I only noticed today that Lila Rajiva has now claimed I'm part of the criminals of Agora Inc that she has been employed by and worked for and written hack journalism for and the fraudulent Agora dailyreckoning.com
'book titled,Mobs,Markets and Messiahs',that was even promoted for them by their Israeli and Zionist friends of The New York Times ! Well Lila as you have been an office girl for Agora Inc how about sending me my salary ? Better yet why don't you get your colleagues to empty out their pocket chasnge and reimburse me for my losses from James Davidson's and Porter Stansberry's Endovasc biotexch fraud that ripped me off and that was protected at the highest level of the U.S.SEC or Securities Exchange Common and the U.S.government itrself that the traitor Davidson is so connected to including not only Bill Clinton but dady Bush,George Herberrt Walker Bush,before that !? And no Lyer Rajiva Endiovasc was no more 'naked shorted' than your pal Geico billionaire's son,Patrick Byrne's,Overstock.com was.It was an illegal pump and dump you shameless prostitute!
Note that it has been Lila Rajiva who has attacked a blogger Jennifer Lake for having dared to consider that there may by a connection between Agora Inc. and the Rothschild financial crime family.And while it may be coincidence that one former oil company held by thje Rothschild's was called Agora as well as a company in Colombia with Rothschild connections called agora as well - it is a simple fact that Agora Inc.s money launderer stock fraudster and murder suspect,Porter Stansberry, brags of being the only American to ever be editor of Fleet Street in London.Agora Inc.'s UK Lord William Rees-Mogg who is also a co-author of scammy investment books with Agora Inc founder James Dale Davidsn is connected to Fleet Street Letter as well as connected to the highest levels of UK elites invcluding of course the Rothschild financial crime family.
After all of Agora Inc.prostitute and hack 'journailist' Lila Rajiva's internet attacks against anyone even hinting or wondering if Agora Inc securities and gold frauds promoter of Baltimore with its known UK Lord William Rees-Mogg and CIA connections might possibly have a Rothschild crime family connection - well now we begin to hear a different tune from Lila Rajiva - maybe she's just farting.Ha Ha :
In 2010 Lila Rajiva, between defending Agora Inc known money launderer and stock fraudster and murder suspect Porter Stansberry with his UK Fleet Street connections,( which means he would definitely know UK Rothschild financial crime family members),launched an attack on blogger Jennifer Lake for hinting there might be a connection between Agora Inc of Baltimore with its Rothschild connected UK Lord William Rees-Mogg and James Dale Davidson connections,etc..Note at trhe time she says,'And, darn. “Rothschild agents”? That sounds exciting.'......And now she herself is saying the same thing even more vorciferously. And next she will be denouncing both Lake and myself for 'stealing her idea' just as she always does about everyone else who does their own research that she herself steals and twists to fit her lies even if the truth is no longer completely recognizable after she is done with it.
She also is quick to call aNYONE SHE DOESN'T Agree wqith 'anti-SAemitic' which is strange because she doesn't even seem to have a clear definition of what the term means which is not the same as being Amnti-Jewish at all as she and other Zionists prostitutes use the term.And she associates with CIA ands Agora Inc connected George Tenet's money laundering and friend who apparently was born Jewish but works overtime to appear 'Anti-Semitic' on VeteransToday where she and Duff worked to bash Julian Assange a couple of years ago and if possibe get him imprisoned and tortured by the U.S. government ! Go figure.
-Tony Ryals
The Mind-Body Politic » Writing » individuals, not ideologies
mindbodypolitic.com/tag/writing/Cached
22 Jul 2012 – And, darn. “Rothschild agents”? That sounds exciting. (March 6, 2010: See EIN above, again). The post goes on: “The owner/founders of Agora ...
...........
And now Lila the CIA and Agora Inc and Rothschild gold prostitute has this to say.:
http://mindbodypolitic.com/2010/06/23/world-gold-council-rothschild-backed-fund-buy-stakes-in-bullionvault/
London’s BullionVault, an Agora friend and possible partner/affiliate, and, so far as I know, a very reputable firm has recently announced that theWorld Gold Council and Augmentum Capital (backed by Jacob Rothschild’s RIT Capital) has bought stakes in it, in return for a 12.5 million P. investment. I must say I’m not too happy about the news and may look into James Turk’sGold Money as an alternative. The World Gold Council has been an integral part of the gold-suppression scheme that is at the heart of the financialization of the economy from 1970 onward. (Full disclosure: I have an account at BV).
Note (added, June 24): No criticism is meant of anyone at BullionVault, which, from personal experience, I’ve found to be reliable, courteous, and efficient. No criticism is meant of Adrian Ash, the affable and insightful head of BV’s research desk and former Daily Reckoning city editor.- Lila Rajiva
FUNNY THAT LILA RAJIVA CLAIMS I'M AN AGORA INC CONNECTED PERSON WHEN SHE CAN FIND MY RIPPOFFREPORT FROM 2003 COMPLAINING ABOUT BOTH JAMES DALE DAVIDSON AS WELL AS MY EX 'BROKER' CHARLES SCHWAB'S INVOLVEMENT IN AND PROFIT FROM THE ENDOVASC 'BIOTECH' PENNY STOCK FRAUD AND ILLEGAL PUMP AND DUMP THROUGH THEIR 'MARKET MAKER' THAT WAS SHORTLY AFTER SOLD TO UBS AND WHOSE COLLAPSE IN SHARE PRICE AGORA INC'S JIM, OR JAMES DALE, DAVIDSON FRAUDULENLTLY BLAMED ON 'NAKED HORT SELLING',A LIE THAT LILA HERSELF IS GUILTY OF PASSING AROUND THE INTERNET !
Rajiva claims I must be an Agora Inc employee like herself because I haven't denounced EVERY single member of that financial fraud crime family,'like CEO Myles Norin, or their attorney, Matt Turner, or Agora Financial chief, Addison Wiggin, or some of their star traders, 'like Alan Knuckman.''
'Funnier still, Ryals never mentions a former senior employee, Christoph Amberger, whose blog about the company’s marketing shenanigans was shut down in 2011. Reportedly, this was after he was paid to shut up, that is, held to a non-disclosure agreement by threat of litigation.
'Instead, Ryals waffles on about Davidson, who is safely beyond reach of prosecution, and, in any case, seems to have more than paid for any sins by his investigations into the Clinton mafia and his insights into the manipulation of the stock markets; Bonner, who probably has no legal liability, as he’s not an officer of the company, and is too wealthy, too cautious, too smart, and too well-connected to get into trouble anyway;and Stansberry, who is already damaged goods and unlikely to get hurt any worse by innuendo.''''.....''
If Lila dearest will provide a complete list of all her sleazy colleagues at Agora Inc I'll curse them all individually.While Lila was allowed to post her commentary on her Agora Inc scumbag colleague Christoph Amberger's website before he removed it and fawn over his sword fighting scars I who told him he was an East German Stassi Nazi among other things,had my posts removed !In particular he deleted my commentary over the strange death of Agora Inc.'s Rey Rivera who took a 14 floor fall from the Belvedere
Hotel in Baltimore in 2006 the year after Lila Rajiva began emailing me about James Dale Davidson and then announced she was an employee of Agora and at the same time coincidentally when Porter Stansberry emailed me and invited me to Baltimore to 'prove' Agora was a legit company !
................................................
http://mindbodypolitic.com/2012/08/24/paul-lehrman-connection-meaningless-says-libertarian-gold-site/
Paul-Lehrman Connection Meaningless, Says Daily Bell (Corrections Added)
by Lila Rajiva'I even thought Agora itself was encouraging the story,(i.e. that Agora Inc. is connected to the Rothschild financial crime family network) , a view shared by at least one other credible journalist. For the same reason, I suspect that Tony Ryals, the cyberbully behind all the negative postings about me, isn’t half as insane as he pretends to be. In fact, I think he has indirect ties to Agora himself, since he never mentions the people there who have actual legal responsibility for things, like CEO Myles Norin, or their attorney, Matt Turner, or Agora Financial chief, Addison Wiggin, or some of their star traders, like Alan Knuckman.''
'Funnier still, Ryals never mentions a former senior employee, Christoph Amberger, whose blog about the company’s marketing shenanigans was shut down in 2011. Reportedly, this was after he was paid to shut up, that is, held to a non-disclosure agreement by threat of litigation.
'Instead, Ryals waffles on about Davidson, who is safely beyond reach of prosecution, and, in any case, seems to have more than paid for any sins by his investigations into the Clinton mafia and his insights into the manipulation of the stock markets; Bonner, who probably has no legal liability, as he’s not an officer of the company, and is too wealthy, too cautious, too smart, and too well-connected to get into trouble anyway; and Stansberry, who is already damaged goods and unlikely to get hurt any worse by innuendo.
But leaving intriguing theories about the cyber-underworld in which Ryals and his rants reside, I’m still not sure what the Rothschild connections to Agora really amount to. The best I can say is I’m much more willing to believe some people there profit from them..........'
Now that I’ve come to think the whole “Rothschild” conspiracy is something more than fiction, I’ve also begun to look at Ron Paul with a more critical eye.
So that’s where I come from on that.
Now, for my own credibility on the subject, given that I too have a connection to Agora:
This is what I have to say.
Except for the attacks following my pieces on Assange (by Tom Ussher at RealLibertarian Christian) and a legal threat at DailyBell (by someone calling himself Al Kyder), and a couple of other things, one hundred percent of the negative posts about me on the net stem from this one supposedly crazy person, who seems to have an indirect connection to Agora.....
......................
William Rees-Mogg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rees-Mogg
William Rees-Mogg, Baron Rees-Mogg (born 14 July 1928 in Bristol) is an English ... to a subscription investment advice newsletter, The Fleet Street Letter.Porter Stansberry investment scam in SEC fraud action
briandeer.com/vaxgen/stansberry-fraud.htm
According to the site, “Prior to launching Stansberry & Associates Investment Research,Porter was the first American editor of the Fleet Street Letter, the oldest ...N M Rothschild & Sons - Financial Advisers (Independent) in Fleet ...
www.192.com › ... › Independent Financial Adviser in London
Contact details for N M Rothschild & Sons in London EC4N 7AR from ... N MRothschild & Sons - Financial Advisers (Independent) in Fleet Street EC4N 7AR ...N M Rothschild & Sons - Financial Advisers (Independent) in Fleet ...
www.192.com › ... › Independent Financial Adviser in London
Contact details for N M Rothschild & Sons in London EC4N 7AR from ... N MRothschild & Sons - Financial Advisers (Independent) in Fleet Street EC4N 7AR ...The Illuminati and the House of Rothschild - The Silver Bear Cafe
www.silverbearcafe.com/private/rothschild.html
Von Estorff would later provide the yet-to-be formed House of Rothschild an ... Voltaire, a revolutionary who held liberal religious views, had written in a letter to King .... the Baltic Exchange (shipping contracts), Fleet Street (home of publishing ...Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features » The First Lady of Fleet Street
www.jewishideasdaily.com/1115/features/the-first-lady-of-fleet-street/
23 Apr 2012 – The First Lady of Fleet Street ... 4 Comments E-mail Print ... born in Iraq, was a shrewd entrepreneur dubbed the "Rothschild of the East.BullionVault & GoldMoney review (allocated gold) | Gold in Mind
www.goldinmind.com/.../bullionvault-vs-goldmoney-review.htmlEven in case of BullionVault's bankruptcy, BullionVault's creditors can't claim your gold .... Augmentum Capital, is one of Jacob, Lord Rothschild's investment vehicles. ...annually, from Companies House on http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk. The Mind-Body Politic » rothschild » individuals, not ideologies
mindbodypolitic.com/tag/rothschild/30 Jul 2012 – “All US Masonic lodges are to this day warranted by the British ....London's BullionVault, an Agora friend and possible partner/affiliate, and, ...Lord Rothschild fund joins World Gold Council to put £12.5m into ...
www.telegraph.co.uk › Finance › News by Sector › Banks and Finance20 Jun 2010 – An investment fund backed by Lord Rothschild has joined the World Gold Council to put £12.5m into BullionVault, the online gold investment ...RIT Capital Partners PLC - Investment approach
www.ritcap.com/investment-approachOur co-investors in Agora included Lord Rothschild's family interests and ... The consortium included UK and international blue chip partners including Fajr ...
..................................
Lila at The Daily Reckoning
I’ve updated and added links to this page several times. Many of the links are to stock message-boards rather than to mainstream articles, because I believe the discussion around these articles is just as important as the original articles and because the story of the financial scandal first broke on threads like these, not in the mainstream.
I’ve noted some of my changes and the time when I made them, but not all, because the piece becomes almost unreadable with so many notes and corrections added.
Suffice to say, it’s a work in progress and I will continue to add new information and links as I see fit.
______________________________
Re: Agora
I left Agora over what I saw as unethical behavior toward me, including publication of copyrighted material under other people’s names without my permission and mis-attribution of my work.
Mr. Bonner has since extended me a written apology for errors made in promotion.
Previously ( in 2007), he apologized verbally for what happened. He also wrote me a recommendation that I’ve never used.
After leaving, I did some research on the company’s history that led to posts on the questionable past of a senior figure at the company, on the strident marketing hype in one of its newsletters, and on the conviction of that newsletter’s publisher by the SEC.
I also blogged on the appearance of former CIA chief William Colby’s name on an Agora newsletter and Agora’s association with leading newsman of the British establishment, Lord Rees-Mogg.
Some of my findings were then lifted from my blog by the very people who now criticize me for “covering up” for Agora.
At this point, I’ve chosen not to post much more on the subject, beyond what’s necessary to defend my reputation, as I don’t believe that my posting on it can really help one way or other. My one-time employment by Agora would make a certain kind of critic always think I was “covering” for them. Another kind of critic would always suspect me of being biased against them.
There are also many serious legal issues involved, of which the average alternative blogger knows nothing and usually doesn’t care to learn.
That’s in line with the truly pathetic standards of modern journalism/blogging, where personal vilification, plagiarism, and outright lies are the order of the day.
So we have the sterile and truth-less world of the corporate media on one hand, and then there’s the irresponsible fact-less hysteria of the alternative press.
Between these two, the mere writer is road-kill…
Libels About Me Repeated By Tony Ryals Since 2007
1. I am a penny stock “fraudster”
1. False. The truth is I have never sold a stock or a penny-stock ever. Any investment advice I ever gave professionally can be found in notes in the Daily Reckoning that can be found below. I edited the Daily Reckoning column, did some real estate research (looking for property that Mr. Bonner might be interested in purchasing). researched real estate and market conditions, and wrote ONE investment report on Goldman Sachs (which led to this article in Money Week).
Most of my time was spent on writing and editing “Mobs, Messiahs and Markets.” I was hired for 4 hours PT work in January 2007 and signed a book contract the following summer (May 2007). Do you really think that I could have found time to tout stocks when I was editing 4 hours per day, researching and co-writing the book (that was originally 1000 pages before it was cut down).
All in exactly one year flat, while writing my own articles, traveling around the world with a laptop, house-hunting for myself and doing my own (very small time) trading? There are not enough hours in the day for me to have been touting stocks or running any newsletter, with all that.
Ryals is fabricating this out of whole cloth.
2. I have a George Tenet connection.
2. False. I have never met, spoken to, or even seen George Tenet in my life. I don’t think I’ve even read or written much about him. Senior people at Agora Inc. might know him. How does it follow that I know him? Bogus, rubbish. I was atAgora from January 2006 - October 2007 and wrote the book from May 2007 - August 2007. In other words, I was there solely for the purpose of writing, not selling stocks and that is a documented fact.
3. I am an illegal alien.
3. False. I’m an American citizen and have been one for over 15 years. My money is earned and spent in this country. My education dollars were spent here. My relatives live here. Ryals has a lot of nerve to use this term since he doesn’t live here anymore nor has he apparently done anything for the country for the last several years, except attack companies on stock-boards, while dragging his personal antipathies into third-hand political diatribes hatched at long distance in that famous haven of progressive sentiment and judicial probity, Guatemala.
4. I “posed” as a far-left progressive when writing “The Language of Empire” and then revealed myself as a far-right extremist in my second book.
4. False. Anyone who’s read my first book will see it is far from being the work of a “bleeding-heart” leftist or a diatribe against America, not withstanding the blurbs (collected by my publisher) from left-wing writers. It is in fact quite scholarly and even-handed and is most concerned with mass-control techniques used by the state. It is was actually intended to be a college text, which it is.
My second book is equally non-partisan. I object to rigid ideological divisions and in both books have described such divisions as a technique of state-control. Apparently, Ryals lacks the intellectual ability to distinguish that considered position from opportunism.
My positions on the police state, on imperial wars, on torture, and on financial crime have stayed the same since I began writing. I have repeatedly expressed my differences from standard left-wing sites like Counterpunch, as well as from standard right-wing libertarian sites like Cato and Lew Rockwell.
The writing closest to my thinking comes from the Independent Institute.
For example, I have openly criticized the more controversial writing on LRC, by Walter Block, Herman Hoppe, and Stephan Kinsella, for faulty reasoning. To my mind, the word “extremism” - often applied to these writers - has become a propaganda term. I couldn’t care less how “extreme” they are. I do care that they don’t seem to reason all that closely, at least in the pieces of theirs I’ve read.
5. I am paid by Agora Inc. to write my blog.
5. False. My contract on the book was with John Wiley and the only thing Agora Inc. paid for was my editorial and research/PR work for Mr. Bonner, while I was writing the book. I stopped being paid by them shortly after the book was published. While I worked for them, I was never a full-time employee and I was mostly out of the country while the book was being written. I have never been paid by Agora to write anything since the book came out.
Take a look at what’s on my blog. Do you think any company that wants to enter the mainstream financial world would pay me to write the kind of stuff I do?
6. My boss was James Dale Davidson, notorious for front-running stocks and promoting the “Vince Foster was murdered” theory on various right-wing sites.
6. False. Davidson had been bought out of Agora Inc. by the time I was hired (Dec 2005- Jan 2006), so neither directly nor indirectly was he ever a supervisor or boss in any way, shape, or form. I have never corresponded with him or seen him. In fact, I first heard of him from Ryals who, when I was hired, asked me to ask if he was still there. I did and was told he wasn’t.
This is Ryals’ broad-brush smear-by-numbers technique. He hates Davidson, because he (Ryals) bought Endovasc on the recommendation of Davidson and lost his inheritance in it. Therefore, anyone even remotely associated with Agora, which Davidson originally formed, must be equally hate-worthy. This is insanity, not truth-telling.
What’s more, if you read up a bit more on Endovasc and Ryals’ investment in it, you’ll find that Ryals accusations against Davidson, at least in the matter of Endovasc, are ill-founded or confused. One businessman who analyzed the story came to the conclusion that Ryals lost his money through his own stupidity and that Endovasc was done to death by naked short-selling and not pump-and-dump. Be that as it may, if you throw your entire inheritance into a get-rich-quick scheme of some kind (what else is dumping money into a biotech stock in hopes of a quick surge in price?), you share at least 50 percent of the responsibility if you lose it. Instead of wising up, Ryals then starts putting together two and two from various half-digested articles by legitimate financial journalists and comes up with eleven thousand-and-one:
Google, Charles Schwab, Davidson, Wikipedia, LOM, Lord Rees-Mogg, Lila Rajiva, James Angel, Patrick Byrne, Brent Baker, Porter Stansberry, Raging Bull, David Marchant, Walter Block, Ron Paul, the Pentagon shooter, the crotch-bomber, Christopher Cox, Asra Nomani, Gordon Duff, Sibel Edmonds, Alex Jones, Lew Rockwell, Bill Bonner, Judd Bagley, Michael Zwebner, Jeb Bush, Steve Forbes, Gary Weiss’ wife, James Quinn, Bud Burrell, J. Christoph Amberger, Mark Mitchell, the Stasi, RAW, William Colby, the SEC, Canadian regulators, the Malaysian stock exchange and a further cast of thousands, have all been conspiring to defraud him..and other petty investors…through an elaborate CIA-run penny-stock operation that’s concealed by a fiendishly clever smoke-screen about naked-shorting by the big banks.
As a matter of fact, some of the names above (like LOM) are indeed connected to fraud (see Patrick Byrne’s Deep Capture). But not the way Ryals spins it.
7. I am “covering up” for Agora, Byrne, the government, the CIA, etc. in some way.
7. False. Actually, Ryals’ knowledge about Goldcor and other matters is is taken from my site. Apparently, despite obsessing about Agora from 2002 onward (some nine years of non-stop fixation), he was unable to do the simple research that would have pulled up the information.
Far from being some deep, dark secret, some of Mr. Masterson’s past history is available on a forum debating the merits of one of Agora’s related outfits. There are multiple links there referencing Masterson, and those links have been up for several years. They are common knowledge among insiders at the company. All that was needed was some deeper digging and connection of dots. That I supplied, because I had the background knowledge to know what I was looking for.
My interest was less in Mr. Masterson as it was in Joel Nadel, his mentor, who might (or might not) have a larger significance in the bigger financial picture. The issue wouldn’t even have come into the ambit of my blogging had it not coincided with the Madoff story, as well as elements of the 9-11 story.
I did not feel that I was the appropriate person to address the issue, precisely because I am an immigrant and NOT related to intelligence. I felt it was better some native-born American outfit working with government (such as Deep Capture) take a look at it. That is quite an appropriate way to proceed and has nothing to do with covering up. Any sane person would realize that an immigrant cannot write exposes about national security-related issues in their adopted country without running significant professional and personal risks. Aside from anything else, they would lack credibility and become vulnerable to accusations of spying or propagandizing themselves.
Since I put up those links in 2009, Agora has changed its web-page to incorporate that information, which suggests both that my information was accurate and that its substance does not directly reflect on them, i.e., Agora Inc. itself had nothing to do with Goldcor.
8. I delete posts on my blog to cover up for people.
8. False. In the first place, I don’t usually delete posts. I might modify them or make them private, if I think circumstances warrant it. That is well within my rights. What circumstances? Well, if I feel someone, say a cyber-stalking poseur in Guatemala, is using my own writing to trash and flame me, for instance. Why on earth should I be obliged to arm my detractors with my own hard-won insights so they can be turned against me, for no other reason but malice?
9. I “invited” Ryals to come down to Agora’s office in Baltimore.
9. Another flat lie. I was NOT employed at Agora at the time I wrote to Mr. Ryals, so I could scarcely invite him there.
Here are the SUM TOTAL (5 ) of my emails to him. I challenge him to publish any email from me where I invite him to Baltimore in 2005. He has intentionally confused something from someone else’s email to mine and blamed it on me, out of sheer malice. And he has used Stansberry’s name in conjunction with mine, to smear me.
Here are my original emails to him. The first one asks about his allegations on the web. I had not yet been hired byAgora and I was worried about the allegations I’d read on the web and how it might affect my credibility, especially since I was blogging about finance by that time (see “Playing Monopoly in Charm City” June 2005, Dissident Voice).
IN ORDER OF WRITING, MY EMAILS TO RYALS:
(All my emails were published without my permission by Ryals, without any attempt to straighten out any of his misconceptions before hand. I’ve asked various forums to remove his false statements a number of times, as they are actionable libels. But most websites in the US do not take down material without a court order or a notice of copyright infringement. I used the latter to get my emails removed (not that there was anything untoward in them), but simply on principle, since Ryals hadn’t made any attempt to get at the truth of what had happened and was simply fabricating things to support his attacks on me.
You might notice that some of my emails have been deleted from the web, but if you compare the dates of these deleted mails, you’ll see they tally exactly with the emails below.
I challenge Mr. Ryals to produce ANY email where I have invited him to Baltimore. It is an out and out lie.
Because many of the links Ryals pastes into his sites are links from reputable journalists, they do contain many interesting facts that warrant exploration.
However, Ryals’ explanations of them is completely irresponsible, even insane, at times.
Gordon Duff volunteers casually that he has “had George Tenet on speed-dial for some years,” and that becomes “Duff is a CIA agent.” I work for Agora, so I must be CIA too.
How I can be CIA AND an illegal alien AND on Agora’s payroll AND a stock-broker, he fails to explain.
1. October 21, 2005
—– Original Message —–
From: “Lila Rajiva” <lrajiva@hotmail.com>
To: endoscam@lycos.com
Subject: Re Agora and Davidson
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 00:25:56 +0000
From: “Lila Rajiva” <lrajiva@hotmail.com>
To: endoscam@lycos.com
Subject: Re Agora and Davidson
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 00:25:56 +0000
> Dear Mr. Ryall,
>
> I read with interest your articles on the net regarding Agora
> Publishing and the stock ventures of the founder, James Dale
> Davidson. However, I was led to believe that Bill Bonner a
> well-known copywriter and author is the founder. Can you please
> clarify this as I have had some dealings with the latter gentleman
> and am concerned about such connections. Could it be that you are
> mistaken in your accusations?
>
> Sincerely
> Lila Rajiva
>
> I read with interest your articles on the net regarding Agora
> Publishing and the stock ventures of the founder, James Dale
> Davidson. However, I was led to believe that Bill Bonner a
> well-known copywriter and author is the founder. Can you please
> clarify this as I have had some dealings with the latter gentleman
> and am concerned about such connections. Could it be that you are
> mistaken in your accusations?
>
> Sincerely
> Lila Rajiva
EMAIL TWO:
October 27, 2005
From: “Lila Rajiva” <lrajiva@hotmail.com>
To: endoscam@lycos.com
Subject: Re: Re Agora and Davidson
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 02:19:44 +0000
To: endoscam@lycos.com
Subject: Re: Re Agora and Davidson
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 02:19:44 +0000
>> Dear Mr. Ryals,
>
> I did speak to Mr. Bonner about Porter Stansberry. He was very
> forthcoming and adhered to the position that he was not guilty of
> any legal wrong doing, such as pump and dump.
>
> He seemed a very open and sincere individual so I am a bit puzzled.
> It’s quite possible that some of his associates are involved in
> things he is not aware of.
>
> Or that they were only inexperienced or needlessly zealous, which
> was unfortunate, but may not be illegal.
>
> Do let me know if you come across anything else.
>
> Lila Rajiva
>
>
> I did speak to Mr. Bonner about Porter Stansberry. He was very
> forthcoming and adhered to the position that he was not guilty of
> any legal wrong doing, such as pump and dump.
>
> He seemed a very open and sincere individual so I am a bit puzzled.
> It’s quite possible that some of his associates are involved in
> things he is not aware of.
>
> Or that they were only inexperienced or needlessly zealous, which
> was unfortunate, but may not be illegal.
>
> Do let me know if you come across anything else.
>
> Lila Rajiva
>
EMAIL THREE
October 27, 2011:
From: “Lila Rajiva” <lrajiva@hotmail.com>
To: endoscam@lycos.com
Subject: Re: Re Agora and Davidson
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 23:17:44 +0000
> Mr. Ryals,
>
> I’ll keep this in mind. Thanks.
>
> Regards.
> Lila Rajiva
To: endoscam@lycos.com
Subject: Re: Re Agora and Davidson
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 23:17:44 +0000
> Mr. Ryals,
>
> I’ll keep this in mind. Thanks.
>
> Regards.
> Lila Rajiva
EMAIL FOUR
October 28, 2011:
From: “Lila Rajiva” <lrajiva@hotmail.com>
To: endoscam@lycos.com
Subject: Re: Re Agora and Davidson
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 23:32:52 +0000
To: endoscam@lycos.com
Subject: Re: Re Agora and Davidson
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 23:32:52 +0000
> Dear Mr. Ryals:
>
> Thank you for all this information. I will certainly keep it in
> mind. I plan to work for Mr. Bonner only in a limited way and with
> nothing to do with his stock activities or selling. I am a writer
> and and planning on working on a book with him that has nothing to
> do with finances.
>
> I appreciate this information and do thank you for it. But I am not
> in a position to ascertain the truth of it and don’t have the time
> as well. I hope that you will be able to recoup your losses. I
> sincerely feel for you about that as I suffered similar losses
> through unscrupulous individuals.
>
> Kind regards
> Lila Rajiva
>
> Thank you for all this information. I will certainly keep it in
> mind. I plan to work for Mr. Bonner only in a limited way and with
> nothing to do with his stock activities or selling. I am a writer
> and and planning on working on a book with him that has nothing to
> do with finances.
>
> I appreciate this information and do thank you for it. But I am not
> in a position to ascertain the truth of it and don’t have the time
> as well. I hope that you will be able to recoup your losses. I
> sincerely feel for you about that as I suffered similar losses
> through unscrupulous individuals.
>
> Kind regards
> Lila Rajiva
I was hired to work at Agora between November, 2005 and January, 2006.
During that time, I was also traveling and promoting my first book and working on an article for another book (”One of the Guys,” Seal Press). I was also getting ready to go abroad. In fact, I was out of the country for most of 2006. That too is well-documented, from official and personal records.
What could I have to do with things going on in Baltimore that year? Nothing.
More sliming by Ryals.
In 2007, after difficulties over promotion and attribution of the book which was released in 2007, I decided to leave. By that time, I’d had to research dozens of pieces to find out who wrote what in the Daily Reckoning columns, some of which were used for Mr. Bonner’s part of the book. That led to research into previous Agora books. The company’s somewhat loose attitude toward attribution had me worried that I might have incorporated material that was actually written by some previous co-author who hadn’t been fully attributed. Going back into Agora’s history, I then saw some articles and statements showing that Mr. Davidson had been involved as recently as 2004.
This led me to think about what Tony Ryals had written to me about Davidson, and it led me to drop a note to him in 2007. At that point, seeing my book and my pieces in support of Ron Paul, Ryals flew into a rage and started attacking me as a “stock fraud,” “con artist,” and “bimbo,” all over the web, even though I wrote back to him at length explaining that I’d never written any newsletters there or sold stocks, beyond a few investment notes that you can read below.
The only investment report I wrote was one in 2006, recommending that people sell Goldman Sachs. That was the prototype of all the fashionable “Short Goldman” political and financial columns being tossed around today. Writing that in 2006 was a whole different ball game.
[To give credit where it's due, it was not my idea to turn the Goldman research into an investment report. I was actually researching Goldman for "Mobs," when I was in Argentina. I mentioned this to Mr. Bonner, who was also suspicious of Goldman's trading success. I recall that he asked about it to Kevin Kerr, an excellent trader who used to work atAgora, and Kerr was suspicious too.
Around that time, Mr. Bonner was also trying to get me to do more interesting work than editing and he suggested I write up my research as an investment report on Goldman Sachs. This I did and a part of it was published as a cover story on Agora affiliate/subsidiary, Money Week, a prestigious English business magazine. Later, the report was sold through another newsletter, under someone else's name without my permission.
Apparently, the assignment sparked off resentment against me in the company so that for most of 2007-07, some individuals were intent on defaming me, undermining my work, or otherwise making it difficult for me to continue. Nonetheless, I was offered a position there (I refused it) and Mr. Bonner did write me a good testimonial, even though I have also refused to use it, on principle.
Let me be clear. I no longer feel a need to revisit this issue.
The only reason I do so is because of the continuing malicious lies Ryals keeps publishing about me, at every turn, with the clear intention of smearing me by association and thus discrediting my work.
As I mentioned before, Mr. Bonner did apologize for what happened in 2007 and recently also written me an apology about a recent attribution issue. For me, this is enough.
The case is closed.
Lila Rajiva
......
EMAIL FIVE (AFTER I LEFT AGORA IN 2007)
| From: | Lila Rajiva (lrajiva@hotmail.com) |
| Sent: | Sun 12/02/07 6:33 PM |
| To: | william knowles (endoscam@lycos.com) |
.ExternalClass .ecxhmmessage P {padding:0px;} .ExternalClass body.ecxhmmessage {font-size:10pt;font-family:
Hi -
I had a correspondence once with you regarding Davidson. I wonder what happened to your case?
EMAIL SIX
(written in response to Ryals attacking me viciously all over the web, and then published by Ryals on the web without my permission and retained there by Indymedia despite requests from me to take it down. In other words, Indymedia supports the use of copyright theft AND malicious libel, as long as the targets are not communists).
Re: BFI Consulting,Mark Skousen,Lila Rajiva
By Lila Rajiva on 1/30/2008 1:20:04 PM
E-mail: lrajiva (at) hotmail.com
Hi Tony,
Yes I did say I wouldn't be involved in Agora's stock selling in 2005.
And guess, what. It's 2008 and I haven't been. I have never sold a
single stock for them.
As for Jim Davidson, I believe his association with Agora has been
terminated for some years and no one there defends him. The investment
advice that I've read in the Agora newsletters that I've followed has
been basically useful - and provided at very reasonable terms. Too bad
I haven't always followed it.
Do I have a problem with some of their "hard sell" language? Yes, I
do. And I expressed it to several people there quite vociferously and
incessantly. I think some of them became quite bored and annoyed with
me over it.
But not all of their advisories use those tactics. Many are quite
low-key and all of them do give you your money back.
In any case, the company is very free-wheeling and there are lots of
very different people doing very different things.
I decided at the time that it was unfair to tar everyone with the
mistakes of a few and chose to work on Mr. Bonner's Daily Reckoning
column as an idea person, research assistant, and editor from late
2005- mid 2007. And to write a book with him.
I decided that the good of bringing some political home truths to
people in the influential financial world far outweighed the bad of
possibly having people like yourself leap to wrong conclusions. In an
important election year, that was actually a no-brainer for me.
How is that wrong?
In 2005, when Mr. Bonner approached me about the book, he did indeed
intend it to be a pop sociology book and not financial. And most of
the book, even in its finished version, is about politics and history.
We added a financial and investment section later mainly because the
publisher needed that to sell the book, since finance is the field
where Mr. Bonner is best-known.
Besides, the investment advice Mr. Bonner gave in the book was
extremely general. Not was it necessarily what I think. In a joint
effort, it's not possible to always agree on all things. I think I
mention that in the preface to the book.
Funny thing is if you had followed his advice over the last couple of
years, you'd have doubled your money...
FYI, here's an account of how the book was written:
www.thehindubusinessline.com/
As for my qualifications, you're wrong there too. I have an
undergraduate degree in economics and history and did graduate work in
International Relations (MA)- where I read a healthy quantity of
economics. I currently contribute to the whackonomics column of the
Hindu, which, if you've ever read it, answers questions on finance and
economics from people in the field. I have also studied the market and
trading on my own for seven years. I think I can hold my own in
understanding how finance works in the real world. In any case, if you
read our book, you will see a large part of it is a debunking of the
notion of economics as a science like physics. We think a knowledge of
history and human psychology is more important. Since I have graduate
training in history, politics, and philosophy, I'm pretty well
qualified I think.
By the way, the year before I wrote the book about Abu Ghraib, I was
making (trying to make) my living as a swing trader...so my interest
in finance is quite long standing and preceded my social activism. I
see no conflict between the two, actually.
On your other accusations:
I was invited to speak at BFI Consulting's conference to promote
"Mobs, Messiahs and Markets." I wasn't going to talk about investments
but about how governments destroy savings. Had I chosen to speak about
anything to do with investment, it would have been about the global
real estate market, which I know quite well.
As for Dr.Mark Skousen, I have never met him personally, but he was
kind enough to blurb our book and point out errors in the MS. I owe
him gratitude at least for that. From what I know, he is an erudite
and accomplished author/teacher in the areas of economics and
philosophy.
I am also aware that he has worked with the CIA, but that is all I
know and I don't think you are right to draw any conclusions about me
from that. I hope you are not naive enough to believe that everyone
connected with the CIA routinely engages in water boarding on
weekends. It's a large, mostly bureaucratic organization.
The fact that I might have accepted an invitation to speak at the same
conference where Dr. Skousen was also speaking says nothing. I also
correspond with an Indian friend of (the late) Milton Friedman. I
suppose you would say that makes me complicit in South American
torture, as Naomi Klein seems to think. Actually, I consider Dr.
Friedman a statist and far from being libertarian. but I doubt that
even statist economics inevitably leads to a painful death.
Finally, my birth data is not on the Internet, because I don't give it
out. Put it down to the fragile egos of women over the age of thirty.
If there's anything else you'd like to know, please feel free to drop
me an email, instead of taking it to an Internet web page.
Yes I did say I wouldn't be involved in Agora's stock selling in 2005.
And guess, what. It's 2008 and I haven't been. I have never sold a
single stock for them.
As for Jim Davidson, I believe his association with Agora has been
terminated for some years and no one there defends him. The investment
advice that I've read in the Agora newsletters that I've followed has
been basically useful - and provided at very reasonable terms. Too bad
I haven't always followed it.
Do I have a problem with some of their "hard sell" language? Yes, I
do. And I expressed it to several people there quite vociferously and
incessantly. I think some of them became quite bored and annoyed with
me over it.
But not all of their advisories use those tactics. Many are quite
low-key and all of them do give you your money back.
In any case, the company is very free-wheeling and there are lots of
very different people doing very different things.
I decided at the time that it was unfair to tar everyone with the
mistakes of a few and chose to work on Mr. Bonner's Daily Reckoning
column as an idea person, research assistant, and editor from late
2005- mid 2007. And to write a book with him.
I decided that the good of bringing some political home truths to
people in the influential financial world far outweighed the bad of
possibly having people like yourself leap to wrong conclusions. In an
important election year, that was actually a no-brainer for me.
How is that wrong?
In 2005, when Mr. Bonner approached me about the book, he did indeed
intend it to be a pop sociology book and not financial. And most of
the book, even in its finished version, is about politics and history.
We added a financial and investment section later mainly because the
publisher needed that to sell the book, since finance is the field
where Mr. Bonner is best-known.
Besides, the investment advice Mr. Bonner gave in the book was
extremely general. Not was it necessarily what I think. In a joint
effort, it's not possible to always agree on all things. I think I
mention that in the preface to the book.
Funny thing is if you had followed his advice over the last couple of
years, you'd have doubled your money...
FYI, here's an account of how the book was written:
www.thehindubusinessline.com/
As for my qualifications, you're wrong there too. I have an
undergraduate degree in economics and history and did graduate work in
International Relations (MA)- where I read a healthy quantity of
economics. I currently contribute to the whackonomics column of the
Hindu, which, if you've ever read it, answers questions on finance and
economics from people in the field. I have also studied the market and
trading on my own for seven years. I think I can hold my own in
understanding how finance works in the real world. In any case, if you
read our book, you will see a large part of it is a debunking of the
notion of economics as a science like physics. We think a knowledge of
history and human psychology is more important. Since I have graduate
training in history, politics, and philosophy, I'm pretty well
qualified I think.
By the way, the year before I wrote the book about Abu Ghraib, I was
making (trying to make) my living as a swing trader...so my interest
in finance is quite long standing and preceded my social activism. I
see no conflict between the two, actually.
On your other accusations:
I was invited to speak at BFI Consulting's conference to promote
"Mobs, Messiahs and Markets." I wasn't going to talk about investments
but about how governments destroy savings. Had I chosen to speak about
anything to do with investment, it would have been about the global
real estate market, which I know quite well.
As for Dr.Mark Skousen, I have never met him personally, but he was
kind enough to blurb our book and point out errors in the MS. I owe
him gratitude at least for that. From what I know, he is an erudite
and accomplished author/teacher in the areas of economics and
philosophy.
I am also aware that he has worked with the CIA, but that is all I
know and I don't think you are right to draw any conclusions about me
from that. I hope you are not naive enough to believe that everyone
connected with the CIA routinely engages in water boarding on
weekends. It's a large, mostly bureaucratic organization.
The fact that I might have accepted an invitation to speak at the same
conference where Dr. Skousen was also speaking says nothing. I also
correspond with an Indian friend of (the late) Milton Friedman. I
suppose you would say that makes me complicit in South American
torture, as Naomi Klein seems to think. Actually, I consider Dr.
Friedman a statist and far from being libertarian. but I doubt that
even statist economics inevitably leads to a painful death.
Finally, my birth data is not on the Internet, because I don't give it
out. Put it down to the fragile egos of women over the age of thirty.
If there's anything else you'd like to know, please feel free to drop
me an email, instead of taking it to an Internet web page.
Kind regards.
Lila Rajiva
Lila Rajiva
THAT IS THE LAST EMAIL I EVER SENT HIM.
Now, please check the number of times he has posted all over the net any time he hears my name, even if it's from a third party. The figure runs into the scores, even though a number of sites were ethical enough to take down his posts after I explained the story. Even so, there is no forum on which he hasn't tried to smear me or get into battle with the forum's owners to spread his lies.
Notice, how his story keeps changing.
First, Porter Stansberry invited him down to Baltimore; then, when he got angry with me, it became Lila Rajiva and Porter Stansberry.
First, it was Mark Skousen who worked for the CIA (true enough) and then it became Lila Rajiva and Skousen and Bill Bonner, who work for the CIA.
First, it was Bud Burrell who threatened him (true enough); then it's Bud Burrell (whom I don't know) and Lila Rajiva who threatened him.
In other words, he just adds the name of whoever he's angry with to whatever allegation he is spewing.
Yet these clear signs of either derangement or disinformation are ignored by Indymedia, to whom truth doesn't matter as long as they can smear whoever they see as their opponents (and I have no idea why they should consider me so, since I am fairly anti-corporatist as well).
NOTE: there is NOT ONE WORD in all these emails inviting him to Baltimore or to any other Agora office anywhere.
To be truthful, I originally didn't read what Ryals had to say in any great depth, because it all sounded like the confused ranting of someone who was extremely upset. Throughout 2006-07 I was much more involved in researching the housing bubble fraud and tying together the story of Goldman Sachs so that, for me, the pump-and-dump part of the story was much less interesting, as it was more limited in scope.... or. so it seemed to me at the time.
Indeed, the only reason I became interested again in what Ryals was saying was that during the promotion of the book I began to become alarmed by the loose attitude of some (note, some) editors/copywriters/publishers to factual accuracy, attribution, and related copyright matters.
This was one of the reasons I left.
About a month later, I remembered what I'd read on the web and decided to find out what happened to Ryals' case. My email to him (a few polite noncommittal words) is the last email (see above) I ever sent him.
That was in 2008. And again, there's not a word in it inviting anyone anywhere.
As soon as Ryals got my mail, he went to my blog and noticed I was supporting Ron Paul. This sent him into a wild rage and he began attacking me, both at the blog and all over stock forums. And that has continued almost non-stop for three and a half years, escalating to wilder and wilder statements.
Update 6 (September 28, 2010)
I just came across this site, which hosts some poems and essays from Ryals (see below). From appearances, it seems to be legitimate and it gives some information about his motives and background.
This is what I get from it:
1. Ryals claims to be a small investor/stock trader, who invested his inheritance through Charles Schwab in an investment (Endovasc) sold by James Dale Davidson, and lost all his money. This seems to have been in 2001-2002.
He has posted since then under multiple aliases on the Raging Bull message-board, a frequent haunt of paid "bashers" who pose as cybervigilantes looking out for naive investors. In reality, many of these so-called vigilantes have turned out to be in the pay of short-selling hedge-funds and their associates. Ryals might be one of them, or he might be posting disinformation that helps them, or he might genuinely be a defrauded investor who's driven himself a bit crazy over his loss. This is not to say that there isn't some truth in what he alleges. But it is misconstrued and mangled to the point that it actually constitutes a hindrance to anyone researching these topics seriously.
2. Ryals also seems to have had a mental illness/breakdown and been confined at some point. That's by his own admission. This would account for the stream-of-consciousness writing and magical thinking, as well as the emotional fixation that I've noted.
3. He seems to make his money from a small farming (coffee business) of some kind in Guatemala (which is where his IP addresses originate). The outfit is called Tostaduria, Antigua, and his writings on coffee, politics, finance, and other things, are hosted by a budget travel site based in Central America. In earlier versions, this site seemed to be very much on the left, as you would think if it hosted Ryals' writing. However, the home page on June 12, 2011, displayed an animus toward Islam ("gutter religion", "Mohammed (May s*** be upon him") that's quite outlandish, especially coming from a self-described progressive site. Notice also that Ryals, though posing as some one on the far left, actually supports establishment Democrats, rushing to the defense of Bill and Hillary Clinton over the Vince Foster story, for instance.
Ryals' unwavering position that there is no such thing as naked short-selling is in fact a hallmark of the thinking of the financial establishment, which makes me suspect that someone or other from that bloc subsidizes or feeds his rants in some way. It is interesting, for example, that while he rants about my "connection" to Agora, he never mentions leading figures currently working in that outfit.
Some of them are well-connected to Wall Street and thereby to the hedge-fund community. Elements in that community, as Deep Capture notes, are in business with organized crime and have a history of bashing people on the net anonymously, in the most scurrilous terms. That suggests to me that some of the anonymous libels of me (not those by Ryals, but other comments) might well have come from someone with such connections. See here for a forum discussion, in which the editor of Barron's complains about an alleged threat made to him, which turns out to have been made in response to anonymous threats/slanders posted by the cybervigilantes connected to the hedge-fund community.
Ryals is clearly in touch with Barrons' editors, Dow Jones newswire reporters, and the SEC. And, if Ryals is linked to them in some way, it makes sense that he never references them in his wild accusations.
You'd think if Ryals were seriously interested in researching the company, he would at least mention long-time critic and former division chief Christoph Amberger's analysis in his posts. Nothing of the sort. His attention (and venom) is focused elsewhere, on a motley band of right-leaning figures, including Lew Rockwell, Patrick Byrne, and Jim Davidson, who have only one thing in common obviously.
They are all critics of the Federal Reserve and the paper money regime.
Therein lies the true motivation for Ryals' nasty, supposedly "progressive" rants.
4. Ryals exhibits a deep-seated hatred of Christianity and the Pope in his writing. This is observation not psychoanalysis, since none is needed. His mental state speaks for itself.
5. He writes under multiple emails, probably as a result of being banned from various forums or having his account deactivated for using too many aliases and posting off-topic. Apparently he sees this as some kind of global censorship of his stock investigations.
[I can't say whether or not he has been censored in other contexts, but I certainly never asked to censor his views on anything, except to ask him to remove false and malicious statements about me. Besides, I have no motive to, since I also think the financial world is riddled with fraud and corruption and have written a lot about it. The only difference is that I don't make any distinctions between different types of fraud, whereas Ryals (along with the establishment media in general) prefers to focus on management-related fraud or stock-pumping and money-laundering, while ignoring "activist" hedge-fund/speculator -related fraud. This often boils down to a political division, since several libertarian activists seem to show up in government cases of tax evasion or share manipulation or licensing issues (eg. this pieceon intelligence analyst-turned-stock promoter, Bob Chapman) whereas speculators and banks, even those committing much larger and more consequential frauds, seem to walk free.
As one of the targets of his rants says:
"Your delight in attacking responsible people and companies and indiscriminately lumping them into a category with bad actors is a destructive way for someone to spend their time on the Internet. You carefully hide behind the anonymity of the Internet. I have no need to do so. " (Ronald Logan, Atty., Logan & Geotas, Phoenix, Arizona)
6. Again, as I note below, I think the Deep Capture website is closer to the truth than the other sites that try to identifyRyals (Causalnexus, Fraudwatch?). Both of these claim he's a con man called Joe Cafasso. But somehow the profiles there don't match what is known of Ryals.
[June 12: I have rewritten parts of this section, since there was some repetition in the old version. I've also added some new links I came across about Ryals}
So who is Ryals?
Clarence Anthony Ryals was born in Texas (could this be him?) and is a small investor/trader, who lost his inheritance in the market. That much seems to be accurate, but the rest is a mish-mash of links, names, and events that sometimes have only a tenuous connection to each other.
As I just said, this is either because Ryals has a mental problem...or because someone pays him to write as if he does. You'll notice that his writings on other topics besides finance (like his pieces on cocoa) display none of the confusion and contradiction evident in his comments on naked short-selling.
While he doesn't sound like the professional con artist described at CausalNexus, he associates on boards with some people who might well be. He has become something of an eccentric local fixture, showing up in accounts of travelers to Guatemala. (That is, if the "cocoa man" is really him, and not a ficitious persona).
More to the point, and quite oddly, Ryals' name has also shown up in several newspaper articles in the MSM, and he seems to have corresponded with several reputed print journalists, including Carol Remond, Christopher Byron, Gary Weiss, and blogger Jeff Mitchell, among others. There is a degree of attention-seeking in his name-dropping about the people he "knows" and their interest in his incessant self-referential cut-and-paste posts.
I notice that in the past few months he's stopped referencing me in his posts. I think maybe it sank into his head that I've been telling the truth.
{Update: Feb 15 2011: Unfortunately, this hiatus was short-lived]
Update 5 (September 10, 2010):
I’ve made all except two of my previous posts on Agora private, as there isn’t any longer a valid reason for them to be aired in the public realm. They’ll stay that way, unless I see some further need to republish them. (Added: May 3, 2011: Since then, Ryals’s renewed libels, as well as other developments, have led me to keep most of my posts up).
Internet disclosures are permanent and very intrusive and I made those only after carefully weighing any personal injury they might cause against my own right to defend my credibility and the public interest at stake. My judgment at this point is that my privacy, as well as the privacy of the people I’ve cited, trumps any public interest in the matter.
So, the only posts still public are this one and another responding to web libel directed against me. These two will remain public as long as those libels remain on the net.
Update 4 (June 26, 2010):
Re: the accusation by Ryals (multiple posted) that I created a “vanity” bio. This is rubbish too. You can’t actually create a “vanity” bio. There are a number of criteria for an entry, and an entry that doesn’t meet those criteria will be removed in short order.
So that’s Ryals’ imagination. My bio was originally created by someone who liked the Abu Ghraib book. I didn’t know about it and found out purely by accident. Originally, wikipedia also had a photo of me posted there, which I had removed - something I surely wouldn’t have done, if I was interested in self-promotion. That was in 2006.
Shortly after, I wrote in support of the 9-11 truth movement. It was at that point that someone at wikipedia decided I didn’t deserve an entry and tried to remove my page. The discussion ended with my entry being retained. That actually happened twice and had everything to do with my writing on Zionism and 9-11, since Wikipedia is controlled on certain subjects by a Zionist cabal, to which Gary Weiss, allegedly, belongs. Weiss is highly critical of Patrick Byrne and the whole anti-naked-short-selling campaign, whereas, in general and with some caveats, I support it. Weiss is, allegedly, protected by Jimmy Wales, the founder/owner of Wikipedia. I know nothing about Wales, beyond what I read. In fact, I first heard Wales’ name from the Ryals.
In 2008-09, when there was an issue about the attribution of certain articles, a close friend added pieces to the existing list of my articles at the wikipedia entry. Nothing wrong with that. There was nothing promotional about the list. It was a factual record of the truth. I blogged about that and about Deep Capture, Weiss and Ryals. In July-August 2009, a pro-Zionist editor at wikipedia saw my blog post (which was supportive of DC) and immediately tried to eliminate my wiki entry again. The editor also tried to expunge the wikipedia entry for the GetAbstract business award, which is given out by a libertarian business outfit in Switzerland and is a well-known, well-regarded and influential award, cited in all major media. That shows you what the political agenda of wikipedia is.
**My credentials are exactly as I’ve said they are and they can be verified quite easily by anyone who puts in the effort and uses their intelligence. More than that I’m unwilling to put on the net, given that my blog is fairly controversial and I’m an immigrant writing about politics here. I travel widely and spend a lot of time outside the country, which is why I regard myself as an unofficial expat. In a while, I’ll put up some of my doctoral work, as well as testimonials (suitably scrubbed) as verification.
Another example. Ryals claims that I must be Msid (a wikipedia editor who edited James Davidson’s entry there).
Quote: I suspect the Mysid alias Wikpedia editor is really the fraud and possibly dangerous Agora Inc criminal LilaRajiva.
Now take a look at the Msid profile. Msid is (or claims to be) a biosciences student from somewhere in northern Europe. She edited the Davidson entry in early November 2005, before I’d even been hired by Agora. At the time I was still teaching and was working on the release of my first book, “The Language of Empire” . As you can imagine, I was swamped with work and with articles and PR connected with the book…. as any writer would be. Fiddling with a stranger’s wikipedia page would be the last thing I’d have time for, even if you assume I was engaged in some kind of global conspiracy to cover up for an Anglophile stock-promoter/political activist I’d never laid eyes on and had only heard about from Ryals’ Indymedia posting in the first place. What’s more, a brown-skinned, black-haired, middle-aged Indian humanities scholar who relies on her web reputation for her credibility would surely do something a tad easier and smarter than moonlight as a blue-eyed (presumably), twenty-something Scandinavian science student whose email, IP address, appearance and identity could easily be verified by wikipedia.
Update 2, June 13, 2010): I’ve noticed that several Indymedia outlets (see here and here) are now deleting/hidingRyals’ posts, not because they’re censoring the content (which would be wrong) but because it’s obvious that he’s posting for reasons quite other than what he states. He’s google-bombing and using Indymedia as a PR tool rather than an information outlet. Add to that, cross-posting, endless self-referential links, repetition, ad hominem, and vicious twisting of facts. Recently, I also noticed this allegation that Ryals is actually a well-known confidence man called Joe Cafasso. That doesn’t seem too plausible to me, but who knows…..
In any case, what is clear is that there seems to be a long streak of confusion and disinformation of some kind inRyals posts, as even fellow message-board aficionados and anti-NSS critics have noted:
“Mark [Cuban, of Blog Maverick], do us a favor and introduce an ignore feature to your blog. This will be a very interesting topic and I’d like to put Tony Ryals on ignore so I don’t have to wade through 50 pages of him cutting and pasting stuff and self indulging his ego with fragments of illiterate sentences that adds nothing to the conversation but instead clogs any threads of rational discussion.”
The account of Ryals at Deep Capture is probably closest to the truth. I should add that I’ve also seen some evidence in his writing that Ryals is connected to the Wall Street “media mob,” which has been connected to a disinformation campaign conducted by the big banks. The media mob tends to be uncritically admiring of stock vigilantes, even though a number of them have ended up in prison, as you can see from checking out the comments on this Deep Capture post.
Update 1: I’ve added a few facts/explanations to this response (originally posted at Indymedia), since the posterRyals then did what cyberstalkers and flamers like to do - returned and twisted even my innocuous defense into something different.
(Added on Feb 15, 2011: I am using his name in my revisions/updates because he no longer rushes out to attack when mentioned, which was his old m.o.)
Introduction to Post (Feb 15, 2011):
I’ve posted below my published response to the libels of a cyberstalker and stock-basher (associated, in my belief, as well as in the belief of others, with a group of bashers posing as stock vigilantes, such as Janice Shell, some of whom are directly connected to Anthony Elgindy’s stock-board - anthonypacific.com). Ryals’ abusive and libelous rants about me, and many other people, can be found on Indymedia and other forums:
Original Response On Indymedia
1. I do not know, have never met, and have never corresponded with Porter Stansberry, James Davidson, Bud Burrell, or Gary Weiss. Or Jimmy Wales. I’m certainly not “covering up” for them or for anyone else at Agora Inc. or at Deep Capture. Many of the allegations/facts about Agora cited by this poster Ryals have actually been taken without attribution from research first posted at my blog and then twisted around to suit this poster’s agenda.
2. I did not remove Mr. Davidson’s name from anywhere on wikipedia, nor have I ever corresponded with Gary Weiss or Jimmy Wales on wikipedia about Davidson. That can be verified by looking up the record at wikipedia. I contribute once in a while to comments at Deep Capture, a site which is highly CRITICAL of Mr. Weiss. I’m not involved in Deep Capture in any other way, and I’ve never received any compensation from them for anything.
I encountered and corresponded with someone called “Mantanmoreland” when I came across his address and comments NOT at wiki, but at some internet forums like the SEC website, where it was THIS POSTER Ryals who brought his name up:
[Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne and Judd Bagley contend that Mantanmoreland is Weiss and have posted as much on my blog. I tend to agree with them, but since I don't know for sure, and because Weiss has himself denied it, I prefer not to make that equation in public, since it might be construed as libelous. Also, the important point I'm making is that I didn't run into Weiss on a wikipedia forum, nor did I erase Davidson's name from wikipedia. That is pure magical thinking on the part of the stalker. I ran into "Mantanmoreland" on the SEC forum while I was trying to track down the stalker's libels and respond to them. I only corresponded with Mantanmoreland to find out who my stalker was and for no other purpose. He said he did not know. I forwarded the emails I had received from the stalker to him. At no point did Mantanmoreland ever inform me he was Weiss or that he edited wikipedia, or anything of the kind. Our exchange was solely about the identity and motivation of the stalker, who had bashed us, as well as several other people, including Professor James Angel of Georgetown, who made a film about naked short-selling that set the poster off].
4. I’ve never sold a stock to the public in my life and I’ve never sold a stock in a tip-sheet. Ergo, I cannot be a “stock fraud” or “con artist.” I’m exactly what I say I am - a writer and former school/college teacher. Any investment analysis I’ve ever offered can been seen below.
Note (Feb 15, 2011): I’ve modified and added links to the rest of my original Indymedia post so as to include new information/ links that I’ve come up with.
On the other hand, the poster Ryals is a known basher, who’s had his account deactivated for using too many aliases, and who has a history of posting alongside bashers, such as Hasher and Janice Shell, at Raging Bull. He also associates with some internet posters who are proven extortioners and felons (names deliberately withheld). He lives in Guatemala and posts under dozens of IPs, names, and email addresses.
In this post he references one of his own aliases deceptively to support his claims.
One of his email aliases is biodog0; others are William Knowles, endoscam; and wolfblitzzer0. That last alias is listed in the original complaint in the Zwebner suit as an alias of another stock-board poster, which is how I originally confused the two (I posted my apology to this gentleman at Atomic Bob’s forum. Some of the links to that site have now vanished and been replaced by a most fascinating disclaimer that some of the people posting there were “role-playing” and that their utterances were not to be taken at face-value as serious assertions of fact. These assertions have appeared recently. I can’t say exactly, but I noticed the disclaimer in the last month or so. From the elaborately defensive posture, it seems the site owner might have been informed that some of the posts there went beyond the legal pale. Question: Is Ryals one of the “roles” being played, as I’ve suspected for a while? In other words, it “he” simply a fictitious persona?)
[Besides that, busholini0, another alias said to be this other man's, shows up in a post by Ryals as a term he favors. So, although the two are apparently different individuals, there is evidence of some kind of association. What and how relevant, I can't say.]
Note: Zwebner’s case against the other poster, and associated John Doe’s, was dismissed for failing to meet the standard of particularity necessary to prove fraud libel.
Ryals has posted gloatingly that he was “sued by Zwebner” and indulged in some malevolent personal attacks on Zwebner.
Now, Zwebner might or might not be what he is characterized as, but simply as a student of human nature, I find it unbelievable that anyone supposedly so traumatized by financial losses would spend so much time and energy viciously attacking people who did not personally injure him. It doesn’t ring true. Devastated victims do not go around spewing malevolence at anyone who crosses their path for ten years after their loss, using gutter language and allegations. I myself lost a considerable sum following bad advice. My reaction to that was to not want to see or read the missives of the people whose advice I followed. I didn’t want to talk about the loss, was ashamed of it, and turned my energies elsewhere for several years.
[Note: Because the other person, Villasenor, is an Elgindy-related basher, I refer to Ryals as Elgindy-related. As it turns out, it appears I was wrong to identify them as one person. However Ryals also posts under multiple aliases on stock forums, shares similar -sounding email addresses, and was identified as the same person in a lawsuit brought by Michael Zwebner. Janice Shell, who also vehemently attacks naked short-selling on the same stock boards and is rumored to have several sidekicks, including Ryals, is closely connected to Elgindy. A self-styled consumer protector, she was later shown to be profiting from her bashing..So "Elgindy-associated" stands. I try to not to use the poster's name, since when he's named anywhere, he immediately shows up, twists the post around and reposts it multiple times with fresh accusations added.]
5. I worked as a part-time contract editor/writer for Bill Bonner’s Daily Reckoning column, where I did research, editing and writing from late 2005-early 2006 up till the fall of 2007. I know nothing about the other departments of his company and was never involved with anyone else there. I worked directly under Mr. Bonner and Mr. Wiggin.
Most of the time I worked on the book I was abroad and worked through the internet, with very limited contact with anyone except Mr. Bonner. I returned to the US in 2007 for the publication of the book and then again left to go abroad, shortly after the release of the book.
6. If the poster Ryals has a problem with Davidson, Stansberry, or Bonner or with Weiss or Burrell, it is very odd that he should spend his time bashing various libertarian bystanders on public forums. Why doesn’t he just address his enemies directly?
[Notice there is no posting at the Daily Reckoning site by this poster, no libels of Davidson, Stansberry, Bonner, or Weiss on their websites. Why not? ]
Correction: This isn’t an objection…they might just be deleting the material.
[Added on April 22, 2011: It's odd that dozens of people who actually do sell stocks and do know all the people atAgora (Davidson, Stansberry etc.) whom Ryals references are never trashed by him. Long-time Agora associates actively involved in selling stock or real estate newsletters, and far more embedded in the company, are mysteriously ignored. This is surely very suggestive.] June 12, 2011: It’s also odd that when writing about other subjects, like cocoa, Ryals is able to write coherently and logically, even fluently, about complicated things. But on the subject of finance and politics, not so. Then he resorts to copy-pasting other people’s half-digested articles and recycling links referencing his previous posts, over and over, confusing and contradicting himself at every turn, often willfully, and exhibiting a petty malevolence and fury if he is rebutted. This again suggests that his financial postings conceal a deeper agenda.
7. I left Agora in October 2007. My contract for the book was with John Wiley and my royalties are paid through them.Agora is not mentioned anywhere in that contract. Any promotion of the book that I do is as a co-author, with a contractual obligation to publicize the book. I’ve never been paid to blog by Agora, as this poster implies, and I’ve never sought any other compensation or advantage for blogging. Quite the contrary.
[The dispute I had was over whether the book with Bonner was an Agora book. This point was never clarified and it led to a number of problems that undermined my original agreement with Mr. Bonner. that have been resolved. However,and I've put the issue behind me. as there's little to be done at this point].
8. I have never harassed or stalked the poster, as he claims. The opposite is true. I contacted him in 2005 to find out more about allegations he (the poster Ryals) had plastered over the net about Agora. He sent me emails alleging that there was a vast on-going fraud centered around an investment of his with Mr. Davidson. At my interview I asked Mr. Bonner, as well as Mr. Wiggin, if Davidson still worked there. They said no and actually distanced themselves from him.*
Quote: “We had a lot of bad publicity about that. We’re trying to put it behind us.”
I told the poster Ryals that, as can be seen from the email he has cited, and had no further exchange with him until November 2007, when I left the company because of differences over the promotion of the book, copyright, and other matters. I felt I had been treated very shabbily and thought I should find out more.
(*This was one of many things that turned out to be not quite as they told me).
At that point, the poster Ryals found from my blog that I was a Ron Paul supporter and had had some articles published on the Lew Rockwell site. This changed his attitude toward me, which until then had been respectful and admiring. He flew into a rage and flamed my blog with dozens of posts calling me a “stock fraud,” “bimbo,” “con artist,” and so on. Meanwhile, in my response, I only asked him very civilly why he couldn’t have just asked me any questions over email rather than take it to the internet (see email cited).
That’s the sum of my correspondence with him, a total of 4 5 polite letters over 2 years, the first two quite sympathetic to his story, and one message no more than a sentence in length. This the poster Ryals calls “stalking.”
On the other hand, since November 2007, Ryals has pseudonymously* flamed my blog dozens of time, all the while libeling me on Google in scores of vicious rants that connect me via six degrees of separation to everyone from the Pentagon shooter to Christopher Cox, in multiple highly-visible forums on the web.
(*He uses multiple false emails and IP addresses, even if, as he now claims, his name is genuine)
He’s attacked me every time I’ve tried to correct his false statements. He’s attacked me every time I’ve posted about a conference or business contact. The object is obviously to cause me maximum personal and professional damage, with no concern for the truth or falsity of what he’s saying. His writing displays the sadism and emotional fixation that are part of the classic profile of stalkers. I strongly suspect him, or his associates, of hacking my email and blog, or inciting/provoking others indirectly to do so. It has come to the point that I am looking at professional security experts to protect me and my family.
What’s more, I suspect that someone must be paying him to write like this because he doesn’t seem to have any known means of support and has admitted to being penniless. He rarely criticizes the major banks and speculators involved in the ongoing fraud on our capital markets, so it’s more than plausible that his rants are related to an effort to discredit those who do criticize them, or they are intended to confuse the issue.
[May 7: I went back over his posts and noticed that has has lately started tacking on references to Goldman Sachs and John Paulson onto his cut and paste diatribes, possibly in response to my analysis. Again, this kind of thing makes me suspect more and more that there is some kind of disinformation being pumped through him. I might be wrong. But no other explanation makes sense at this point.
This doesn’t mean all his targets are necessarily innocent. It means that he isn’t either.
I’ve counseled him to stop lashing out at innocent people in his rage, several times. Libel is as surely a crime as fraud. Slander is as serious an injury as physical attack.
Most experts counsel not responding in any way to cyber-bullying of this sort and staying off the web altogether. Unfortunately, as a blogger, I can’t do this.
9. Any information related to Agora has been disclosed on my blog carefully not to “cover up” (a quite laughable allegation, given my outspokenness about them both in person and on the web), but to avoid legal trouble and to respect the right to privacy and presumption of innocence of the individuals named.
Claiming to act in “the public interest” doesn’t mean you can be defamatory with impunity, even under current first amendment law.
10. Hundreds of malicious, sweeping, undocumented, and highly speculative allegations do nothing to add to the poster’s credibility (or to Indymedia’s). It only serves to make a mockery of community media and hinder the efforts of real activists/journalists.
I wonder if such posts would be allowed if the targets hadn’t been libertarians but socialists.
I seriously doubt it.
I seriously doubt it.
For shame.
Lila Rajiva
PS. I stand by the remark that I made in early 2008 (after I had left Agora and was no longer receiving compensation for them in any way and without any solicitation on their part). I remarked that if you had followed Bonner’s ‘trade of the decade’ (sell the stock market, buy gold) you would indeed have doubled your money by 2008. I didn’t do that to “promote Bonner” . It was simply a truthful observation and I brought it up in my exchange with the poster to defend myself from his charge that my book was somehow inaccurate or misleading. It was not. Read it and see.
_
______________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment