Anonymous Denies Release of KKK Member Names

Has the hacker group Anonymous made good on a threat to out members of the Ku Klux Klan? They say no.

A feud has brewed between the Klan and Anonymous since the Ferguson violence in which Klan members apparently made threats against some protestors, some of whom were alleged Anonymous members.

Anonymous has threatened to release a list of 1000 names of individuals, many involved in politics, alleged to be KKK members.

A list appeared over the weekend on a site called Pastebin.com that was purported to be from Anonymous. Anonymous has now denied that they were the ones involved in the dump. They claim their actual release of names, dubbed Operation KKK, will take place on November 5. The group has not directly hinted as to whether their list will or will not include the names posted on the Pastebin.com site.

The Pastebin.com list names U.S. Senators Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), John Cornyn (R-Tx.), Dan Coats (R-In.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) as members of the KKK. Anonymous also named several mayors of major US cities, including Madeline Rogero of Knoxville, Tennessee; Jim Gray of Lexington, Kentucky; Paul D. Fraim of Norfolk, Virginia; Kent Guinn of Ocala, Florida; and Tom Henry of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

By late Monday, most of the individuals named, including Cornyn, had either directly or through their spokespeople denied any involvement with the KKK.

Senator Coats, via his Twitter account, called it "baseless Internet garbage of the worst kind."