QAnon | Samizdat

Thomas Andrew Schoenberger (b. June 1, 1960) is mired in legal disputes with Manuel Chavez III, Jesse Davis and Gabe Hoffman, and reportedly shuffles between motels to evade service of court orders. Schoenberger was tracked to the Monterey Park Motel 6 in Northridge (Los Angeles) on September 12, 2019 by Chronic0ps. Life on the run is taking its toll on Mr. Schoenberger, 59 years old, with an extensive criminal record. This photo was reportedly taken by Mr. Schoenberger’s former landlady, Ms. Linda Barrett, in September, 2019, but an accidental self-portrait by Mr. Schoenberger that I post at the end of this article confirms that this is an accurate representation. Both photos depict a clinically obese male with slovenly hair, wearing the same black shirt in pictures taken on different days. Mr. Schoenberger is notoriously shy, he claims because Mr. Chavez put out a Bitcoin bounty on him: in truth, Mr. Schoenberger is vain, and ashamed of his appearance. He claims that this photo was Photoshopped.

Prologue

Researching QAnon led me to Cicada 3301, a phenomenon that Rolling Stone called “the Web’s Deepest Mystery.” (David Kushner, “Cicada: Solving the Web’s Deepest Mystery,” Rolling Stone, January 15, 2015). I consequently interact with felons, sociopaths, hackers and cypherpunks, anons, denizens of the ‘chans, the Twitter-verse, YouTube and the dark web.

Wielding anonymity and encryption, clandestinity and plausible deniability, my subjects manipulate sock accounts, ‘bots, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO), waging information campaigns across cyberspace. As Cicada preceded Q, some of its members were involved in both. As melodramatic as all this seems, I am not exaggerating, as you shall see. Read the rest of this entry »

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August 30, 2019

Cicada Files: gHOST3301 Interviewed

Cicada gHOST3301 Dustin757 YT May 27, 2019

Dustin757 (gHOST3301), “#Thomas Schoenberger #Defango #Fake Cicada 3301,” YouTube, May 27, 2019.

On August 19, 2019, I talked with an early member of the original Cicada 3301, known as gHOST3301 on the deep web and as Dustin757 on YouTube. I was delighted to conduct this interview, as no inner circle members of Cicada’s Early Period (2011-4) are publicly known, and accessing them is difficult.

This interview with gHOST3301 is the first conducted by any social scientist with an inner circle member of Cicada’s Early Period (2011-4). This is my second interview in the Cicada Files: the first was with Arturo Tafoyovsky (Lestat), chief videographer during a part of the Middle Period (2016-8), published earlier on this site, August 15, 2019.

I am researching a long interview (40,000+ words) that I conducted on May 22, 2019 with Manuel Chavez III (Defango) about the nascence of QAnon. Chavez was also an inner circle member of Cicada 3301 late in its Middle Period (2014-8), and he was personally responsible for its implosion on May 7, 2018.

Chavez’s central role in the Cicada narrative, and his account of his betrayal of the organization’s legendary secrecy is riveting and historic. I am exercising due care in the transcription of his interview and my commentary upon it, and I will release it in installments in coming weeks. Read the rest of this entry »

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August 12, 2019

Cicada Files: Arturo Tafoyovsky Interviewed

Cicada 3301 Files: Arturo “Tafoyovsky” (Lestat), Interview May 24, 2019: Transcript and Commentary Revised August 15, updated August 17-8, 2019.

https://soundcloud.com/e5teban/cicada-3301-lestat-interview-arturo-tafoya-may-24-2019-audio-only

(Archived at @Samizdat on LBRY:

https://open.lbry.com/CicadaLestat-Interview-Arturo-Tafoya-May-24-2019-Audio-Only#5 ).

Cicada Janon Q=TS=a858 June 10 2019

Videographer Arturo “Tafoyovsky” (a pseudonym) (aka Lestat) was an inner circle member of Cicada 3301 (2016-8), their chief of graphics, who defined the visuals of Cicada’s perplexing puzzles during its Middle Period.

Cicada’s Early Period begins with its inception in obscurity circa 2011 and extends to the emergence of Thomas Schoenberger, one of two “head composers” in the order between 2014-5.

Cicada’s Middle Period can also be called the Schoenberger era, as it began with Thomas Schoenberger’s “hijacking” of the order in 2014-5 and ended when Manuel Chavez III (Defango) exposed the secrets of Cicada on May 7, 2018. Cicada as an organization imploded on Schoenberger’s watch: the organization died due to his greed and his mismanagement of Chavez.

The perfidy of Chavez, who infamously blew Cicada’s legendary cover for all time, will be recounted in coming installments in his own words. Read the rest of this entry »

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May 18, 2019

Q Files: Paul Furber Interviewed

Mr. Paul Furber of South Africa was an Anon and a Moderator on 4chan in October, 2017. On the 27th of that month, he noticed cryptic posts on the /pol/ board. It was a couple of days before the author of those posts began signing himself as “Q,” but Mr. Furber immediately recognized that something unusual was happening.

In the ensuing days and weeks, Mr. Furber became the original Q evangelist. To this day, Mr. Furber still considers himself “under orders from the original Q,” and he continues to promote the Q superconspiracy.

Paul Furber is one reason why QAnon went viral. The role that Mr. Furber played in the early stages of the Q phenomenon led some to suspect that Paul Furber himself was the elusive Q. This was my primary motive in asking him for an interview.

BLUF: I no longer suspect that Paul Furber is QAnon. This long interview (nearly two hours) is rich in detail and it showcases his thinking beyond all preceding coverage: the website heavy published a biopic about him on the same day that an influential NBC News article appeared criticizing the Q superconspiracy. Both were components in a coordinated fake news attack on Q that began in late July, 2018, and continued into September of that year. Read the rest of this entry »

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