Courtney Messerschmidt started as a joke.

The author of foreign policy blog “Great Satan’s Girlfriend,” Messerschmidt claimed to be a 21-year-old University socialite who sought knowledge between parties. She came to The Red & Black’s attention as a hip informant to the “highest ‘diplopolitary’ levels of American, Allied and Enemy Commands.”

Among her claimed readership: the Pentagon, the United Nations and the Saudi Modesty Police.

Messerschmidt’s style wasn’t just bizarre — with cryptic slang, Internet acronyms, cracked-out capitalization and posts headed with sexy pictures of college-aged girls — it was almost in a foreign language.

Courtney Messerschmidt claimed she was a University student. Courtney Messerschmidt started a blog. Courtney Messerschmidt lied. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY AJ REYNOLDS/Staff

“Now that Land of the Pure’s audacious skirt flirt in Kabul combat with something something nation/state sovereignty and failure to enforce the wicked woman worshipping West’s concept of Writ of State … has flashed the world, is it time for Great Satan to finally get mean and scary?,” Messerschmidt wrote in a Sept. 16 blog post about war with Pakistan.

Given her bombastic nature and popularity, an interview with Messerschmidt seemed obvious.

But after a series of strange emails and unreal encounters with “blogger girl,” Red & Black Variety Editor Adam Carlson was skeptical.

“I don’t even think she’s real,” he told me, reading off bits of the back-and-forth, which seemed more like a labyrinth than a reply.

It seemed unlikely that any blog author would pretend to be a 21-year-old University student. Far more likely was that Messerschmidt was just eccentric.

But then repeated attempts to set up an interview ended with news of an “untended [sic] hiatus” and promises to “call soon.”

And so began the paper trail.

ABOUT A GIRL

When it came to online intellectual activity, Messerschmidt was a hydra. She was hardly in one place before popping up in three others, blogging in-depth political analysis, usually once a day, and tweeting daily.

She picked up writing jobs on war blog “Wings Over Iraq,” was highlighted by Newsweek-owned “The Daily Beast,” and went from interviewee to contributor on Military.com sponsored “Line of Departure.”

But despite her omnipresence and the buzz her blog inspired, Messerschmidt seemed more viral than corporeal. Most interviews with Messerschmidt contained instant message-style dialogues, and articles featuring her often pulled quotes from blog posts.

Messerschmidt had perfected the odd art of making an appearance in every venue without ever actually arriving.

Jan. 20 2007: Courtney Messerschmidt begins "Great Satan's Girlfriend."

In her emails to The Red & Black, Messerschmidt underscored her hobnobbing and hectic schedule.

“I am in DC this week — pursuing several interesting offers that my site has opened up,” she wrote on Aug. 17. “Perhaps next week?”

But no week ever seemed to hold a clear moment. When the next came, Messerschmidt told The Red & Black that she was taking a break from the University for a semester and would be calling soon.

She seemed just as elusive on campus. The University Office of the Registrar told the paper Courtney Messerschmidt had never been enrolled for the 2011 fall semester. Furthermore, no Courtney
Messerschmidt was found to have ever registered at all.

So when she never made her call, the paper made one of its own.

WHAT’S IN A NAME

When engaged in a battle of smoke and mirrors, it’s best to contact the magician’s assistant.

For Messerschmidt, Carl Prine was not only an assistant, but an engaged audience member. When asked about Messerschmidt’s unlikely story, he said he “always secretly hoped” Courtney Messerschmidt was a “performance art experiment in Athens.”

“I suspected it all along,” Prine said. “I included it in the first interview I did with her. I mean, if you want to put me on the rack for not holding her accountable, that’s fine, but I never cared if it was just an interesting art-performance piece.”

As a reporter with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and the primary author of “Line of Departure,” he was not only an Internet persona that could be linked to a flesh-and-blood person, but Messerschmidt’s colleague.

She not only joined as a contributor on Prine’s blog, but was given her own tab — although, Prine said, securing a tab on his publication was not unusual.

Shortly after reaching out to Prine for information, The Red & Black received a Facebook message from Messerschmidt saying that she not only had never enrolled in the current semester, but had not been in school for quite a while.

“The cash just wasn’t there, and two of my ‘rents biz crashed and burned and their last is circling the drain,” she wrote.

July 6, 2011: Messerschmidt joins "Wings Over Iraq," often authoring several posts a day.

But Prine was dismissive about the dishonesty, to the point of condescension.

“Whether she’s a 21-year-old student at UGA or a 47-year-old truck driver in Queens doesn’t matter, I guess,” he said.

The paper’s investigation into any deception was comparative to making mountains out of molehills

“Tempests and teapots, I suppose,” he said. “I’m trying to imagine the lede: Her family’s finances destroyed by the recession, a woman who dropped out of school for financial reasons two years ago claimed during a blog interview to still be a student in Athens. The blog editor who didn’t care one way or the other and put in writing that he hoped she was a performance art piece still allows her to write op-eds. Scandal!”

“A HOAX OF SORTS”

The frenzy began soon after.

Dismissive correspondence turned hurried and urgent following Prine’s declarations of scandal.

Before noon on Sept. 8, Prine had sent two phone calls and an e-mail to The Red & Black claiming to have “figured it out.”

And before long, Messerschmidt followed in his footsteps.

“GsGf is a collective of thinkers and writers most in their 20s and one guy a bit older,” she wrote in a Facebook message. “It was contrived almost from the outset … We are located in extreme North Georgia My last name is confidential for the moment and I won’t be found on any UGA rolls anywhere or any campus for that matter.”

Prine informed readers “Messerschmidt” is comprised of four individuals in Chickamauga and is headed by a 32-year-old man and joined by two 24-year-olds, one of which the group calls “Ridiculous Nicholas.”

But though the revelation received a lot of attention, few bloggers Messerschmidt worked with seemed shocked by the reveal. Within hours, readers could see “Great Satan’s Girlfriend” personal disclosure as well as apathetic acknowledgments from “Wings Over Iraq” and others.

July 21, 2011: Messerschmidt is interviewed by "Life of Departure," the official news and national policy journal of Military.com; she joins as a contributor soon after.

“For God’s sake, the Great Satan’s Girlfriend website routinely gets hits from the Washington Post; sometimes with two computers logged in at any given time,” they wrote.

Messerschmidt said deception over her identity and the number of bloggers involved was meant only to protect — not conceal.

“Never meant to deceive anyone in the beginning — just wanted anonymity and am surprised it’s taken off,” she said.

After confirming their identities, Prine granted members of Great Satan’s Girlfriend permission to continue posting anonymously,

“I was like, ‘Alright, you’ve had your fun. But it’s time to come to Jesus, man,’” he said. “I was like ‘I’m not running this until I know who the real Courtney Messerschmidt is.’”

But for some in journalism, Prine’s actions amount to unacceptable and unethical behavior.

“That’s one of the great weaknesses of the dialogue on the Internet,” said Conrad Fink, Grady professor and former vice president of the Associated Press. “I think anyone who enters the public dialogue has the ultimate responsibility to disclose who they might be and what their motives might be. I draw no distinction between news writing and opinions writing. Full transparency is the first rule of good journalism.”

Shawn McIntosh, public editor at The Atlanta Journal Constitution, said context mattered as well as content. The AJC does not allow anonymous content in their paper, but will in the comments on their blogs.

For both, misrepresenting yourself is a breach.

“I don’t care what medium we’re talking about,” Fink said. “I think quite frankly this is a big distinction between print journalism and the intellectual chaos that we see in cyberspace.”

IDENTITY CRISIS

“So tell me about blogger girl.”

Every day following another round of attempted reporting, Carlson would ask me the same thing; the answers changed but remained the same:

At the end of three weeks, more can be said about Messerschmidt’s inconsistencies than about herself.

Even though Messerschmidt, Prine and “Wings Over Iraq” have made efforts to put forth a truth about her identity as a collective of four in Chickamauga, none seem willing to give out verifying information. In fact, a transparent account seems discarded as irrelevant.

Prine has granted the group anonymity and “Wings Over Iraq” has extended an invitation for bloggers pretending to be everything from unmanned aerial vehicles to drunken users to post during the month of October.

As for the girl in question, those who have further questions about her identity may receive no direct answer from the foreign policy diva. When it comes to accountability, she, or they, seem to become uncharacteristically withdrawn.

When The Red & Black requested information to confirm Messerschmidt’s assertion she had once been a student, she declined.

“Since all this GsGf stuff has blown up — would never get a job anywhere unless I quietly go away and/or keep my name safe,” she said.

And numerous requests for Skype or phone interviews that would confirm the other members’ existence were also ignored.

“My first instinct is to confer with everyone before making any calls,” Messerschmidt said. “Yet do you not reckon any intent or ideas behind GsGf would be disregarded because of a stupid error of pride?”

The answer appears to be both yes and no. Messerschmidt still posts twice a day on “Wings Over Iraq,” but you won’t find her tab on “Line of Departure.”

Blogs such as “Small Wars Journal,” who discredit the deceit, have sent out the message that those who might try the same should look elsewhere for publication. But most readers chalked “her” actions up to the perils of the Internet.

When approached by The Red & Black for a definitive answer on her identity and future, Messerschmidt dismissed the need for more information.

She replied with a link.

It opened to her blog.