{"id":309,"date":"2025-05-05T11:39:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T03:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dorje-shugden.com\/?p=309"},"modified":"2025-06-25T20:36:55","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T12:36:55","slug":"robert-thurman-fanning-hatred-against-shugden-buddhists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dorje-shugden.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/05\/robert-thurman-fanning-hatred-against-shugden-buddhists\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Thurman: Fanning hatred against Shugden Buddhists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
The opinion piece below was sent to dorjeshugden.com for publication. We accept submissions from the public, please send in your articles to\u00a0<\/em>ds@dorjeshugden.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
The Dorje Shugden ban is a travesty of justice and also an indictment against everyone who has perpetuated this grave injustice against innocent monks and four million Dorje Shugden believers around the world. One of the enforcers of the Dalai Lama\u2019s illegal ban is none other than Robert Thurman, regarded as \u2018the Dalai Lama\u2019s man in America\u2019. Thurman had previously labelled Shugden Buddhists as the \u201cTaliban of Buddhism\u201d with the intention of creating public enmity towards Dorje Shugden people.

Thurman\u2019s disregard for the law is not limited to defaming innocent Shugden practitioners but also extends to seeking to engage hackers to attack the social media accounts of some who are critical of the ban. This itself is a felony and shows Thurman\u2019s utter scorn of the people\u2019s right to express their opinions.

Fortunately, there are people like Indy Hack, an independent UK based journalist who has devoted himself to reporting on the deceit of the Dalai Lama and his coterie. In this story, Indy Hack exposes Thurman\u2019s criminal enterprise in denying Shugden worshippers their right to their religion. For more from Indy Hack, visit arebuddhistsracist.com.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
What is #LamaGate?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
#LamaGate refers to the hacking scandal that surrounds the Dalai Lama\u2019s trip to the US in fall 2014. It centres around the Dalai Lama\u2019s most trusted US friend and confidant, Professor Robert Thurman, who allegedly tried to solicit members of Anonymous to engage in computer hacking on his behalf.

On 29th October 2014 Professor Thurman published a tweet (shown below) asking how to get the help of the Anonymous group to \u201cget info out\u201d about certain individuals he wished to target.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
In and of itself this may seem like nothing more than a foolish and careless over-reaction on the part of Professor Thurman to the widespread media coverage the Shugden protests had been receiving. Yet when it was pointed out to him that such an action could be considered illegal in the US this didn\u2019t dissuade him from continuing down his chosen path of action.

In the following hours Thurman published a series of tweets identifying specific Twitter accounts to target. He identified each of them as, \u201ckey Anti HHDL Shugden Twitter Spam Accounts\u201d, and followed the account name with the tags #anon and #OpShugden.

#OpShugden was devised by another Twitter user (@OpTsampa) who appeared to be working alongside Thurman in his campaign. @OpTsampa also tweeted an offer of 50 BitCoins ($16,967) to anyone who could link the most accounts together that had been identified by Thurman.

Exactly what information Thurman wanted Anonymous members to \u201cget out\u201d of each of the identified accounts is uncertain, although it appears that he was trying to reveal the identities of the owners of the accounts. The only way to get this information would be to gain access to the users accounts without their consent, as such it appears that Thurman was soliciting computer hacking against each of the individually named Twitter accounts.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Why would Professor Thurman solicit hacking?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Throughout his fall tour of the US the Dalai Lama has faced an unprecedented level of media attention about allegations of human rights violations and religious discrimination, as anyone familiar with this site will know. Professor Thurman plays a key role in the dissemination of information against the protesters because of his academic standing and his close friendship with the Dalai Lama. They are so close in fact that the NY Times magazine referred to Thurman as, \u201cthe Dalai Lama\u2019s man in America\u201d.

Prior to 29th October, all of the Dalai Lama\u2019s attempts to avoid addressing the issues raised by the protesters had been unsuccessful with the US media. Everywhere the Dalai Lama spoke, protesters gathered and news agencies covered not just the protests, but the issues behind them (see here).

As the time drew closer for the Dalai Lama to appear in New York City, where Thurman is based, the pressure had been increasing on Thurman to do something to counteract the effect of the protests. Under such increasing pressure it appears that he may have taken the highly unusual step of soliciting computer hacking in an attempt to reduce some of the exposure they were getting on Twitter.

It seems that Thurman believed several Twitter accounts were run by one or two individuals, and that by hacking those accounts he would be able to silence them.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
What happens now?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Presently the #Lamagate scandal is continuing to increase on a daily basis. On 30th October this website published a guide on how to indict Robert Thurman and on 31st October it ran an Indict-Storm on Twitter, calling for any users who felt violated by Professor Thurman\u2019s actions to report them to the authorities.

During 30th\/31st October multiple reports were filed with the NYPD and the FBI asking for them to investigate the allegations against Thurman. Specifically they stated:

\u201cIt is alleged that Professor Robert A. Thurman (@BobThurman) did knowingly solicit others to commit computer hacking and provided information to direct said computer hacking against several users of Twitter in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1030 (a) (2).

On October 29th 2014 it is alleged Professor Robert A. Thurman directed computer hackers associated with the \u2018Anonymous\u2019 group to hack Twitter\u2019s computer servers and extract information about the following users: @tompotter1945, @TalkingTibet, @wisdomdakini2, and @Vajralight.

I am making a formal complaint about alleged criminal activity by Professor Robert A. Thurman and asking you to investigate whether any criminal activity has taken place.\u201d

Despite this Professor Thurman continues to maintain a public list of Twitter users which he refers to as, \u201cKnown Spammers\u201d. Members of this list continue to report suspicious activity on their Twitter accounts.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Who is involved?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Given Professor Thurman\u2019s close relationship with the Dalai Lama it is highly likely that he may have known about this course of action. As the management of the Dalai Lama\u2019s visit is also conducted with the US Office of Tibet, now based in Washington DC, it is also highly likely that they were aware of Thurman\u2019s decision to try and recruit Anonymous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the high profile of this scandal both the US Office of Tibet and the Dalai Lama have so far remained silent, refusing to comment or even acknowledge its existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Likewise Columbia University, Professor Thurman\u2019s employers, have refused to acknowledge or comment on the scandal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fortunately the Anonymous group are less afraid of speaking publicly on this issue. On 2nd November they issued the following public statement<\/a> about the scandal addressed principally to Professor Thurman:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c.@BobThurman<\/strong><\/a> we have no position on this currently but can tell you one of Anon\u2019s only central principles is NYPA: Not Your Personal Army\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More to follow\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source: http:\/\/www.arebuddhistsracist.com\/lamagate.html<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Robert Thurman & Anonymous<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
On October 28th 2014 respected scholar and author Robert Thurman decided to mention me on Twitter and make false and unsupported claims about me. He also tried to add me to a list which he promotes to followers of the Dalai Lama so they can send threatening and offensive tweets to its members. I responded by publishing an open letter to him on 29th October, but what I wasn\u2019t expecting was his vehement and extreme reaction.

Throughout the day there was no response from Professor Thurman, yet things suddenly changed as the evening arrived and he issued a tweet publicly asking for the help of Anonymous.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
I was one of the people that Professor Thurman was wanting to target and unearth information about, including my identity. Whilst I have the greatest respect for the ethos of Anonymous, I have never been their focus, nor have I ever considered my work to warrant their focus.

I raised the issue of the legality of publishing such a tweet and the hasty reply from an account that Professor Thurman was working with in his new Anonymous campaign replied that it was just about re-tweets and whois searches.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Of course re-tweets and whois searches are standard practices and certainly not in any way illegal. However the Anonymous group is not renowned for its use of whois, or its social media re-tweeting campaigns.

As @OpTsampa says, \u201cAnyone can backtrace an IP\u201d. So why would they be asking for the help of Anonymous if they only wanted to back-trace IPs and conduct whois searches?

Anonymous is well known as a collective of hackers who engage in electronic civil disobedience (ECD). You don\u2019t ask for the help of Anonymous for re-tweets, you ask for their help for one thing \u2013 hacking, which is a federal crime in the US.

Asking for the help of Anonymous is fairly easy on Twitter, you just publish a tweet and insert the call sign \u201c#anon\u201d. Both @OpTsampa and Professor Thurman then engaged in a campaign of publishing tweets identifying Twitter users and encouraging Anonymous members to target them.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
If you thought this was maybe a bit of harmless fun from Professor Thurman and his accomplice the next tweet may surprise you.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
For those unfamiliar with the Bit Coin currency it\u2019s a virtual currency which enables transactions to be carried out completely anonymously. It is often used when paying for services which are illegal, such as hacking. The value of 50 Bit Coins at the time this tweet was published was $16,967.00.

Offering hackers just under $17,000 to target people on Twitter is not harmless fun. It is a very serious financial offer, and a US federal crime. As this statement from the US Attorneys Office in April 2014 makes clear in the case of Fidel Salinas.

Whilst Salinas was accused of engaging in hacking, it is a criminal offence to solicit federal criminal acts and you can be an accessory to the crimes if you are found to have encouraged or instigated them.

On October 29th 2014 it would appear quite clearly that @OpTsampa and Professor Robert Thurman were not only accomplices in cyber crime, but that they actively engaged in soliciting cyber crime, as defined by the FBI.

The question is why would a Professor at Columbia University in New York, the co-founder and president of Tibet House US, and father of Hollywood star Uma Thurman, be so desperate as to break federal law?

Maybe it was never intended as an attempt to solicit hacking? If so then why did Anonymous themselves issue a formal response through their official Twitter account?<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
If there is nothing to hide, if the allegations of religious discrimination and human rights violations by the Dalai Lama are unfounded, then why would an eminent professor ask for Anonymous to help?

Why not simply debate the issue and show evidence that refutes or counters the claims?

At the present moment I am taking legal advice regarding filing a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Centre (IC3) of the FBI so that they can further investigate Professor Thurman\u2019s role in soliciting cyber crime.

I will keep you posted with updates as this case develops.

 

*****UPDATE*****

14:30 \u2013 30th October 2014

After having taken legal advice I am in the process of drafting a formal complaint for investigation by the FBI. I am awaiting the FBI\u2019s decision whether it is best to submit the formal complaint through their New York field office, or through IC3.

As the alleged offenses occurred over the Twitter platform it is likely to be an inter-state matter placing it within federal jurisdiction.

I am advised that Professor Thurman is currently aware that he is one of the subjects named in my formal complaint.

More to follow.

 

***Further Update***

As this is now an ongoing criminal investigation I am unable to add further comments.

Source: http:\/\/www.arebuddhistsracist.com\/robert_thurman_anonymous.html<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Dorje Shugden ban is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ctas-conspiracy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorje-shugden.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorje-shugden.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorje-shugden.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorje-shugden.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorje-shugden.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorje-shugden.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":311,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorje-shugden.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions\/311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorje-shugden.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorje-shugden.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorje-shugden.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorje-shugden.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}