The first time I realized something was wrong was when I got an email from Domino’s Pizza about my recent order, set to be delivered to my sister’s house. I was even more confused when my sister called me at work, thinking I had mistakenly put her address down for my order. The problem is, I hadn’t ordered a pizza, and neither had my sister. My confusion was cleared up when I got the first of several threatening e-mails that day.
I grew up online, and so I understood immediately what was going on. I had been doxed. The only question was why, and by whom? I have been working as a freelance journalist for several years now, mostly writing about the history of Ukraine and political machinations behind the war. My work has been published in a variety of places besides this one, like Covert Action Magazine and my own substack.
Up until this point it had mostly gone unnoticed by the sort of people it targets, and so I assumed that they had finally found me and were unhappy with my work, which has revealed the deep, long running ties between NATO, the Ukrainian far right and, eventually, the post-Maidan government. One of my proudest days as a writer was when I finished a series of three articles tracing back the involvement of the US and what would become NATO all the way back to 1944, when the OUN met with MI-6 in the Vatican City to negotiate their surrender and terms of employment.
I have also done exposes on many of the far-right mercenaries and gangsters who are currently infesting Ukraine and their online sycophants, specifically the Georgian Legion and NAFO. When the second e-mail arrived, this time directly threatening my life, I assumed that was why. The second Nazi of the day was far less discreet than his comrade and told me exactly what was happening.
I have avoided twitter for many months now. I deleted my account and so was blissfully unaware of the storm that was brewing in the sewer now known as X. As it turns out, the truth was much stranger than what I believed. While I had been doxed, it was not for my work, but for someone else’s. My friends who still have twitter went hunting for the culprits, and it did not take them long to find the likely source, a Neo-Nazi militia called Brigade Normandie.
A quick look at their telegram channel, charmingly titled “Kentucky fried Russians” (If you want to look it up yourself, be warned, it is full of graphic evidence of heinous war crimes carried out in the open by these terrorists) both confirmed our suspicions and left us with more questions than answers. For some reason, these Neo-Nazis believed I run a telegram channel called “TrackANaziMerc.”
TANM, as they call themselves, is a long running and very influential telegram channel, operated by a small group of volunteers dedicated to revealing and tracking the exploits of the foreign thugs who kill Ukrainians and Russians for money. They are a very effective group, and their work has led to a great many mercenaries having their dirty laundry aired for the world to see. This has naturally made them a great deal of enemies, many of whom come into their public chat to mock and taunt the volunteers and readers of the channel. There has been a bounty on the administrators of the channel for quite some time, and the Nazis they hunt have been eager to collect on it.
One of those was a man by the name of Jean-François Ratelle (nom de guerre “Hrulf”, because even someone born 3000 miles from Sweden must pretend to be a Viking in Ukraine), a French-Canadian Neo-Nazi, ex-Foreign Legionnaire, and mercenary who fought in Ukraine with the Brigade Normandie. Despite a body covered in runes, like so many others Ratelle insisted he was no Nazi, just a man with a keen interest in history.
It should be noted that TANM does not post personal information, simply links to public social media accounts, photos, and names. They do not dox in any real sense, as they do not disclose addresses, phone numbers or any other information that could be used to contact or harm their targets. Anyone who is smart enough to lock down their social media could easily avoid their spotlight, but like most of the criminal rabble infesting Ukraine, “Hrulf” was used to acting with impunity.
Ratelle’s dossier was first published on the 12th of March, and that same night he entered the TANM chat with his friends in some misguided attempt to harass or intimidate the readers. His tantrum backfired, and Ratelle was so badly browbeaten that he limped back to his own telegram channel, seeking to find the “mysterious” TANM ownership who had just made a fool of him. As is fitting for a Neo-Nazi, his answer was not only wrong, but it also took him far more effort to get it than the correct one. Telegram will show the moderator list of any channel, and with a few clicks, Ratelle could have found the answers he desired.
Unfortunately for me, computer literacy was apparently not one of Ratelle’s strong suits. For reasons we will never know, Ratelle did not find the actual moderators of TANM, he found me. From there, a cascade of events began which would eventually lead to me being targeted by some of the most dangerous killers the US Military has ever produced.
Ratelle posted about me on the 13th of March, the same day I got my first pizzas and death threats. From there, the false information spread like wildfire, helped to a great extent by the NAFO godfather, a Finnish “journalist” named Pekka Kallioniemi. Pekka is best known for his “Vatnik1 soup” series, where he hunts down and doxes enemies of the Kiev regime. This has become a very lucrative business for Pekka. He is now considered an expert in “information warfare” and “disinformation” by NATO and a frequent guest on the pro-NATO news networks. Pekka has even received official awards for his loyal service, he was given a Diplomatic Star by Lithuania in January for helping fight “authoritarianism and disinformation”. Given the tenor of Pekka’s career, this must be an example of Lithuanian humor.
Like most NATO propagandists, Pekka’s attempts at journalism are clumsy and slipshod. He does very little beyond reposting news headlines from biased sources to “prove” his claims, as if this is a substitute for actual investigation. Of course, Pekka is not interested in investigation. He is interested in content to keep the wheels of his propaganda machine moving 24/7.
If he possessed even the slightest modicum of journalistic rigor, Pekka would have easily found the truth about TANM. However, Pekka is not a journalist. His job is not to inform, or tell the truth, but rather to produce weaponized propaganda to be used against his (and NATO’s) enemies.
As he has done for his entire career, Pekka didn’t even bother confirming the information for himself, he simply took the words of a neo-Nazi mercenary as gospel then repeated them to his 140,000 followers. To Pekka, the truth is far less important than the narrative and the ends always justify the means. Putting an innocent man in danger is meaningless to Pekka if it creates good propaganda and drives more donations.
The problem is, I have nothing to do with this channel.
While I have been a reader for some time and I have used some of their information in my work, I do not and never have worked for them in any capacity whatsoever. I didn’t even know who operated the channel until I looked for myself on the night of the 13th. In about a minute, simply by asking, the moderators revealed themselves to me in chat. This was my first contact with any of them, and the moderators directed me to the administrator after a brief conversation. Pekka and Hrulf could have done the same.
Unfortunately, by the time I had even realized what was happening, this lie had already caught fire and spread to every corner of the internet. On March 14th, fire lit by Pekka sparked an explosion. On that day, “Hrulf” was sent to Valhalla via precision drone strike from the Russian army, along with several of his comrades. The survivors blamed TANM for tracking him down, and by extension, me.
Eager for revenge, Ratelle’s nazi comrades kicked the harassment campaign against me into high gear. Several twitter accounts were made dedicated to spreading both my and my family’s information far and wide (and despite thousands of reports, they are still running as of the time I wrote this), piggybacking off Pekka’s widely seen post for maximum visibility. This new scheme worked, and early in the morning on March 15th, I received yet another death threat. This one was different, however. Unlike the previous e-mails, this one was not sent from an anonymous account. Either through incompetence or sheer bravado, the threat on March 15th was sent from a real domain, projectsirin.com.
At first, I paid little attention to this email. It was just another in a long series of uninspired threats. At this point, I still believed the situation would blow over once the NAFO hoard found a new target. The next day, I got a call from the police in my hometown reporting that someone under my name had been calling in false bomb threats and decided it was time to investigate. What I found was disturbing.
On the face of it, Project Sirin is one of many scam “charities” designed to make a killing by killing. They provide nebulous services and logistical support (in reality, little more than buying new toys) to the Ukrainian army, all of it provided by handful of “consulting” firms run by the Sirin founders and their friends. They use NAFO money to pay themselves to train Ukrainian soldiers and hand out first aid kids they bought on the civilian market to resell at a markup while patting themselves on the back for “closing the capability gap” inside the Ukrainian army. In this way, Sirin is no different from the dozens of other schemes currently sucking Ukraine dry.
What sets Sirin apart is that it is run by some of the most savage killers in the US military, Special Forces veterans of America’s illegal, genocidal campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. The organization is almost exclusively special forces veterans, the very same people who physically carried out America’s program of mass arrests, detention, torture and murder of countless thousands throughout the region.
In what were called Zero Raids, these operators descended on villages night after night, searching for “high value targets” to be black bagged, detained and tortured. Anyone who resisted was murdered on the spot, often alongside their entire family. These deadly raids were such a common occurrence in Afghanistan that we do not even know how many people were killed. The Army simply never bothered to count.
However, given as the US military admits that 90% of its “high value targets” had done nothing wrong, it can be assumed that almost all of them were innocent. The Zero Raids were only one portion of America’s murderous campaign. The brutality of the American invaders against innocent civilians was far too widespread to be a few bad apples, it was an intentional and clearly articulated policy in all theaters of the War on Terror.
Despite the clear evidence of war crimes on a massive scale, almost none of the people responsible for this have ever been charged. Those who have got slaps on the wrist to avoid setting uncomfortable precedents. All in all, America’s illegal invasions and destabilization of the Middle East in the post-9/11 era has led to the death of at least 4.5 million people and counting.
The irony of finding myself in the crosshairs of these killers for a crime I did not commit is not lost on me, however it the humor is little consolation given the gravity of this situation.
My story is only one of many who have fallen victim to the same sort of tactics. However, unlike most of their targets, these men blame me for the death of one of their friends and comrades. They have murdered entire villages of people for far less, and they have always gotten away with it.
Perhaps the decades of impunity fostered by America’s genocidal wars is why they sent me death threats from their work e-mail. They simply cannot imagine any consequences for their actions, no matter how ghastly.
Despite it all, my studies over these years have taught me one very important thing. Sirin and all the others like them are only a symptom of a much greater problem. None of these terrorists could operate in a vacuum, they depend on the support of our government. Our politicians shovel hundreds of billions of our tax dollars, money which could be used in so many ways to build a better life for all of us, into the gaping maw of war to protect their stock portfolios.
Without NATO backing, there would be no Sirin, no Jean-François Ratelle, no Pekka Kallioniemi and no war in either Ukraine or Iraq. Remember, the same politicians who now call for unlimited funding for Ukraine were the ones who told us Colin Powell’s vial was real. This should come as no surprise. Just like their minions, decades of impunity have made them bold.
No matter what happens to me or anyone else targeted by this machine, do not forget that a machine does not operate itself. Behind the gears and the bombs and the bullets, there is always a human hand.
After America’s defeat in the Middle East, decades of disastrous neo-liberal economics have left even the military industrial complex hollowed out. The entire system is designed to maximize profits, not win wars, leaving them with fewer, more expensive, and more fragile weapons and equipment.
In the low intensity “counterinsurgency” warfare that men like Sirin fought, this was not a problem. You do not need to mass produce artillery shells to kill children with rocks. Now, facing a real war against real soldiers, they need real weapons that the system cannot provide. The fact that so many groups like Sirin are constantly begging for more toys is clear evidence of that.
Once, the military industrial complex was the pride and joy of the American ruling class. They pumped out weapons in huge quantities, eager to fill the armories of any dictator or despot who wanted to put the people back in their place.
Now, after cannibalizing itself through mergers, acquisitions, no-bid contracts, outright graft, and a complete lack of any consequence for failure, the bloated and sclerotic system cannot cope with the demands of war. When it dies, so does the easy money created by endless war and endless contracts.
As the Ukrainian army crumbles away, its strength broken by NATO generals forcing them into suicidal charges through minefields, the crisis will only grow starker.
When it becomes apparent that the “gardeners” in NATO cannot clean up a mess of their own making, what then? The capitalists will not allow themselves to starve. Absent any other victims, the men of Sirin, and the terror they have wrought all around the world, will come home.
To paraphrase the author Michael Novick, “Fascism can best be understood as bringing the methods of imperial rule in the colonies into the metropole.”
There could be few clearer examples than my own. The only way to prevent this is to break the impunity of these men and their masters, to drag them out into the light and force them to account for their crimes once and for all. Our very lives depend on it.
Vatnik is a racial slur against Russians created by a neo-Nazi under the pseudonym “Jedem das Seine”, a slogan from the gates of Nazi concentration camps. Pekka is one of the people who has normalized it’s use.
Thank you for confirming my suspicion that the only purpose of the U.S. Military is to find psychopaths and serial killers for the “government.”
“And fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body in hell.” — Matt 10:28