Fallen anti-virus mogul John McAfee is still running from his demons and Belizeian authorities despite claiming (quite unconvincingly) on his website that he had been apprehended over the weekend. “I apologize for the silence, and misdirection,” he writes today. “I am currently safe and in the company of two intrepid journalist from Vice Magazine, and, of course, Sam,” his 20-year-old lookout. According to McAfee, who is wanted for questioning in the shooting death of his neighbor last month, a decoy, “carrying on a North Korean passport under my name, was in fact detained in Mexico for pre-planned misbehavior, but due to indifference on the part of authorities was evicted from the jail and was unable to serve his intended purpose in our exit plan.” Uh huh.
Although he claims to be an enemy of the state, McAfee says he will return to Belize once Sam is safe because “I can do little in exile. My lifeline of information pertaining to the inner workings of the government depends on my physical presence.” We’ll know more later today, supposedly, when Vice publishes its dispatch.
(Update: “A Vice reporter and a videographer have been traveling with John for the past three days documenting his entire journey,” a spokesperson confirms to Daily Intel. “Vice has been in regular contact with the journalists, and in the coming hours VICE.com will release an update.” The forthcoming documentary “will be nothing but absolutely epic, that much we can assure you.”)
In a flash of self-awareness, McAfee asks, “How long can the press maintain the ‘Drug crazed madman’ perspective? I think it will end with Vice Magazine’s story.” This man may have the wrong idea about Vice.
Update II: Using the exif data from the photo of McAfee with Vice’s people, a few Internet sleuths tracked the runaway to here. But McAfee claims he was behind the fake-out: “I openly apologize to Vice Magazine for manipulating their recently published photo,” he writes. “I have been ferocioously [sic] put my place by Mr. Rocco for ‘interfering’ with the objectivity of their reporting. … I do not believe that Vice will remain with me further. Again, my apologies.” Who even knows anymore.
