"He goes by the name Rubico"

David Kernell's friends are not doing him any favours.

Devon Holbrook is a UT student from Memphis who grew up with Kernell. He was shocked to hear from mutual friends that David was in some serious trouble.

"I went on Google, and the first thing I saw is David's picture and articles talking about what had happened," Holbrook said. "I immediately started freaking out."

When Holbrook confirmed the news about the FBI frenzy surrounding his longtime friend, he started calling but wasn't able to connect with Kernell.

"I would love to know where he is and know he's alright."

Holbrook says Kernell loves chess, economics, and talking about politics.

"I would definitely say he's more to the left in terms of politics, but he's never really been active as far as political groups or anything like that," Holbrook added.

However under a different name, Kernell's political views are all over several websites.

"He goes by the name Rubico," Holbrook said.

A blogger named Rubico admitted to the web community he broke into Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's e-mail, saying it was easy.