“IndyHack” runs the site arebuddhistsracist.com. The site obviously aims to denounce and slander anybody correcting the false allegations, spins and exaggerations of the NKT/ISC Anti Dalai Lama campaign – including scientists, academic institutions, and former NKT followers. “IndyHack” claims to be a journalist and even a member of the UK’s National Union of Journalists (NUJ). The last days he tried to blackmail and divide former NKT followers by sending them emails of the following kind of sort. (Posted with kind permission of the recipients.)
On 4th June 2015 he wrote to Lynne:
Dear Lynne,
I have been given your details by sources within your anti-ISC group. Some of your members have wisely decided to help with my research rather than risk being exposed along with Carol and Tenzin. I am hoping that you will also see the benefit in co-operating with me.
You will by now understand that Carol and Tenzin both work on behalf of the CTA. Tenzin is a direct employee of theirs whilst Carol assists with his work in return for certain favours, such as her recent meeting with the Dalai Lama.
You should also by now be realising that the story is ‘out’ in the mainstream media regarding the Dalai Lama’s ban. I am presently in Australia working with key outlets and if you take a look at the coverage you will see that it is now much more significant than ever before.
Whether the Dalai Lama changes his view or not the story will grow and I hope that you will help with my own angles on it, otherwise I’m afraid that you will be one of the key members of the movement who will be exposed along with Carol and Tenzin.
I have been passed a large quantity of online communications between members of your anti-ISC group. Several of these involve you directly and I would like your co-operation to verify these messages and their content.
I would also like for you to help with verifying certain key pieces of information that relate to both Carol and Tenzin, although these do not directly mention you.
The details I would like your help with relate to certain events in the last 10 months. They also refer to future plans which are presently under development.
Whilst I already have a lot of information I find it better to triangulate its accuracy using multiple sources rather than relying on one or two people alone. For this reason your help would be most beneficial.
In return I would redact your name from the information and ensure that you are left out of any articles. In short, I would cease to treat you as a person of interest in my work – future and past. For instance I would not reveal that you are the operator of the @kelseylotus Twitter account.
I am sure that your direct involvement with some of the Twitter campaigns targeting ISC members would not go down too well if they were exposed. Coquitlam is a fairly small city and their local media may find your involvement in some of the online hate campaigns somewhat unusual and worthy of coverage.
If you help me you would be able to continue your campaign and I would not mention your involvement in any articles/tweets. I would effectively turn a blind eye to your involvement with any future activities in return for your assistance.
Whatever your decision I would like to assure you that at no time will I reveal details of your residential address, phone number, or email accounts. These have been provided to me by sources on the basis of my agreeing not to release them into the public domain. Whether you decide to help or not these will remain confidential.
Let me know what you think.
Regards,
On Tuesday, June 16, 2015 2:28 PM, Indy Hack <press@arebuddhistsracist.com> wrote:
Dear David,
Whilst you may not wish to face the fact that Tenzin lied to you about York Johns it may be easier for you to understand another of his deceptions.My recent article shows that whilst Tenzin claimed to be on retreat in India this year, he was in fact re-designing his websites in conjunction with the Central Tibetan Authority.
He posted several messages to a web design forum in January and February 2015 discussing how he was adapting his websites to be mobile compliant. He also discussed his new re-design for the info-buddhism website and asked for advice on certain aspects of web design coding for it.
Prior to travelling to India he knew he would be re-designing his websites whilst over there so he took his laptop with him. The products he was discussing and asking for advice on were made for Adobe Dreamweaver by a company called Project Seven Developments. This indicates that he had his computer with him that had his copy of Adobe Dreamweaver installed on it along with the Project Seven plugins.
He also discussed how he was testing his websites on iPads and an iPhone during the time he told you and other survivors that he was on retreat.
You can read the full article here:
http://www.arebuddhistsracist.com/truth_sometimes_hurts.htmlThis is the last time I will contact you. I don’t wish to cause you upset, but I do want you to know that Tenzin has lied to you and other ex-NKT members.
I don’t know how fully you are able to accept that Tenzin has deceived you, whether you are ready to accept the truth about York Johns and Tenzin’s manipulation of the survivors group. However it should be fairly easy for you to accept and understand that he lied to many ex-NKT members this year when he said he was on retreat and offline.
He was in fact at the CTA’s main offices working with them to redesign his websites. This is why he took his laptop with him and it is why he was discussing web designs for several of his sites throughout January and February.
Best wishes for the future,
Indy—
Independently examining the implications of the Tibetan government ban of areligious practice on the Tibetan community in exile and the wider Buddhist community of Dorje Shugden practitioners.
Here is the NUJ Code of Conduct.
Brief additional notes
There is even a worse case of blackmailing by IndyHack but I didn’t get permission to make it public.
Robert Barnett, a Tibet scholar from the Columbia University, rejected claims made and spread by IndyHack. Among others, IndyHack also harassed and defamed Jamyang Khedrup. After making some experiences with IndyHack’s manipulative style, INFORM decided to refuse to answer any of his questions.
Update June 2015
- IndyHack’s email to Linda Ciardiello
- The strange case of the anti-Dalai Lama protesters trolling Glastonbury – New Statesman
- Some corrections with respect to claims made about me in the internet by Tenzin Peljor
Update February 2018
Update June 2018
- Dalai Lama Begins European Tour amidst Smears by China Backed Trolls – Bonny Fider (International Policy Digest)
Tibetan Buddhism – Struggling With Diffi·Cult Issues 