British MP Louise Mensch claims that members of the Anonymous and LulzSec hacktivist groups have threatened her children.
The Conservative MP, who has had a higher profile lately after questioning Rupert Murdoch as part of the investigation into phone hacking and her run-ins with Piers Morgan, posted a series of messages on Twitter revealing that her young children had been threatened:
Had some morons from Anonymous /Lulzsec threaten my children via email. As I'm in the States, be good to have somebody from the UK police advise me where I should forward the email. To those who sent it; get stuffed, losers.
Oh and I'm posting it on Twitter because they threatened me telling me to get off Twitter. Hi kids! ::waves::
I've contacted the police via the House of Commons and the email is with them now. I don't bully easily, kids. Or in fact at all.
In my opinion it doesn't sound very likely that the threatening email (which hasn't been released) was from Anonymous or LulzSec. Neither group has a history of engaging in physical violence, preferring to sit behind computer keyboards instead.
Furthermore, it seems very odd that Anonymous or LulzSec would send an email, when their normal practice is to post a message on Twitter or a link to a statement on PasteBin. My guess is that whoever has made threats against Louise Mensch and her family is simply using the banner of Anonymous/LulzSec as a flag of convenience.
Whether it was truly someone affiliated with Anonymous or not, a threat against someone's children clearly has to be taken seriously - and Mensch was right to report it to the police.
Clearly someone, however, has taken a dislike for Mrs Mensch, who is also well-known for writing lighthearted chick lit novels under her maiden name Louise Bagshawe.
Last month it was revealed that an "investigative journalist" emailed her claiming to have photographs of her taking drugs with violinist Nigel Kennedy when she was working for record company EMI in the 1990s.
Mystery still surrounds who that journalist (if it was a journalist) really was.
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"As I'm in the States, be good to have somebody from the UK police advise me where I should forward the email."
<pceu@met.pnn.police.uk>
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Andrew Wallace
Independent Consultant
I'd look to News International as the most likely source of these threats.
Wow, she's quite attractive. What is an MP?
Member of Parliament.
All of our MPs here in the UK are visions of pulchritude now they've stopped claiming expenses for having their moat dredged or having a house made for their ducks.
Heh, there's an awful lot of looting going on in England at the moment!
In my opinion it doesn't sound very likely that the threatening email (which hasn't been released) was from Anonymous or LulzSec
If Anonymous is an indefinite collective, how can it be shown that something is "not from Anonymous"?
If Anonymous is an idea, not an organisation then anyone who subscribes to that idea belongs to Anonymous. So then, as not everyone does subscribe to the idea, not everyone is a part of Anonymous.
Can we say specifically whether this person is a part of Anonymous? Is sending email death threats is compatible with the Anonymous idea? The idea doesn't really touch upon those things, but I suspect, based on the causes most people who subscribe to Anonymous believe in, none support publicly sending death threats (even anonymous ones) as any kind of strategy so I would say, no, this person does not belong to Anonymous (or even LulzSec) and certainly is not representative.
I'm not Anonymous or LulzSec authority, though, or even defender. Just an observer with my own personal ideas and ideals.
But... 'we are all Anonymous'. There is no formal infrastructure to the group and parties join and leave as suits their fancy for purposes they support or choose to be involved in......
"no formal infrastructure to the group".. 1984-style trap potential
Interestingly this is the very same person who made false allegations about Piers Morgan whilst protected by Parliamentary privilege. Whilst I agree that ANY malicious threats against children is absolutely reprehensible people in glass houses ...