Days after appearing on a list in an unattributed Internet posting that accused several high-ranking U.S. politicians of ties to the Ku Klux Klan, Lexington Mayor Jim Gray's name was nowhere to be found Thursday evening in what appears to be the real, promised documents dump from the activist hacking group Anonymous.
Gray’s name appeared overnight Monday among those of nine high-ranking government officials -- four U.S. senators and five mayors -- on a message posted to the document dumping site Pastebin. Originally taken to be from Anonymous, which had been promising to release such information, the list later was later disavowed from Twitter accounts tied to the shadowy group. Monday evening, the Twitter account Operation KKK said the group "was in no way involved with today's release that incorrectly outed several politicians."
Thursday's release contained none of the high-profile names that touched off a series of denials on Twitter, Facebook and the media by high-ranking U.S. politicians.
Gray appeared to be the first to respond Monday morning.
“This allegation is false, insulting and ridiculous,” Gray said. “I have never had any relationship of any kind with the KKK. I am opposed to everything it stands for. I have no idea where this information came from, but wherever it came from, it is wrong.”
Several other politicians named in the original posting, tied to a Twitter account with teh handle Amped Attacks, followed Gray's lead.
An Anonymous posting weeks ago announced an effort to “out” prominent people it claims are affiliated with various factions of the notorious white supremacist hate group. It claimed to have 1,000 names obtained through infiltrating computer systems. Calling the operation “#opKKK” and “#hoodsoff” the group promised a major documents dump Nov. 5.
Those documents appeared to arrive Thursday night, again on Pastebin. But instead of headline-grabbing officials, the list appeared largely to be a list of private citizens and links to their Facebook pages.
Anonymous says it is a decentralized group of computer experts and privacy advocates, and ha waged high-profile campaigns against various groups, from major credit card companies to the divisive Westboro Baptist Church. As much as its beliefs or targets, the group arguably is better known for the Guy Fawkes masks worn by members (or those claiming affiliation) at rallies and events. Indeed, the group is promoting a “Million Mask March” for Nov. 5 in cities across the globe.