Looking for new writers and graphic designers!

Come to our meetings every Sunday night at 8:30pm 5th floor of Lerner (near the student government office).
All are welcome.

Buy a T-Shirt

Do you love animals? Or sodomy? Then buy a Fed T-shirt!

About Us

We have a long and storied history. Learn more about us...

It’s That Time Again
Issue 18.4: Evil
Posted: Octoberish 2002

Angry Cell Phone Guy's Secret Identity Revealed

The muddy waterfall of terrorism cascaded upon us. Meeting in secret. Plotting. Scheming. Ringing bells. The polluted stream of pro-terrorist power overflows about us.

So writes Alfred Zaragoza on the Students United for Victory (SU4V) website (www.columbia.edu/cu/su4v). In his time at Columbia, Zaragoza, a General Studies junior, has become a campus celebrity of sorts. Students dubbed him the "Angry Cell Phone Guy" because he frequently walked around campus in dark suit jackets and dress pants yelling into a cell phone. He spoke last year at the SU4V ROTC forum.

Why am I writing about the Angry Cell Phone Guy? Because I think he's been weirding me out for the past two weeks:

About two weeks ago, I received a Yahoo! e-mail from one "Mostafa Jerzibi," who claimed to be a student of the anti-war persuasion at Hunter College. He referenced critical remarks I had made over the Columbia University Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) listserve about a Spectator column written by SU4V member Eric Chen. "Jerzibi" claimed to be a member of this list.

"I'm writing to you because I read you had mentioned stuff about SU4V and Eric Chen," he said. "I just want to say that what deeply shocks me is that Eric Chen and his SU4V ROTC efforts are going unopposed at CU. Is there a group taking the initiative to oppose this? I'm asking you all this because I don't know who else to ask..."

I maintain the thirteen-member list, and "Mostafa Jerzibi" isn't on it. After I prodded him, "Jerzibi" qualified this, saying he had "many friends in SSDP at CU who constantly forward[ed]" him "stuff" from the list. I told him I'd prefer speaking to him over the phone, as I tend to be uncomfortable speaking to those of whose identities I am unsure, and, in the past, the Columbia left's e-mail lists have sometimes been read (spied upon) by those of the Right who subscribe to them.

"Mostafa" okayed the phone call and left his cell number. He then asked about specific anti-war strategies. I could offer none, as I'm not a member of any anti-war group. He ended the e-mail as follows: "By the way, do you know anyone by the name of Alfred? He's around Columbia a lot and usually wears a dark suit jacket or a brown suit jacket and dress pants, has short dark hair, etc. I think he's a junior but I'm not sure. I'm just asking about him in particular because [from what I hear] he's got an unusually good talent with politics...I don't know him or his politics but i heard he was pretty smart and known around Columbia."

"Jerzibi" and I had our phone chat. He provided names of the people who he claimed had been forwarding him my remarks. None of the names were on the list. "Jerzibi's" voice sounded similar to Alfred Zaragoza, who I've heard speak at length because he's in my Art Hum class. He wanted to get together for lunch in a week. I agreed.

Then I called Hunter College. After prodding security a bit, I managed to have someone look through Hunter's rolls for a "Mostafa Jerzibi." There is none at Hunter College.

A technology-savvy friend of mine examined the e-mails I had received from "Mostafa." He looked at something known as the "e-mail header," available in Pine by hitting "h," and pointed out an IP address: 160.36.201.XXX. (The last three digits are blocked.) This is a Columbia IP address.

I took the IP to ACIS, and they confirmed it originated from Columbia. After I told them I did not feel "Mostafa Jerzibi" was who he said he was, they ran a search and traced the IP back to . . . Alfred Zaragoza. They said they had traced it back not just to him but to particular Ethernet computer hardware of his that ACIS helped him install earlier this year.

As if this weren't definitive enough, the number given me by "Mostafa Jerzibi" is the same one Zaragoza gave a Fed writer last year.

In light of all this, I am prepared to conclude that "Mostafa Jerzibi" is Alfred Zaragoza.

This isn't the first time he's been accused of stalker-like behavior. Others, like Nate Treadwell, who maintains the Columbia Student Solidarity Network e-mail list, have received like-minded "Jerzibi" @yahoo.com mail from the same IP address.

Here's a student on the CSSN list last year: "Alfred has sent me hate mail in the past. below I have posted one of his messages. I hope he gets the help he needs; I don't consider him to be sane." You can read the full message in the listserve archives at www.columbia.edu/cu/cssn/cssn-list. Just type "zaragoza" into the search engine.

And there is, of course, his past affiliation with The Nationalist Movement, a white-supremacist group, an affiliation that, to his credit, he has severed. This past amused many last year when Alfred wrote a Spectator opinion piece calling CSSN a "hate movement."

In fairness, here are both "Mostafa Jerzibi" and Alfred Zaragoza's responses to this at their separate e-mail addresses.

Mostafa: "I have not found the relevant SSDP emails to send to you which is why I could not forward you then. so this is why all the e-mails have columbia headers on the and also, i have been staying in morningside heights with a friend. anyway yes i would still be interested in meeting for lunch. oh, one more thing and that is i don't really feel comfortable with your suspicion of me because it makes me feel like im some sort of criminals."

I e-mailed Zaragoza at his Columbia account with the evidence mentioned here, asking for an explanation. He responded, saying he feels a "sense of revulsion" over my query. On the cell phone number, he writes that it is not his. Regarding the IP address, he writes: "its interesting that your friends in ACIS [I have no friends in ACIS] are so bent on damaging me that they would give you my IP address." He claims he's moved off campus recently, and says: "I am still very puzzled as to how the IP address matched mine. I remember that address because I had written it down when I moved to campus. I do not know who moved into my room after that but please keep in mind that in the past several weeks, people have been sending out e-mails using my name from yahoo.com as well as hotmail. I am now aware of one source of these games and for that I thank you for the disclosure." Alfred thus seems to admit the IP address was associated with him at one point -- but that now whoever has moved into his allegedly vacated room is commandeering it to send e-mails under "mostafa jerzibi." For Nate Treadwell's debunking of this explanation, see my website.

Coincidentally, Mostafa stopped talking to me just as I started asking Alfred questions. Damn. I was looking forward to lunch.