What is the real connection between Brett Kimberlin and The Raw Story? Has he perhaps had a significant role in the creation and rise of that alternative, internet newspaper? Or has he been allowing a false idea to proliferate in the blogosphere? Is he really "the man behind e-voting investigations of BradBlog.com and the investigative internet journal Raw Story.com?"
One of the co-hosts of the L.A. Steel Show not only introduced him as being a force behind RawStory. He said that Kimberlin had been unfairly imprisoned for the Speedway bombings. He portrayed Brett as having been merely a pot dealer. Then he jumped into the Dan Quayle thing. Then he again said Brett was unfairly put in prison for the bombings. Basically, this is the mixing of apples and oranges, complete misinformation. The Dan Quayle thing had nothing to do with his convictions as the Speedway bomber. Did these radio hosts ever try to vet out Kimberlin's claims of having been a political prisoner subsequently exonerated of any guilt for violent crimes? Where is the proof that Kimberlin was ever exonerated? I do agree with the hosts, however, that Kimberlin is definitely a major player on the internet. There's no disagreement there.
According to Larisa Alexandrovna, she agrees that Brett Coleman Kimberlin is an exonerated, ex-political prisoner.
I can only say that he was wrongly convicted, released, sued the government and won. As part of the agreement, he cannot discuss the particulars publicly. By the way, the real interest in those articles calling him a con man is that no one points out that he was the guy who - during the Regan/Quayle election, who came forward and blew the whistle on Dan's little drug problem
Kimberlin is well-known in Indiana as having been the Speedway Bomber. From court records:
Kimberlin was convicted as the so-called "Speedway Bomber," who terrorized the city of Speedway, Indiana, by detonating a series of explosives in early September 1978. In the worst incident, Kimberlin placed one of his bombs in a gym bag, and left it in a parking lot outside Speedway High School. Carl Delong was leaving the high school football game with his wife when he attempted to pick up the bag and it exploded. The blast tore off his lower right leg and two fingers, and embedded bomb fragments in his wife's leg. He was hospitalized for six weeks, during which he was forced to undergo nine operations to complete the amputation of his leg, reattach two fingers, repair damage to his inner ear, and remove bomb fragments from his stomach, chest, and arm. In February 1983, he committed suicide.
Brett Kimberlin is now more widely known on the internet as a co-founder of Velvet Revolution with Brad Friedman. Why does any of this matter? Larisa Alexandrovna has been at the center of a growing controversy over the death of Michael Connell. She claims that Connell was a source of hers, that he was scared and ready to spill the beans.
I don't usually reveal sources, but I think this is incredibly important.....he had information that he was ready to share....
I have been to Mr. Connell's home. Mr. Connell has confided that he was being threatened, something that his attorneys also told the judge in the Ohio election fraud case. When I met with Heather, his wife, I did so carefully because of the threats he was getting.
I left a note for her in her mailbox and asked her to meet me in a local park near their home....
However, according to this interview with Mark Crispin Miller, Larisa has provided a much different scenario.
I went to the Connells’ home on September 25. There was a young boy, maybe 14, playing basketball outside the house. Before I could even stop the car, these dogs came out of nowhere, and literally slammed into the car, barking and growling. I couldn’t even open the car door. The boy tried to restrain them, but he couldn’t. It was clear to me that I was not going to be getting out of the car as those animals were very aggressive. So I wrote a note saying who I was, and asking Heather to come meet me at a park near the house. I cracked the window open, and asked the boy to give his mom the note.
There are many easy to find discrepancies with Alexandrovna's reporting. Where is the proof that Connell's attorneys ever told the Judge in Arnebeck's lawsuit that he had been threatened? Did Alexandrovna place a note in the Connell mailbox, or did she hand the note to a young boy playing basketball in the Connell driveway? Has Larisa ever recanted her statements that Kimberlin is an exonerated, ex-political prisoner? No, she hasn't. In fact, she has gone out of her way to dispute the historical record. Kimberlin is the one who found Spoonamore, the alleged rightwing whistleblower who has implicated Connell and Rove as being involved in the stealing of elections through the manipulation of electronic voting machines.
Now where did the idea ever develop that Karl Rove had threatened Michael Connell? That grew from an alleged anonymous tip to the Velvet Revolution. There is zero proof that Connell himself ever said he had been threatened. The only sources for such claims have emerged from VR and through their attorney Cliff Arnebeck.