> The article gives a real name in literally the second sentence.
Actually, the article literally does nothing of the sort. Check it for yourself. It mentions Applebaum's name in the first sentence and no names in the second.
> A Tor programmer with the pseudonym Isis Agora Lovecruft admitted to being Forest (the one into whose underwear Mr. Appelbaum supposedly slipped his finger) and identified herself as a young American living in Berlin.
My mistake, I overlooked that Isis Agora Lovecruft is a pseudonym. Still not anonymous, though. She's a Tor core developer who's given talks in person.
A real name is given in the fifth sentence, however:
> Sam is also an American whose real name is Alison Macrina, head of a project that aims to make libraries accessible with Tor.
Does it? I came away with the impression that they were trying to convey that there seems to be significant anecdotal evidence that Applebaum was a boundary pusher, could be inconsiderate of others and sometimes had a crude sense of humor but that the mix of paranoia, hedonistic excess and nasty power games within this part of the Berlin hacker community, and their habit of avoiding the police and other state institutions, make it very difficult to get beyond the "he said, she said" accusations being thrown around. Maybe he did all or some of the illegal things he is accused of doing and maybe he did none of them. And since nobody wants to go to the police and press charges the whole thing remains in limbo.
The only thing that's definitely true here is that the Applebaum et al. hacker "commune" has gone the way of so many hedonistic leftist/counterculture groups: down the drain.
If there were any substantial evidence, I would say otherwise, but at this point that doesn't seem to be the case. Just anonymous accusations.