Last Friday, CNN did two reports on the SWATing call made to Erick Erickson. Here’s the segment from Don Lemmon, which played the 911 call for the first time.
Here’s an audio compilation of the other Swatting Calls plus the Swatter calling into my podcast the night of the Erickson’s SWATing.
Some people think the calls sound like former Raw Story editor Ron Brynaert. Patterico has written about Ron and why he believes Ron may be the SWATer.
What’s interesting is that on Friday night after CNN did two segments, Ron Byrnaert — who is @RonBryn on Twitter — did a flurry of tweets that decried his lack of involvement. That in itself is weird.
In one tweet, Ron said :
Be wary if
@TommyXtopher@CalebHoweor@DMatthewStewart ever ask you to call, since you might hear someone mimicking your voice if you do.
A bizarre implication and admission that the SWAT calls do, in fact, sound like Ron Brynaert — especially the Erickson one. Why else mention that people were trying to mimick your voice?
So I reached out to one of the accused, Doug Stewart.
I’m reprinting Doug’s response in full.
Hey Lee,
On numerous occasions I tried to have civil conversations with Ron Brynaertregarding Weinergate, the Swatting of Mike Stack and Patterico, and everything else that could even be remotely related to the story. Most of our phone calls were late at night and were always hours upon hours long. The last time we spoke it was a 4 hour conversation. In those conversations more than 90% of the time was Ron talking non-stop about his theories on everything. And when I say everything I mean, literally, everything.
Interstingly enough Ron does not allow anyone (me) to ask what he means when his theories seem far-fetched or out of place. He immediately switches into attack mode and began to accuse me of knowing exactly what he was talking about and would be absolutely furious that I was “playing dumb” even though I really did not know what he was talking about. When I tried to offer an alternative theory or idea to his he would again become instantly enraged and call me stupid, out of touch, or again, part of some sort of conspiracy. I always found this odd since I talk with many people about this same subject and all its details an no one has ever acted this way; going from presenting an idea to full blown hysterical anger when a question is asked regarding a detail.
The History
The first time I spoke to Ron on the phone (and forgive me I dont remember when it was but it was not too long after Stack’s swatting) it was because someone had called me when I was on my way home from the bar and asked “Who is this @ronbryn guy on twitter? He is freaking out and calling you an asshole.” I had obtained Ron’s number and decided to call him even though it was nearing 2am. I figured if he was tweeting he was awake. The first call he did not answer so I called back. The second time he answered and since we had never spoken before I introduced myself and asked him what his problem was with me. We ended up staying on the phone for quite some time; well over an hour. And even though we talked about a bunch of things surrounding Mikes case I dont believe I ever found out why he was calling me an asshole on twitter. And I didnt really care. All I knew was that he had either injected himself into the case at that point or was a suspect for the call. At that point in time I am not really sure if it was both of those things or just one. However, I had been previously briefed on Ron and was told that he did not seem mentally stable and rarely made sense. The people that had briefed me on him were Mandy and Patterico and their judgement was always sound. Plus from what I had seen online from Ron justified their opinion
The Crazy.
Ron claims that during our first call he was receiving text messages from a bunch of different numbers. Later he told me the text of the messages were something to the effect of [sic] “This nun is on fire.” To this day he still thinks that I was able to, while driving, use ten or more phones to send text messages about nuns being on fire all while being on the phone with him. Even in our last conversation, at the very end, he brought it up again at 4am. Even after telling him that I did not do it he still to this day doesnt believe me.
After our first two calls or so he ended up getting angry with me for asking about things that he said I already knew about. Ron follows the social interactions online between people very closely. I do not. When I came on board to help out in Stack and Patterico’s swatting I was strictly there to take technical data and analyze it. I was waiting for someone to slip up and forget to use a proxy, or be able to possibly pull out ip from the VOIP blacklists, or possibly even use other tactics that deal with technical data collecting and analyzation to possibly expose the SWATTING callers. However, this was unacceptable to Ron. And when I would ask about certain social interactions and conversations that he would mention in his rants, he would again fly off the handle. He would tell me I knew exactly what he was talking about and that I was liar, etc etc.
It might be helpful at this point for me to show you my email interactions to show you the details of the conversations, his change in mood, etc. They will help greatly to get a better picture of this. Let me know if you want them because I will have to find and organize all of them
Rons behaviour patterns are pretty predictable. If you allow him to call you up and bother you for hours on end he will be friendly to you and even support you on twitter. But once you question any of his ideas he flies off the handle, you become a suspect in his eyes, and the online harassment starts all over again. Most of his claims or supposition hardly ever make sense and he seems to just throw anything against the wall to see what sticks.
And now once again it seems that Ron is back to targetting me. He sent a tweet tonight alerting Twitter users to be wary if they ever call me or Tommy Christopher, or Caleb Howe because you may hear someone mimicking your voice in the background.
https://twitter.com/ronbryn/
status/211265903382380545 And when I asked him what that means or what he was talking about he again claims I already know and then starts asking me if I have alibi’s for certain dates. Whenever there is pressure, as well as progress, in trying to determine who is behind this swatting Ron immediately gets nervous and starts running around trying to implicate people who have been investigating this since day one. Why cant he just answer a question about his own statements? Instead he goes off on a tirade of accusations and implications. Its incredibly suspicious considering I wasnt even talking to him. This is after months of not talking to him (I have my farewell Ron emails as well that explains why I cut him off-again its the same crap) But in the above link you can see the deranged paranoia. I dont ever remember saying the thing about “a bar” in our conversation. Nor do I remember that echo that heis talking about. Again, this is like the “nuns on fire” text message thing. (which he mentions again in that convo) No one knows if it really happened. And I have no reason to lie to Ron. If he heard an echo on my phone so what? I hear echoes all the time when talking to people. I dont immediately become paranoid about it because I understand how a compact microphone on a cell phone works and how it picks up everything.
The real question here is why is Ron so paranoid about things that are irrelevant? Is he really unstable or is he involved in the whole damn thing and is rightfully paranoid about certain small details? It has to be one of the two. Nothing else explains his behaviour
I have never in my life ever dealt with anyone like Ron. While he claims to be a journalist and an investigator he couldnt be any farther from those things. He is petulant dishonest creep with absolutely no interpersonal skills. His lack of ability to communicate with people on a normal level makes him not only an outcast but a pure waste of time to deal with and possibly a liability to anyone that chooses to interact with him. He has provided nothing in the investigation to anyone’s swatting and harassment cases other than being divisive, nasty, rude, and dishonest. He wants so bad for at least one of his whacky theories to be correct that when they dont prove to be anything more than a loony idea he reacts like the manchild he is and throws a tantrum and attacks people.
Let me know if you want the emails. They address the last couple of crazy calls. Surprisingly enough he doesnt even really deny that he was being a total asshole to me for no reason.
But again just look at that convo from tonight. I was actually going to give him another chance to act like a normal person. Yet he couldnt do it. Once again the pressure is on to arrest and prosecute the people behind the swatting and Ron is off the wall insane. Why? He should be ecstatic and trying to work with people. I know when I get close to wrapping up an investigation I am answering everyones questions with excitement. Ron instead reacts with paranoia askingme if I have alaibis for the dates of the calls all because I asked him what he was talking about regarding an echo he heard on the phone with me. I have always had the feeling that Ron is that guy that steals your wallet and then helps you look for it. I have always believed that he knows more than he ever lets on, or heis actually involved. Because there is no reason for him to turn psycho every time it looks like prosecution is eminent.
-Doug
Let me know if that is enough or if you need something more specific. Sorry for the rant, Im jsut sick of dealing with Ron. None of us were ever this nuts or disrepectful to each otehr while dealing with this
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