Jake Brahm

Jake Joseph Brahm (born October 1985) is an American blogger. He attained notoriety when a post he made on the 4chan imageboard was interpreted as a terrorist threat by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Although doubting the credibility of the threat, DHS warned the National Football League (NFL) of it, in a memo later leaked to the press.
Brahm maintained several weblogs, most of them with a satirical bent. Amongst them is Jake Brahm Wangs Da Poo (a mock-serious record of his masturbation habits) and a mostly-fictional LiveJournal.
At the time of the bomb threat incident, Brahm was living with his parents and working part-time at a grocery store.
Early life
Brahm was born in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He attended Wauwatosa East High School, but dropped out a few weeks before graduation.
Posts on 4chan and Internet activity
On September 18th, 2006, Jacob Brahm made several posts on the "/b/ - Random" section of the Internet Messageboard 4chan where he claimed that a bomb would detonate on October 22nd, 2006. It is thought by users of this board that the threats originated here as one of the board's ritualistic forms of humour, involving copying and pasting blocks of text out of context repeatedly or "copy pasted".
Shortly after the original text appeared on 4chan, it was duplicated to other websites, such as The Friend Society, where it was assumed to be caught by the authorities on search engines.
Leaks to general media, authorities and arrest
The threats came to the attention of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after they were reposted on the 4chan imageboard and other sites.
On October 18, 2006 the DHS warned NFL officials in Miami, New York City, Atlanta, Seattle, Houston, Oakland, and Cleveland about a possible threat, which involved the simultaneous use of dirty bombs at stadiums in those cities. The threat claimed that the attack would be carried out on the day of October 22, the final day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Both the FBI and the DHS expressed doubt concerning the credibility of the threats. It should be noted that there is no NFL stadium in New York City; both New York-based professional football teams play their home games in New Jersey. In addition, the games were played at different times, and thus simultaneous attacks on them would have been impossible.
On October 20, 2006, after the Wauwatosa police department had received a tip about Brahm, he turned himself in to authorities.
On June 5th 2008 Brahm was sentenced to six months in jail. As part of his sentence he will also have to serve six months on house arrest and pay $26,750 in restitution; $18,000 to the Cleveland Browns and $8,750 to the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which owns Giants Stadium.
Legal status
*October 20, 2006 - Brahm was charged.
*October 20, 2006 - Released without bail but prohibited from using the Internet or traveling outside Wisconsin and New Jersey
*February 28, 2008 - Brahm pleads guilty to charges in federal court in Newark, NJ. Sentencing to take place June 5 2008.<ref name="sterling2008"/>
*June 5, 2008 - Brahm sentenced to six months in prison, six months house arrest, and ordered to pay $26,750 in restitution.<ref name="sterling2008"/>

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu