The case of the mysterious .gov site

But AONN claims in documents that its people have met with high-ranking Pentagon officials. The fact that many government agencies don't know about AONN and DSIN is proof of his group's success at operating covertly, said the webmaster, who declined to be further identified. The "Defense Industrial Complex" has many arms, the webmaster said, and few people know what's happening in every corner of the Defense Department.

"We have to be able to maneuver despite the bureaucracy," the webmaster said through e-mail. "The world is in grave danger, therefore certain 'rules' and failing 'systems' must be destroyed. We might have to break some specialists out of custody -- we might have to change some peoples' identities. We might have to torture some people -- enemy combatants. DSIN has done deals across the board and formed alliances all throughout government. The world is not the same as it was even six months ago. There are no rules in war."

Asked why the webmaster couldn't reveal his or her identify, the reply was: "There are a lot of us here. This is a shared portal. Your request can neither be confirmed nor denied. That is all that we can say. This is our policy."

Asked for proof of the group's authenticity, the webmaster answered, "We want for GSA and DOD to tell you this." He also cited as proof the DSIN's 122-page PDF (Portable Document Format), posted at http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/pdfs/US%20Intelligence.pdf.

For an organization claiming to be covert, AONN seems to promote itself heavily. In addition to the AONN.gov site, where Taylor promises to share his government contractors with financiers, information about AONN is posted on a handful of Web message boards, including the Lone Conspirators site.

Taylor, who's based in the Seattle area, has also apparently dabbled in making hip-hop records. "The November 12 Projekt," first released by AONN Records in late 2000, helped finance the company's covert operations, the webmaster claimed. Several articles quoting Taylor about AONN Records also appear on the Web.

On a Totse.com forum, someone claiming to be Taylor promotes AONN and then writes, "Finally, the fact that I recently surpassed Kevin Mitnick, Captain Zap and all the Hall of Famers and became the #1 Hacker in the history of the United States of America ... and the world, often causes me to crack a little smile and laugh as well. It's quite funny."

That post disappeared from Totse.com shortly after a reporter notified AONN of it, but it is still cached at http://216.239.53.100/search?q=cache:t8qszzrDy-AC:www.totse.com/bbs/Foru....

Asked about that posting, the webmaster responded, "I can't say I know anything about that."

And why would a covert operation be promoting itself on the Web? "We haven't really talked about DSIN -- at all -- really," the webmaster said. "We've only reiterated what has been publicly available for a considerable amount of time. We haven't come forward with anything."