• It is widely accepted that pseudo wikileaks-forum.com owner and his helpers do not support WikiLeaks. Still, the name ‘WikiLeaks’ remains in the forums domain name, twitter account, Facebook pages, pretending to support whilst in fact undermining the organisation and creating smears about its staff.

    On the 1st of November 2013: The pseudo forum’s twitter account send a tweet (http://archive.is/nKI5G) to WikiLeaks

    Screen Shot 2014-01-05 at 10.11.13


    Then on the 30th of December 2013 I saw on Mark’s personal website information on the Nash Crypto Project:

    Screen Shot 2014-01-05 at 10.07.22


    So I tweeted: (http://archive.is/Po50S)

    Screen Shot 2014-01-24 at 14.21.19


    The WikiLeaks Forum Twitter Account responded with Thanks (albeit ironic) (http://archive.is/7zx4E). Then sent me further four more tweets about all kinds of matters including about WL e-mail harvesting (http://archive.is/hHq7e) suggesting I am trolling (http://archive.is/fKATt), abusing and harassing (http://archive.is/79eKg) etc. etc.  (http://archive.is/epcOq)

    Then on the 3rd of January 2014 the same material  was published at the forum (http://archive.is/BciRQhttp://archive.is/dh2tk) and advertised in Twitter and Facebook pages controlled by the forum owner and helpers.

    Screen Shot 2014-01-05 at 10.48.29

    In a previous post here: http://wp.me/p2MRYW-gK I described how whilst a moderator with the wikileaks-forum I was asked by Mark to assist him with disseminating documents relating to Greek corruption handed to him by Anonymous. He said that WikiLeaks was too busy to do anything about it, so he was trying to find publishing partners, journalists etc. In the end I found out that the documents had already been made public on the net before he had even approached me in the first place.


    The question remains:

    Does the forum’s owner keep the name ‘WikiLeaks’ in the domain name and the various other platforms he controls so that people get fooled into submitting material for publication to Mark, thinking that he and the forum is somewhat connected to WikiLeaks? Does he aspire to publishing just as WikiLeaks does?

  • Using Tor (https://www.torproject.org) the Anonymising browser to access a website yesterday brought about a surprise message:

    This Website (www.wikileaks-forum.com) attempted to access image data on a canvas. Since canvas image data can be used to discover information about your computer, blank image data was returned this time.

    Then a drop down menu offered me the option to “Allow in the Future or “Never for this site”, which I of course selected. I took a screenshot to share here:

    Screen Shot 2014-01-22 at 12.00.07

    Why would this happen?

    When I googled “canvas image data” I got this article pop up which talks about duckduckgo.com facing similar problem.

    https://duck.co/forum/thread/1952/warning-message-when-accessing-duckduckgo-com-usin

    They are investigating the issue.

    Will the owners and admins of the pseudo wikileaks forum do the same and explain why their website attempts to access canvas image data?

  • I have written to my London Assembly representative who is also a member of the Police and Crime Committee, using the website https://www.writetothem.com enquiring as to the cost of policing Julian Assange of WikiLeaks at Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge. London Assembly according the their website define their role as:

    The London Assembly is an elected watchdog for the capital made up of 25 Assembly Members. Our role is to examine how effective the Mayor’s policies, decisions and activities are. We champion London, investigating issues that affect everyday life in the capital to find ways of improving our city for everyone who lives here. We ensure the Mayor is held publicly accountable every day, not just at election time.

    Here is the letter and will update this post when I get a reply. 🙂
    IMG_7126

    Monday 13 January 2014

    Dear Roger Evans,

    I am writing to you as my London Assembly Member.

    I am shocked at the number of police presence outside and inside No 3 Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge which houses the Ecuadorian Embassy in which Julian Assange has been granted political Asylum. At least 24 uniformed Metropolitan police personnel (4 officers, 6 x 4 hour shifts) a day are stationed at the building and vicinity which is guarded 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I have also observed at times as many
    as three stationary Metropolitan police vans parked outside and the side of the Embassy, in addition to other police vehicles. The resources spent in this operation that is continuing well in its second year go further than what the naked eye of a passer by can observe and record but I read on the press that Tax payers money are also spent for the electronic surveillance of the Embassy. Furthermore, other law enforcement units are reportedly involved in this operation which are not in uniform and therefore not identifiable.

    I am writing to you to please inform me how much this operation has cost the Tax payer so far and include my question as a Spending performance and governance item in the Police and Crime Committee (to which you are a member of) Agenda for discussion and furthermore raise it as a concern in the appropriate London Assembly sessions.

    London has 32 Boroughs and I would rather see the expenditure occurring at Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge be divided among these boroughs, Havering included, for much needed police services, instead of being wasted in unrelated matters outside the mandate of MetPol to protect Londoners.

    I would like to thank you in advance for your time in dealing with my question. It is important for facts to be known about the expenditure of public funds at a time of general austerity when we see police stations / fire stations closing down. Transparency in spending performance is paramount to uphold the highest accountability standards in public governance. When we talk about police expenditure, such vital operation in our society, there must be no compromise to such standards.

    Yours sincerely,

    Mrs Emilia B

    Update 20/01/2014

    I received a reply from Mr Rogers who very kindly informs me:

    Dear Mrs B****,

    Thank you for your email. I agree that in current conditions the Metropolitan Police budget needs to be carefully spent, indeed I feel that costs should be closely monitored and need to be justified at all times, regardless of austerity measures. The inclusion of national functions within the Met often makes this process more difficult unfortunately. In the past I have suggested splitting these national responsibilities out of the Met so that Scotland Yard can be entirely focused on policing London. The Met are however reluctant to support this type of reform because they would lose a generous stream of government funding.

    I have asked the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) to provide a breakdown of the costs involved in the Assange case. I imagine that questions have been asked about such a contentious issue on a number of occasions so I expect that they will be able to provide the required information.

    I will provide you with their response when I receive it.

    Best regards,

    Roger Evans

     

    Update 25/02/2014

    I have received no answer to my question but saw an article on Huffington Post UK about the matter and apparently:

    Julian Assange’s prolonged stay in the Ecuadorian Embassy has cost the Metropolitan Police £5.3million, in the 18 months since he entered the building in Knightsbridge.

    Police are stationed day and night outside the embassy, where the WikiLeaks founder was granted asylum, ready to arrest Assange, who was set to be extradited to face questioning in Sweden on sexual assault allegations.

    Assange claimed that Sweden would extradite him to the US over leaking secret documents. In Sweden, he faces potential rape charges from one woman and sexual assault charges from another, stemming from a visit to Stockholm in 2010.

    The most recent estimated cost available for the policing operation outside the Ecuador Embassy is for the period to 31st December 2013, according to an Freedom of Information request sent to the Huffington Post UK by the Metropolitan Police.[1]

    [1] http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/02/25/julian-assange-policing-cost_n_4853130.html

    Update on 13/03/2014

    Dear Mrs B***

    Thank you for your email to Roger Evans AM.

    I have checked with my colleague who looked into this for you and I can confirm that the estimated total cost of policing the Ecuadorian embassy between June 2012 and the end of December 2013 is £5.3m, of which £0.9m is additional costs and £4.4m is opportunity costs.

    I hope this is helpful and if I can be of further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.

    Kind regards.

    Maura
    RSO to Roger Evans AM
    Deputy Chairman of the London Assembly
    GLA Assembly Member for Havering & Redbridge

  • Since the very public attempt  to create a ‘WikiLeaks Forum’ Wikipedia page (you can find a draft Articles for creation submission  here http://wpedia.goo.ne.jp/enwiki/Wikipedia_talk:Articles_for_creation/The_WikiLeaks_Forum, it can no longer be claimed by the Forum staff that its creator wishes to remain anonymous, since the draft submission article mentions him. The draft submission article that names him, is identical to the same text (bar his name) that has appeared as a post at the forum with the title  ‘Facts about the WikiLeaks Forum’ which I have archived here: archive.is/uF1lS. It has been translated in various languages and tweeted several times by the WLForum twitter account, also posted at the various Facebook pages that were also created by Mark and maintained by forum staff.The Wikipedia article was submitted by Mayya Gaia http://archive.is/GcQyj, whilst the forum post was submitted by administrator Mayya http://archive.is/uF1lS. It is therefore hypocritical to pretend that the forums creator wishes to be anonymous, when his name is destined for the pseudo forum’s public Wikipedia Page .

    When back in June I came across a website with his own name on: http://mark-goeder-tarant.com I was so surprised that it prompted me to tweet the link from it quoting its title, but without making the link to the forum :

    Soon after my tweet the content changed and it was replaced with some videos. Later, the site became full of ads.  I had saved the webpage in June and a screenshot of it reveals its content at the time :

    Screen Shot 2013-12-16 at 21.55.54

    Why would Mark create such website and post such dramatic content in it is anyones guess. I don’t  have any answers. But there is one thing clear to me always as far as the operation of the forum and its staff, that not all is what it seems and I am now looking at this content under this prism.

    Resources:

    https://web.archive.org/web/20130613162425/http://mark-goeder-tarant.com/

  • In a previous post here http://wp.me/p2MRYW-gm I used twittercount.com and twitteraudit.com applications to analyse the followers history for @ wikileaks_forum. I concluded that fake followers had been purchased, to the region of 44% at the time.

    My post has created exchanges in twitter and  Mannheimia Phage @Myoviridae, describing themselves as a Whistleblower and critic to anti-Wikileaks site http://wikileaks-forum.com undertook an experiment to collect empirical evidence that indeed fake accounts had been purchased by  @ wikileaks_forum.

    I have been asked to summarise their findings in a post here as it confirms my own previous analysis.

    The @Myoviridae experiment took place Dec 2013:

    24 accounts were selected as a random batch. From this sample of 24 followers, none had posted in December, most had not posted since mid November, many October or September. Some of the biographies appeared to be those of children. None were accounts that demonstrated an interest in politics, news or WikiLeaks, in any shape or form.


    The pattern observed includes that they will typically had about 20 followers (also fake!) and had tweeted about 30 times on topics irrelevant to WL, nothing to do with generally, politics, news related issues. They followed between 400 to 500 people.


    In addition, there were a few isolated fake followers, plainly created individually. These appeared to be lazy creations. Very little effort had gone into them and frequently they would be following 3 accounts, one of which being the forum. They contained no biographies or pictures.  Often they showed as protected accounts so one could not investigate their tweets or any further information about them.


    @Myoviridae‘s experiment confirms my earlier findings but I decided to go one step further and test her sample further myself, using other criteria, focusing on 5 accounts.

     

    First Account:   @merlinafgccgs

     

    The lovely image in this account brings about 95 different results when inserted into the google image search function, all used in direct or indirect advertising, in fact apart from English she is also a native speaker of Spanish Slavic and Chinese languages with the corresponding names. You will find some amusing:

    fd19bcbc107a51ea1d5c464603ab4bec_reasonably_small

    Here she is Melanie giving testimonial for ovarian cysts guide book http://cystonovary-pcos.com
    Here her picture appears in youth awards by Bankia, Australia http://www.supergreenme.com/BanksiaEnvironmentalFoundation
    Here she is Joanna from Bydgoszcz,  English Customer Service Representative http://www.englishshark.com/user-opinions
    Here she gives advise on preparing for pregnancy  http://www.expectthebestpregnancy.com/preconception.php
    Here her name is Ashley Doran and is a singer http://voicelessonsonline.org

    Second Account: @nashardath

    This account points to someone remarkable that seem to follow accounts that tweet exclusive in English or Arabic, or Russian or Turkish. An amazing achievement for any person but again no WL interest or political interest indicated.

    Third account:  @wyliezkz

    This one is a pure gem. I was amused to learn that pseudo wikileaks forum do their fake followers shopping at the same place as a  Mexican politician, PAN Candidate, Santiago Gonzalez. A most informative article confirms this as a fake account.

    http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://candidatosdemetepec.blogspot.com/&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2540wyliezkz%26sa%3DX%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D2560%26bih%3D1359%26site%3Dimghp

    Fourth Account: @tammaralqrtkw

    This one has identical behaviour like the second account described above. Some interesting accounts it follows include http://www.fixsocialmedia.com and http://www.6wseo.com both sites offering twitter and Facebook followers/likes as well as search engine optimisation services. Could these companies be the origin of these fake accounts? We’ll never know but one thing is for sure, they are fake.

    Fifth Account: @lyndsaychg

    Fascinating Following behaviour this one: using twittercount.com I checked this account’s following history. From 23/06/2013 to 14/09/2013, this account in 84 days followed 84 accounts, one on each and every day. Then on the Sep 15th it unfollowed 11 accounts. Then from 16/09/2013 to 10/10/2013, in 118 days it followed 118 accounts, again one on each day, then on Friday the 10th of October it unfollowed 4 accounts and then zero follows since then. There is some automatic following behaviour there obviously, “hello bot!”.

    So, to conclude, evidence presented here confirms that fake followers have been purchased by @ wikileaks_forum as a means of boosting their image, so their staff can declare in joy :

    Screen Shot 2013-12-16 at 00.34.53

    https://twitter.com/wikileaks_forum/status/405462068230254593 archived here: http://archive.is/vtvVn

    The hypocrisy at the forum continues. But why should Twitter gravitas matter to them enough to engage in such hypocrisy ? why manufacture something false? Because sadly this appears to be the essence of their existence, creating a fake wikileaks branded social media instrument to use against the Community of supporters and the organisation itself. Keep your eyes open friends!

    Many thanks to @Myoviridae for their detailed work and experiment.

    Resources:

    Screenshots with random Screen Shot 2013-12-15 at 22.30.06 Screen Shot 2013-12-15 at 22.30.41 Screen Shot 2013-12-15 at 22.31.06 Screen Shot 2013-12-15 at 22.31.26sample of 24 follower accounts:

  • What is Spamvertising ?

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia

    Spamvertising is the practice of sending E-mail spam, advertising a website. The word is a portmanteau of the words “spam” and “advertising”.
    It also refers to vandalizing blogs, online forums or wikis with hyperlinks in order to get a higher search engine ranking for the vandal’s website. Spamvertisers insert links to their websites (typically, sites purporting to sell some commercial product) and add keywords of common or related searches. The apparent goal is that a search engine will find the vandalized page full of links and improve the popularity rating of the pages to which they link. This is typically done by automated editing programs which look for editable text fields in web forms and automatically fill them in with web links. The links typically lead to pills, porn and poker sites.
    Most legitimate website providers do not tolerate this practice, and will delete any site that has been spamvertised.
    This practice has led to many editable online resources employing anti-spam countermeasures, including the use of captchas to prevent automated editing.

    I did not know what this term meant until end of Spring 2012 The owner of the wikileaks forum, self proclaimed official, shared the following with a few selective mods and admins (not all of them after all had been invited to join the FB staff room)

    At the WikiLeaks Forum Facebook Staff Group Page

    May 29 2012 at 3:54pm

    Ma Rk
    Oh deary me….this just reached me

    Hello,

    We have received complaints of a domain hosted on your account being spamvertised (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spamvertisement). Advertising via spam is a violation of our Zero Tolerance Spam Policy as found in section three of our terms of service. As such, we are requesting an explanation for the attached email and will require a resolution to this matter within the next 48 hours. Please contact us right away in order to resolve this matter.

    The matter meant so little to me and most of the other mods the no one commented at the time. Soon though the issue was mentioned again

    May 30 at 12:45pm

    Ma Rk
    Seems the matter below is far from resolved and it looks like a deliberate attempt to disrupt the forum or at the worse, get it removed.

    I need to act fats and have been speaking to a new hoster in the UK that can help us at a fair price.

    The forum will then be hosted on a VPS account and have it own dedicated IPs. Up to now I’ve been paying my self for the shared hosting account.

    VPS and Virtual Private Servers from WebHostingBuzz
    http://www.webhostingbuzz.co.uk

    Then again a couple of weeks later we were informed:

    June 17 at 1:33pm

    Ma Rk
    Important Info: I am getting ready to move the forum to its own virtual private server ( VPS ) where we have full root contol.

    We are currently backing up all files and data bases to prepare for ” d-day ”

    Of course I will let u all know when the final move will be made and you can expect the forum to be unreachable untill the new DNS settings take effect.

    vServer Hosting mit Shellzugang
    alfahosting.de
    Günstige und leistungsstarke vServer für Ihre Projekte, passen Sie Programme, Erweiterungen an Ihre Bedürfnisse über Shellzugriff an, eigene Domainverwaltung möglich

    June 17 at 8:46pm

    Ma Rk
    Mission accomplished:

    7 hours later and the forum has finally been moved to Germany. Untillt he DNS has propagated, you will probably notice no change. Once your DNS has been updated you will see that the forum is much fasrter than before and yo will see this on page loads.

    We have also installed APC caching accelerator in order to enhance the forum performance at times when traffic is high.

    In telephone conversations Mark mentioned that the US hoster had complained about the content of the forum. He said that the forum was being once again targeted because of its supportive Wikileaks role. He was able to ease away the hosters concerns about the content but he also said that for the safety of the forum he had decided to re-locate to a Virtual Private Server in Germany. I understood so little about such matters all I could do was go forward with a donation when he placed the donation button, to help out with the hosting costs.

    But since I left the forum I started questioning the truthfulness of everything I had been told, including the validity of the argument that spamvertising had nothing to do with the forum. In my research I came across this report that I put here. It states that twice wikileaks-forum.com had been reported as a spam site:

    The following domains served from CNS1.ALFAHOSTING.INFO were reported to KnujOn in spam messages. Any questions can be directed to contact@knujon.com

    domain name – wikileaks-forum.com
    instances – 2
    first time reported – 6/22/2012
    last time reported – 7/17/2012
    nameserver -7f93ab08db1b4ea3a9498c4a92eb20fa.protect@whoisguard.com CNS1.ALFAHOSTING.INFO
    IP address – 80.246.60.109
    registrar – ENOM

    Mark had advised the mods of a spamvertising problem with the US hoster on the 29th of May 2012 but the above record mentions the German hoster and the dates are after the forum moved to Germany.

    The Questions that need to be asked are why was the forum involved in spamvertising?
    A further question remains. If the US hoster did not tolerate it and asked Mark to remove the forum, how is it that the German hoster has no problem with it?

    I am following up this matter directly with knujon.com and will update this post accordingly.

    Resources:

    Wkipedia Article on Spamvertising http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spamvertising
    Spam Report in KnujOn.com http://knujon.com/nameservers/CNS1.ALFAHOSTING.INFO.html archived here: http://archive.is/yUchZ

  • A dear friend once said

    Julian #Assange willingly put himself on the line so we could know the truth about our own governments. He deserves our support & loyalty.

    As he remains unwavering so should our support. His work of WikiLeaks has a long road ahead. It has ignited , enabled and nurtured a movement for transparency as the lever for an explosion in learning. It has proved through action the fundamental notion that humankind can and does mould and shape its destiny through engaging with adversarial conditions, emerging victorious. It remains as a constant compass for this young enlightening movement, paramount to a revolution in the history of ideas. Just as its heroes and protagonists are tossed about by powerful actors, again and again, no amount of ruffled feathers prevent them from re-writing the script and delivering the next chapter.

    Let us remember that for every folk song that nurtures us through the centuries, (its creator erased from collective memory), there is always a composer, as human as us, with all the breadth of human attributes, no different, not unequal to any of us. We may forget him centuries down the line, but for now, lets feed him and protect him.

    No one does it better than a mother 🙂 Here are some of my favourite quotes by Christine Assange to friend and foe, you can find more here: http://favstar.fm/users/AssangeC

    Screen Shot 2013-12-11 at 10.00.54

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    Screen Shot 2013-12-11 at 10.00.00

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    Screen Shot 2013-12-11 at 09.58.49

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    Screen Shot 2013-12-11 at 09.57.30

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  •  It sometimes happens that you feel a single virtual space is your home with no alternatives and the people who created it determine every aspect of social interaction within it via rules, rewards, and punishments. That is how I started feeling once I became a mod at the Official WikiLeaks Forum . There was never a more powerful motivator to conform to dictates when the owner of that space proclaimed to dedicate it in support of a bunch of persecuted heroes who are changing the world. People you admire and want to support. Acquiescence to its rules as defined by owner then became a daily test of your support to these heroes.

    So, I go back to the self proclaimed “Official” wikileaks-forum.com at the end of April 2012. A volunteer translation project was at full swing and it filled my days with activity as a co-ordinator.

    A new crisis shook the forum and threatened to once again implode it socially. “Not again!” I thought to myself as it engulfed me in a spiral of sadness, fear, empathy, frantic action to protect/save, abandonment, disillusionment, acceptance of failure and finally the realisation that I had slowly compromised my principals for the sake of keeping the peace and propping up a space and its owner who was once more destructive.

    On the 25th of April 2012, an article that appeared in Al Manar on line Newspaper was posted on a Board called ‘The Poison Cabinet’. This Board had been created to host controversial articles that could then be debated. First Cabledrum posted it and it was gone, then Z (owner’s alias) posted it again and it disappeared once more.

    At the time I used to go into the forum and tweet links from it whilst using the Forum’s twitter account. At this point, when I saw Z had re-posted the article (albeit from a different source), I tweeted it. Oh my goodness, all hell broke loose. We had a proper “Who did it” at the Facebook Forum Staff Room and I had to explain privately my actions. In a jabber conversation Mark wanted to know my connection to the Al Manar article. He explained that this article was putting the forum at risk, he had received legal advise, the paper was affiliated with Hezbollah, a designated terrorist organisation.

    I said I had no connection. Whoever was posting links to Al Manar he was putting the forum and himself at risk, he said. Then he produced a forum link that led to the thread graveyard (where we used to put all undesirable posts like spam etc). It was one of my very own posts of the same article. I could not for the life of me remember that I had also posted this. Everything that I read about WL releases and news I used to put up at the forum, since we were not allowed to liaise freely with the members, posting articles was a safe way to pass the time whilst looking out for spam. Did I remember putting this article up? No, but there it was, in front of me. Suddenly, fear possessed me. This mysterious post of mine could be the end of me at the forum.

    Paranoia took momentarily over, only a few weeks ago I had realised that certain permissions could allow an Admin access to members’ profile information including their password. Could someone else had used my account details to post this article and implicate me, compromising my position? But I could not accept this as fact and dismissed it, instead I took the blame entirely, feeling inadequate and ignorant. It would not be the first time, I was a complete novice in this world of wonder.

    I asked to be taken out of this board that Mark had given me to moderate. But he re-assured me with the most generous words. Whilst the posting of this article had apparently become the reason for stripping Cabledrum of his mod status for endangering the forum, he was letting me go scot free. I should not worry about a thing, all he wanted to know was if Cabledrum had asked me to tweet it. Of course he hadn’t. I was  fully aware that any dealings I had with him had to be reported back to Mark, as he never liked him, so I kept him at arms length as a sign of loyalty to Mark and not to get myself into trouble. I had in the past ample example of how deep Mark’s animosity went towards Cabledrum and the prejudice he had created against him held strong with many mods, who felt protective.  From that moment I retreated entirely from the conversation over Cabledrum and reduced my communications with him, feeling that to do otherwise was pushing my luck. Then I received this in my forum inbox on the 9th of May:

    Dear WLF team,

    As you probably know, my moderator permissions got revoked and the “cabledrum” board was taken offline without prior notice. Why?

    On April 25, I posted a highly controversial article from the Lebanese media organization Al-Manar, regarding the Nasrallah interview on “World Tomorrow”. Al-Manar, which is affiliated with Hezbollah, is banned in several countries, including Germany (where WLF is operating from) and the US (where WLF server is hosted). I’ve also posted an opposing article from Jerusalem Post.

    As a result, I have been accused for posting illegal content “in spite of Z’s warnings about it’s anti-constitutional character”. I’m accused to have “grossly violated” the board rules and to have endangered both WLF and Z this way.

    But: This posting was made with Z’s approval. I informed him in advance and asked for his permission to post this article. We’ve discussed the posting details for over an hour, particularly the legislative situation (which wasn’t mentioned by Z but by me). Finally, Z explicitly permitted me to post the Al-Manar article.

    Shortly after it was posted, I asked Z again, if the posting is ok this way. He told me that he worries about it and wants to discuss the issue with the other admins. During this chat, the posting was removed by C. On this point, I’ve stated again that I accept this decision.

    Over the next three days, we dicussed the legal situation and possible alternatives. Finally, on April 28, Z posted a copy of the Al-Manar article from another website on his own and without my knowledge. This posting was removed 3 hours later.

    Assuming that I did post that article “in spite of Z’s warnings” (which in fact isn’t the case): Why did Z post a copy of it afterwards?

    In response to this issue, the “cabledrum” board was taken offline. This board contains a number of valuable postings, all mentioned by WikiLeaks on FB/Twitter, and got more than 10,000 page views. There was never any problem with this board. Even if any of the above accusations against me were true (which isn’t the case): Would it justify this degree of censorship? Even the postings of banned users remain online.

    I am punished for something I haven’t done. And even if I had done it (which isn’t the case) it would not justify the sentence.

    Since I have been accused and sentenced without any opportunity to defend myself, this internal PM should be an acceptable remedy and should not be understood as offensive intervention.

    I still try to hope on some strange misunderstanding.

    Cabledrummer

    The above message was accompanied by long quotes in German & English from Cabledrum’s communication with Mark that proved without doubt how truthful Cabledrum was in his assertions above. Mark had given the green light for the posting of this article.

    Despite my upset feelings and empathy for his predicament, I stayed silent and did not reply to him, offering no support or help. I knew I had no influence what so ever and there was no one else to turn to. I had no trouble with any other admin did neither did I have a close relationship of trust with any of them, the only one I spent a little time talking to was Ariana and I knew by then that she was Mark’s closest associate (couldn’t get any closer than that). My only reaction I shared with the mod which I spent most of the time with after Mark, her reply gave no encouragement:

    You have just been sent a personal message by isis on The Official WikiLeaks Forum.

    The message they sent you was:

    Quote from: Green on Today at 05:46:50 PM

    😥

    4 every decision there are reasons… and i wasn’t there to value.
    i trust and respect the decisions of the forum.
    eventual discussions to clear the “why”, concern the involved ppl ONLY and it’s not an issue of “accusing” or being wrong or right.
    hope things can improove only, and we can cohoperate To Support Wikileaks that is what we are all here for.

    The Official WikiLeaks Forum forum@wikileaks-forum.com via soul.websitewelcome.com – 09/05/2012
    Cabledrum continued reaching out, and I continued staying silent, it was now all decided by ‘the admins’ i.e. Mark.
    You have just been sent a personal message by suspect on The Official WikiLeaks Forum. 10/05/2012

    This is Cabledrummer. I have to write from another account since the cabledrum account got banned from sending messages, in response to my attempt to contradict.

    Quote from WLF Mission Statement:Quote from: Z on May 24, 2011, 11:08:07 AM

    The forum stands for the values Wikileaks has defended since its creation, such as freedom of speech and information.
    [..]
    We encourage constructive dialogues.

    Unfortunately, WikiLeaks Forum fails to comply with its own standards. Decision-making lacks any transparency, dialogue is unwanted, criticism is forbidden, complaints are silenced. This is not what WikiLeaks stands for. And this is not the spirit of a free open community I’m dreaming of.

    I strongly support the idea of WikiLeaks in the best possible way, I did before WLF and I will continue. Sadly, I’m prevented from sharing my work on WLF now and I’m not even allowed to ask for a reason.

    At this point, I stop wasting my time with begging for fair treatment.

    Cabledrummer

    Eventually, Mark said he not only banned Cabledrum but also in anger he had accidentally deleted all of Cabledrum’s posts! I was astonished. In our telephone conversations his rage was evidently all consuming. I felt both fearful of him and what he might further do but I also felt pity, an immense sense of pity that he was once again failing in his role, at least in my eyes, and this saddened me. I was still convinced at this stage that he was the number one WL supporter. I tried hard to find excuses for him but they would not stand up to my own scrutiny.

    His rage was unending and it started engulfing everyone remotely involved. He admitted it was his error to delete the posts. He could not accept the consequences of his actions, deeming himself blameless, could not see the damage and hurt he was inflicting on Cabledrum and others including the credibility of the forum as a platform. He felt insecure, wanted all other platforms’ boards off the forum. At this point he pressed my panic button.  Although the forum had nothing to do with WL work, or its actual people as far as my experience told me (despite Mark’s claims) as long as it had the word ‘Official’ in its title any of Mark’s actions could be viewed by the community as somehow implicating WL. If Mark got rid of all the platforms, what message was he passing to the community? This anger was so dangerous.

    Blessed be the peacemaker …Not!

    And his actions had consequences. The deletion of over 400 posts did not go unnoticed and Cabledrum was not ‘going quietly into the night’. Other voices within the community started asking questions. Mark asked at the FB Staff Group Page for a spokesperson to step in and defuse the tension. I kept quiet, knowing what will follow…and it did. There was a drawback with having telephone contact with Mark, whatever my feelings were when I picked up the phone, I found myself agreeing to help in the end.

    I wrote posts under his direction sealing him off the conflict zone, and tried to offer advise whilst deflecting tension. It was very difficult position to be in because Mark wanted this to work only as far as not experiencing the consequences of his actions. I reached out to WLPress who had complained about the deletions, and since Mark could not even allow direct talks with Cabledrum I agreed terms with them for the restitution of the posts. It was easy for me to find agreement  as all parties were willing and able to find solutions. But what I committed myself to do on the part of the forum I failed in carrying out. Mark would not co-operate in facilitating the automatic loading of the posts. Despite the fact that Cabledrum offered to recover the deleted posts at the cabledrum board from his backup system Mark refused this. I started doing it manually but after the first couple of dozen ones were done, I stumbled on a technical issue. Cabledrum’s posts had html coded format beyond what my automatic html to bb converter could handle. My requests for help were answered by Mark with annoyance at the amount of time I was spending on this. No one else could help. I soon realised that the agreement would not be kept on the part of the forum.

    Furthermore, I discovered the real reason of his rage which explained why he had reacted so violently and unfairly towards Cabledrum over the posting of the Al Manar article but so mildly towards me. He said that he had asked Cabledrum’s help with Ariana’s translating site (it was actually owned by him at the time, I later found out). Cabledrum had indeed delivered programming work to Ariana but she was furious. She had called Mark in anger fearing she would have to pay Cabledrum money that she did not have. As Mark kept going on about financials that hardly made sense, in the end of this conversation I understood entirely that this anger that made him attack Cabledrum over the Al Manar article had absolutely nothing to do with ‘endangering the forum’. It was an emotional reaction, prompted by Ariana’s feelings.  I was once again speechless.  The entire crisis was over a personal matter.  It was the second time I was confronted with the same loop: Mark’s relationship with his friend, their financial interests culminating into translation activities on and off the forum.

    Very quickly it became evident that he did not care to have the posts restituted, repeating again and again his feelings that he is being attacked, with no concern for the feelings of others and I started suspecting that he or his friend may have deleted the posts on purpose and not accidentally. I felt increasingly uncomfortable. I saw that all my efforts produced nothing other protecting Mark from the consequences of his actions. I also saw that he had manufactured a believable lie to achieve his objective.

    But I accepted my failure to bring about an honourable settlement and made myself busy with the volunteer translation project. I kept Cabledrum blocked on all fronts fearing any communication with him would go back to Mark as it often did. At the back of my mind I started thinking that although it felt almost impossible to disassociate myself from what had become my first and only virtual home, I should plan an alternative future for my WL support outside the forum.   I had heard and experienced before that he was very successful in stamping over his authority at the forum, persuading others to act on his behalf, encouraging discord by spreading negative information about others.In the end his every victory in securing his authority over others by hurting them meant that dozens of WL supporters left the forum in bitterness or disgust, often unable to find another way of supporting on line.

    With the benefit of hindsight

    In less than three months from the events I describe above, Mark abandoned any pretence of real support for WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.  Aug/Sep 2012, confused but determined I left. He retained the forum and blog support-julian-assange.com and used them in a sustained campaign of open misinformation, smear and blind criticism towards WL/JA. I have described all this in detail at this blog in other posts. 99% of forum posts are copy and paste submitted articles about WL releases. In between these there are opinion posts exclusively debated among the admins/mods always critical and undermining of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. Other remarkable facts have become known about the forum. Mark tried to sell it three times, Twitter followers appeared out of nowhere, possibly bought, Facebook Likes also appear to have been bought.

    With the benefit of hindsight I would suggest that the Al Manar case is indicative of what happened at the forum. It was created to bring people together but it was emptied from real support by the manufacture of believable lies, hurting members who then left or were banned. When it was emptied internally from real support for the organisation and people who it was supposed to support, then  it was turned into a vehicle of hurting the community outside the forum that supports WikiLeaks, at the same time as smearing the people directly doing WikiLeaks work.

    There is now more than ever the need to understand as far as we can that private ownership of WikiLeaks named expression platforms can be easily manipulated by owners for their own purposes.

    Resources for the The case of Al Manar Revisited can be found here: http://wp.me/p2MRYW-lg

  • At the Facebook Forum Staff Page and my private FB chat

    Mark kept bringing up Cabledrum for about four weeks. Although incomplete they give an indication on how he was presenting this issue publicly within the team of mods and some admins who were members of the Facebook Forum Staff Group Page (not all were):

    Ma Rk April 29 at 12:29am
    who tweeted the ” Hezbollah ” article that was posted ont eh forum ?

    In a Facebook Message later on the day:

    4/29, 8:31am


Greek Emmy
I am sorry about the tweeting Mark. I don’t feel comfortable with this board, first this business with the “-1” reputation of milicak, then this “Poison Cabinet” with its complications, and now my tweeting going all wrong… I don’t think I am up to it really, best someone else moderates this particular Board, pleeease? do you think someone else can step in? I don’t want to let you down but I think someone else should take over this board. Please and thank you

    4/29, 9:18am


Ma Rk
Eemmy…… The teeet was ok….. Just wanted to know if cabledrum asked you to teeet it…. Nothing wrong done,,,,, no need to worry

    Back at the Facebook Forum Staff Page that afternoon:

    Ma Rk no 😛 I was asking because of a compeltely different reason. I will send you PM and explain. Nothng wrogn has been done and no harm caused…I’ll explain

    April 29 at 1:27pm

    Greek Emmy thank you 🙂

    April 29 at 1:28pm

    Ma Rk
    Cabledrum:

    Just to inform you all about what cable has been up to. He has been removed as board moderator for his platform. We wrote him a long explanation explaining the reasons which he didnt accept and as a result he just tweeted this :

    https://twitter.com/#!/Cabledrummer/status/198020386795962368
    …Continue Reading

    Twitter / Cabledrum: He lied. Al-Manar was his …

    twitter.com

    He lied. Al-Manar was his decision, not mine. He was fully informed in advance and authorized it.

    Like · · Follow Post · Share · May 3 at 5:20pm

    Ma Rk
    Cabledrum intentions:

    I’m still not sure what to do with Cabledrum, especially in light of the last PM he chose to send everyone. I ( we ) have explained why his moderation permissions were revoked and the matter requires no further dabate. He has also bee sending the mods PMs asking them do to this and that as well as pestering and provoking me ( see his Tweet below )

    I have lost all my patience and trust with Cabledrum and as a result I have changed his forum status to a new membergroup I created for people who I don’t trust, but don’t have a reason to ban. The new membergroup ” Basic Member ” has scaled permissions meaning he can post but can edit, or send PMs.

    Like · · Follow Post · May 10 at 1:42pm near

    Isis ‎4 me it’s enough not to be posting at all… just my opinion… shooting smears vs the admins to not involved ppl of the forum is itself a bad behaviour…

    May 10 at 4:22pm · Like

    Ma Rk ‎”suspec” has been deleted and cablrdum has received warnung. Now that he has admitted to breaking the forum rules the time has come to consider more drastic measures.

    May 10 at 5:19pm

    Ma Rk
    after cabledrums tweet we have decided to ban his forum account. The ban was issued after a majority vote via the admin team. His latest tweet prompted me to delete his entire account. We can expect cabledrum to keep attacking the forum and myself untill he realizes that his behaviour will only discredit himself and his site.

    Openly publishsing chat logs including the location of the hosting account for the forum as well as my own location is blatant attack on this forum as well as myself.

    I will not respond to these attacks and hope we can all keep our cool and continue to uphold the saftey of the wikileaks forum.
    …See More

    Twitter / Cabledrum: In response to my last twe …

    twitter.com

    In response to my last tweet @wikileaks_forum has BANNED me http://t.co/PxzPf7jT #wikileaks

    Like · · Unfollow Post · Share · May 18 at 3:21pm

    Ma Rk
    Hi all…just to update you on the ” Cabledrum Saga ” ( sigh ).
    Its seems he is now involving different groups including WLPress which include ex admins ***** and *****. *****left the admin team when I refused to publish his own 9/11 theory and ***** left after she was caught giving interviews to a Canadian TV station after intercepting an e-mail meant for support-julian-assange.com. The Canadian TV presented her as owner and admin of the site as well an a Wikileaks ” intern “. After I asked her why she did this she told me she had no more time and asked me if it was oaky to leave the admin which I accepted without any further discussion.

    Anyway…just so you know who is involved in WLPress….

    …Continue Reading

    Like · · Follow Post · May 21 at 11:12am

    Ma Rk
    just to keep everyone informed about the intentions of ( you know who )

    https://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/Cabledrummer

    https://twitter.com/?_escaped_fragment_=%2Fsearch%2Frealtime%2FCabledrummer

    twitter.com

    Like · · Unfollow Post · Share · May 24 at 12:42pm near

    Greek Emmy Thank you Mark & E ! 🙂 – I finished checking 433 GIF posts from Cabledrum’s database and he actually had posted 29 of them in the forum. I have the URL’s and I intend to post them tomorrow.

    May 24 at 11:58pm · Like · 1

    Ma Rk great stuff….please remember that Cabledum isnt priority

    May 25 at 12:10am ·

    Ma Rk Im sorry if somed of you think Im being too hard on this ” wikileaks supporter ” but I dont want to see Cabledrum on this forum ever again. …..Amen

    May 29 at 10:50pm

    Ma Rk
    Oh dear Lord…this just reach me as well from cabledrumm

    https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/206556802408656896
    I’m still willing to cease that bullshit. What about you?”

    …See More

    Twitter / wikileaks: Supporters: Please befrien

    twitter.com

    Instantly connect to what’s most important to you. Follow your friends, experts, favorite celebrities, and breaking news.

    Like · · Follow Post · Share · May 29 at 3:58pm

    Related Personal Messages I received at the forum:

    The Following messages were sent to me through the forums Personal message system.

    1
    The Official WikiLeaks Forum forum@wikileaks-forum.com via soul.websitewelcome.com

    09/05/2012

    You have just been sent a personal message by cabledrum on The Official WikiLeaks Forum.

    IMPORTANT: Remember, this is just a notification. Please do not reply to this email.

    The message they sent you was:

    Dear WLF team,

    As you probably know, my moderator permissions got revoked and the “cabledrum” board was taken offline without prior notice. Why?

    On April 25, I posted a highly controversial article from the Lebanese media organization Al-Manar, regarding the Nasrallah interview on “World Tomorrow”. Al-Manar, which is affiliated with Hezbollah, is banned in several countries, including Germany (where WLF is operating from) and the US (where WLF server is hosted). I’ve also posted an opposing article from Jerusalem Post.

    As a result, I have been accused for posting illegal content “in spite of Z’s warnings about it’s anti-constitutional character”. I’m accused to have “grossly violated” the board rules and to have endangered both WLF and Z this way.

    But: This posting was made with Z’s approval. I informed him in advance and asked for his permission to post this article. We’ve discussed the posting details for over an hour, particularly the legislative situation (which wasn’t mentioned by Z but by me). Finally, Z explicitly permitted me to post the Al-Manar article.

    Shortly after it was posted, I asked Z again, if the posting is ok this way. He told me that he worries about it and wants to discuss the issue with the other admins. During this chat, the posting was removed by C. On this point, I’ve stated again that I accept this decision.

    Over the next three days, we dicussed the legal situation and possible alternatives. Finally, on April 28, Z posted a copy of the Al-Manar article from another website on his own and without my knowledge. This posting was removed 3 hours later.

    Assuming that I did post that article “in spite of Z’s warnings” (which in fact isn’t the case): Why did Z post a copy of it afterwards?

    In response to this issue, the “cabledrum” board was taken offline. This board contains a number of valuable postings, all mentioned by WikiLeaks on FB/Twitter, and got more than 10,000 page views. There was never any problem with this board. Even if any of the above accusations against me were true (which isn’t the case): Would it justify this degree of censorship? Even the postings of banned users remain online.

    I am punished for something I haven’t done. And even if I had done it (which isn’t the case) it would not justify the sentence.

    Since I have been accused and sentenced without any opportunity to defend myself, this internal PM should be an acceptable remedy and should not be understood as offensive intervention.

    I still try to hope on some strange misunderstanding.

    Cabledrummer
    [Reducted e-mail address]

    Quote from: cabledrum on May 03, 2012, 03:24:25 AM

    Hallo Mark,

    diese Darstellung der Ereignisse und meines Verhaltens ist falsch und beleidigend. Keine der darin erhobenen Anschuldigungen entspricht den Tatsachen. Ich habe weder eine Forumsregel mißachtet noch irgendeinen problematischen Inhalt ohne dein Wissen und deine ausdrückliche Zustimmung gepostet.

    Quote

    Erstens:
    Bei Deiner Registration hast Du den Forumregeln zugestimmt, die Du trotz ausführlicher Gespräche mit Mark und seiner Hinweise auf die Verfassungsfeindlichkeit der von Dir im Forum verlinkten Seite bewusst grob mißachtet und dadurch nicht nur das Forum, sondern ihn persönlich großer Gefahr ausgesetzt hast.

    Nicht Du hast mich auf die Verfassungsfeindlichkeit von Al-Manar hingewiesen, sondern ich dich, und zwar vorab.

    Ich habe dich vorab gefragt, ob ich diesen Artikel posten kann, auf die juristischen und inhaltlichen Probleme deutlich hingewiesen und um deine Entscheidung gebeten. Erst mit deiner ausdrücklichen Zustimmung habe ich den Al-Manar-Artikel gepostet. Was an diesem Verhalten “grobe Missachtung” sein sollte, vermag ich nicht zu erkennen.

    Quote

    Zweitens:
    Als das Board Poison Cabinet auf Deine Bitte hin eingerichtet wurde, um – wie sich kurz danach herausgestellt hat – solche illegalen Inhalte dort zu veröffentlichen – hat Mark dir angeboten, als  Moderator für dieses Board tätig zu sein, damit Du ein Stück Verantwortung für Deine eigenen Ideen übernimmst.

    Welche Inhalte in diesem Board erscheinen sollten, hat sich nicht “kurz danach herausgestellt”. Ich habe vier Artikel gepostet, die dir vor Einrichtung des Boards bekannt waren und deren Veröffentlichung du vorab explizit zugestimmt hast.

    Quote

    Im Beisein eines weiteren Administrators hast du im Jabber-Chat jedoch dieses Angebot abgelehnt mit der „Begründung“, you „don’t want to be affiliated with WikiLeaks“ und you „don’t want to be an outlet of WL“. Angesichts Deines Engagements für WikiLeaks ist diese Haltung sehr seltsam. Da Deine Absichten nur schwer nachzuvollziehen waren, wurde das Vertrauensverhältnis zu Dir schwer beschädigt.

    Das Zitat ist nicht korrekt und sinnentstellend.

    04/25/2012 00:05:49 cabledrummer: I do not want cabledrum to be seen as “just another WL outlet” but as an independent source

    Ich schrieb deutlich nicht von mir als Person, sondern von meinem Projekt cabledrum. Da ich im WLF mit dem gleichen Nickname auftrete, entsteht ein Interessenkonflikt, wenn “cabledrum” als Moderator in Erscheinung tritt. Eine einfache Lösung bestünde darin, unter anderem Nickname zu moderieren, wie viele andere Mods auch.

    Im Klartext: Ich habe kein Problem damit, als Moderator im WLF Verantwortung zu übernehmen, sondern lediglich ein Problem damit, dies unter dem Nickname “cabledrum” zu tun.

    Im Detail:

    1. Da ich mir bewusst war, dass das “Poison Cabinet” und insbesondere der Al-Manar-Artikel mindestens problematisch ist, habe ich dich vorab konsultiert, die Absicht ausführlich erläutert und um deine Entscheidung gebeten. Ich habe keinen Zweifel daran gelassen, dass ich deine Entscheidung hierzu unbedingt akzeptieren werde.

    04/25/2012 00:26:53 cabledrummer: seriously: imho everybody should read the views of Hezbollah and Jerusalem Post, because the contrast gives a good understanding of the complexity of the issue
    04/25/2012 00:27:21 cabledrummer: but, no doubt, it’s hard stuff, full of lies and misinterpretations
    04/25/2012 00:27:53 cabledrummer: so, it might be problematic to handle it on the Forum
    04/25/2012 00:29:05 cabledrummer: (I do not understand it as “censorship” if you complain)

    2. Du hast mich nicht auf die Verfassungsfeindlichkeit von Al-Manar hingewiesen, sondern ich dich:

    04/25/2012 00:29:45 cabledrummer: btw: Al-Manar is banned in several countries
    04/25/2012 00:31:23 soul_assassin: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Manar
    04/25/2012 00:31:27 soul_assassin: Germany too
    04/25/2012 00:32:50 cabledrummer: afaik only the TV is banned but not the newspaper
    04/25/2012 00:32:58 cabledrummer: …in Germany

    3. Du hast mir die ausdrückliche Zustimmung gegeben, das Subboard einzurichten und die Artikel (Al-Manar, JPost, Guardian, NYT) zu posten.

    04/25/2012 13:29:41 soul_assassin: you gonna post it or not ?
    04/25/2012 13:29:57 cabledrummer: if you give me green light
    04/25/2012 13:30:39 soul_assassin: GREEN

    4. Der Al-Manar-Artikel ist nach wenigen Stunden entfernt worden. Daraufhin habe ich noch einmal ausdrücklich erklärt, dass ich die Entscheidung akzeptiere.

    04/25/2012 00:10:18 cabledrummer: but: it’s your forum. If you decide to take it down, I’ll accept. and, as I said: in this case, the entire “poison cabinet” should be removed

    04/26/2012 14:38:55 soul_assassin: the decision to keep the post off was made as admin level between 4 admins
    04/26/2012 14:38:58 soul_assassin: not just me
    04/26/2012 14:39:23 cabledrummer: yes, it’s ok
    04/26/2012 14:40:40 cabledrummer: but without this article the poison cabinet lost it’s sense. So, let’s remove it

    5. Zwei Tage später hast du selbst ohne mein Zutun eine Kopie des Al-Manar-Artikels gepostet.

    04/28/2012 01:14:33 cabledrummer: you posted it around 9 pm
    04/28/2012 01:14:44 cabledrummer: but it disapeared meanwhile
    04/28/2012 01:15:14 soul_assassin: yes,…and it was removed 3 hours after I received a phone call advising me to take it down

    Da keine der erhobenen Anschuldigungen zutrifft, ist das Urteil in keiner Weise gerechtfertigt. Ich bitte um Revision.

    Leon

    Quote from: Z on May 02, 2012, 07:30:59 PM

    Hallo Leon,

    obwohl wir Dir keine Rechtfertigung schuldig sind, da du unter anderem wissentlich gegen die Forumregeln verstoßen hast, haben wir uns wegen Deines Beitrags zu diesem Forum entschlossen, auf Deine Einwendungen einzugehen.

    Erstens:
    Bei Deiner Registration hast Du den Forumregeln zugestimmt, die Du trotz ausführlicher Gespräche mit Mark und seiner Hinweise auf die Verfassungsfeindlichkeit der von Dir im Forum verlinkten Seite bewusst grob mißachtet und dadurch nicht nur das Forum, sondern ihn persönlich großer Gefahr ausgesetzt hast.

    Es wundert sehr und macht uns nachdenklich, wieso Du mit so einem Nachdruck den Artikel über Assange’s Interview mit Nasrallah aus der islamischen Sicht, der auf mehreren Portalen/Seiten erschienen ist, nur unter der Bedingung posten wolltest, wenn er mit einer der verbotenen bzw. radikalen Seiten (in der EU und den USA verfassungswidrige al-Manar sowie ähnliche Seiten vollgestopft mit blinkenden Hakenkreuzen, Leichen, Judensternen und ähnlichen Bildern/Gifs) verlinkt ist, obwohl es völlig unproblematische Alternativen dazu gab und diese Dir auch genannt wurden.

    Zweitens:
    Als das Board Poison Cabinet auf Deine Bitte hin eingerichtet wurde, um – wie sich kurz danach herausgestellt hat – solche illegalen Inhalte dort zu veröffentlichen – hat Mark dir angeboten, als  Moderator für dieses Board tätig zu sein, damit Du ein Stück Verantwortung für Deine eigenen Ideen übernimmst.

    Im Beisein eines weiteren Administrators hast du im Jabber-Chat jedoch dieses Angebot abgelehnt mit der „Begründung“, you „don’t want to be affiliated with WikiLeaks“ und you „don’t want to be an outlet of WL“. Angesichts Deines Engagements für WikiLeaks ist diese Haltung sehr seltsam. Da Deine Absichten nur schwer nachzuvollziehen waren, wurde das Vertrauensverhältnis zu Dir schwer beschädigt.
    Drittens:
    Du hattest, ohne ein Admin zu konsultieren, ein Board erstellt und sogar ein Moderator für dieses Board ernannt. Da diese Handlung ausserhalb Deines Zuständigkeitsbereichs liegt, hast Du Deine Rechte als Moderator für das Cabledrum-Board bei weitem überschritten.

    Wie Du siehst, ist die Entscheidung, Dir die erteilten „Permissions“ zu entziehen, keineswegs „unberechenbar“ oder „willkürlich“. Vielmehr erscheint gerade Dein Verhalten unberechenbar und gefährlich, vor allem wenn man bedenkt, dass Du  die eventuellen Schwierigkeiten, mit denen Mark wegen der Verlinkung zu obengenannten Seiten hätte erfahren können, in Kauf genommen hast.

    Da wir Deinen Beitrag zum Forum sehr schätzen, haben wir uns gegen ein Entfernen aus dem Forum entschieden, natürlich unter der Bedingung, dass illegale Seiten nicht mehr verlinkt werden. Leider sahen wir uns aber gezwungen, Dir die Moderationsrechte zu entziehen, weil unser Vertrauen durch die obengenannten Vorfälle sowet zerrütet ist, das ein Wiederaufnahmen Deiner Tätigkeit als Board- Moderator nicht mehr möglich ist.

    Diese Entscheidung ist endgültig. Weitere Diskussionen, Erklärungen, etc. werden daher nicht mehr stattfinden.

    Wir hoffen, Du bleibst uns als Mitgleid erhalten. Selbstverständlich darfst Du weiterhin das Forum benutzen, um cabledrum.net zu promoten. Solltest Du Hilfe diesbezüglich benötigen, stehen wir alle Dir gerne jederzeit zur Verfügung.

    Gruss

    Admin Team

    Reply to this Personal Message here: https://www.wikileaks-forum.com/index.php?action=pm;sa=send;f=inbox;pmsg=9872;quote;u=4389

    2

    New Personal Message: Re: The Al-Manar case

    The Official WikiLeaks Forum forum@wikileaks-forum.com via soul.websitewelcome.com

    09/05/2012

    You have just been sent a personal message by Z on The Official WikiLeaks Forum.

    The message they sent you was:

    the cabledrum board will remain closed.

    greetz

    Z

    3

    New Personal Message: Re: The Al-Manar case

    The Official WikiLeaks Forum forum@wikileaks-forum.com via soul.websitewelcome.com

    09/05/2012

    You have just been sent a personal message by isis on The Official WikiLeaks Forum.

    IMPORTANT: Remember, this is just a notification. Please do not reply to this email.

    The message they sent you was:

    Quote from: Green on Today at 05:46:50 PM

    😥

    4 every decision there are reasons… and i wasn’t there to value.
    i trust and respect the decisions of the forum.
    eventual discussions to clear the “why”, concern the involved ppl ONLY and it’s not an issue of “accusing” or being wrong or right.
    hope things can improove only, and we can cohoperate To Support Wikileaks that is what we are all here for.

    Reply to this Personal Message here: https://www.wikileaks-forum.com/index.php?action=pm;sa=send;f=inbox;pmsg=9876;quote;u=1023

    4

    New Personal Message: Re: The Al-Manar case

    The Official WikiLeaks Forum forum@wikileaks-forum.com via soul.websitewelcome.com

    10/05/2012

    You have just been sent a personal message by suspect on The Official WikiLeaks Forum.

    IMPORTANT: Remember, this is just a notification. Please do not reply to this email.

    The message they sent you was:

    This is Cabledrummer. I have to write from another account since the cabledrum account got banned from sending messages, in response to my attempt to contradict.

    Quote from WLF Mission Statement:Quote from: Z on May 24, 2011, 11:08:07 AM

    The forum stands for the values Wikileaks has defended since its creation, such as freedom of speech and information.
    [..]
    We encourage constructive dialogues.

    Unfortunately, WikiLeaks Forum fails to comply with its own standards. Decision-making lacks any transparency, dialogue is unwanted, criticism is forbidden, complaints are silenced. This is not what WikiLeaks stands for. And this is not the spirit of a free open community I’m dreaming of.

    I strongly support the idea of WikiLeaks in the best possible way, I did before WLF and I will continue. Sadly, I’m prevented from sharing my work on WLF now and I’m not even allowed to ask for a reason.

    At this point, I stop wasting my time with begging for fair treatment.

    Cabledrummer

    email:   [redacted e-mail address]
    jabber:  [redacted address]

    Reply to this Personal Message here: https://www.wikileaks-forum.com/index.php?action=pm;sa=send;f=inbox;pmsg=9914;quote;u=1837

    My e-mails to Mark: 

    Emmy B [Redacted name and e-mail address] 22/05/2013

    Hi Mark!

    Thanks for the chat today 🙂 here is draft number 1,

    Could we please discuss tomorrow any improvements/changes. It might get me a few goes to get it right. I hope you find it useful in defusing the tension and helping things move out of the current tension. I

    ” Dear Members,

    It has come to our attention that due to an internal error a large number of posts have accidently been deleted and we are unable to recover them automatically.

    We would like to thank the staff of WLPress Board, and also Cabledrummer as both have brought this to our attention.

    The posts mostly relate to the Cabledrum Board which has been discontinued as a separate entity and its contents were to be distributed among the other relevant Boards.

    We deeply regret the loss of these posts and shall endeavour to re-post as many as we can (they mostly came from a single database here http://www.cabledrum.net/gifiles/).  As any effort to re-post will be done manually, it will take us a couple of weeks to restore as many as we can.

    We recognise that process improvement in data retention is extremely important and we will therefore be reviewing our internal procedures. There are limitations set by the environment we operate as well as the resources we have available. We hope for your co-operation in identifying them, your understanding and your participation in finding solutions. We count on your goodwill.

    Last but not least this Forum’s whole existence and the voluntary work of all its staff are in the service of Free Speech and does not engage in censorship. We stand as the meeting place of people who come to share their thoughts and wishes about WikiLeaks, to read the latest news, leave a comment, discuss a topic or just come for a chat. We welcome all. In return we expect that members adhere to our general rules as laid out in the Terms of Agreement upon joining the Forum, and that members treat each other and the staff with respect

    Thanks for your continuous support in our efforts”

    Also Mark if there are questions like:

    Why has the board being discontinued? we can explain that the Board moderator and owner of the database was no longer a member and Forum staff could not sustain the Board so we thought it was best the posts were dispersed to their relevant topic Boards like Cablegate/GIF etc.

    If the question comes up, Why he is no longer a member? then we can say that the staff is not parting with information on such matters and if they want more information they should contact him directly.

    Take care and speak to you soon

    Emmy ❤

    2.

    chat with WLPress

    Emmy B [Redacted name and e-mail address]

    HI Mark,

    Apologies to send you such a long e-mail but I think you need to read this. I visited the IRC chat this evening (if you remember in our conversation I had mentinoed that ***** had said to return around 9 to speak to *****) anyway I went without much hope for a positive development considering my earlier efforts for direct communication had been politely bur firmly re-buffed. You can imagine therefore my surprise when I found ******’s approach, pragmatic, genuine with clear intention of resolving the issue and raising two points from WL press which frankly are very valid:

    a. how could the deletion ever be allowed to happen from a technical perspective and how could the posts simply vanish without a back up. ( he suggests that someone writes a back up script to overcome this)
    b. The error was not picked up/flagged up by the forum staff and therefore no one reached out to tell them. (he suggest that forum staff explain what has happened and send apologies for the error)

    I would be very grateful if you were able to read the following conversation because it reverses my original impression (I will tell you more of my thoughts when we talk):

    Haste makes Waste, so let’s digest this and then act. Have a lovely rest
    Take care
    Emmy

    [Redacted actual chat log with WLPress]

    3.

    Reply to taro’s post
    Emmy B [Redacted name and e-mail address]         22/05/2012

    Hi Mark

    finally there… please point out the changes that should be made… you may notice that this is a personal reply in the style of a personal reply, this is the best approach I think as it more or less isolates the issue between taro and me, which is more appropriate.

    Dear taro

    Thank you for replying to my post and for sharing your valued opinion.

    I was delighted to read that Cabledrum had kept a complete back-up of his posts and therefore he has not actually suffered the loss of any of his work. If I understood correctly, this is wonderful news!

    Sadly I do not have one, I recall 120 of them as they related to the top 100 (Cablegate) and top 20 (GIF) projects. Also since several members of staff here helped him upload 141 posts earlier in year in various GIF Boards all coming from and eventualy linking back to his database, I have kept a list of the URL’s and I will be able to re-post about 40 that I estimate he uploaded himself at the time. So about 150 of them will be restored manually by myself in the course of the next few weeks. You seem to know more than me on this matter, so if you have any more information to pass on please do not hesitate to send me a PM with a list and I will get posting 🙂 I trust that the 433 links from his GIF database back to the forum are in good order.

    I fully understand and are moved by the interest you take in this issue but I have said all that can be said in the public sphere on the matter. Both my previous post as well as this one is meant for public view and can be equally viewed and shared by Members and Guests alike.

    I wish you and Cabledrum all the best in your valued work.

    Kind regards
    Green

    4

    Re: Reply to taro’s post

    Emmy B [Redacted name and e-mail address]

    23/05/2012
    I regret to say that I had a surprise visit from cabledrum in jabber I will tell you about it tomorrow which I could not avoid. You are right
    about him of course.Speak to you tomorrow!Bye for now.

    Sent from my iPhone

    5.

    Feedback and wrapping up our discussion.

    Emmy B [Redacted name and e-mail]

    24/05/2012

    to [WLPress], bcc: Mark

    Dear [WLPress] I visited your IRC chat room earlier this evening to give you an update on what we discussed and wrap up but my hellos went unanswered, so here I am sending you an e-mail 🙂

    Further to the WLPress letter to the Forum  and our discussion in your IRC the other day and I quote:

    [Redacted chat with WLPress]

    I would like to wrap up and summarise. 🙂

    With regards to your first request I have made enquiries and can advise that although we would have liked to be able to accommodate a back up script, this is not currently being considered due to the pressure it would put on the Forum’s server. There are already a great number of scripts on the Forum for security reasons as well as functionality and each time we add a script we slow the whole system down. We have about 1.7 million hits a day (often up to 2 million) and as you can appreciate such levels of traffic put a big pressure on the server. As far as back up is concerned we are satisfied that the current practice of 3 day back up interval that we have in place is sufficient.

    With regards to your second point, there is now a public post in the Important Forum Announcements Board, at the Forum, explaining to the world that there has been an error, how it happened, expressing our deepest regret and stating what we are trying to do to correct it. I hope you have found it to your satisfaction.

    There has also been a new post put up in the WLPress Board similar to the one your letter has mentioned as lost.

    I hope that these steps, actions and explanations have re-assured you.

    All of the above as well as our Admins communications with WLPress on the subject, I hope, have addressed the issue and we can now get on with our main tasks each in their own way supporting our joint cause.

    Taking the initiative to approach you and acting as I have in the above mentioned manner, offering one more layer of communication and co-operation between the Forum and WLPress I am satisfied I have done what I could and my role now ends here with this e-mail. I hope my effort has been of use.

    I would at this point like to explain that it has not been my intention to involve or use WLPress or any of its members as an intermediary between the Forum and Cabledrummer. I can understand that listening loud and clear only one side of the story may not give one the opportunity to form a balanced view. But on the other hand, I firmly believe that to be discussing in public the reasons that a Forum member has been banned twice or the way it was done or any private discussions that have or are taking place, or any comments, or opinions is unprofessional and can be further divisive and inflammatory. If someone wishes to pursue such course, I am afraid I will not follow them down the same route for the reasons I just mentioned.

    With the deepest respect for your work, and many thanks for your co-operation.

    Kind regards

    greekemmy

    Mark’s E-Mails to me:

    1.

    Mark [redacted name and e-mail address]

    22/05/2012

    brilliant post emmy…..dont wory about the questions aboue why cable was taken down as this is something we wont discuss in  the open. When posted please lock tghe thread as we don’t need to discuss this isse any further in the open

    Greta work,,,thank you ….I couldnt have done this 🙂

    MArk

    2012/5/22 Emmy B

    Hi Mark!

    Thanks for the chat today 🙂 here is draft number 1,

    Could we please discuss tomorrow any improvements/changes. It might get me a few goes to get it right. I hope you find it useful in defusing the tension and helping things move out of the current tension. I

    please take out the yellow marked words

    ” Dear Members,

    It has come to our attention that due to an internal error a large number of posts have accidently been deleted and we are unable to recover them automatically.

    We would like to thank the staff of WLPress Board, and also Cabledrummer as both have brought this to our attention.

    The posts mostly relate to the Cabledrum Board which has been discontinued as a separate entity and its contents were to be distributed among the other relevant Boards.

    We deeply regret the loss of these posts and shall endeavour to re-post as many as we can (they mostly came from a single database here http://www.cabledrum.net/gifiles/).  As any effort to re-post will be done manually, it will take us a couple of weeks to restore as many as we can.

    We recognise that process improvement in data retention is extremely important and we will therefore be reviewing our internal procedures. There are limitations set by the environment we operate as well as the resources we have available. We hope for your co-operation in identifying them, your understanding and your participation in finding solutions. We count on your goodwill.

    Last but not least this Forum’s whole existence and the voluntary work of all its staff are in the service of Free Speech and does not engage in censorship. We stand as the meeting place of people who come to share their thoughts and wishes about WikiLeaks, to read the latest news, leave a comment, discuss a topic or just come for a chat. We welcome all. In return we expect that members adhere to our general rules as laid out in the Terms of Agreement upon joining the Forum, and that members treat each other and the staff with respect

    Thanks for your continuous support in our efforts”

    Also Mark if there are questions like:

    Why has the board being discontinued? we can explain that the Board moderator and owner of the database was no longer a member and Forum staff could not sustain the Board so we thought it was best the posts were dispersed to their relevant topic Boards like Cablegate/GIF etc.

    If the question comes up, Why he is no longer a member? then we can say that the staff is not parting with information on such matters and if they want more information they should contact him directly.

    Take care and speak to you soon

    Emmy

    2.

    Re: chat with WLPress

    Mark [Redacted name and e-mail address]

    22/05/2012

    Hi Emmy..

    I just read the chat and not not entirely convinced they are aware that the forum isnt run by wlpress but by my and the staff. I don’t feel I have to discuss every decision that gets made on the forum with wlpress. I also resent being labelled someone who censors posts and i certainly cant get behind them supporting cabledrums actions of publishing such slander in public, something I would never stoop down to. Having said this I do welcome the change in tone and hope this issue will cool off soon.

    3 things I will note though regarding back ups..

    1. Backups ar made twice a week I think…wednesdays and saturday evenings. Cabledrumms posts were deleted on saturday morning as far as I know which means they are gone as the back ups are overwritten.
    2. There are no plans in create a backup script to back up the forum data base. Once every 3 days is sufficientand has been working perfectly fine since the forum was launched in jan 2011
    3. Your idea of changing the structure of the ” plattform board ” has raised some eyebrows and I am seriously considering dissolving the who ” Other Wikileaks Plattform ” Board and leave the moderation to WLF staff members ”

    If WLPress wold like to post the lost content again they are more than welcome to but I will state that there will be no cabledrum board on the forum, ….neother on the main forum OR as a sub forum of wlpress which is what I am afriad of at the moment. I have a strong suspicion that cabledrum will be posting on his own board within the wlpress.orgboard.

    As you can see I am still quite saddened, shocked and hurt and although I am optimistic this issue can be resolved, I am still very unsure of their intentions and would suggest reshuffling  platform board and offer wlpress, bradley manning etc etc the possibility to use the board as normal members and leave the administration up to us. These measures would be implemented to safeguard the forum in the future

    This is just a  thought at the moment and would like to hear your views an/or read your input.

    Thanx for being so diplomatic   🙂        normally I am diplomatic myself, but find it hard to get out of the  ” self defence mode ” at the moment but I will place this in your hands and let you decide on whats best and keep a low profile.

    Just please make sure thast cabledrumm does not have access to the forum. He has been banned outrightly by a democrtatic vote and there is no way back for him……this isnt something that i will debate with anyone.

    All the best

    xxxx
    Mark

    3.

    Mark [redacted name and e-mail address]

    22/05/2012

    Hi Taro.

    Thank you for taking the time to voice your opinion which we highly regard and hope to answer some of your questions.

    First and foremost I will remark that it isn’t forum policy to discuss members bans, warning etc in public.

    At the moment one of our staff members is busy manually reposting the lost data and expect these posts to be online soon. These posts will be published in the correct boards / sub boards.

    ” I find it ironic that this post is addressed to members of the forum ” – Actually it isn’t as this post is accessible to EVERYONE including members who are banned, on summer holidays or in the pub on their mobile phones. Also, as the posts were made on the forum it is only fitting that we address the forum as to what is occurring.

    4.

    Re: Reply to taro’s post

    Mark [Redacted name and e-mail address]
    23/05/2012

    ok….will wait for u to tell me. Off the top of my head, I would to what he did to me and jasminka……just  block, then delete him out of your contact list……this will simply give you peacegreetziesmarkVon meinem iPad gesendet

    5.

    22/05/2012

    Hi emmy..Yes….. This is okay…..very well written 🙂 please post this asap and consider this issue close.I will be in jabber in approx 20 minsThanx lotz and lotzZvia iPhone5.Re: Reply to taro’s postInbox

    Mark [Redacted name and e-mail address]

    6.

    Re: Reply to taro’s post

    Inbox

    Mark [redacted name and e-mail address]

    23/05/2012its me again…..I think we will forget cabledrum as from today as he is keeping the whole forum busy and we need to get cracking.

    First off….reinstating his posts is not our highes priority at the moment. We will reinstate them but at OUR time only and that doesnt mean we will start today as we need to tend to our translators regarding the upcoming decision from the supreme court.

    Secondly….we have to accept that a forum has to deal with ppl like cabledrum.

    His isnt the first person to be banned and he certainly wont be the last and we have to take all this in our stride.

    Cable is just one other puddle we have to walk around and forget.

    The obly thing that concerns me is that his actions will start to hurt yuo and under no circumstances will i allow that to happen….be sure of that and I dont want to loose u because of this….if this was ot happen then cable wins and we all loose and i dont want that to happen either.

    We have to keep Julians spirit alive and fight WITH him against the elements 🙂

    Keep in touch..I hacve a customer here now and this may need an hour or 2

    ❤ ❤ <3Mark