The Pristinian Conspiracy: A Joint GUM-OAM Dossier

Preamble[]

I have, in my micronational career, met many politicians and diplomats who employ deception in their dealings with other micronational states. For the vast majority, it is a convenient weapon that is used to further select national interests - or in the case of the experienced diplomat, to further the interests of the community as a while whilst appearing to be defending those of their own nation. Nonetheless, in all my time as one of the most prominent diplomats within this community, I have not once encountered a nation as deceitful and treacherous as the Pristinian nation has proven to be. To the readers of this dossier, this may at first be interpreted as nothing more than a mindless and baseless accusation being made by someone who has never been a tremendous fan of the Pristinian government.

Not long after the recent change in government in the United Federation of Socialist Micronations, the intermicronational community began to question the events that had reportedly unfolded within this nation. Given the swift removal of Mark Dresner from his office with little to no difficulty, many of my colleagues - and indeed myself - were suspicious of his successor Ann-Sophie Myers. Though we were prepared to give her something of the benefit of the doubt, it was not long before many individuals were expressing concern about Miss Myers - the vast majority of them fearing that she does not infact exist, but is instead an alias under which Mark Dresner can continue to operate. With these concerns growing, agencies of my government quietly began their own investigation into the possibility that Dresner and Myers were one in the same.

Ultimately, with concern mounting, it became apparent that a simple national investigation was not sufficient - and so the case was put to the two intermicronational institutions that dominate this community. It was decided on April 5th 2010, in an unprecedented display of mutual cooperation and reconciliation, that the Grand Unified Micronational and the Organisation of Active Micronations would join together and conduct a subsequent joint-investigation that would build upon the findings of the initial investigation carried out by the Democratic People's Republic. In a short period of time, with the assistance of dozens of government agencies from a wide variety of micronations, we have been able to assemble this dossier.

It is with the deepest sense of regret that I say this dossier confirms, beyond any reasonable doubt, that this community has been the victim of a massive conspiracy by the leader of Pristinia. We have uncovered unquestionable evidence that seems to conclusively confirm that Emperor Frederic I, Mark Dresner and Ann-Sophie Myers are infact the same individual. Furthermore, it is has been proven that the nation of Pristinia has actively manipulated this community in the most hideous of ways. Within this dossier, I present to you in full the evidence we have unearthed to support these theories. For the sake of simplicity, we have categorised our findings into two categories: Main and Supporting Evidence. The former consists of the hard evidence that confirms, beyond any reasonable doubt, what we are claiming - the latter category is comprised largely of secondary elaboration that strengthens the case against Pristinia. We are, each of us, only sorry that Mark Dresner - or whatever his real name is - has forced us to take this kind of action.

- Robert Lethler, leader of the joint-investigation and author of this dossier

The dossier, and the investigation that preceded it, are endorsed entirely by Alexander Reinhardt and Mark Meehan on behalf of the Grand Unified Micronational and the Organisation of Active Micronations respectively. They concur that they find the findings of this investigation to be true and accurate.

Main Evidence[]

Identity: Frederic I and Mark Dresner[]

All thought Pristinia only truly came to prominence under the leadership of Mark Dresner, the majority of this community will be aware that there was a time when Pristinia was governed by a 14 year old named Frederic I, who governed as Emperor. Ultimately, Frederic I abdicated and Dresner - a respectable and hard-working bank accountant who this year turned thirty-three years old. Or at least, that is what the government of the UFSM would like the community to believe. In reality, Mark Dresner does not exist - this persona is nothing more than a fabrication used by the former Emperor to try and rebuild his nation. From the day Dresner supposedly assumed control of Pristinia, he has decieved and lied to the international community, constructing an elaborate web of falsehoods.

This is, of course, an extremely serious allegation to make against a Head of State of such a prominent micronation. No doubt the immediate reaction of many will be to assume that we have based this accusation upon firm, but inconclusive, evidence. However, the true nature of Mark Dresner's identity has not been determined through simple investigation - we have learned this thanks to the written testimony of Mark Dresner himself. On December 22nd 2009, Mark Dresner dispatched a letter to the Federal Government of Saint Charlie, in which he confessed his true identity in confidence to Prime Minister Reinhardt. Mister Reinhardt and Saint Charlie opted, quite rightly, to keep this information confidential - they genuinely believed that Pristinia was changing its ways, and did not feel it right to disclose information provided in confidence. However, with Pristinia recently disclosing confidential exchanges to the entire community, the Saint Charlian government agreed to release this letter to the community. It is reproduced in full below. The Saint Charlian government can verify the validity of this e-mail.

Da: The Pristinian Government <pristiniagov@googlemail.com>
A: consiglio_ambasciatoriale@yahoo.it
Inviato: Mar 22 dicembre 2009, 19:23:07
Oggetto: New Pristinia

Hello Mr. Reinhardt,

I must confide in you something very severe and important. Under no circumstances should you tell anyone about this.

BY READING THE FOLLOWING YOU AGREE TO KEEP IT A SECRET:

It's me! Frederic of Pristinia. Marco Dresner is a fictitious alias who does not exist; it is a second identity of myself, which most Pristinian citizens are aware of. I wanted a fresh start, and I certainly didn't want a re-ban from Mr. Lethler alias Ptrcancer. I hope you do not feel disturbed by this; certainly it is usually not my custom to lie about anything... ...that's why I'm telling this to those I can trust.

And I can assure you that I'm not lying about Pristinia. We are getting democratic, we are a Commonwealth now, and I did abdicate as Emperor. I hope you're happy about that fact. So I really do hope that you don't think ill of me for lying, because as I said it is not usually what I do. I would like to open formal relations diplomatic relations with you (soon it might be someone else you're talking to since the position of Lord Ambassador will have to be put up for election as well).

Looking forward to a reply,
The Most Venerable Marco Dresner, fka Frederic Bayrath, aka Frederic [REDACTED]

This e-mail conclusively proves beyond any doubt that everything we thought we knew about Mark Dresner is nothing more than a lie. he has decieved this community one of the worst ways possible, creating a fake identity for himself in such a fashion that he cannot simply use the excuse that he is protecting his privacy. Furthermore, he has intentionally subverted the rules of MicroWiki, taking advantage of the good nature of a member of the Administration to circumnavigate a ban imposed on his account. Every single nation, be they friend or foe, has been lied to and manipulated by Frederic/Dresner - and it is merely, we believe, the beginning of the tale. Even if we are to assume that Dresner has been removed, the e-mail clearly suggests that the government of Pristinia has been completely complacent in this treachery, even going so far as to endorse it. There is not a soul within the UFSM who we can say, beyond any shred of doubt, is trustworthy.

Identity: Ann-Sophie Myers[]

Immediately, this revelation about Mark Dresner casts serious doubts as to precisely who Ann-Sophie Myers is. According to the official information we have recieved and according to what she tell us, Ann-Sophie Myers is a 25 year old lawyer and the "domestic partner" of Mark Dresner. Yet if we know full-well Mark Dresner is not who he claims to be, then we also know that Myers cannot be who she claims to be. One could waste entire years speculating as to the true identity of Myers - fortunately, we do not have to. In a conversation with Alexander Reinhardt, Myers confessed the following:

"In case you were wondering, I am 14 years of age, actually, as well. That's the reason for me being entered as "Mr. Dresner's" partner on MicroWiki, if you get the gist. And my real name is [REDACTED]. Just to avoid confusion ;)" - Annsophie Mayr, 04 April 2010 19:00

Thus, we learn that yet another President of Pristinia is operating under a false identity. Just like Mark Dresner, it appears that much of what we know about Myers is nothing more than batch of lies intended to decieve this community in the most henious of ways. She, like Dresner before her, has systematically abused her trust and lied shamelessly to further her own agenda. Once again, the Saint Charlian government can verify the validity of this message - and any effort to change or delete it retrospectively will be visible for the record.

As if this allegation were not serious enough, we further believe that Myers is just another alternative identity for Frederic to utilise, just as he used Dresner. Whilst this time we have no written testimony from Myers herself/himself to this effect, there is an overwhelming body of supporting evidence documented below that we firmly believe supports this view. Before proceeding to this evidence, we note that there are a few important pieces of information that can be gleamed from the behaviour of Myers and the information she has provided to the Saint Charlian Prime Minister:

Both she and Frederic are the same age, yet - when one takes into account the supporting evidence below - it seems highly improbable that two individuals would display such incredible similarity at this age. The age of Myer suggests she is, in reality, merely another - albeit more realistic - persona for Frederic.
Despite having known him for just a few short days, Myers seems to instinctively trust Reinhardt, much in the same way that Dresner did. Given that she has no prior foreign policy experience, this seems extremely unlikely.
Her specific use of quotation marks and use of the term "as well" indicates that she knows full-well the true identity of Mark Dresner.

Foreign Policy and Aggression[]

With the reported change in leadership in the United Federation, the community was promised that it would see a UFSM that was more peaceful and more open to intermicronational cooperation - in particular, we were promised that reconciliation would be sought with nations offended by Mark Dresner. Despite this, we have the testimony of many that clearly indicates Myers has openly attempted to diplomatically isolate and attack the Democratic People's Republic of Erusia by attempting to persaude the Federal Republic of Saint Charlie, the Republic of Nemkhavia, the Democratic People's Republic of Sandus and the Republic of Egtavia to turn against that nation. We suspect other nations have also been approached. Myers has demonstrated a hatred and personal vendetta that only Mark Dresner coul hold, using the exact same methods against us. Furthermore, she has demonstrated extreme aggression towards a huge range of nations - often expressing her criticism in the exact same offensive ways Mark Dresner did. We have included three examples of such statements by Myers below. Please note the format of some of these excerpts varies. Please note that a much wider range of examples can be found in documentation published by the Sandum government.

Do you want to trust Erusia, who has been very antagonistic to you in the past, not very peace promoting, has multiple times attempted to censor your media not just to its own citizens but to every member of the intermicronational community, and has been shown to use lower means (blackmail, bribe, threats, harrassment) to achieve its goal, and is looked upon with a huge frown by many, many nations; or wouldn't you much rather trust a nation who has but 1 citizen less, who has a very friendly attitude towards you, who may be too informal at times but is always ready to say sorry when appropriate, and who will go to any length to remain neutral as possible while securing democracy and peace? Yes, that is a biased view, but weigh this out: What good has Erusia done for you, and what bad has the UFSM done to you? You might realise that both equate to "none"... ...we are really willing to form a strong alliance with St.Charlie, whereas with Erusia, that isn't going to happen until all hell freezes over. We don't want to force you into any decision, and we won't stop relations if you make the decision we consider the wrong one, but you should really consider it. - Annsophie Mayr, Today [07 April] 20:01 - To Alexander Reinhardt
Hahaha, you unworthy, stalinist, human rights violating, undemocratic, scientology-esque moron want to talk about the revolution? - Annsophie Mayr, Today [07 April] 14:31 - To Guillaume Soergel via Proxy
Ah, and presumably that's the reason why you pretended to be a retarded nursery kid earlier on?! - Annsophie Mayr, 06 April 00:01 - to Mark Meehan (this message has since been retrospectively deleted by Mayr, who urged "Ah god, can we just forget about all this?" when purging dozens of other messages, many of which were also offensive, from the chat log)

It is worth noting that following the final message in the same conversation, she asked "Then who on earth are you and what have you done with Mark Meehan?". She also stated "I posted something Meehan should have understood, then he acted crazily, then... ...I don't know." to Robert Lethler in private communication, also saying something similar to Guillaume Soergel. Her outburst remains unexplained - however, she clearly displays a strong familiarity towards Meehan, despite having only known him for around two to three days at the time. The most logical explanation for this is that she is, in reality, Mark Dresner/Frederic.

Supporting Evidence[]

What follows is additional, but individually non-conclusive evidence, that we believe confirms beyond reasonable doubt that Frederic and Myers are one in the same person.

IP Addresses[]

Dresner and Myers share an almost identical IP address. According to Myers, the two addresses are so similar because they are neighbours, living "across the street" from one another. Given that the lives of both individuals are completely fabricated, we have no reason to believe this is true.
Though Myers has argued her IP address remains distinct and only similar to Dresner's, Dresner's own IP address remodulates - the last series of digits changes. This is quite common and usually occurs whenever a computer is rebooted and/or a connection is reset. This strongly suggests that they are on in the same person, and that the change in IP is simply caused by disconnection.
When one conducts a proper trace of the IP addresses recorded for Dresner and Myers, one finds that the two use the same internet service provider.
Myers was confronted, in good-nature, about the similarities in IP address. Subsequently, when attending the April 4th Quorum on behalf of the UFSM, she accessed the venue using an IP address that traced to Estonia. For some reason, Myers felt the need to use a proxy - something that is is highly unlikely she would do if the reasons for her similar IP were infact reality and she had nothing to hide.
All IP addresses can be provided on request.

Inconsistencies in the Myers Story[]

Press[]

There are numerous inconsistencies in the Myers-Dresner story. A major one is who is responsible for the Pristinian press:

According to Myers, Mark Dresner was the sole citizen of Pristinia involved with the People's Press and the media of the SUNP/UFSM as a whole.
However, in a discussion with Robert Lethler in the aftermath of the ENCP's 5th Party Congress, Mark Dresner reported: "Comrade Ann-Sophie Myers is preparing to found a newspaper, the People's Hermes - yes, I know, very unusual name; comes from the Greek messenger God Hermes. She asked me to see whether I could find someone she could do an interview with for the first edition." The People's Hermes subsequently became the People's Press.
Subsequently, Robert Lethler met Myers on March 21st of this year, and carried out an interview with her. When the two met again after he ascension to the Presidency, Myers denied any knowledge of this and insisted that only Mark Dresner had ever been involved in the press. When confronted about the possibility that Dresner had impersonated her, Myers seemed completely disinterested, plainly stating "I'll ask him when I get to it :)".

Career[]

Another major inconsistency is the role of Myers herself within the UFSM:

Prior to her election to the Presidency, Myers was unheard of as a politician. She was known only as the representative of Marysburgh Region in Congress, and was not a member of the Senate, nor did we hear of any formal cabinet posting that she held.
Previously, she held the rank of Colonel in the SUDF. It seems highly improbable that, given the ideology of the SUNP at the time, she would subsequently move to political life - it also calls into question why she would ever be involved with the press if she was pursuing military ambitions.
There are other more prominent politicians in the UFSM who could have taken over from Dresner, assuming they too would not simply be false identities. Myers excuse that she was appointed because of her strong English skills seems infinitely unlikely - a German-speaking President could have easily appointed her Foreign Minister.

Past foreign policy[]

Myers has also demonstrated an odd understanding of the UFSM's past foreign policy choices:

Myers claims to have only something of a limited understanding of the United Federation's foreign affairs - this is understable given the sudden-ness with which she was appointed. However, she has total and unlimited access to all records of Dresner's conversations with other leaders via Google Talk.
Myers feigned complete ignorance about the events of the Austenasian Civil War, even though it was discussed in at least one of those aforementioned conversations and has dominated the international agenda. Given the heavy involvement of the SUNP/UFSM and Myers' own access, she should have been fully aware of important events in the war.
Myers frequently alternates between displaying an intimate understanding of key issues and leaders and having little to no idea about them, without any reasons to explain this change.
Prior to Mark Dresner's supposed departure, Erusia and the UFSM were in the process of discussing a complex proposal that Dresner himself came up with, one which was to undergo extremely complicated consultation process in Erusia. When this matter was raised again in a trilateral conference, Myers noted that she did not know very much about the proposal in contrast to Robert Lethler. However, when the DPRE expressed opposition at the same conference, Myers demonstrated a full understanding of the proposal and even offered to write an extremely detailed report on it - a report that Mark Dresner had originally been tasked to write but never began. Furthermore, she expressed a solid understanding of the consultation process in Erusia, despite having never had it explained to her.

Election[]

The election of Myers is, also, an event riddled with problems:

Myers herself has established that an emergency session of Congress can never be called, and has made it clear votes can only be made when Congress is in session.
Despite this, a vote of no confidence in Mark Dresner was moved for almost instantly by Congress. However, the Congressman who notified us of this expressed that the motion needed just two more votes to succeed (meaning it had 10 votes). It took hours to bring that number up to the minimum of 12 - this does not make sense if Congress cannot vote in absentia and can only hold an in camera session.
Furthermore, Myers was elected swiftly and seemingly without opposition. This, too, seems highly unlikely given that she has regularly defied her Party's line as President. It also seems infinitely improbable that Dresner, after going to such amazing lengths to maintain his power, would gladly surrender it to anyone without a struggle.

Access Rights[]

Miss Myers has also demonstrated a curious range of access rights:

She has chosen to use the old Google Talk account of Dresner's, despite having access to a different one used previously by her (see Press). She has had no trouble using or accessing it.
She has been able to easily and freely access all of Dresner's old accounts - she has reported ignorance as to what some passwords are, but has always been able to acquire them without any difficulty.

Additional Inconsistencies[]

There are a number of additional, much more minor, inconsistencies notable in the Myers-Dresner case. Most are largely irrelevant to the matter at hand, or can be fairly attributed to coincidence - we have, thus, chosen only to document the above major inconsistencies in the Myers-Dresner story. Some more general inconsistencies are discussed in subsequent parts of this dossier.

Linguistics and Personality[]

Much of what is documented below explores the incredible similarities in the writing styles and the personalities of Dresner and Myers. In many instances, it was the following points that first alerted those who testified for the investigation to the possibility of Dresner and Myers being one in the same.

Languages[]

Dresner and Myers are reported to speak the same range of languages, with the same degree of fluency in each.
Both individuals have an extremely sophisticated command of the English language, one which - given their age - suggests both have spent considerable time in an English-speaking country and studied the language extensively. However, they both use English in the precise same way, both appearing to approach the language as though they think in it and don't merely translate mentally. Whilst this might not seem extraordinary, it reflects a very specific approach to learning a language.
When stressed or angry, both lapse into German briefly.
Both Myers and Dresner are extremely pedantic about the German language, correcting even the smallest of inaccuracies and often expressing incredible frustration at them.

Writing Style[]

All though there are a few conscious differences in their writing styles, Dresner and Myers write in a fashion that is almost identical. The unconscious traits of their writing style, whilst initially different, become identical as a conversation with Myers progresses.
Though not clear at first, as Myers becomes more and more comfortable with someone, she begins to adopt the exact same written mannerisms as Dresner. Even the most casual of observeers can identify the similarities in their writing styles. Given that the two do not speak English as a first language, it is incredibly unlikely that the two would develop the same writing style in English. Robert Lethler, Kai Roosevelt, Guillaume Soergel, Cameron Falby, Mark Meehan, Alexander Reinhardt, Kai Roosevelt, Miranda Keynes and a number of other micronationalists who would prefer to remain anonymous have all testified to say they can see the similarities in writing style.
Most of the similarities are unconscious quirks of character - further suggesting that the two are one in the same.
Both individuals use smilies strategically, in the same fashion and always in the same contexts.

Personality[]

Please note that the following points should be considered in conjunction with the points raised throughout this document.

Both Dresner and Myers express a passionate, burning hatred for Scientology.
Dresner and Myers both possess foul tempers. The slighest misunderstanding is sufficient to send both into a tirade of abuse, and both display the same extreme aggressiveness in daily conversation. Both use the same kind of abusive language that many have complained has become characteristic of Dresner, often writing lengthy and ill-thought out abusive messages.
Whenever Myers has been offended, she immediately starts private conversations with other individuals in an attempt to turn them against the offender - a tactic used by Dresner whenever he was offended.
Despite claiming to be an opponent of his foreign policy and diplomatic style, she has followed both Dresner's foreign policy and mimiced his diplomatic style without variation. There has been no discernable change.
Both Dresner and Myers freely share chat logs especially when offended, despite this being a contributing factor to Dresner's downfall - a mistake Myers would be keen to avoid repeating if she was who she claims to be.
Whenever Myers has displayed an angry outburst that can only be described as Dresneresque, she has usually subsequently purged all record of it and asked the incident be forgotten.
Dresner and Myers both display a level of contempt for the same micronationalists and their nations.
Both individuals share the same intimate understanding of key officials - despite Myers having known them for only days.
Much like Dresner, Myers has succeeding in offending at least half a dozen micronationalists - often in the exact same fashion as Dresner.
Myers has actively sought sensitive information on prominent opponents of Dresner, most notably Robert Lethler, attempting to find out extremely sensitive private information for no apparent reason. She has, like Dresner, attempted to win the trust and support of persons by providing confidential and sensitive information she has acquired - information often that she claims to have recieved from Dresner.

Concluding Recommendations[]

The body of evidence we have presented in this dossier is considerable. When one combines all of that which we have presented, it becomes exceptionally clear that this community has been subjected to incredible deception at the hands of Frederic. The chances of Annsophie Myers and Frederic being two different individuals are slim indeed - though we can not be as certain as we have been with Frederic and Mark Dresner, the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the United Federation of Socialist Micronations can not be trusted and that Frederic remains at the head of affairs in that nation. A disturbing pattern has been exposed in Pristinia, and even if Myers were conclusively proven to be Frederic and subsequently removed from office, we could never be certain that her successor is not simply Frederic again. The UFSM has had its opportunity to be honest, frank and to make serious positive changes - it has thrown this opportunity away.

It is with the most profound sense of regret that I must formally recommend the immediate expulsion of the UFSM from both the Grand Unified Micronational and the Organisation of Active Micronations, and urge all nation-states to immediately terminate all ties to them. They have decieved each and every one of us and, in all probability, continue to do so - we do not know who can and cannot be trusted within the UFSM. Indeed, I sincerely doubt there is anyone who can be trusted, given that all prominent officials have thus far been either been complacent in or participated in the lies advanced by Frederic. He has shown a willingness to decieve this community to further his own goals - even if Myers herself is a different person, which we sincerely doubt, she too has lied in order to further her own goals and has thus far only continued the policies of Frederic. We cannot afford to have a deceptive, unstable nation such as this in our community.

The contents of this dossier have been entirely endorsed by both the Grand Unified Micronational and the Organisation of Active Micronations. Neither institution has anything to gain from its publication - indeed, many of us have been anxious about going forward with this knowing full-well the implications it will have for our community. Nonetheless, justice must be served - a long time ago the community rallied against Camuria for its deception and treachery and drove them from our midsts. For many it was a difficult choice, but one that had to be made in order to ensure the security of our community. It is with regret that I say we must, once again, unite against a common enemy in order to protect the whole of our community. Nations like the UFSM pose a threat not only to our stability and to the current members of the community, but to all those who would join us. A huge range of nations have made this dossier possible all ready - each and every one is hoping that the community will see reason and serve justice.

- Robert Lethler