On Monday, June 12, 2006 we received a document – sent to us by a third party – which was written by a female who, at that time, was under the employ of Mike Ruppert (pictured). In this statement, the woman alleges that she was sexually harassed in the workplace by Mr. Michael Ruppert. And, according to the woman in question, shortly after confronting her employer with these accusations, she was terminated from her position at From the Wilderness - Mike Ruppert's company.

After inspecting this document, we contacted the party in question via telephone, and she verified that she was indeed the author of this document, and that – according to her – every word in it was true. And although this woman’s name is known to us, we have decided to withhold it at the moment due to her fears for her own personal safety, and also because of her plans for a potential future lawsuit.

Considering the content of this document and what it alleges, we decided to publish it on WING TV. After arriving at this decision, we notified not only the party who authored this statement, but we also spoke with her attorney to apprise him of our intentions.

In the sake of fairness, we also contacted Mike Ruppert, founder of From the Wilderness, and let him know of our intent to publish this document. We also told him that in the sake of fairness, if he wanted to respond, we would include his side of the story as well. He agreed, and his statement thus follows that of his accuser.

What follows is Ms. A’s [pseudonym] initial statement, and then Mike Ruppert’s response. Neither have been altered in any way except to protect the author's identity. We at WING TV are presenting this information in the most objective manner possible, and are not taking a public stance on presumption of innocence or guilt of either party. That is not our role. Rather, we are bringing forth news that we feel is of great interest and importance to 9-11 researchers, the alternative media, those in the energy and/or sustained living fields, and the patriot community at large. =========================================

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

I, [Ms. A], am an employee of Mr. Michael Ruppert at From The Wilderness Publications on 655 Washington Street in Ashland, Oregon. I will explain now what specific incidences during my brief, three-month employment have led me to feel sexually harassed by my employer:

· I first noticed what I felt was chauvinism in the first few weeks of employment when Mr. Ruppert would “look me up and down” when I came to work, especially when I came to work for the first time wearing a knee-length skirt with black stockings. He gave me a quizzical look because of my outfit and I had to remark to him, “It’s a skirt,” as if he’d never seen one before.

· In another clothing instance, I was wearing a blouse that has a bow tied in the back for decoration (not a functional bow that holds a blouse in place). I walked into Mr. Ruppert’s office and he asked me blatantly, “What happens if I pull on that bow?” I was flabbergasted, but answered, “nothing, it’s just decorative.” I feel a question like that is absolutely inappropriate in the workplace.

· I am a rock climber. One weekend I sustained a horrible sunburn. I asked that my boss, who saw the burn and was concerned, put aloe vera gel on my burnt shoulders. I thought getting help with aloe on burnt shoulders was appropriate, but perhaps I was wrong to think so because a few days after, Mr. Ruppert told me how much pleasure he had experienced when rubbing aloe on my shoulders, and how he went home fantasizing about touching me. The following week, after I had again been rock climbing again, I was sitting in my office using Tiger Balm on my sore arm muscles to relax them. I believe because Mr. Ruppert had been asked previously by me to apply the aloe vera gel to my shoulders, he felt he was warranted in reaching out to rub my forearms in a sexual manner to “rub in” the balm, which I simultaneously asked him not to by saying, “no, don’t touch me, I already rubbed the balm in.” Mr. Ruppert's inhibition in reaching out to touch me made me fear that whenever I come back from a weekend of rock climbing, he thinks he has the right to touch me with the excuse that he’s helping me apply an ointment. I asked for his help once, saw the immature and degrading result, and never asked again (which is why the second incident really bothered me because I hadn’t asked for his assistance the second time because of knowing his reaction the first).

· Mr. Ruppert and I are the in-house writers at the publication. Because I arrive to work in the late morning around ten o’clock, I often stay late, at least until six, but many times until even midnight putting in overtime hours. By this time in the evening, all other employees have returned home, and Mr. Ruppert and I are alone at work in what he calls our “creative writing time/space.” One day he said he was so overwhelmed with the need to write a story that was just on the tip of his tongue that in order to release some energy he wished he could just run around the office naked. I laughed at him, thinking he was joking, and able to relate to wanting to free oneself in some way before writing (most writers take a walk, meditate, or drink coffee for this “writer’s block”). To my surprise, as I was sitting at my desk working, Mr. Ruppert came running around the office hall corner in nothing but his black underwear, stopped directly in front of my open office door, made some exclamation of writer’s frustration, paused in a wide-legged stance, then ran back down the hall and put his clothes back on in his office. I waited for him to return to a clothed state before continuing to talk about the story production schedule that’s on a poster board in the hall. Mr. Ruppert commented, “didn’t you see my scar from my appendix removal?” I said no (because I didn’t want to look at him almost naked in the first place), and he proceeded to lift his shirt and show me a large scar that runs from his bellybutton to a few inches down below his waistline. This was much more of a physical show-of-body than I ever would have thought I would be subjected to by my boss. Perhaps if we’d all been having a summer pool party, running around in his briefs may have been considered more acceptable, but I find his action in the office, especially when I’m the only employee there, and I’m female, to be absolutely inappropriate, unappealing physically and professionally, and it scared me.

· There were many smaller instances that occurred, particularly in the time when Mr. Ruppert and I were alone after hours. Because we are writers, the subject of sex and sexuality comes up often, especially in the works of our veteran’s affairs writer, Stan Goff, who just finished his most recent book, Sex and War. One day after hours, while on the topic of sexuality, gender, and transgender (issues discussed by Goff in his recent FTW stories on the military), Mr. Ruppert explained that he views pornography. I admitted that I have also seen some pornography, but noted that it wasn’t much and that I only appreciated “classy” films, not XXX films that degrade women. Mr. Ruppert took this conversation as a queue to make a disk of some clips of pornography, which he intended to give me. Upon thinking harder about this action, Mr. Ruppert declined to give me the disk he had intended, and told me he valued our “friendship” too much to be giving a disk of such materials to me. I thanked him for his disgression and told him I’d rather maintain a friendly relationship also. While the general topics of sex and sexuality are topics which I thought that as writers we could maturely discuss (and in many cases, discussing sex or sexuality is part of discussing a current story), I soon found that I was wrong.

· Friday, May 26, 2006 – Mr. Ruppert, after hours, said he had something to tell me and sat me down in the shipping area of the office. He told me what he was going to say needed no response from me. He then told me how much he appreciates the “writer’s relationship” we have and how he loves how well we can communicate on a deeper level than other employees who aren’t writers. From there, he paused and said to himself, “Mike, you’re backing off, just go ahead and spit it out.” He then told me that he thinks about me sexually in his mind everyday since I began working at FTW, and that he’s sure I do the same. He then told me he was in love with me. I was flabbergasted. The best response I could come up with on-the-spot was to tell him that there are other women who love him in his life right now that he should be focusing on. I got up and went to make some tea, all the while scared and wondering to myself, “Oh no, what in the world do I do now?” I’ve never had to deal with such a situation before.

· Over the holiday weekend of Memorial Day, I consulted with friends and family as to what actions I should take. They recommended I take a stand against my boss’s advances and tell him directly how I feel. So, Tuesday, May 30, 2006, I came to work intending to do exactly that. When I got to work, Mr. Ruppert told me that there was a disk in my top drawer for me. I immediately knew what it was – downloads of pornography. My co-worker, Ryan, noticed the disk and asked me what it was. Because I had previously told Ryan some of what had been occurring with Mr. Ruppert, Ryan was very suspicious about the disk, and being the webmaster, wanted to see it. I told him no, it should not be opened by anyone, and that I was going to return the disk to Mr. Ruppert at the day’s end and also tell him how I felt about him sharing his “feelings for me” the past Friday. Worried about the outcome of such a confrontation, Ryan said he’d be at the touch of a cell phone to be there at the office if I needed a third party to listen to the confrontation.

At the day’s end, as I was expounding to Mr. Ruppert the details of why I was overwhelmed with editorial tasks and needed to create a better schedule for stories, etc., I then also grabbed the disk from my desk and told Mr. Ruppert, “I cannot accept this from you,” and handed it back to him. I used the same reason that Mr. Ruppert had used previously, saying I valued the friendly relations we had and that I didn’t want to compromise that. I then directly stated to him that I had thought over the weekend about what he had told me, and though he didn’t want a response, I was going to give him one. I said, “I do not go home thinking of you romantically or sexually, I’m sorry, but you’re my boss, and I don’t think or feel that way about you.” I could tell he was hurt but tried to hide it and commented, “I didn’t say that you go home and think about me sexually,” (which he had said directly to me on Friday). I asked him if he thought that the “feelings” he told me of on Friday were going to cause him to act unprofessionally, and he said no. So I thought that at that time I had established with him that the disk was inappropriate and unacceptable, and that I did not return the same sexual and romantic feelings that he had professed he had for me. I used the words “professional relationship” and “professional environment” many times while telling him how I thought we should proceed—by acting professionally. At that moment, Ryan walked in the building, worried about the outcome of a confrontation I told him would occur. I had Ryan walk into Mr. Ruppert’s office and said in front of both of them, “Ryan is aware that you gave me an inappropriate disk, and that I’ve given it back to you. I’ve also explained to Mike that I felt uncomfortable with his confession on Friday, and asked if we can maintain a professional relationship, which he said we can do.” Ryan commented that he was glad all had worked out well and in a mature manner, and walked out toward the front office door. I followed behind him, talking to him and continuing to reassure him that the confrontation had gone pretty well and that I thought the situation was handled maturely and would be in the future because I had gotten Mr. Ruppert’s verification that a professional relationship could be maintained from that time forward. On Mr. Ruppert’s way out, he was obviously embarrassed by how much information Ryan had been let in on by me, and said to both Ryan and I, “Now [Ms. A's] running around telling everyone I’m a flasher; I feel betrayed. I thought I could be myself and apparently I can’t.” Both Ryan and I followed him around the back of his vehicle, trying to explain to him that the situation wasn’t all that bad, it had been handled well, and could now be over with. Mr. Ruppert continued to say how betrayed in his “confidences” he felt and asked that we let him go home, which we did by backing away from his truck; Ryan stood and I sat down on the curb.

· In the past few weekends, I have become increasingly concerned by phone calls to my cell phone from Mr. Ruppert on weekends. On one Saturday only two weeks ago, Mr. Ruppert called me at 8am, 11am, and 11pm. Knowing how Mr. Ruppert’s been acting towards me lately, I did not pick up the phone (but also because it’s a weekend and I’m not working!) I felt that if there was a business issue at hand, Mr. Ruppert would leave a message to that effect, but he did not, which made me think it was a personal call and he hadn’t wanted to talk to me about a work-related issue.

· Today is Wednesday, May 31, 2006, and I am about to return to work after writing this document. I fear my job is in jeopardy due to Mr. Ruppert being personally hurt by the fact that I revealed to my co-workers how I felt I was being sexually and emotionally harassed. While I did not enjoy “turning him in,” or making the facts known and clear to others, I felt it was within my self-respect and legal rights to do so. If I am fired, I can’t see what reason Mr. Ruppert would create, because since I’ve joined the company, editorial production has increased heavily, I’ve taken-on laying out our newsletter, attended conferences, meetings, and many other events to promote sustainability and tell the public about FTW’s effort to help the world transition past Peak Oil (the main issue of our company). In fact, just before I returned the disk, Mr. Ruppert stated to me that he was trying to give me a raise, which I told him I would decline at this time because I didn’t feel it was warranted just yet. I felt like I needed to get a few more months of newsletters and stories under my belt and at least hit five-to-six-months of employment before asking for a raise. So in retrospect, if I walk into the office today and am fired, I would ask why on the day before I was almost given a raise, and then found myself unemployed after revealing to others the harassment that I had been enduring.

· I made the mistake of not realizing early-on that I was being harassed. Snide and chauvinistic comments are everywhere in modern media and society, and for a while I was able just to “laugh it off” when such comments came from Mr. Ruppert by telling myself it was just a harmless product of a patriarchal American society. Friday, May 26, 2006 was the day I could no longer just shrug the advances off because at that point, Mr. Ruppert had confided to me that he had emotional, romantic, and sexual feelings for me and I was rightly frightened by that statement. It was no longer a clothing comment, degradation, or patronization—it was Mr. Ruppert’s emotions coming out about me and I fear what his emotions may make him do. I know that he’s been mentally counseled before for alcoholism and violence, and knowing that, in combination with knowing he had been having “feelings” for me, made me fear his actions and their consequences and made me reach out to my co-workers and family for help.

I would like to state that I love my job position and am very effective at my work. I highly enjoy reading and editing stories from wonderful writers on a daily basis, I love attending conferences and networking with people on the topic of sustainability, and I have whole-heartedly plunged into the focus of the publication and on creating good relations between the publication and those people in Ashland who support it. I would like to continue being employed at FTW because I feel I’m doing a good deed for society by writing about sustainability and bringing sustainable practices to the public in the form of independent media. I stand behind the premises and foundations of FTW and wish to continue doing a stellar job, but only on the condition that Mr. Ruppert outlines a sexual harassment policy for the company that is enforced by all, but mainly by him from now on into the indefinite future with all current and future employees. I do not want to see this becoming a problem for every female employee that comes to work for Mr. Ruppert in the future, as I have heard that this has been the unfortunate case in the past with every female employee he’s had having to endure some form of harassment or advancement.

I have written this document on my own PC at home, and will give a copy to several third parties for legal purposes. I solemnly swear that this statement is wholly true, and I have explained my situation with Mr. Ruppert to the very best of my ability. I am fully prepared to speak with legal counsel regarding any details or instances that occurred, as well as any further actions I should take.

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Editor's Note: In the course of Mr. Ruppert's response, he is correct in saying that we would not disclose whether we would publish the woman in question's identity. We chose not to, and informed both her and her lawyer of this decision. But not once did Mr. Ruppert request to see the document in question. In fact, he seemed well aware of the situation at hand, and did not appear surprised in the least. We have each and every e-mail correspondence between us, and not once did he make such a request. Also, the first e-mail we sent to Ruppert concerning this issue was on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - not June 12th as he claims. We are pointing out these matters for the sake of accuracy, as Michael Ruppert has already made two provable misstatements concerning our correspondence in the opening paragraph of his statement. In addition, as noted earlier, the accuser's document was written while she was still employed by Mr. Ruppert, and not as a "former disgruntled employee."

Date of Accuser's original statement: May 31, 2006 (still employed by Ruppert).
Date of Termination: June 1, 2006.

Mike Ruppert's Response - Thursday, June 15, 2006

Since you refused to answer whether or not you were going to publish the name of the individual referenced in your email dated June 12th, I am at a legal handicap in my ability to respond fully and completely. Since you have not shown me the document you intend to publish you have also violated journalistic and legal ethics because I cannot confirm or deny whether it is the same document I have seen or whether it has been tampered with or not. That is a non-avoidable legal obligation on your part before asking for comment or publishing. How can someone comment on a document which you refuse to show them?

As the former employer of the individual in question there are things that I cannot disclose unless and/or until that individual either files a legal action of identifies herself publicly and affirms the statement. Accordingly, all documents furnished herewith have been redacted to exclude this individual’s name. If you reveal it, then the onus and legal liability will be on you.

I am also putting you on legal notice that, per se, any defamation which involves sexual conduct is libelous. At a very minimum you must be 100% accurate in your sourcing and vetting of that allegation. Have you done that? What you have is an alleged fact and not a fact. By all legal standards you must make sure that this alleged fact is accurate. If it is, in fact, the same document I have seen, it contains inflammatory and retaliatory allegations from – as you will see – an individual who is obviously a disgruntled former employee.

That being said, your sole witness here is very easily impeached, even with the information I am – after consultation with counsel – now at liberty to produce.

Basically, this is a very troubled individual whom I believe is in need of help, which I sincerely hope she gets. She was terminated for cause on June 1st and is not eligible for rehire. A redacted copy of her termination is attached, as is a “probationary” employment contract which would have served as written notice to correct deficiencies had she accepted it. The bottom line is that you are going to have to come up with more witnesses that say that these events happened than ones that dispute it. Right now, all you have is one very easily impeached and not-very credible witness.

Very little of this dispute has to do with me personally. Attached you will find three signed statements from FTW office staff. A fourth witness, a female, is not available today to respond in time to meet your deadline. None of them corroborates, or will corroborate, what you or she will apparently be alleging.

Shortly after being hired, the individual in question engaged in a sexual relationship with an employee here who was already involved in a committed relationship (according to him) with another woman in California. The woman who was terminated, after starting this relationship with my employee, used an FTW-owned cell phone to place 103 telephone calls to our male employee during the course of her last month of employment alone. Why this was necessary is unknown since her office and his were next to each other. This was a direct violation of our stated policy, agreed to by her verbally, when the phone was issued.

How many people call others 103 times in one month? Of course I have the records to prove this. That much I can disclose. Many of these calls were made during hours when she was supposed to be working.

Shortly after commencing the sexual relationship with our employee, the same individual, who you are basing your article on, made inappropriate sexual advances, overtures, and remarks to another male FTW staff member who is married. He strenuously objected at the time. His statement is attached.

This second male staff member became concerned and attempted to warn the first male staff member who was apparently disinclined to listen. This ultimately resulted in a physical altercation involving the now-fired female employee, the second male staff member and the first male staff member on the evening of Sunday, April 2nd. After the altercation the young woman hurried to my home at 10:30 at night in a state of high drama which seems to be, for lack of a better term, her drug of choice. This resulted in the first counseling session with the young woman in front of witnesses.

Not long after that, the now-terminated employee, engaged in a loud, abusive verbal assault on a third male employee of FTW (statement attached). In that case the young woman used loud, abusive language, strong profanity and personal insults. This was all complicated by the fact that this third male employee did not work for the young woman and was not under her supervision, or even in her department.

This resulted in a second intense counseling session with the young woman wherein she started talking about hiring and firing people. I am the only one who hires and fires at FTW. Because we all had hopes that she could be saved and her writing skills honed and developed, it was decided not to terminate her then. I deeply regret that decision.

Finally, after the first male employee (with whom the young woman had remained romantically involved), gave sudden and dramatic two-week notice – I now suspect as a result of manipulation by the young woman – I noticed that the woman’s work performance was suffering enormously. The same woman had been making inappropriate sexual advances, remarks and comments to me for several weeks and at one point I had stridently emphasized that this was not the way I wanted the relationship to work.

Sadly, this young woman is extremely bright and has an enormous potential to be a successful writer/editor someday, if she can acquire control of her personal life and conduct.

As for you, I encourage you to publish your article and break as many laws as you possibly can.

This will serve as official notice that unless and/or until the young woman in question chooses to file a legal action, which would open the door to a much more detailed (and devastating) response on my part, I will make no additional comment of any kind. I will not respond directly to any messages from you or published on your web site unless I do so through counsel.

It is best that all cards in all hands be placed on the table now to prevent this person from harming more people’s lives than she already has. The only way that can happen is if this former employee files a legal action which will untie my hands.

Therefore, it is my express wish that she file a legal action against me at the earliest possible moment. At that time I will be freer to disclose substantial additional evidence which will completely and utterly destroy her credibility and leave WNG TV well out on a very long, libelous and creaky limb. That would constitute an early Christmas present for me.

Sincerely,

Michael C. Ruppert
President, CEO
FTW Publications, Inc.

Note: Mr. Ruppert did include five attachments with his response, but since - by his own admission - errors were made on his part in not redacting certain information concerning his accuser's identity, we chose not to include them (for potential legal reasons). Also, we did not want the responsibility of altering Mr. Ruppert's documents. If you care to see this material, we suggest you contact Mike Ruppert directly.