Former AMer WB4AIO busted

[WA3VJB]

There are reports of an arrest involving Kevin, WB4AIO, who was active on 75M AM in the 1970s and early 1980s. Kevin used to be the Chief Engineer of WEAM in Arlington, Va., and was an engineer at WUST Washington, DC, where my Collins 300-G came from. His technical notes were next to the transmitter when Fred, KC4MOP, myself, and Steve, WB3HUZ visited the projection room of WUST Music Hall, an old movie theater converted into a site for live broadcasts, mostly religious revivals. Kevin also is among those who helped me complete a homebrew transmitter in 1976 that I continue to use on 10 meters.

WVIR Charlottesville, Va.
http://www.nbc29.com/global/story.asp?s=5894604&ClientType=Printable
Man Facing Pornography Charges
Reported by Henry Graff
January 5, 2007   
And more from ABC network website:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2774119&page=1
And denials from the group Kevin took up with after he left ham radio.
http://www.nationalvanguard.org/story.php?id=11227
I last spoke with him about 15 years ago when we were deliberating how to get that 300-G out of the projection room at WUST. It was a coincidence that the new owners of the station were planning on moving 1120Kc to the WEAM Arlington site and boosting power to 20Kw, which they since have done. But regarding the old WUST and the Collins,  he wasn't very chatty, and said he really wasn't interested in trying to recall any particulars about the rig.  Before that, I had seen him at a hamfest in northern Virginia, peddling used 4-400s in the fleamarket. Again, somewhat pleasant, but acknowledged he really wasn't on the air on the ham bands anymore.

[Bacon, WA3WDR]

Probably looking at naughty girl stuff from some rigged website.  After they are through ripping the guy up like a rag doll in the single-digit pages of section A for a few months, one day we will probably find (if we look hard) a one square inch retraction on page 39, just behind the lingeree ads, where the feds say "Uh, well, we can't PROVE that the girl was underage," and then it will turn out that 'Karen' was 23, and they knew it all along.  But who is going to speak up for a core player in the National Alliance?

Meanwhile, perverted Catholic priests and Mark Foley get covered up for years.

[WB3JOK]

Sounds familiar. Anyone remember Ray Donovan, former Secretary of Labor, who after being acquitted of larceny in 1987 asked "Where do I go to get my reputation back"...

Of course there is also the wonderful logic of former Attorney General Edwin Meese III, who claimed "You don't have many suspects who are innocent of a crime. That's contradictory. If a person is innocent of a crime, then he is not a suspect." ( U.S. News and World Report, 10/14/85)

And it's apparently perfectly OK to belong to racially biased organizations like the NAACP and "La Raza". Just don't get noticed having "ties to a national organization that looks out for the interests of white people", as the article in the first link states. We're the US Gov't and we're here to help. Don't you feel safer now?

-Charles

[W2VW]

N1BEC deja vu.

[k4kyv]

Probably looking at naughty girl stuff from some rigged website.  After they are through ripping the guy up like a rag doll in the single-digit pages of section A for a few months, one day we will probably find (if we look hard) a one square inch retraction on page 39, just behind the lingeree ads, where the feds say "Uh, well, we can't PROVE that the girl was underage," and then it will turn out that 'Karen' was 23, and they knew it all along.  But who is going to speak up for a core player in the National Alliance?

Meanwhile, perverted Catholic priests and Mark Foley get covered up for years.

If a person is just viewing something on his computer and not uploading anything to the web for redistribution, I have never understood how visiting a website, regardless of content, is any different from tuning something in on a radio or off satellite TV.

You need only to casually surf the net to get images downloaded into your computer's cache memory.  Before I changed the default settings on my e-mail to protect my computer from attached viruses, I used to go through my in-box and as I deleted one message, the next one on the list automatically opened, complete with a "pre-view" of attached files.  Many of those messages were SPAM and the pre-views contained porno images.  That's all it would take to get a kiddie porn image on your hard drive.  View the websites below, and you will see why Kevin could easily have been a target for a set-up.

Kevin is still licensed as WB4AIO, per the QRZ.com website:

Callsign:   WB4AIO   Class: Advanced   Codes:  HAI   USA
Name:   KEVIN A STROM
Addr1:   PO BOX 762
Addr2:   Earlysville, VA 22936
Country:   USA
Effective:   03 Aug 2004   Expires: 03 Aug 2014

I knew Kevin personally back in the 70's.  I visited with him at several hamfests, and he and I were active in opposing Docket 20777, Johnny Johnston's first attempt to get rid of AM by "deregulating" it out of existence below 29.0 mHz.  Kevin used to run a BC-610 from the Washington, DC area.  One of his early attempts at "political broadcasting" was a recorded bulletin to alert the ham community about Docket 20777 and its implications regarding AM and other facets of amateur operation, which he would transmit on AM using the '610, right on the same frequency immediately following W1AW's 75m voice bulletins on SSB.

He disappeared from the amateur AM scene in ham radio sometime in the late 70's, but I have heard him broadcasting on shortwave using air time purchased by one of his affiliated white supremist organisations.  I seem to recall hearing him on SSB participating in the Liberty Net on 3950, sometime within the past decade.

I recall that he had strong anti-Jewish and anti trade union sentiments, which sometimes spilled out in our conversations, and even in some of his comments to the FCC regarding amateur AM issues.

Kevin is probably the only AM ham or ex-AM'er who has his own dedicated entry in Wikipedia.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Alfred_Strom

http://www.kevin-strom.com/

http://www.natall.com/

http://www.3950.net/

[W2XR]

I used to work Kevin, WB4AIO, on 75M AM back in the 1980s. I always enjoyed our conversations and I thought he was a really great guy, whom I looked forward to talking with.

When I found out much later that he had white supremacist leanings, I was frankly very surprised. I have seen his website and the links therein, and there is no question about his political and social sentiments, some of which appear to be quite extreme.

Too bad, I hope that everything works out OK for him. Regardless of Kevin's beliefs and opinions, of which I do not subscribe to, I still like the man. I guess when you play in those circles, and make your opinions widely known, this is perhaps the scrutiny you subject yourself to.

73,

Bruce

[k3zrf]

You guys are killing me!

Somebody got to that kid.

My $.02

[John K5PRO]

I remember meeting Kevin at WEAM, went to visit him with John Bissett, who was over at that station in Fairfax with the tower in the shopping center. I remember he and I had a common interest in Red Boxes, Blue Boxes, Black Boxes, back then - a long long time ago.

[WA3VJB]

John, wonder if during that visit you might also have met Morgan Burrough. I must be spelling it wrong or his license has expired. He was once suspected of  interfering with Virginia State Police radar after he retaliated for a speeding ticket by building a gunn horn transmitter in the same frequency band and mounting it behind the grill of his car. As for the Bell Boxes (collect the rainbow), another AMer, WD4BYE, used to work for southern bell and knew all the tones to generate whatever control sequence you wanted: Pay phones, long distance inter-relay, the whole thing.  And then there is Dave Garner, K3TCE, very active AMer from the early 1970s in that same group of BC engineers. Had a homebrew pair of 810s into 4-400s. Married a girl I went to school with. Still the CE of stations around Washington.
Don,
I think it was a T-368, not a BC-610.
The reason I'm of that impression is that TimTron had told me how Kevin had found a certain kind of RCA modulation transformer, a 1KW job, that just barely fit in there after he replaced the 4-125 pair with 4-400s. Still had the single 4-400 as the final. Wonder what become of the transmitter. HLR seems to know the full modification and some day maybe I'll do it on mine. Maybe Kevin will have time to come pay a visit again. Seriously, what a shame his technical skills went mis-directed in recent years.

[W2VW]

Back in the Seventies if one could get across a pay phone line, one could record the tones which were transmitted when coins were inserted. Those tones could be reproduced thus printing Ma Bell money. Others were much more advanced. Statute of limitations prevails. Sorry for the tangent. I've been on QRZ. 

[Bacon, WA3WDR]

WVIR Charlottesville, Va.
http://www.nbc29.com/global/story.asp?s=5894604&ClientType=Printable
Man Facing Pornography Charges
Reported by Henry Graff
January 5, 2007

Federal authorities say they found at least four pictures of child porn on Strom's computer with the file name "Karen."

They nailed him for four pictures of child porn?  Come on now.  If he was into that, he would have four thousand.

It may turn out to be coming from a rival in NA, or from the kid's mother who will turn out to have pulled this twice before.  I'm sticking to my prediction of a one square inch retraction on page 39 in six months to a year.

I diasgree with white supremacy, though.  White Pride may be one thing, but insulting other races is disconnected.

[k4kyv]

I'm not sympathetic with Kevin's politics, nor am I sympathetic to anyone being criminalised over a few images or other files on a computer hard drive, limited to personal use, regardless of content.  This is especially intolerable if the person was singled out for a bust because of his political views. 

From the newspaper article it appears that his house was raided on some bogus charge, probably some "national security" issue related to his political activism.  They couldn't find any incriminating evidence, but incidentally, in the course of their search, someone discovered the questionable images on his computer hard drive.

It seems that whenever a search warrant is issued for any reason, they routinely seize any computer found on the premises, regardless if a computer has anything to do with what they are searching  for.

I believe Kevin acquired the T-368 later.  But I recall that he did the Docket 20777 broadcasts on a BC-610.  I think it was an E- model.

[KB2WIG]

"It seems that whenever a search warrant is issued for any reason, they routinely seize any computer found on the premises, regardless if a computer has anything to do with what they are searching  for."

Its an easy way to open up access to bank records, cc info, email, etc. If one can convince the judge that the computer is somehow involved, anything found on it becomes fair game.  If , say, the police are looking for a rifle used in a shooting, the police had better ask the judge to include ammunition in the warrent. This gives them a legal reason to keep on searching AFTER they find the rifle.  Seaching for something physicall small allows you to keep digging till you get tired, or the place is fully tossed. Anything incidental to a legal search is admissable in court. Anything on the computer. If they find the 16oz of home use weed, allong with the Cubans Puros you got in Canada, well sorry charlie, you go for that too..

As Bacon pointed out, 4 Picks of "child porn" does not seem to be the norm for molestors/rapists.  It seems like they went fishing and found something....   It was common practice to take baby pictures and home movies of children in the nude. I guess this is pornography now... 

Is this guy a problem? I don't know. I do know that the media can screw up a story, especially when facts get in the way.

klc

[WB2EMS]

One of the things that worries me about these computer searches is, how do we know they found anything at all on the computer? If the FBI sends in an 'expert' to testify that they found X,Y and Z on a machine that no one else is allowed to examine, how do you know they didn't just 'create' the evidence to take down a politically incorrect personality they want for other reasons, but can't legally touch for those reasons? This guys seems like a perfect potential target for that kind of thing. Pretty hard to argue with the FBI, or ATF on technical minutia in front of a jury and get anywhere, especially when they refuse to make the evidence available. (Waco)

In these days of insecure operating systems and widely deployed viruses and malware on websites, it seems it would be a perfect 'black bag' ploy to take out selected dissidents or political opponents by hacking into the target's computer, uploading a couple of MB of kiddie porn, phoning in a 'tip' from a 'confidential informant' then raiding the house and carting away the computer only to 'discover' kiddie porn - and away goes the target for an all expense paid vacation to Club Fed. No muss, no fuss.

Anybody want to start a pool for how long till the first political campaign take down of this variety?

[KB2WIG]

"If the FBI sends in an 'expert' to testify that they found X,Y and Z on a machine that no one else is allowed to examine, how do you know they didn't just 'create' the evidence to take down a politically incorrect personality they want for other reasons, but can't legally touch for those reasons?"


Its a faith in the system thing...   

Yes, evidence can be faked, people lie, the innocent are punished.    And the Gov. can really screw things up.

As far as the part about 'no one else is allowed to examine", if its not examined by both sides, it can't be used as evidence.  << gen., the right to face one's accusers, the evidence being the 'accuser'>>

And for as dealing with faith in the system thing,  R. Reagan said  " Trust, but verify."      klc

[W2VW]

Well, there is still Hal Turner.

http://www.halturnershow.com/

[WD8BIL]

Meanwhile, perverted Catholic priests and Mark Foley get covered up for years.

Or Ted Kennedy's driving record. (or is that DIVING record)
Or Thom Jefferson D. LA and his $90K in cold cash
Or Pat Lehy's li'l "house of pleasures"
Or Gary Stubb's D.Mass Actually having sex with his 17 yr old pages.
Then there's the Monica humidor.....

Ahhhhh the list goes on.

[W3SLK]

Doug said:

Another sweet sounding rig of Kevin's was his Johnson Valiant. See Alternative Modulation, Issue No. 6, November 1983, pages 6 (schematic) and 7. The article is "Viking Valiant Modifications" by Kevin Alfred Strom, WB4AIO

Not to change the subject but where can you find this 'Alternative Modulation' issue? I did a google and all I came up with was the list of articles by Don, K4KYV and this thread.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Something about this case smells very strongly of Nixonian "Dirty Tricks", as Strom's broadcasts, heard internationally, were very embarrassing to the government. Strom also fiercely attacked the State of Israel, which, as a tiny country the size of New Jersey with few natural resources, has a disproportionately strong influence over this country's foreign policy. Could some of the friends of Mossad, the Shin Bet, or even the ADL in Washington have helped to set this up?

Actually.....It was the one-armed man! 

[Bacon, WA3WDR]

The Hitler-on-prozac tone of the shortwave broadcasts may have irritated some people, but in the end it didn't amount to much more than a weekend diversion.  The National Alliance and American Renaissance and such just aren't going to catch on.

It may be an ambitious prosecutor trying to make a name for himself by 'protecting children'.   (Watch, the prosecutor may turn out to be the biggest child molester in two states.)  It is a typical maneuver to make a well-publicized child-porn find, followed by that quiet little one square inch retraction on page 39 behind the lingeree ads a few months later.  And who is going to stand up for Racism, Incorporated?  The prosecutor made a calculated maneuver that he figures will win him votes, and he figures Strom can't fight back, so he has nothing to worry about.

[wa1knx]

wow,
   I remember kevin, pretty good sig up here. used to talk with him to, years ago. I don't
remember the politics though. as to kiddie porn, that stuff can be put on your computer, just like
spy stuff.  I remember back younger internet, where the guys had thousands of young nun
pix on a system i managed, everyone (guys) would crowd in his office (me to) and google at the
lil girls. but then as the gov started getting on, fbi etc i told him to stop getting stuff and
i wiped it all out.  i go agree it sounds like the porn charge is devisive use to get kevin.

[k4kyv]

And we are once again back to the Scarlet Letter mentality.  Get busted for a kiddie porn file on your computer, and you are considered a "sex offender."  That means you are branded for the rest of your life.  You have to log on to the sex offender registry, there are restrictions where you can live  or work, and in some states you are not allowed to have any contact with children not your biological offspring.

While that might be appropriate for violent offenders who are psychologically examined and deemed a threat to society, but most of the sex offender laws make no distinction whatever between violent offenders and people who are a threat to no-one, but just happened to get caught up in the system.

As an example, I know of a case where a guy pissed off his girlfriend's mother, and she managed to get him convicted on a statutory rape charge.  He has to register as a sex offender even though he ended up marrying the girl and they now have kids of their own, and are a normal family, except that he is still subject to those sex offender restrictions, exactly the same as if he had attempted to murder a child. (I don't know what the mother's standing with the family is these days.)

I even heard of a computer virus that somebody wrote that allegedly would search out "illegal" pornography on an infected computer, and report the owner to the police.

If all this malware can so easily be remotely downloaded and installed onto a computer unbeknownst to the owner, how easy would it be to do the same with kiddie-porn files?

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

All of you guys complaining about this are now on the government's list. Better watch out! The black helicopters are coming for you even as your mind is being controlled by the cell phone towers.

[KB2WIG]

You have to wrap your head in TWO layers of lumin foil caus the GOVERNMENT can conrtoll U of ya use only one. Still  watch out for the microCHIPS in your

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Isn't that something. The government has spent billions to transmit those mind control waves and 29 cents of aluminum foil can defeat it. Amazing!