Remember Arnie Draiman...

[DanMurphy]

... the artist formerly known as Soosim (T-C-L).

Well, Israel's Haaretz has covered his recent travails.

In the 12 years since its founding, the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia has become one of the most important and influential sources of information on and off the Internet. It has also become a battleground for all conceivable topics, from commercial companies to, of course, the Arab–Israeli conflict.

Recently, another incident in the editing wars came to light when Arnie Draiman, a social-media employee of NGO Monitor who goes by the username Soosim, edited articles in English about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in an allegedly biased manner. Draiman concealed the facts that he was an employee of NGO Monitor, often described as a right-wing group, and that he was using a second username, which is forbidden under Wikipedia’s rules.

[lilburne]

You can trust our users - Jimmy Wales.

[Vigilant]

You can trust our users - Jimmy Wales.

You can trust (a very few of) our users - Jimmy Wales (should have said this)

[DanMurphy]

Not about Arnie Draiman and his employer NGO Monitor, but a relevant nugget in Haaretz today relative to how anonymity helps government on the internet and in the "Wiki wars." Is an abusive racist the best Israeli PR can produce?

One of the projects of the new interactive media unit, which will be in charge of coordinating the public diplomacy efforts of the Prime Minister’s Office on the Internet and the social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, will be the launching of “covert units” within Israel’s seven universities that will engage in online public diplomacy, as reported on Tuesday in Haaretz

I dealt with Seaman briefly years ago. He is... not a nice man.

[EricBarbour]

Not about Arnie Draiman and his employer NGO Monitor, but a relevant nugget in Haaretz today relative to how anonymity helps government on the internet and in the "Wiki wars." Is an abusive racist the best Israeli PR can produce?
I dealt with Seaman briefly years ago. He is... not a nice man.

Ha ha. Well, he'd better start by socking on Wikipedia, because his own bio isn't very "public relations oriented" right now.
Daniel Seaman (T-H-L)

Like the guy said, "(So far, this page had been written by Seaman himself or his PR mgr. He is an extremely controversial figure, acting aggressively and using foul language. Some balance was needed. I'm sure though he'll delete soon what I wrote.)"

Originally created by Israelbeach (T-C-L), ho ho.

[DanMurphy]

If you look at the history of contributions it's a biography started in 2006 that has been mostly edited by an IP that is "part of the Israeli government network." The IP has made 18 edits.

The next second largest contributor is Israelbeach (T-C-L) with six edits, which was banninated "indefinitely from editing Wikipedia, per ruling of administrators, Jimbo Wales and/or the Arbitration Committee" in 2006 for... well, it's not exactly clear. But he was alleged to be an Israeli PR guy named "Joel Leyden" who has worked as an international media consultant for the Israel Prime Minister's Office, Ehud Olmert, the prime minister of Israel, the Israel Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Israel Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Israel Ministry of Tourism and the Israel Defense Forces" and who allegedly ran a bunch of sock puppet accounts for a few years until he allegedly gave up.

The next biggest contributor has made five edits and comes from an IP who appeared to detest Seaman.

There's a couple of IP's with four edits that I can't be bothered with and.. that's about it after 6+ years of collaborative, unbiased encyclopedia building.

Wikipedia can't write a fair encyclopedia article on Seaman - the article about him is one of tens of thousands in this category.

[EricBarbour]

But he was alleged to be an Israeli PR guy named "Joel Leyden"

Leyden now runs Leyden Communications, a one-stop for all your "reputation management" and SEO needs. For a firm that claims having native English speakers on staff is "very important for SEO", it's funny that the "English" link at the top of the page doesn't work.

Anyone want to guess how many socks Joel is running on WP right now?

[The Adversary]

But he was alleged to be an Israeli PR guy named "Joel Leyden"

Leyden now runs Leyden Communications, a one-stop for all your "reputation management" and SEO needs. For a firm that claims having native English speakers on staff is "very important for SEO", it's funny that the "English" link at the top of the page doesn't work.

Anyone want to guess how many socks Joel is running on WP right now?

Actually, probably not that many more; he has other things to do these days…

Leyden was/is a shameless self-promoter, creating articles about himself, Joel Leyden (T-H-L), about his business, Israel News Agency (T-H-L), + other non-notables like Sara Silber (T-H-L).

And ...he "outed" admin Woggly (T-C-L). Woggly pretty much nailed him here.

I recall him as rather....unstable. He ranted about his ex-wives and "father´s righs".


Apparently he had to leave Israel, and has since "specialised" in cyper-squatting and defamation. This gives some of the sorry & sordid story.

There is even a Joel Leyden Watch blog.


One of his latest targets is the JIDF
It couldn´t have happened to nicer people

[EricBarbour]

One of his latest targets is the JIDF
It couldn´t have happened to nicer people

No kidding......
http://joelleyden.blogspot.com/2013/07/ ... e-aka.html

Of all these Israel fanboys, David Appletree/Brotsky/whatever is the most disturbing.

[The Adversary]

One of his latest targets is the JIDF
It couldn´t have happened to nicer people

No kidding......
http://joelleyden.blogspot.com/2013/07/ ... e-aka.html

Of all these Israel fanboys, David Appletree/Brotsky/whatever is the most disturbing.

Naah, mr Leyden gives him a hot competition:

The Trust was established because Bernard did not have confidence in Joel’s ability to manage funds and because of the frequency and severity of the physical, economic and including legal conflicts with women with whom he was not married and his ex-wives over arrears in alimony and non-support, and their potential and actual penal consequence.

Joel, in his computer published biography, portrays himself as an Israeli war hero, and a seasoned, respected and responsible international public relations practitioner, In fact, as Joel also admits in published documents, he describes himself as evicted from his home, and separated from his children and work opportunities in Israel. He claims to be subject to arrest if he returns to Israel. He also claims to own hundreds of computer domains, which he buys and sells. As described below, he perverts and abuses his computer domain registrations, not merely by nuisance attacks on persons he seeks to damage, but by deliberate defamation, coercion and other violation of law

This is written by those his (late) father, Bernard, trusted.

Joel Leyden and David Appletree/Brotsky/whatever deserves one another!

Please everyone, just sit back and

[tarantino]

Ben Munrane IDed Appletree as Brodsky years ago.

[DanMurphy]

Ben Munrane IDed Appletree as Brodsky years ago.

I'm pretty sure it's "Brotsky." I gathered a bunch of string on the small little fellow over a year ago when he was sending threats of violence at me via email and twitter (and via his army of fake twitter accounts). Had a thought to do a story about it and I 1/2 got distracted by more important things and 1/2 decided it wasn't worth it anyways (there was a semi-interesting angle on why Twitter doesn't shut him down when it does loads of other folks who threaten violence).

A bit of a shut in, lives in Texas, invariably ends up being scary and threatening towards fellow right-wing American Zionists as much as he is towards anyone else. People who don't know better are actually scared of him.

[eppur si muove]

Ben Munrane IDed Appletree as Brodsky years ago.

I'm pretty sure it's "Brotsky." I gathered a bunch of string on the small little fellow over a year ago when he was sending threats of violence at me via email and twitter (and via his army of fake twitter accounts). Had a thought to do a story about it and I 1/2 got distracted by more important things and 1/2 decided it wasn't worth it anyways (there was a semi-interesting angle on why Twitter doesn't shut him down when it does loads of other folks who threaten violence).

A bit of a shut in, lives in Texas, invariably ends up being scary and threatening towards fellow right-wing American Zionists as much as he is towards anyone else. People who don't know better are actually scared of him.

Nasty little fascist . He once threatened to come over to London and do something or other to me. Also lies through his teeth. So his attack on Leyden should not be taken on face value. However, I gather that there are plenty of other sources that can be used against Leyden.

[EricBarbour]

Daniel Seaman hits another one out of the park, this time on Facebook:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/a ... k-comments

Israel has been forced to issue a formal apology to Japan over offensive comments posted on Facebook by its head of online public diplomacy.

The apology followed a complaint by the Japanese ambassador to Israel, Hideo Sato, after senior government official Daniel Seaman disparaged commemorations for the victims of the 1945 atomic bombs, causing a wave of protests in Japan.

"I am sick of the Japanese, 'Human Rights' and 'Peace' groups the world over holding their annual self-righteous commemorations for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims," Seaman wrote on his Facebook page. "Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the consequence of Japanese aggression. You reap what you sow."

So why do they keep the bastard on the government payroll?

[Anroth]

O.o I am rather confused how an Israeli can say 'you reap what you sow' without irony. If the entire world thought like that, Israel would be a crater without US and EU backing.

[tarantino]

Ben Munrane IDed Appletree as Brodsky years ago.

I'm pretty sure it's "Brotsky." I gathered a bunch of string on the small little fellow over a year ago when he was sending threats of violence at me via email and twitter (and via his army of fake twitter accounts). Had a thought to do a story about it and I 1/2 got distracted by more important things and 1/2 decided it wasn't worth it anyways (there was a semi-interesting angle on why Twitter doesn't shut him down when it does loads of other folks who threaten violence).

A bit of a shut in, lives in Texas, invariably ends up being scary and threatening towards fellow right-wing American Zionists as much as he is towards anyone else. People who don't know better are actually scared of him.

Nasty little fascist . He once threatened to come over to London and do something or other to me. Also lies through his teeth. So his attack on Leyden should not be taken on face value. However, I gather that there are plenty of other sources that can be used against Leyden.

Moscowrussia (T-C-L) was blocked indefinitely today, because it appears he kept trying to stick links about Brotsky into the Jewish Internet Defense Force (T-H-L) article. Admins have since hidden any mention of his name, but this article by Richard Silverstein, David Brotsky’s Romance With Guns, Violence and Pro-Israel Hate, was one of the links added.

[TungstenCarbide]

Moscowrussia (T-C-L) was blocked indefinitely today, because it appears he kept trying to stick links about Brotsky into the Jewish Internet Defense Force (T-H-L) article. Admins have since hidden any mention of his name, but this article by Richard Silverstein, David Brotsky’s Romance With Guns, Violence and Pro-Israel Hate, was one of the links added.

According to the link you give, Brotsky was the founder of the JIDF. But he's not mentioned in the Wikipedia article?

[EricBarbour]

According to the link you give, Brotsky was the founder of the JIDF. But he's not mentioned in the Wikipedia article?

Anyone who tried to put Brotsky in any related WP article found themselves attacked by a long list of sockpuppets. And not only that, if the person's real identity could be determined, Brotsky would make direct violent threats via mail and phone.

There's a petition on change.org. Started by Joel Leyden, ho ho ho.

This stuff is self-parody. I do not understand why the Israeli government puts up with it. The embarrassment is tremendous, yet it continues on, year after year.

[DanMurphy]

Yes. To say that serial harasser David Brotsky, who's been enabled by a presumption of anonymity in a years long campaign of threats and intimidation, is in fact the person behind all of the JIDF sockpuppets and fake social media accounts is a BLP violation, you see.