Jake Brahm
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| Born: | 1986 Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, USA |
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| Occupation: | Grocery store clerk |
Jake Joseph Brahm (born 1986) is an American grocery store clerk, and blogger. He attained notoriety when a post he made on the 4chan imageboard was interpreted as a terrorist threat by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Although doubting the credibility of the threat, the DHS warned the National Football League (NFL) of this threat via a memo which was later leaked to the press.
Brahm maintained several weblogs, most of them with a satirical bent. Amongst them is Jake Brahm Wangs Da Poo (a mock-serious record of his masturbation habits) and a mostly-fictional LiveJournal.
At the time of the bomb threat incident, Brahm was living with his parents and working part-time at a grocery store.
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[edit] Early life
Brahm was born in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He attended Wauwatosa East High School but dropped out a few weeks before graduation.
[edit] Posts on 4chan and Internet activity
On September 18th, 2006, Jacob Brahm made several posts on the "/b/ - Random" section of the Internet Messageboard 4chan where he claimed that a bomb would detonate on October 22nd, 2006. It is thought by users of this board that the threats originated here as one of the board's ritualistic forms of humour, involving copying and pasting blocks of text out of context repeatedly or "copy pasta" (copy paste).
Shortly after the original text appeared on 4chan, it was duplicated to other websites, such as The Friend Society[1], where it was assumed to be caught by the authorities on search engines.
[edit] Leaks to general media, authorities and arrest
The threats came to the attention of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after they were reposted on the 4chan imageboard and other sites.[2][3][4]
On October 18, 2006 the DHS warned NFL officials in Miami, New York City, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Oakland, and Cleveland about a possible threat, which involved the simultaneous use of dirty bombs at stadiums in those cities. The threat claimed that the attack would be carried out on the day of October 22, the final day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Both the FBI and the DHS expressed doubt concerning the credibility of the threats.[5] It should be noted that there is no NFL stadium in New York City; both New York-based professional football teams play their home games in New Jersey. In addition, the games were played at different times, and thus simultaneous attacks on them would have been impossible.
On October 20, 2006, after the Wauwatosa police department had received a tip about Brahm, he turned himself in to authorities.[2]
"Don't mess with football" was a phrase used by FBI Agent Les Wiser during a press conference related to the threat. Shortly after the media leak and response by major news organizations like CBS and FOX, 4chan added a second rule for its random (/b/) board, "DON'T MESS WITH FOOTBALL", in flashing red text. The rule has since been removed, but the phrase continues to be popular on /b/.
Another frequently quoted statement made by Wiser at the press conference is that "the referees won't be the only ones wearing stripes this Sunday."
One common misconception about the incident is that Brahm e-mailed or phoned in the threat. Reportedly, the threat was part of a writing contest between Brahm and an unidentified man from Brownsville, Texas that occurred in September 2006. The threat was later reposted on multiple message boards. Authorities have stated that the Texas man will not be charged. Patrick Knight, Brahm's lawyer, has been quoted as saying: "When you're a 20-year-old, and you roll a snowball, and the next thing you know, it's as big as a house rolling down a hill, it surprises you a bit". [6]
[edit] Legal status
- 20 October 2006 - Brahm was charged. [1][2]
- 20 October 2006 - Released without bail but prohibited from using the Internet or traveling outside Wisconsin and New Jersey
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ San Francisco Chronicle report
- ^ a b Man Charged in Internet Bomb Threats. InternetNews.com. Retrieved on October 20, 2006.
- ^ Wisconsin Man Is Charged in Fake NFL Stadium Threats. Bloomberg.com. Retrieved on October 20, 2006.
- ^ Man charged with stadium bomb threat hoax. ABC News. Retrieved on October 20, 2006.
- ^ Knucklehead Nabbed In "Dirty Bomb" Hoax. thesmokinggun.com. Retrieved on October 20, 2006.
- ^ Stadium Hoax was Prank By Grocery Clerk. ABC News. Retrieved on October 21, 2006.
