The FBI Spent Two Years Investigating An Online Cult That Didn't Exist (muckrock.com)

A two-year FBI investigation apparently centered on the satirical web site "GodHatesGoths". Long-time Slashdot reader v3rgEz writes: In 2005, the FBI launched an investigation into the "Church of the Hammer," a fundamentalist Christian sect which called for the wholesale slaughter of practitioners of the goth subculture. Two years later, the investigation was closed, on grounds that the Church didn't exist. The FBI's threat assessment detailed "an extremely right-wing Christian group that adheres to a Middle Ages Catholic text called the 'Malleus Malificarum.'" But MuckRock.com reports that "The Bureau's main source on the case was a goth who had engaged with members of the Church via their Yahoo Group...trying to dispel their misconceptions about the relationship between the subculture and Satanism." After two years of scouring through crime databases and making phone calls to the Salem police department, FBI investigators actually visited the GodHatesGoths web site -- which turned out to be a parody.

Comments

Re:The FBI

[Anonymous Coward]

The Obama administration is one of the LEAST corrupt and MOST competent in American history.

Re:Next

[LoztInSpace]

They can't investigate a legitimate religion

Define legitimate religion...

A religion is a large, popular cult. A cult is a small, unpopular religion.

I'm not sure I mind this

[rsilvergun]

a "2 year investigation" could easily just be somebody at the FBI keeping tabs on them to make sure it really is just harmless trolling. That's sorta what an investigation is. And befor you ask yes, I do want my law enforcement to keeping tabs of folks who go around advocating violence. It's not too hard to do it without violating anybody's rights and if we'd done a bit more of that perhaps that whole Sept 11 fracas coulda been avoided.