Here at Hotbox Magazine, you can imagine we have a soft spot for weird news. But only once in a lifetime does one witness a weird event of truly historical proportions. What I am about to tell you may make national news in a matter of hours, it may be nothing more than one of the best-orchestrated pranks of all time. Only time will tell, I’ll stop teasing you and come out with it. They refer to it as “The Incident," and it may have given an unlikely group of people power over something as unrelated as a presidential race

Sarah Palin, GOP VP candidate, has reportedly had her Yahoo email account "hacked," so to speak. Here is a rundown of the events as they happened:

Around 2:00 am last night, a post was made to an anonymous Internet image board claiming to have found a way into Sarah Palin’s private yahoo email account. It is unknown to what length the first person to access the account went to save information. The password was made public by the original Anonymous and very quickly the account was locked out due to multiple incorrect password attempts, meaning someone had changed the password and now had sole control of the account. During this time screenshots were posted that showed what appeared to be what was advertised. An anonymous poster answering to the name White Knight had been the one that changed the password and decided it would be a good idea to e-mail an alert to the FBI, but mistakenly left the new password uncensored in the screenshot of the e-mail he was about to send. The password was changed a couple times and I lost any sort of idea who, if anyone, had control of the account. That morning, the account (along with another that could have very well been a second account of Palin's) was deleted.

What was released? A handful of family photos that have never been seen elsewhere and e-mail addresses of friends and other family members. Screenshots of subject lines of a number of e-mails and what was rumoured to be Bristol Palin’s personal cell number (‘confirmed’ repeatedly by anonymous posters claiming it led to a voicemail that began “Hey this is Bristol…” No poster claimed otherwise).

Couldn’t this all be faked? Yes this is true, it could be the actions of what patrons of the image boards discussed will refer to as “The Most Epic Fucking Troll Ever.” But from what was released regarding the account, it has been found to have been made ages ago, last updated well before Palin was nominated as the Republican VP candidate. Meaning the prankster would have had to have been a psychic or a sysadmin at Yahoo!. Some have said that the account being "hacked" was a fake and a different but similar account was actually Palin’s. This could be true, but there were messages in the screenshots from the other account, adding to the complexity needed to pull off a hoax of this caliber, not to mention that both accounts were quickly deleted at the same time. The mastermind would have also had to have access to Palin family pictures that have never been seen on television or the Internet.

What does this all mean? It is well known the recent controversy regarding Palin and a certain Alaska Trooper. Information regarding this matter could have very well have been contained in the account. Anything she might not want the country to know regarding her personal life was rifled through and left in the hands of an anonymous mob.  There is also a hint of conspiracy theory thrown into the mix as well. The account in question was subpoenaed to be released as evidence, but never was. Before it could be looked into further, sensitive account information was leaked and caused the deletion of the account. Freeing Palin from any liability the e-mails could have contained, and the damage they could do to the McCain campaign.

As everything stands right now, everyone is in the dark and a little paranoid about discussing or reposting images related to The Incident. The media has yet to confirm this tale, but this may change in the coming days. And like I mentioned earlier, it is unknown exactly what was taken before the “White Knight” tipped off the Feds. So if there was anything incriminating in there, it may just be being held for after the shitstorm dies off. But then again this may just be the ultimate prank. In the end, the fate of a presidential candidate may be hidden on a hard drive somewhere out there, nestled between 30 gigs of meticulously organized porn. Or it may have been saved by the actions of an “Internet White Knight.” But one thing is sure, no one ever expected the outcome of a presidential election to be in the hands of what some organizations have mistakenly (and rather dramatically) dubbed the “Internet Hate Machine”.

Keep in mind I had no part in any of this, I was just lucky enough to be stoned and perusing this particular sector of the Internet at the right time to watch all this unfold. The Internet has a weird way of drawing in bystanders and turning them into historians, but that's just the nature of the gig.

UPDATE: Wikileaks has the full screenshots. AmericaBlog also has a good article on the topic, as does the Huffington Post. Screenshot added. —ed.

UPDATE2: Wikileaks may be dealing with too much traffic at present. Check the other two sources above for full screencaps.

       

Written by :

James Pattani