“Gotcha!”, the trolls cry. But have they?
Since the assassination attempt against Sergei Skripal in Salisbury using Novichok, chemical weapons expert Dan Kaszeta (@dankaszeta) has written a series of articles for us debunking some of the main false narratives and explaining some of the issues around chemical attacks. Because of that, and because his private information was leaked in the hack that stole material from us, he has been subjected to vicious trolling and harassment — including by a ‘journalist’ from a Kremlin propaganda platform. He’s previously written two pieces about his experience of the nasty and disingenuous attacks. This is his third, which highlights how ludicrous the latest insinuations against him are:
Writing articles on a freelance basis for The Integrity Initiative has not been without its frustrations. I’ve written articles and the Integrity Initiative is kind enough to pay me for my writing at what I consider to be a reasonable rate. A now infamous hacking incident, allegedly by the “Anonymous” collective, although likely by Russian military intelligence, resulted in various private Integrity Initiative documents being stolen and published. Early inJanuary, various social media accounts and websites started posting some of the invoices I submitted for various articles that I wrote for the good folk at Integrity Initiative. Some of these have been partial snapshots. Some have had personal information redacted, while others have been the full-fat version, with addresses and (most annoyingly) bank details on them. I have fought back, with partial success, against some of the more outrageous offenders, largely on the basis of privacy rights and data protection.
What actually is the outrage that I have committed? Some of this stuff starts to get into the realm of the idiotic. Teasing out the various strands of the Twitter lynch mob (thankfully, I am not on Facebook… one can only imagine what is going on there) I can see various types of faux outrage and contrived scandal. Often the trolling and criticism combines several of these themes. Gentle readers, please be forewarned that abject stupidity lies ahead. Best I can tell, these are the criticisms I am meant to face:
Being “outed” for writing the articles: The great revelation seems to be that I wrote articles for the Integrity Initiative. This seems to come as an epiphany for some. However, my name, which is a relatively unique one, was on all of the articles as a byline. I tweeted about them from my Twitter account @DanKaszeta which is clearly under my own name. Many of them I even pinned to my Twitter profile. Integrity Initiative tweeted that I wrote them. It is no hacker’s revelation nor is it a stunning coup of investigative journalism that I have, indeed, written the articles.
Being “outed” as being paid for writing: The idea that a freelance writer submits an invoice and gets paid is something of a revelation to some people. Most of what I do for a living is basically me getting paid to write things, whether it is my book project, articles, consultancy, or reports. Yes, I have occasionally written things for free. But where practical and possible, I try to get paid for it. Integrity Initiative has paid better than some of my writing outlets (they know who they are) and worse than others.
Getting paid means that I’m an employee of Integrity Initiative: Some critics claim that by being paid by Integrity Initiative, I am therefore their employee. This is not true. I am not employed by them. I perform a service and then get paid. They are my customer. If you go to the barber shop or jump in a taxi cab, the barber or the taxi driver is not your employee. That’s just not how it works.
Getting paid means that I get told exactly what to write: The entire reason why I write things for the Integrity Initiative is that I have knowledge and experience which their team does not and which they think is useful to bring to a wider audience. Integrity Initiative does not dictate the content to me. They only ask me in the broadest of terms if I can shed light on topics that are currently relevant … “Dan, can you write about how long nerve agents last in the environment?” To which I say “Yes, I can” and produce an article on the subject. They might discuss with me how a particular sentence reads. But they don’t tell me what to write. As often as not, I have to pitch an article to them. I say something like “I can write an article about the chemical agent BZ” and they say something like “OK — get it in by next week.” That’s how it works. If they just wanted to make up something, they would not need to pay me £0.40 per word. They could just do it in-house. Why do they need me?
Being paid by the word: Some have objected to me being paid by the word. It’s not as if it is some valve stuck open on the money pipeline. Nobody is going to read a 10,000-word post and they aren’t going to pay me for such a thing. Some outlets pay by the word. I’ve also had ones that paid by the page, but these are print outlets with a relatively fixed word count per page so it works out to pretty much the same thing. Others agree a fixed fee, but their posts tend to be generally of the same length. Getting weird in Twitter conversations with me about being paid by the word just shows ignorance of how things work in the real world.
Being living proof that Integrity Initiative and Bellingcat are the same thing: Some commentators have “outed” me for being involved with the open-source-intelligence and citizen-journalism site Bellingcat. Of course, you can’t “out” me for something I have never hidden. I’ve written numerous posts for Bellingcat with my own name on them. It is not a secret. The criticism is often extended that this means that, somehow, Integrity Initiative and Bellingcat are part of the same secretive plot, because I’ve written for both of them. This is a bit absurd. I’ve also written for the BBC, the Guardian, the Journal of Terrorism and Cyber Insurance, Bloomberg, Wooster Sauce (the journal of the P.G. Wodehouse Society), and a legion of other publications. Writing for multiple outlets is generally what freelance writers do.
Being outed for having worked for the US government: Some of the fake outrage is from the fact that I’ve been “outed” as having worked for the US government. In particular, I’ve been “outed” as having worked for the US Secret Service (USSS). I make no secret of my employment history. Despite the name, the USSS is not very secret and is not an intelligence agency and nor is it the CIA. Yet people have deliberately conflated all of that in an attempt to paint me as some sort of spy, presumably targeted at those dim enough to not know that the USSS and CIA are, in fact, different organisations. My employment at the USSS is so secret that it is on my CV, on my LinkedIn profile, I tweeted a photo of my old USSS badge, I wrote about my experience in my 2012 book, and wrote a whole article about it last year in CBRNe World magazine (free reg needed.) I left employment in the US government in February 2008 and if you think that, after receiving my last salary nearly 11 years ago, they somehow dictate what I write about, then perhaps you need to re-examine how things work in the real world.
Having / Owning a Company: There has been the stunning realisation that I use a company, Strongpoint Security Limited, as the vehicle for as much of my consulting work as possible. Even though the company records and accounts are, in fact, freely available online as public records in the UK, I’ve been “outed” as the owner. I plead guilty. I am the founder, owner, only shareholder, only director, only employee, and major domo of a Limited Company in the UK. Most years I have been at best, a part-time employee of this company. Some critics have found my status as using and owning a company either a revelation or some sort of offence. Or both. For those considering the advantages and disadvantages of using a limited company, I strongly recommend the real FSB — the Federation of Small Business — and their excellent resources.
Making too much or not enough money: My company’s financial achievements have been modest. I’ve had good years and bad years. My good years aren’t that great and my bad years are such that I’ve relied on other sources of income. Various trolls have “discovered” (i.e. looked them up in an easy to use search form on the Companies House website) my annual accounts. I’ve received simultaneous criticism that I’ve made too much money -“ 40p a word! Getting rich off of public funds” — and not enough money — “How can he pay central London rents on that little money” “How can he be a major player in chemical weapons analysis on that kind of income”. The answer is that I would not recommend my career path as a road to riches. I’ve yet to meet anyone who got wealthy off of nerve agent punditry.
My home is my office: Guilty as charged. I run my part-time company out of my flat. I’m certainly not the only person doing this. However, highlighting this, as a Sputnik ‘article’ containing walking directions to my flat did, can only be construed as a form of petty harassment.
Living in Central London: I am guilty of the sin of living in central London. Sputnik, the Russian state-owned media company, has tried to make a formal connection between where I live and MI6. Sputnik’s implication, mirrored by others is that somehow my Pimlico flat and office proves I work for MI6. This is based on the “evidence” from Google Maps that my Pimlico flat is about 15 minutes walking distance from the MI6 building. By this logic, I must also work for the Department for Transport, the Philippine National Bank, at least a dozen Pret a Manger outlets, and the Pimlico Toy Library, all of which are closer to me. The revelation that things are close to each other in a large city seems to be what constitutes the state of journalism at Sputnik. For the record — no, I don’t work for MI6. I don’t even have a security clearance, having given all that up years ago.
I didn’t write about Novichoks before the Skripal case: This is a fair criticism. I’m guilty of this one. However, nobody ever asked me to write about them. Before 2018, Novichoks were largely consigned to the dustbin of history. In a slow year, I can’t get ANY articles on chemical warfare issues published, let alone subjects considered to be esoterica. So, it is a bit like saying “Nobody wrote about the Titanic and icebergs before 1912”. I also never wrote about Ghouta before nerve agents were used there.
Finally, the weirdest trolling award must go to the “fire extinguisher” truthers. On my profile photo on Twitter, there’s a fire extinguisher in the background. It’s got dust on it. Evidently this makes me unable to be a credible commentator. Really. It’s that stupid.
Part of the response has been a deluge of advice. Some of it is genuine and heartfelt, for which I am thankful. Some of it is actually a bit off-kilter. Suggesting that I do not put my name or bank details on an invoice is a way to actually not get paid. Suggesting that I should have a land line and rent an office is a bit outdated and not really cost effective. Some have suggested that I should have remained anonymous. I don’t think that’s the way forward, as I cannot stand on the pinnacle of 28 years of experience that way. I’d just be another anonymous voice claiming any old thing.
Will there be a part 4? Who can say? I hope not, but I am not optimistic…
The views expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of the Integrity Initiative.
