What do the three edits Feb. 24 have to do with the sock puppetry investigation of COI from 2006 and early 2007?  This all seems like a big stretch to formulate a grand conspiracy theory where there isn't any. Editors were aware of the COI back when it happened (years ago) and dealt with it.  The article is edited and watched closely now. 

Are the only recent edits those three attempted additions to the Barack Obama article? Hardly a high crime it seems to me.  What you're really upset about is that someone did an unfavorable (but accurate) story about how all attempts to include any mention of controversies or criticisms in the Obama article were reverted. News flash, many of us have had the exact same experience this editor had. If we block users for editing under "false pretenses" so be it, but lots of editors post on other sites about their experiences here. This hardly seems like some grand scheme to bring Wikipedia to its knees.  

This check user investigation, however, and the AfD certainly look like an overeaction that only adds fuel to the fire. Klein said he asked someone to make the edits to see what would happen. He reported on the experience and those he witnessed of other attempts to edit the page that are easily viewed through the history.  This hardly seems like something worth making a federal case over. The only mischaracterization is yours: "under false pretenses to incite a block and, through off-wiki agitation, bring disrepute on the project and trigger a major meltdown on the Obama page." The fact is the editor in question arranged for an attempt to make a reasonable edit to grotesquely biased article and reported on the experience.  That it's not favorable to Wikipedia is certainly cause for reflection and consideration of how we can improve our handling of issues like this in the future.  I know when something messed up is noted on another site and people here are made aware of it there's usually an effort to fix it.  That happened in this case, but the guardians of the Obama page made sure nothing changed.  So be it. If it upsets and embarasses you as it does me, do something to fix it.