Richard Silverstein has attacked and libeled Aussie Dave.
I’m writing this post because Aussie Dave has much more important stuff to do than answer the lies and effluence pouring forth from Silverstein in Seattle. As readers know Dave’s wife is fighting cancer and Dave is juggling trips to chemotherapy, a demanding job and looking after their children.
This concerns an event from earlier this year. Richard Silverstein has now published a long, rambling post about this. My earlier post Kick Me: Richard Silverstein’s Hack That Never Was, pointed out that Silverstein made a series of rudimentary errors while trying to move his blog from one internet host to another. He has completely confirmed everything I surmised back in September. In his own words today:
I made the mistake of beginning, but not completing the installation. This allowed him to login to my site, create his own account, and hijack the main page, which took the site down for most of those attempting to visit. […]
I’d switched my DNS (domain name servers) from my old to my new host before fully completing the transfer of my site.
Compare this with what I wrote on September 9th:
What this looks like is Dickie screwed up the move. He probably moved DNS before correctly setting up the WordPress on the new host.
This allowed someone to display whatever he wanted and for a while visiters to Richard Silverstein’s Tikkun Olam hate blog saw an Israeli flag and the words “I Stand with Israel” instead of Richard’s usual vitriol and hatred for all things Jewish in the state of Israel.
I will repeat what I said about Richard last time: no Mossad, no CIA, no MI5 just one dumb idiot who isn’t fit to handle a ball point pen lest he stab himself with it.
Let’s be clear: neither Aussie Dave nor myself had anything to do with this defacement. I, Brian of London – not Aussie Dave – did exchange emails with the person who raised the flag over Silverstein’s unattended site as I described in my post. I have no idea of the real identity of this person and I really don’t care.
Now Richard Silverstein is libeling Aussie Dave. He is claiming Dave had contact with the defacer and speculating Dave had prior knowledge. Both charges are false. He has also, again, stated where Dave works in an attempt to cause him specific harm.
Dave works for a technology related company: Richard Silverstein is hoping by repeatedly mentioning Dave’s employer he will get Dave fired. This is entirely malicious. Richard has also sent threatening emails to Dave that may constitute blackmail. If there are any lawyers conversant with these fields who’d like to come forward and review this material, we’d be happy to hear from you.
Aussie Dave has more important things to do with his life than address this man’s lies. We all do, frankly. The only reason we rebut this stuff is to help show that when this man is given any kind of publicity by mainstream media such as the BBC or the New York Times, we can point out what kind of a person he is.
And now for the funny bit. Silverstein’s post claims that the “hack” that wasn’t a hack took place on a Friday morning and claims that this is possible proof that whoever did this was doing it from his employer’s offices. (Actually he even contradicts himself in his own post claiming both that the “hacker” did this from his home and speculating he may have been at the offices of his employer).
Friday morning… Here is a man who claims to speak with authority on Israeli affairs who does not know that nearly every office in Israel is shut on Friday morning and everyone is drinking hafuch gadol while their kids are in gan. Friday morning is for meeting friends and having a relaxing breakfast in a coffee shop. Friday morning is all about finishing off the shopping before Shabbat. Friday morning is not the time to be sitting in an office working.
I’m sorry Dickie, you didn’t know that? Seriously?
And even when someone tries to tell him, here’s the rather strange conversation:
