that deals with child abuse issues, including sexual abuse, as
Mr. Bridges claims is his speciality, is indeed covered under the above
statute. Mr. Bridges wrote to a member of our group:
Dear S***,
Well,
it sounds like you are a classical client of mine. My specialty was
early childhood trauma abreaction, and I mainly focused on incest, sexual
abuse, etc. [...] In the course of all that, I've come across many "Greenbaum"
cases. Corey's lecture, quoted by Laura in the Wave I think, is partly
taken from my research. I talked at length to him a few months before
the conference where he gave the lecture and my then partner was in
the audience.
[...]
I am Dr. Mack and Bud Hopkins' worst enemies. Hopkins refused to speak
at the same Fortean convention a few years ago, because I had attacked
his work so strongly the night before at the party. So it goes. . .
These guys are shameful. [...] I studied with Milton Ericson years ago,
and he stressed the value of conscious participation in the trance state
as the only way to insure the value of the trance's contents. [...]
I had a semi-famous abductee, one of the above's "clients," whose experience
turned about to be, with enough carefully unfoldment, her father masturbating
at her bedside. [...] Feel like visiting the beautiful piedmont one
weekend? I can do a simple evaluation, and see if there is work we can
profitably do together. It is possible to do it in one day, I've a few
other semi-detached clients in Asheville who do occasionally, so. .
. Are you game? Anyway, let me know what you feel,
Vincent
Now, notice
that in his other statement at the beginning of this section of the report,
Vincent Bridges has said:
"As
for therapy and being a therapist, that started with three years of
therapy with Dr. Margaret McCoy, a Transactional Analysis psychologist. She turned me on to hypnosis, an old fascination, and I soon went
from Ericsonian to NLP to holotropic breathwork and so on."
And then
he says: "Dr.
Joan Essic, Wake Forest 1988 I believe, was a friend first who, because
of our work together on hypnosis - she introduced me to Ericsonnian..."
Yet, in
an email to an individual that Bridges was trying to "drum up"
as a possible paying client, he has said plainly:
"I
studied with Milton Ericson years ago..."
Well, which
one is it, Mr. Bridges? Was it Templeton, Essic, or Dr. Ericson himself?
What seems
to be true is that Vincent Bridges learned how to fake being a therapist
by being in therapy. In other words, Vincent Bridges doing "therapy"
is the equivalent of the lunatic taking over the asylum!
Perhaps
that explains all those "blank years" in his bio, and the lack
of public records in his life?
Getting
back to his "practice of psychotherapy." What are the statutes
regarding such practice in North Carolina?
A
more interesting question, however, is when, precisely, did Vincent Bridges
study with Milton Ericson? After all, the good doctor died in 1980 at
the age of 79. We already have a pretty full schedule for those years
according to Bridges own account. Nevertheless,
we have sent inquiries to the related institutes to discover if anyone
who did actually study with Ericson remembers Mr. Bridges. When we receive
the information, we will update this page.
In
any event, I do hope that Vincent Bridges clearly remembers every word
spoken in the several sessions in which he hypnotized me "therapeutically,"
as he most certainly is in violation of the law in Florida he has cited.
I do thank him for researching this matter for me since it now adds to
the list of frauds he has perpetrated on me and others which can be submitted
for review to the State Attorney of Florida.
UPDATE -
June 6, 2002: At this point, we wish to go in another direction in our
report. A certain item was included in the Weidner
Correspondence as follows:
[This email
was forwarded to Jay Weidner in response to his requests for information
about Vincent Bridges' activities.]
From:
Laura Knight-Jadczyk laura@cassiopaea
To: cassiopaea@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Major attack on Group Member
Date sent: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 21:16:46 -0500
Hi All,
There
has been a situation going on for several weeks that we have waited
to talk about until certain details could be handled. One of our group
members is really getting hit HARD. She has asked me to ask for some
protective energies around her, and you will soon see why it is necessary.
To better
explain what has been going on, I will paste in my email to FDLE and
her email to the North Carolina department of Justice, State Bureau
of Investigation, and Bellsouth, her internet provider.
We kept
this under wraps until she could get her password and username changed
so that our discussion would not be read by whoever is doing this, which
we already suspect.
From: Laura Knight-Jadczyk laura@cassiopaea
To: "Breeden, Bob" <BobBreeden@fdle...
Subject: Vincent Bridges IP numbers
Date sent: Sun, 3 Feb 2002 16:07:49 -0500
Dear
Special Agent Breeden,
It seems
that Mr. Bridges has the capability to "tap into" and utilize
IP numbers that are not his own. In the list of the following IP numbers
that have been logged by our server just in the past week on the occasions
when he attempts to post his filth on our site discussion page, please
note that the sixth number resolves to Asheville N.C. where a member
of our group lives who has an iMac account with Bellsouth. She has
recently noticed charges on her internet account that reflect "out
of area access." She naturally inquired of Bellsouth what this
could mean since she hasn't even left town in months.
At the
time that the sixth IP number was loggged, we blocked future access
from the server. A few hours later, this group member wrote to us
asking why she could not access our site. It was only then, put together
with her "out of area" charges, that we realized that Mr.
Bridges might be using her account for his activities. She has reported
this possibility to Bellsouth as well as the Asheville police.
We can't
say anything about the other IP numbers except that we have members
in our group in each of the states that they resolve to, but in no
case can it be resolved further than the server which handles many
individual accounts.
This
may be the tip of an iceberg of something more widespread and serious.
The fact that this individual has the ability to do this, may indicate
something more serious, if only identity theft on a massive scale.
If looking
into this is not within your purview, please suggest to us whose it
is. At this point, we can only continue to forward documentation to
our local police, though we have also received the suggestion that
we ought to forward all the information to the State Attorney's of
both Florida and NC.
Thank
you, (and the list of recent IP use is pasted in below.)
Laura
Knight-Jadczyk
A collectiion
of IPs used recently by Vincent Bridges to access our site:
63.215.222.9
- 02/03/02 09:18:40 MST
206.153.206.91 - 02/03/02 06:30:09 MST
199.174.144.68 - 02/02/02 09:53:31 MST
63.25.107.223 - 02/02/02 09:49:48 MST
63.178.233.4 - 02/01/02 10:06:30 MST
63.14.70.64 - 01/30/02 15:35:46 MST
165.247.181.178 - 01/27/02 09:34:55 MST
63.11.38.77 - 01/24/02 08:42:32 MST
all
using the same
Mozilla/4.0
(compatible; MSIE 5.0; Mac_PowerPC)
[Mr. Bridges
has responded to the above in on several public message boards saying:
V: It
would be laughable if it weren't so lame... The IP are all earthlink.net
addresses. I had an account there just to monitor their libels when
they banned my IP. My user name was hruor@e...
We note
that Vincent Bridges has admitted that the the postings were made by him.
But, again, he lies about the activity itself with no shame and unfortunately,
most people don't bother to check for themselves. Here is the identification
of the Internet Service Providers as rendered by standard internet tools:
| 63.215.222.9 |
Level 3 communications, Tampa |
| 206.153.206.91 |
EarthLink |
| 199.174.144.68 |
EarthLink |
| 63.25.107.223 |
UUNET |
| 63.178.233.4 |
Sprint, Tarboro NC |
| 63.14.70.64 |
UUNET |
| 165.247.181.178 |
EarthLink |
| 63.11.38.77 |
UUNET |
Probably
a more detailed localization is possible with advanced tools.]
Extracts from the entries identifying the poster: [complete text available
from the server]
From: ...@ac.net (U. Noah Hoo)
Subject: Entry to Guestbook
Date sent: Sun, 03 Feb 2002 09:18:42 -0700
||63.215.222.97|
http://cassiopaea.com/cass/addguestl.htm||Mozilla/4.0 (compatible;
MSIE 5.0; Mac_PowerPC)|
02/03/02
09:18:40 MST
Send reply to: ...@ac.net (Vincent Bridges)
From: ...@ac.net (Vincent Bridges)
Subject: Entry to Guestbook
Date sent: Sun, 03 Feb 2002 06:30:10 -0700
||206.153.206.91|
http://cassiopaea.com/cass/addguestl.htm||Mozilla/4.0 (compatible;
MSIE 5.0; Mac_PowerPC)|
02/03/02
06:30:09 MST
Send reply to: ...@ac.net (Vincent Bridges)
From: ...@ac.net (Vincent Bridges)
Subject: Entry to Guestbook
Date sent: Sat, 02 Feb 2002 09:53:32 -0700
||199.174.144.68|
http://cassiopaea.com/cass/addguestl.htm||Mozilla/4.0 (compatible;
MSIE 5.0; Mac_PowerPC)|
02/02/02
09:53:31 MST
Send reply to: ...@ac.net (Vincent Bridges)
From: ...@ac.net (Vincent Bridges)
Subject: Entry to Guestbook
Date sent: Sat, 02 Feb 2002 09:49:49 -0700
||63.25.107.223|
http://cassiopaea.com/cass/addguestl.htm||Mozilla/4.0 (compatible;
MSIE 5.0; Mac_PowerPC)|
02/02/02
09:49:48 MST
Send reply to: ...@ac.net (Vincent Bridges)
From: ...@ac.net (Vincent Bridges)
Subject: Entry to Guestbook
Date sent: Fri, 01 Feb 2002 10:06:30 -0700
||63.178.233.4|
http://cassiopaea.com/cass/addguestl.htm||Mozilla/4.0 (compatible;
MSIE 5.0; Mac_PowerPC)|
02/01/02
10:06:30 MST
Send reply to: ...@ac.net (Vincent Bridges)
From: ...@ac.net (Vincent Bridges)
Subject: Entry to Guestbook
Date sent: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 15:35:48 -0700
||63.14.70.64|
http://157.238.46.128/cass/add.htm||Mozilla/4.0 (compatible;
MSIE 5.0; Mac_PowerPC)|
01/30/02
15:35:46 MST
Send reply to: me@some.net (Vincent Bridges)
From: me@some.net (Vincent Bridges)
Subject: Entry to Guestbook
Date sent: Sun, 27 Jan 2002 09:34:55 -0700
||165.247.181.178|
http://cassiopaea.com/cass/addguestl.htm||Mozilla/4. 0 (compatible;
MSIE 5.0; Mac_PowerPC)|
01/27/02
09:34:55 MST
Send reply to: me@some.net (U. Noah Woo)
From: me@some.net (U. Noah Woo)
Subject: Entry to Guestbook
Date sent: Thu, 24 Jan 2002 08:42:32 -0700
||63.11.38.77|
http://www.cassiopaea.com/cgi- bin/guestbookl.cgi||Mozill a/4.0
(compatible; MSIE 5.0; Mac_PowerPC)|
01/24/02
08:42:32 MST
[The above
only represent a small selection of the many dozens of attempts - often
made several times a day - Mr. Bridges made to post his lies on our site.]
The story
behind the above excerpt of exchanges consists in the following:
As the reader
knows, our report on Vincent Bridges was published on Thanksgiving Day
of 2001. That was at the end of November, and only after a considerable
period of time of observation of his public libel and defamation to which
we initially did not wish to respond, based on the assumption that it
would go away.
It wasn't
until January of 2002 that we became fully aware of the fact that Mr.
Bridges was exerting himself in ways that were way beyond just simply
libeling us in public. It was at that point that we became aware of the
fact that he had attempted to file false police reports with our local
police department and with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
It was also then that we became aware of the fact that he had been "conducting
his own investigation."
However,
Mr. Bridges' idea of an "investigation" does not consist in
asking questions to verify claims made by another party. His idea of an
investigation seems to consist of contacting people and trying to manipulate
their perceptions and beliefs with lies and innuendo. Fortunately, most
individuals who are real journalists or law enforcement officials DO take
the time to check out claims and Mr. Bridges was told that he didn't have
a leg to stand on and that if he had problems with what we were saying,
he needed to get a lawyer and sue us in civil court because, since we
had not posted any lies about him, we had committed no crimes. The exact
words quoted to us that were told to Mr. Bridges by one law enforcement
official who checked out his claims were: "Ms. Knight-Jadczyk
has crossed all her "T's" and dotted all her "I's."
It looks, Mr. Bridges, like you thought you were going to step on a worm
and discovered that the worm wasn't a worm after all."
So it was
that when it was discovered through Jay Weidner, that Mr. Bridges was
in contact with "Frank Scott" and what was behind his threat
to "expose Laura," which literally
consisted in an attempt at blackmail/extortion, we understood that Mr.
Bridges was truly behaving as a psychopath. It was at that point that
we decided that a more proactive stance was necessary and the decision
was made that the only answer to Mr. Bridges lies was to simply present
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, WITH the documentation.
Mr. Bridges
reacted to this public exposure of his activities with literally a barrage
of attempts to post more of his lies and defamation - WITHOUT any documentation
- on our website.
Using standard
site management tools, we simply blocked his access. And it was as a result
of this blocking at the time of the "Tallahassee"
article that some very disturbing things became evident as will be revealed
by the following series of email discussions several of the discussion
group were having.
To: S**,
M***, B***, L***, etc
From: "Laura Knight-Jadczyk"
Date sent: Sat, 12 Jan 2002 14:10:22 -0500
Meanwhile,
VB is out there trying like crazy to post his flame attacks on our site,
in the guestbook, etc. He got around the fact that he was blocked by
some means of tapping into the library computer in New Port Richey and
routing from there. Since it came from a MAC, we know it was not one
of the library computers, so it wasn't Frank going down and doing it...
and the only other explanation is that he did some sort of "re-route"
trick.
He is
simply not going to post his lies on our site. That's the bottom line.
But he keeps trying. He wants access to our readership because he knows
that his own audience is only about 100 people, if that.
Meanwhile,
he is also cruising the net, looking for message boards and sites to
post his lies.
L
To: S**,
M***, B***, L***, etc
From: Athought
Date sent: Sat, 12 Jan 2002 21:01:13 -0500
This may
or may not be related, but the question continues to nag me. Does anyone
else remember when Vincent sent a very short post, asking who had mac
computers? I answered his email that I had an iMac and the subject never
came up again. Does anyone remember this, or know why he would ask this
question to the group?
Laura...
your paragraph above brought this to mind once again. On the same subject,
my Bellsouth bill this month came in with an additional $26.00 for GSP
POP Access Usage at $2.75 per hour. When I called to inquire, they explained
that this is what they charge when I travel out of state and use a toll
free number that they provide to access my internet account. I explained
that this has never happened and they said they would investigate and
get back to me. Well, they called back and said that it seemed to be
an error, although they could not explain how it happened because my
account clearly reflected access only from my home phone and my office
number (both local Asheville numbers) and they would credit my account.
This troubles me.
S***
Go HERE to see the actual bill (with names and identifying numbers
removed.) This is the bill dated Nov. 1 thru Dec. 31.
To: S**,
M***, B***, L***, etc
From: "L D"
Date sent: Sat, 12 Jan 2002 18:25:09 -0800
Hi, S***,
I do
remember VB posting something like that. If I get some time later tonight,
I'll see if I can find it. Did your Bellsouth rep tell you where the
calls came from? You might try calling them back and see if they can
tell you which state. Interesting. You might ask if any of the others
(who were on the list at the same VB was) have a Mac and if so, did
they notice anything odd about their bills this month.
L
To: S**,
M***, B***, L***, etc
From: "Arkadiusz Jadczyk"
Date sent: Sat, 12 Jan 2002 22:59:09 -0500
Here is
one event of today that I do not understand. Vincent today accessed
our web site using his Mac, but using uunet account located in New Port
Richey. There is little chance that he is really in New Port Richey,
because shortly before he did the same from NC - same post - same computer
tracks.
ark
To: S**,
M***, B***, L***, etc
From: Athought
Date sent: Sun, 13 Jan 2002 07:18:46 -0500
L**,
I spoke
to two different Bellsouth Reps. The first was a general troubleshooter
type. The second one that called me back, had actually done the investigation.
She said that she found nothing that would explain the error in billing.
She said that she expected to find that I had accessed my email account
from out of state and did not find this. She said that Bellsouth does
not give out the out of state toll free access number unless a member
specifically asks for it. There was no record of a request from me for
this phone number. She said that my account clearly reflects access
to my email account through my home phone number and that from August
2001 to the present, I have accessed my email twice from my office number.
No explanation for the error. The charge was for 8.7 hours of of GSP
POP Access. I am going to email Bellsouth and request more details.
I have also written to a Florida friend who is sort of a mac super expert
to ask for his opinion. I have asked him if someone can hack into a
library system and then hack into another computer, etc.
S***
The exchange
went back and forth for awhile, all of the group members involved being
rather confused about the issue. It was shortly after this that we informed
Special Agent Breeden about the matter, hoping that the more powerful
investigative tools of a law enforcement agency could ferret out the problem
since the events indicated that S** F**'s billing problem was very likely
directly related to Vincent Bridges sudden access to innumerable IP numbers
- and all of them most decidedly NOT "earthlink" as he has claimed.
Special
Agent Breeden responded saying that the FDLE needed
evidence that would stand up in court. Well, since we were looking to
his agency to obtain that evidence, and since we only had partial evidence,
we became acutely aware of how psychopaths manage to get away with their
crimes. They are "boderline" crimes. They are serious offenses
against individuals, create misery and suffering for other human beings,
including material losses, but they are generally so "small potatoes"
that law enforcement agencies generally see them as just "nuisances."
But, getting
back to the narrative, since S** F*** was told that it was obviously an
error, and she would be credited for the error, the subject was dropped.
It wasn't
until S** F*** received her phone bill
the following month that the issue became something to be concerned
about. On this bill, dated Dec. 1 thru Jan 31st, which was not received
until AFTER the above discussion, there was a charge of $295.03 for 107.283
hours of GSP POP Access Usage @ $2.75 per hour.
That's a
lot of web cruising!
The "hacker"
had apparently discovered that Ms. F*** was a working person who was seldom
online and he had a "free ride," so to say, and had decided
to really take advantage of it.
Meanwhile,
the attempts to access our website from numerous, varied IP addresses,
clearly identifiable as the work of Mr. Bridges, continued.
At this
point, Ms. F*** was advised that this was a matter of theft and that she
ought to report it as such to the police.
Well, she
did. Only once again, just as FDLE had passed the buck, the Asheville
head of Computer Crimes did also. It began to look like law enforcement
agencies were simply going to look the other way. Again and again Ms.
F and others hear "It's on the internet, it's not my jurisdiction."
So, we find another reason why the successful psychopath continues to
function in society. The garden variety rarely commit big crimes. They
are just "nuisances." That's actually quite fitting. Not only
is Bridges a hack writer, he's a "hack criminal!"
A really
good psychopath can make a living stealing a few hundred bux here and
a few hundred there. A really good psychopath who is computer literate,
can literally make a "killing" on the internet by stealing from
many different people, but keeping the theft under a certain figure. The
general rule of thumb about them is that whatever is uncovered about their
behavior is only the tip of an iceberg of what they are really up to.
After trying
repeatedly to get action from both Bellsouth and the Asheville Police
department, S** F*** finally wrote to the Attorney General of North Carolina.
Here is S***'s letter:
Ms. S***
F***
*****************
Asheville, NC 28...
828-********
North
Carolina Office of the Attorney General
North Carolina Department of Justice
Mr. Roy Cooper, Attorney General
Dear Mr.
Cooper:
Within
your press release of October 4, 2001, you stated, "Now we will
be able to use technology--the same tools that criminals have used to
commit crimes--to bring them to justice."
Last Monday
morning, on the North Carolina Now television program, you said, the
State Bureau of Investigation's Computer Forensics Lab was "a real
priority for me".
To my
knowledge, you are the only public servant in the state, that is seriously
concerned about the victimization of North Carolina residents through
the use of computers.
I am a
victim of a computer crime. I have contacted Bellsouth.net, my ISP,
as well as the Asheville Police Department to report this crime. I have
found the existing resources lacking in their ability to address computer
crimes. My hope, is that you will help me to bring this criminal to
justice.
I have
copied and pasted my letter to Bellsouth.net into the body of this email,
as it covers the information I have available at present regarding this
crime committed against me.
LETTER
TO BELLSOUTH
To: <abuse@bellsouth.net>
Subject: Internet fraud
Ms. S***
F***
** ******
Asheville, NC 2*****
828-*******
Dear Sir
or Ma'am:
On January
9, 2002, I contacted Bellsouth with an inquiry regarding internet charges
on my bill for $75.72 due January 20, 2002. Of the total amount due
of $75.72, two items were new and unfamiliar.
A. 8.700
Hours GSP POP Access Usage @2.75 an hour........ $23.92
B. 8.700
Hours GSP POP Access Usage @ $0.25 an hour... 2.17
The Bellsouth
representative advised me that she was fairly certain that these internet
charges reflected charges for the access of my email account from out
of state, or out of my access area. When I explained to the representative
that the only place I access my email from is my home in Asheville through
the use of my home telephone line she asked if I would please hold while
she consulted with the internet department. When the representative
came back on the line, she explained that these charges were in fact
for out of service area access of my internet account and that the charges
were an error and I would be credited with this erroneous charge.
I explained
to the representative that I was very concerned about these erroneous
charges as I had noticed that on occasion I was unable to access my
email account and a window would appear that read:
Error
Could not retrieve mail from the account "athought email"
Explanation The file name is already in use.
Error
- 3216
I told
the representative that I had previously contacted the Bellsouth.net
technical department to report this problem and that the technical representative
had urged me to wait a few hours and log on once again.
I told
the representative that I suspected internet fraud and that these erroneous
charges had now increased my suspicions. The representative explained
that she was from the Billing Department and suggested that I speak
to someone from the Bellsouth.net Internet Division.
The occasional
inability to access my email, as well as the window advising me that
MY FILE NAME was already in use continued.
On January
18, 2002 I once again contacted the Bellsouth.net Technical Support
Department and reported that I was continuing to experience the inability
to access my email and once again explained about the window stating
that the file name was already in use. The representative gave me Case#
1**** and said that it was either that my modem was "sticking"
and not letting me disconnect (I have no understanding of what this
means), or that SOMEONE ELSE, SOMEWHERE ELSE, WAS USING MY EMAIL ACCOUNT.
I told her that I suspected internet fraud and I wanted this matter
investigated immediately. The representative said she would pass
it on to her supervisor and I would be contacted by them. I have not
heard from Bellsouth.net by email or by telephone regarding this matter.
My next
Bellsouth bill arrived with no credit for the erroneous charges mentioned
above.
The new
bill reflects new charges for:
A. 107.283
Hours GSP POP Access Usage @ 2.75 an hour... $295.03
B. 107.283
Hours GSP POP Access Usage @ $0.25 an hour.. 26.82
I called
Bellsouth.net and spoke to a representative named Mike who gave me Case
#1**** when I reported the internet fraud.
I called
the Asheville Police Department at (828) 252-1110 and advised them that
I wanted to report a computer crime. The police officer told me that
Detective Michael Downing handled computer crimes and gave me his telephone
number. He told me to call Detective Downing the next day after 8:30
AM. It took me four days to finally get Detecive Downing on the phone.
He told me that this matter must begin with an investigation by Bellsouth's
Fraud Investigators. The Detective told me that when the Fraud Investigators
have the data regarding the fraud, the information will be provided
to me and then I can call him back and if a crime has been committed
in Asheville, he will pursue the matter. He urged me to insist that
I speak to a Fraud Investigator and that he will ask me for the name
of the investigator when I call him back. He explained in a clear and
concise manner that Bellsouth DOES have the capability of investigating
exactly and precisely WHO IT IS that is fraudulently hacking into my
system and FROM WHERE.
I called
Bellsouth.net Technical Support again and spoke to a representative
by the name of John. I related the above to him and he gave me Case
#1****. He placed me on hold while he spoke to his supervisor. John
came back on the line only to refer me to the email address: abuse@bellsouth.net.
John said that there were no fraud investigators as Detective Downing
had stated there were. John said that if I write a detailed email to
the above email address, my problem will be investigated and I will
receive a response.
Last week,
I attempted to access a website and received a message that read: "Forbidden",
indicating that access was blocked by the site owner. I contacted the
site owner by email requesting an explanation. I was advised by Dr.
and Mrs. Arkadiusz Jadczyk, the site owners, that a Mr. Vincent Bridges,
of North Carolina has repeatedly attempted to hack their website. As
a result of this activity, they have been tracking his IP use. It seems
that this Mr. Bridges has the capability to tap into and utilize IP
numbers that are not his own. The tracking data indicates that one of
the IP numbers resolves to ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA. At the time that
this Asheville IP number was logged, the Jadczyk's blocked future access
from their server. A few hours later, I wrote to the Jadczyk's asking
why I could not access their site. It was only then, that the Jadczyk's
put together the details I have outlined above with the apparent probability
that this Mr. Bridges might be using my account for his activities.
I am writing
to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation as well as the North
Carolina Attorney General regarding this matter. Monday morning, the
North Carolina Attorney General was interviewed on the television program
North Carolina Now. He spoke with pride of the new Computer Forensics
Lab that has very recently been established and stated that these crimes
were "a real priority for me". I trust that within this state,
I will find one public servant that is willing to assist me with this
crime that has been committed. Obviously, I could just cancel my account
with Bellsouth and give up. However, as one of your customers that pays
most of my bills online, I trust that your corporation views internet
fraud with the same level of seriousness as I do.
Thank
you for your attention to this matter.
S*** F***,
LPN
cc: sbiweb@mail.jus.state.nc.us
agjus@mail.jus.state.nc.us
END OF
LETTER TO BELLSOUTH
I do not
have a firewall, and consequently, do not have a log of all the instances
where I was unable to access my email account due to the fact that someone
else had hacked into my computer and was illegally using my file name.
I'm certain that you will agree that 116 hours of illegal use of my
account warrants an investigation.
Dr. and
Mrs. Arkadiusz Jadczyk, have kindly consented to cooperate with any
law enforcement authority that is willing to investigate this crime.
The Jadczyk's do have computer security software and have been tracking
this criminal. The Jadczyk's have already caught this criminal using
my IP number and the conclusion is almost unavoidable that it is this
one individual, Vincent Bridges of North Carolina. the Jadczyk's have
given me their consent to provide you with their name, address and telephone
number.
Dr. and
Mrs. Arkadiusz Jadczyk
******
New Port Richey, FL 34...
727*******
If I can
provide any additional information regarding this crime, please do not
hesitate to contact me. [...]
Thank
you for your attention to this matter.
S*** F***
cc: sbiweb@mail.jus.state.nc.us
agjus@mail.jus.state.nc.us
Date sent:
Thu, 14 Feb 2002 19:59:21 -0500
From: S** F****
To: Laura
Hi,
Just an
update. I finally got Bellsouth to credit me for the fraudulent access.
Are you ready for this? My internet dial up number had been changed.
Who changed it, is of course a mystery. My local dial up number had
been changed to a North Carolina number in (they think) Wilmington,
North Carolina. It was not a bellsouth.net dial up number. It is 251-1626.
The Asheville dial up number is 654-8224. No one seems to know exactly
how I was able to connect to the internet, when the 251 number is not
a "residential" dial up number. I called the number twice, to see who
would answer and heard only the electrical sounds that you hear when
you dial into the internet. The "theory" is, that someone hacked into
my computer, and changed my dial up number to a BUSINESS DIAL UP NUMBER
IN WILMINGTON! It's taken me a week to get the bellsouth people to reverse
the fraudulent charges. I have not heard back from anyone regarding
my letters to abuse@bellsouth.net, nor the attorney general, etc.
I have
a slew of unanswered questions and problems related to my finances that
I have to investigate. Someone authorized three mortgage payments instead
of the one per month that I make online every month. My payment to the
company I buy oil from bounced! Etc. Etc. I am closing all accounts
tomorrow. My checking account, etc. Cause I suspect the hacker may have
attempted to mess with the payments I make online.
S***
Well, the
letter to the Atty. General apparently resulted in a little bit of action,
but as is usual with bureaucrats, they somehow never managed to address
the real problem and it seems that they were more interested in the CYA
principle. Meanwhile, a THIRD Bill with
the charges made by the hacker was received by S** F***. This bill include149.267
hours of GSP POP Access at $2.75 per hour.
Date sent:
Thu, 21 Feb 2002 19:12:52 -0500
Subject: Update
From: S** F***
To: Laura
As an
update on responses from the authorities:
I received
a photocopy of a letter that the State of North Carolina, Department
of Justice, Division of Consumer Protection mailed to Bellsouth.
[Copy
of letter inserted]
When I
received this copy, I realized it was probable that the phone call I
received two days ago from the Bellsouth Abuse Team was in direct response
to this letter and not to my own email to abuse@bellsouth.net. I have
no way of knowing the actual facts regarding this.
Check
this out: http://www.naplesnews.com/today/local/d387482a.htm
This lady,
Jane Hitchcock presented a lecture last night at Purdue, where my son
J*** is a student. He attended the lecture and called me as soon as
he returned to the dorm to tell me about it. His opinion is that through
her own cyberstalking experience she became an almost unwilling expert
on the subject.
She had
quite a lot to say about AOL. She also said in her lecture that AOL
was without question the worst ISP for EVERYTHING, except for the instant
message service they offer. She gave numerous examples of how AOL's
Abuse Department is totally bogus and how they literally do absolutely
NOTHING when a customer is hacked or stalked. She shared one Particular
instance where a woman was being stalked and her life was being threatened
and the case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Apparently, the FBI contacted AOL and pressured AOL to cooperate with
the investigation. Jane Hitchcock claimed in her lecture that the AOL
Abuse Department's response to the FBI was: By law we have 10 days before
we must respond, so we will respond in 10 days.
However,
Tuesday afternoon, I received a phone call at work from a lady that
identified herself as a member of the Bellsouth Abuse Team. I spoke
at length to this lady and she sounded qenuinely concerned, but, I've
been fooled before, so who knows!
Basically,
she said that there was no question I had been hacked. She said that
it was probable that I was the victim of a trojan also. She said that
the hacker is extremely shrewd. The hacker used a "roaming" number,
which is a Bellsouth "roaming" number only given out to Bellsouth customers
when they advise Bellsouth they will be travelling and will need to
access their Email from outside of their access area. She said that
by utilizing this roaming number, the hacking activities are untraceable
as it appears that I had the number and I used it. She said there was
nothing that Bellsouth could do to help me track, identify, or "catch"
this hacker due to the roaming number. She said she would make some
kind of adjustment to the Charges so that it would not take the normal
60 to 90 days to actually see The reversal of these charges on my bill.
My next bill would reflect the reversal. She "claimed" that she had
been working on the investigation of my case for a full week and was
convinced that this hacker could not be traced. She said that if there
was any information available regarding this Case where the hacker had
hacked another Bellsouth.net customer, then, Perhaps this would lead
to additional information.
I encourage
you and Ark to continue your work. Yes, it is difficult and challenging
beyond the comprehension of most and yet it is valuable to us all. Thank
you for your continued efforts on behalf of us "others"...
S***
A Mr. Thomas
Meece, Investigator for the NC Department of Justice, finally wrote to
Ms. F*** and included in his correspondence a copy of a letter he had
written to Bellsouth as well as Bellsouth's reply. Go HERE to see the letter from Mr. Meece to Ms. F***. Go HERE to see the letter from Mr. Meece to Bellsouth. Go HERE and HERE to see the letter
from Bellsouth to Mr. Meece.
The reader
will note that the letter from Bellsouth states that the "hacking"
began on November 28, which was six days following the publication of
the "Bridges Report." Do we think
that this is coincidental?
The total
figure of charges that the hacker racked up on Ms. F***'s account was
$795.74. That's a significant crime against a single mother who works
as a nurse at a clinic for the indigent. And, all the while that this
was going on, Vincent Bridges and his gang were posting all over the net
suggestions that WE were hacking into THEIR computers! It's a classic
psychopathic operation! Blame the victims for what you are doing yourselves.
But, again,
this always gives a clue to what is going on with the psychopath themselves.
All you have to do is read what they write or listen to what they say
about others, and you know what they are doing or planning themselves.
Also, when they describe their opinions of others, you can be sure that
this description applies to them.
The astute
reader will also note that Ms. Mary Lib Parker, of Bellsouth, managed
to get the whole thing mixed up regarding Mr. Bridges' relationship with
Ark and Laura and that she assured Mr. Meece that Ms. F*** was satisfied
and a happy camper all the way.
Nothing
could be further from the truth.
Date sent:
Fri, 01 Mar 2002 18:43:51 -0500
Subject: Another update
From: S** F***
To: Laura
Hi,
Came home
to find this letter today, which I will retype for your information:
[see copies of letters linked above.]
Well !!!
...................
Needless to say, although the above letter from BellSouth does contain
a small amount of truth, it is mostly bulls__t! There is no satisfied
Ms. F*** (I did not say nor imply that I was satisfied in any way, shape,
or form) and BellSouth is just wiping their hands clean of any and all
responsibility!
I am,
of course, going to respond to this letter, sentence by sentence. I
will clarify my own position as I not only resent BellSouth misrepresenting
my position, but I am offended by their outright lies!
If there
is any information that you can provide regarding the incident where
I was blocked from the website and the IP numbers etc. that might prove
useful to include in my response, I would appreciate receiving it, along
with an explanation that is not in computer language. One of the most
frustrating aspects of this experience is my great level of ignorance
regarding all these matters.
Thanks
once again for your support throughout this experience. My nerves have
been strained lately.
S***
The above
is all we are able to report about this situation at the present time
since - as a result of further action and input - it is still being investigated.
Now, let's go back to a continuation of Mr. Bridges response to the above
matter, which he has posted in on numerous public message boards:
"...And
of course the filth they refer to is my feeble attempts to respond to
their lies and innuendoes. So
much for open-ness and free speech...
Regarding
Mr. Bridges' above remark, his ongoing insistence that he is only making
"feeble attempts" to respond and that this is related to "openness
and free speech," it seems that Mr. Bridges again knows a lot of
words but not the meaning thereof.
An unfortunate
byproduct of the explosive growth of the Internet is the rapid rise of
"cybersmearing" - the anonymous or pseudonymous defamation on
the Interned of individuals, companies, and company executives. Those
individuals who are engaged in this kind of activity generally rant about
"free speech" being violated when their libelous and defamatory
rants are deleted or blocked. They argue that the right to publish anonymously
on the internet, without fear of liability, is part of a long and honorable
tradition of anonymous communictaion, both in politics and in literature.
Essentially,
there is nothing wrong with anonymous posting on the internet. Everyone
does it. But when it is used to promote lies, libel, defamation, and in
terms of COINTELPRO, it is something else altogether. The general rule
of thumb is, however, if the exact same words, if printed or spoken in
a traditionally nonanonymous medium, (i.e., most legitimate newspapers,
magazines, and most broadcast media) would clearly be actionable as libel
(i.e. false, lies, untrue). In short, anonymous posters are not immune
from liability for defamation or other action when the posters would be
held liable if they attached their real names to their statements.
A webmaster
Vincent Bridges recently contacted in an attempt to force removal of links
to this series of articles responded to Mr. Bridges in words that cannot
be improved upon, as follows, forwarding a copy to us:
Mr Bridges,
I have
taken time from my busy schedule to take a deeper look into Jay Weidner's,
Terri Burns', and your claims concerning Ms Knight and her article.
I have also further reviewed Ms Knight's material at cassiopaea.com,
and have now come to some conclusions regarding this matter, but still
have a few questions.
Bridges
writes:
>She has presented absolutely no evidence that I am a
>cointellpro agent, unless she privately shared something with you.
If that
>is the case, I would very much like to see that "evidence."
Could
you please show me where in her article, posted at the Universal Seduction
site, does it specifically label you as a COINTELPRO agent? I've read
her article "COINTELPRO" several times, and although
it deals with the COINTELPRO subject, it does not label you an agent. If you are referring to something she said in an article at cassiopaea.com,
that's between you and Ms Knight, as the article we have from her does
not state anything of the sort and we must dismiss your argument against
such a nonexistent statement.
To be
fair, I did look into where this accusation of you being a COINTELPRO
agent originated, and your associate Jay Weidner seems to be the source.
Perhaps
you are aware of this?
In addition
to the article/letter you attached called "Laura Knight Jadczyk, Jay
Weidner, And the Cassiopaeans," written
by Mr Weidner, we have also received a few emails from him urging
us to take down Ms Knight's article. To do this, as I have stated to
you before, we need some proof that what she is saying is false, or
at least documentation backing your claims, documentation that is better
in quality and greater in quantity that that which she has on her site.
So far
your rebuttals have employed plenty of ethos and pathos, but only meager
amounts of logos. If the Universal Seduction team were a fickle group
of people easily swayed by emotional arguments and reluctant to do research
themselves, you might have won your case the first couple tries, but
as stated before, we value truth over self-proclaimed credentials and
infantile objections.
While
we thank Mr Weidner for his theatrical input on the subject and respect
his opinion, we do not find it coherent, logical, or convincing.
Bridges
writes:
>And just how does one prove a
>negative anyway? If Ms Knight-Jadczyk has evidence that she has shared
> >with you privately, since there is none in her public postings, then
I would
>request the opportunity to review that material for comment. The so-called
>evidence of any of her claims of my involvement with anything remotely
>resembling a "cointellpro" type operation is simply non-existent as
far
>as I can tell. Again, how do you refute non-existent evidence? Perhaps
she is
> >now channeling Joe McCarthy?
Of course
no one can refute non-existent evidence, but you're asking a faulty
question based on the assumption that her evidence is non-existent.
We're asking you to show that it is indeed non-existent, not to refute
non-existent evidence. Please untangle your logic before objecting with
faulty questions...sometimes such twisted one-sided argumentation has
the logical geometry of a mobius strip.
You asked
how anyone could prove a negative. This is another misleading question,
as all you have to do is disprove a positive via counter example. Also
be reminded that as far as I can determine, Ms Knight has not claimed
you to be a cointelpro agent, but has instead made many other 'positive'
statements concerning your past actions, backed with convincing documentation,
statements you have avoided addressing. Disprove her statements
via counter examples, for this is what we mean by 'documented proof'
we have repeatedly asked of you. Her documentation is on her site, and
I do not need to show it to you because you can view it at her site
-- if you are blocked from viewing it, there are archived copies available
on the web, or else some of your associates who are not blocked could
send you the necessary documents. Just because you claim her evidence
is non-existent does not mean it is just because you say it is. Logos,
Mr Bridges, not ethos.
The Universal
Seduction is indeed committed to truth. After having made considerable
sacrifices of time (due to our fairness) to investigate your claims,
we must conclude that the scant counter-examples and documented evidence
you have provided, the contradictory and childishly sarcastic tone of
Mr Weidner's emails and letter, and the solidity of Ms Knight's material
in its entirety make it clear that the best course of action is
to leave Ms Knight's article up. You may post whatever rebuttals you
wish on your site, but by our standards the one you have sent to us
does not have sufficient counter-examples and documented proof to be
considered 'the other half of the story' -- fairness is about truth,
not about 50/50 equal time, the latter concept being faulty when equal
consideration is given to two sides, one of which may tell 90% truth
and the other 10%, for example. It's simple logic, really.
If, in
the future, we do come across more evidence backing your claims, enough
so to make it clear that Ms Knight is indeed the character you have
painted her to be, we would gladly take her article down. Also, if she
is legally forced to retract her statements and remove her articles,
we would then remove it from ours as well. Truth reveals itself in time.
As it
stands now, however, it is clear to us that her article deserves to
stay up, and posting your weak rebuttal would be unnecessary to our
site, and unfair to the truth.
Sincerely,
Ed Ghan
Universal Seduction
Bridges
has further written in his public response to the information showing
him to be a hacker and a thief:
Since
we now know, thanks to the L'arkster's timely posting of Jay
Weidner's confidential letters, that everything said about her here
goes directly to her, let me address Laura directly: Why not post the
rest of the story? Why not post Det. Breeden's reply where he informs
you in no uncertain terms that none of those IP match Ms [F***'s] IP?
Now, please note that in the above response from Mr. Bridges, he actually
named the individual who was the victim of hacking and theft. However,
I have removed this information, and it never appeared in the Weidner
postings that Bridges refers to above. At least not in public. Of course,
Mr. Weidner could have shared that information with Bridges. But we do
think that it is significant that Bridges definitely knew who the victim
was.
Also, we
will gladly post Special Agent Breeden's reply which was not precisely
as Mr. Bridges claimed it to be in his above remarks. It was not stated
that none of the IP numbers matched Ms. F***'s, but that definite proof
was needed that could stand up in court that it was Bridges DOING the
hacking. The hacking was clearly established, the trace route was clearly
Ms. F***'s IP number range:
From:
"Breeden, Bob"
To: laura@cassiopaea
Subject: RE: Vincent Bridges IP numbers
Date sent: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 12:13:27 -0500
It is
not illegal for him to post to a public guestbook on the web. I am missing
how you have connected these contacts directly to him beyond reasonable
doubt, which is what a jury requires. We investigate cases everyday
where the suspect goes through other servers that have been left "open"
which in effect masks their IP and allows them some degree of anonymity.
So, that may be what he is doing, or it could be someone else who wants
you to think it is him. I will be glad to talk to you again, but I still
do not see the crime in this matter that FDLE would investigate.
And, it
is in the fact that Mr. Bridges has, above, admitted that those posts
were his, even though he lied about them all coming from his "earthlink"
account, that we have more to provide as evidence. Also, the many posts
that Mr. Bridges has made from other IP numbers as Special Agent Breeden
describes above, can be compared to the times he might have been using
Ms. F**'s internet access via a roaming number.
Further,
it turns out that it is not true that the access of a roaming number cannot
be traced. Stay tuned.
Bridges
writes: Why did all this happen in February and you are just now getting
around to making an issue of it? Could it be that the FDLE discovered
that it was all a mistake, in fact a fabrication, on your part and told
you to cool it?
As it happens,
it is because determining jurisdiction and coordinating investigative
activities and moving through the machinery of the legal system always
takes time as most people know. Apparently, Mr. Bridges is unaware of
these facts.
Bridges
writes: What has happened on the case since February?
Sorry, but
we are unable to say more at this time. All in good time, Mr. Bridges,
all in good time.
Bridges
writes: You know Laura, the more crap like this you pull, the more support
you are giving my central thesis, that channelers have a kind of mental
illness. But you really can stop anytime, I have all the evidence I
need and you truly need serious professional help. So give it a break,
nobody cares, nobody is listening. Go find some other researcher to
grace with your dysfunction, please...
We notice,
finally, that Mr. Bridges has done nothing but blame the victim and distract
attention away from his lies and the fact that, again, he has produced
no evidence to support a single one of his statements.
We come
back again to Vincent Bridges statements quoted at the beginning of this
article:
"As
for therapy and being a therapist, that started with three years of
therapy with Dr. Margaret McCoy, a Transactional Analysis psychologist.
She turned me on to hypnosis, an old fascination, and I soon went from
Ericsonian to NLP to holotropic breathwork and so on. [...] "Dr.
Joan Essic ... because
of our work together on hypnosis... introduced me to Ericsonnian..."
[...] "I
studied with Milton Ericson years ago..."
What seems
to be true is that Vincent Bridges learned to be a therapist because he
was in psychiatric therapy. In other words, the lunatic has taken over
the asylum!
Perhaps
that explains all those "blank years" in his bio, and the lack
of public records in his life? And, since we also know that the psychopath
always accuses others of what he is guilty himself, perhaps Mr. Bridges
is telling us something about himself when he says "you truly need
serious professional help."
So where
are we in our search for the truth on Mr. Bridges? At this point, we have
found no corroborative evidence for a single one of his claims. That does
not mean we won’t, and we will continually update this article as information
comes back to us. The people we have contacted have been people that Mr.
Bridges claims to have worked with or known over the years. We have sent
them direct quotations from Mr. Bridges and asked for their responses.
Thus, they responded to the information we had, which came directly from
Mr. Bridges. If Mr. Bridges would care to provide us with further information
which would help to clarify matters, we would be happy to pass it on to
the same individuals we have contacted.
At this
point, we are drawing no subjective conclusions on what the above indicates
and will wait for all requests for information to come in. Further inquiries
are on the way. Each person who has worked on this project, however, has
been surprised at the results thus far. We all expected to find at least
verification on some of the claims and do not know what to make of the
complete lack of it.
This situation
also raises questions about the personality and judgement of the individual
in question. How rational is it for someone with apparently so much to
hide and so much to lose from public exposure of this nature to engage
in "attack" tactics and criminal activities against others, given the
inevitable consequences? One can only surmise it is extreme "wishful thinking"
that blinds such a one so that they dismiss real risks and consequences
in favor of the wished-for outcome. Or is this a case where the individual
in question is not fully cognizant of "consensus reality" as most of us
perceive it? It gives new meaning to the idea of creating your own reality.
The only question is: do you earn points based on how many other people
you can get to believe it?
If anyone
can confirm or deny any of Mr. Bridges whereabouts or claims, please contact
the owners of this website.
Continue with the Vincent Bridges Case Study
See also:
Vincent Bridges Tells His Own Story
Vincent Bridges AKA "Dr. Strange"
New Age Grifter or COINTELPRO?
Vincent Bridges AKA "Dr. Strange"
Psychotherapist? Or Hacker and Thief?
The COINTELPRO Files: Vincent Bridges and Co. (photographic exhibit)
The Bridges - Jadczyk Correspondence
The Weidner - Jadczyk Correspondence
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