The Internet Archive & NYS BOE Cover-Up Widens

The Internet Archive Now Complicit

in NYS BOE Website Cover-Up

by

Pixel Patriot

10/24/2011

The Internet Archive Changes Computer Code - Now Implicated in NYS BOE Cover-Up
Headquarters of The Internet Archive (San Francisco, CA)

On October 5th, 2011, I published a report detailing how the New York State Board of Elections had embedded computer source code into their website in an ongoing effort to block anyone from seeing previous versions listing the Constitutional eligibility requirements for President of the United States to be a Natural Born Citizen.

Natural Born Citizen requirement for President replaced with just "Born a citizen"

My report also documented how The Internet Archive was violating their own policy governing the accessibility for BLOCKED webpages using the Wayback Machine originating from a government website.

Just 3 days after my report was published, The Internet Archive changed their own source code to give cover for the NYS BOE deceptive practice.

With irrefutable facts exposing this complicit action by The Internet Archive, this can only be seen as a widening of the conspiracy to defraud the voters of the State of New York.

As the New York State Board of Elections is currently a defendant in the case

Strunk v. BOE, et al; (with a preliminary hearing for the NYS BOE order to show cause to change the website to NBC to be heard Tuesday 10-25-11 at 2:15 PM before the Honorable Arthur M. Schack, J.S.C. and the Supreme Court of the State of New York; I was asked by Mr. Strunk to document the facts of this sequence of events in the form of an Affidavit for the court.

What follows is a summary of my Affidavit including a detailed analysis of how I discovered the change in source code for the website of The Internet Archive, a 501c3 organization; and then how I verified it from multiple subject matter experts.  The Affidavit can be read in its entirety here.

Monday, October 3^rd, 2011

I was told by the Plaintiff, Christopher-Earl Strunk that someone was filing a FOIA request with the New York State Board of Elections, which I will further refer to as (NYS BOE); for previous versions of their website.  Mr. Strunk informed me that the part of the BOE website that lists candidate eligibility previously said the Presidential candidate was required to be a Natural Born Citizen.  I did not know that the website previously stated that.  I asked Mr. Strunk if he had personally seen it before it was changed and he said that he had.

While we were still on the phone I went to the website for The Internet Archive service called the Wayback Machine and started looking for previous versions of the Board of Elections website.

Petabox 4 - Fourth Generation Petabox Storage System (650 TeraBytes/Rack)

The Wayback Machine allows users to search through “over 150 billion webpages archived from 1996 to a few months ago.”

I have successfully used the Wayback Machine before with this same method in order to find the telephone number for the Honorable Sean Jerguson, Georgia state representative which had been published on a previous version of his district website.

The result that I got when I entered the URL for the NYS BOE candidate eligibility webpage:

http://liveweb.archive.org/http://www.elections.state.ny.us/RunningOffice.html

into the Wayback Machine on October 3^rd was an error message that said:

“Sorry.  This URL has been excluded from the Wayback Machine.”

(I will refer to this as - EXCLUDED MESSAGE 1)

EXCLUDED MESSAGE 1

I then researched what this error message means and what would generate this error message.  I learned that The Internet Archive actually has policies governing the issuance of both EXCLUDED and BLOCKED error messages as a result of search requests.

I discovered that the NYS BOE could embed what is known as robot.txt into the computer programming source code for their website, and that this would cause the Wayback Machine to generate the EXCLUDED error message that I saw on the 3^rd of October.

Upon learning that such a tactic could be employed by a government website to prevent the public from seeing previous versions of it’s website; I immediately went to the NYS BOE website to view its computer programming source code and found that it did indeed have the robots.txt code embedded.

Robot.txt found in NYS BOE website source code on October 3rd, 2011

I continued my research looking for previous versions of the NYS BOE website and discovered that not only did they have previous versions of their webpages EXCLUDED by the robots.txt but that webpages were actually being BLOCKED at the mirrored site to The Internet Archive in Alexandrina, Egypt.

(I will refer to this as - BLOCKED MESSAGE 2)

BLOCKED MESSAGE 2

Bibliotheca Alexandrina blocking access to previous versions of the NYS BOE website
with historical references to the term Natural Born Citizen as a requirement for President.

According to The Internet Archive exclusion policies, in order for webpages to be BLOCKED; the request had to have been made by the site owner.

Furthermore, the Internet Archive exclusion policy stipulates that “Archivists will exercise best-efforts compliance with applicable court orders” and “Beyond that, as noted in the Library Bill of Rights, ‘Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.’

Bibliotheca Alexandrina maintains the only copy and external backup of The Internet Archive

Upon discovering the NYS BOE website’s deceptive practices; I took screen captures of the EXCLUDED and BLOCKED error messages and downloaded the corresponding computer programming source code and then wrote a report and published it online two days later at 7:16 pm on Wednesday October 5^th, 2011 here:

http://pixelpatriot.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-york-state-boe-website-cover-up.html

I will refer to my online report in this Affidavit as Exhibit B.

The day after my report was published online, another website known as the BirtherReport at:  www.ObamaReleaseYourRecords.com  which I will further refer to as (ORYR), published my report on Thursday October 6^th, 2011.

I woke early on Friday October 7^th, 2011 and decided to test the html links to my report as I periodically do.  At 3:25 AM ET, I was unable to access the link to the BLOCKED error.  Since my computer browser did not say it could not display the webpage, I was concerned that it might be a DoS attack on that server in order to prevent others from seeing the BLOCKED error message.

This historic collection is available for free access to

researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.

It is invaluable to understanding the interactions between people and events.

As defined by the Department of Homeland Security:

http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST04-015.html

National Cyber Alert System

Cyber Security Tip ST04-015

What is a denial-of-service (DoS) attack?

In a denial-of-service (DoS) attack, an attacker attempts to prevent legitimate users from accessing information or services. By targeting your computer and its network connection, or the computers and network of the sites you are trying to use, an attacker may be able to prevent you from accessing email, websites, online accounts (banking, etc.), or other services that rely on the affected computer.

The most common and obvious type of DoS attack occurs when an attacker "floods" a network with information. When you type a URL for a particular website into your browser, you are sending a request to that site's computer server to view the page. The server can only process a certain number of requests at once, so if an attacker overloads the server with requests, it can't process your request. This is a "denial of service" because you can't access that site.

Since this time I was not getting any error messages, I wanted confirmation of what I was experiencing so I called the site owner for ORYR and he said he could not access it either nor was he getting any kind of error message from his browser.  After about 5 minutes while we were still talking on the phone, the BLOCKED error message suddenly displayed in the browser on my computer screen and when I told this to ORYR he said the exact same thing happened for him at the exact same time.  He then ran a program called Sitemeter which allows him to see who is accessing his website and he told me that within 10 minutes after I had tried to access the BLOCKED site that the U.S. Department of State was looking at my report on his website ORYR:

  

On Saturday, October 8th I did the same test for the NYS BOE website using the Wayback Machine; however this time I got a different error message.

This time the error message said:

“Hrm.  Wayback Machine doesn’t have that page archived.

Want to search for all archived pages under http://www.elections.state.ny.us/?”

(I will refer to this as - PAGE NOT ARCHIVED MESSAGE 3)

PAGE NOT ARCHIVED MESSAGE 3

Instead of:

“Sorry.  This URL has been excluded from the Wayback Machine.”

(EXCLUDED MESSAGE 1)

The Internet Archive changed their “own” computer code to conceal

EXCLUDED MESSAGE 1 contrary to the Exclusion Policy

Now implicated in NYS BOE cover-up.

I went back to the NYS BOE website and checked the source code and the robots.txt code was still embedded so I knew that The Internet Archive had to have changed their “own” source code.  I was very concerned because this appeared to me to indicate collusion between a 501c3 non-profit organization and the NYS BOE since their code was changed just 3 days after my report was published.

I made screen captures on Saturday October 8^th documenting the fact that by putting the URL for the NYS BOE into The Internet Archive Wayback Machine a different error message was generated.

Additionally, I have also recorded the exact same sequence of steps on videotape, which I will refer to here as Exhibit C; in real-time in order to document as irrefutable proof that a different error message is generated from what was when I published my report. 

After having found that the NYS BOE was engaging in a deceptive manner, I decided to scrutinize the event that I had just experienced at The Internet Archive Wayback Machine website so that I could fully understand and document it.  I took a closer look at the URL in my browser for The Internet Archive error message and I noticed that the URL had an asterisk character “ * “, also known as a wildcard.  I know from my personal experience with computers that this wildcard character is used with search strings to define varying search parameters.   I decided to manually invoke the same search without the wildcard character so I placed the computer curser using my mouse in the URL field and backed up two spaces to remove the asterisk and the preceding forward slash character and hit enter and I instantly got the EXCLUDED error message that I previously did before Saturday:  (EXCLUDED MESSAGE 1).

On Sunday, I consulted with a Certified Microsoft Systems Engineer in order to verify my findings:

William Lolli, MCSE
President of Tech Assist, Inc.
A network consulting company

He downloaded a static record of The Internet Archive website source code and then using special software he also did a live trace of both error messages to confirm that they were both being generated from the same IP address owned by The Internet Archive.  I have included as Exhibit D a printout of his DNS report with the IP trace.  Additionally, here are questions where I was seeking clarification from the DNS report and his responses:

Question:  Would you like to expound on the DNS report or is its main significance that it verifies both domains trace back to the same IP address:  207.241.226.201

Lolli:  “Yes, it simply shows that archive.org traces back to a block of IP addresses-- which is pretty darn big-- 207.241.224.0 - 207.241.239.255, basically 3825 IP addresses are available to their poole.”

Then we both simultaneously went through the same sequence of steps using the NYS BOE URL with the Wayback Machine and we compared the error message that was generated.  He said that the change in results generated by a search for the NYS BOE URL using the Wayback Machine would indicate The Internet Archives had to have changed their own code.

Lolli:  "Web sites generally have front-end webpages that can send input-requests for response-outputs of data to a backend database. The database, then responds with either text or an entire webpage as a response to the query. It is safe to suggest that the archive.org system has more than one database on more than one physical or virtual host [server]. Depending on the URL string, responses are generated from any number of databases; and in this case, probably two."

Lolli:  “By removing the */ from the URL, you are re-directed to another server-host (known as liveweb.archive.org), and a new message page is generated and displayed”

I also consulted with a professional web developer, Ross Arena; to get a second opinion.  He writes computer programs and internet source code for building websites and I contacted him through the online referral service called Odesk at www.odesk.com.

I sent him the original source code from last week and gave him a description of what I experienced.  Then we reviewed these steps again while discussing it over the phone at the same time.  He told me he had noticed a correlation between the
“Show All” button and the (PAGE NOT ARCHIVED MESSAGE 3).

He said that the “Latest” button sends a bot to check the website live.  I asked him why would the source code for the “Latest” button not be a subset of the code for the “Show All” button?  He said that is just the way that the developers of The Internet Archive Wayback Machine chose to do it.

After Mr. Arena explained to me how the “Show All” button is invoking the
(PAGE NOT ARCHIVED MESSAGE 3), I deduced that the “Show All” button is only
searching for indexed webpages and he agreed.

That being the case, I then suggested testing for a connection between the “Latest” button and the first error message I saw last week and when we both tested that, it did generate the first error message: (EXCLUDED MESSAGE 1).

Therefore, Mr. Arena confirms that evidenced in The Internet Archive source code on Line 221 as can be seen in the screenshot referred to as Exhibit E, the ACTION command reverses the result you get when you hit the "Take Me Back" button. It now invokes the ”Show All” button query which displays a PAGE NOT ARCHIVED MESSAGE as opposed to the “Latest” button query which displays the EXCLUDED MESSAGE.



The ACTION COMMAND on LINE 221 reverses the result
from the TAKE ME BAKE button on the Wayback Machine

 

Even though The Internet Archive can’t control when and how an external site implements a robots.txt command to block access to previous versions of their webpages, The Internet Archive does however control the error messages that are generated and displayed by the Wayback Machine when such blocking technology is employed.

By changing their own source code 3 days after a report was published exposing the deceptive practice by the NYS BOE, an error message generated by the Wayback Machine now tells the user that the page they are looking for is NOT ARCHIVED instead of an error message that would highlight the deception by the NYS BOE.  This deceptive action by the Internet Archive implicates the 501c3 organization in the NYS BOE website cover-up because even though the resultant message has changed, the previous versions of the NYS BOE webpages that listed the requirements for President to be a Natural Born Citizen are still being excluded by the Wayback Machine; albeit now undetected.

The Internet Archive stipulates that their Exclusion Policy follows the Oakland Archive Policy and that they respect “robot exclusion headers.”  However, a “blocked site” message generated from the mirrored site in Alexandrina, Egypt would indicate an agreement between The Internet Archive and the NYS BOE, a government entity; and therefore according to their Exclusion Policy the normal course of action would be to “challenge” a request to BLOCK webpages from that same government organization.

Additionally their Exclusion Policy adheres to the Code of Ethics for Archivists:

Founded in 1936, the Society of American Archivists is North America's
oldest and largest national archival professional association.

V. Authenticity and Integrity

“Archivists strive to preserve and protect the authenticity of records in their holdings by documenting their creation and use in hard copy and electronic formats. They have a fundamental obligation to preserve the intellectual and physical integrity of those records.

Archivists may not alter, manipulate, or destroy data or records to conceal facts or distort evidence.”

By changing their own source code, The Internet Archive is concealing an “Excluded Error” message and in effect hiding the fact that they are violating their own Exclusion Policy.  This message would likely lead a user of the Wayback Machine to find out how and why a webpage could or would be excluded; and in doing so they would then learn that there is a distinction between a webpage being Excluded and Blocked and that the NYS BOE is simultaneously Blocking access to webpages as well.

The Internet Archive Exclusion Policy is also guided by the

The American Library Association's Library Bill of Rights:

“Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.”

Blocking previous versions of a government website that previously stated the requirements to be President of the United States require a candidate to be a Natural Born Citizen when the current occupant of the White House is not a Natural Born Citizen and therefore a Usurper to that office would assuredly constitute a “partisan” action.

The conspiracy to subvert the Natural Born Citizen requirement set forth by the Founders in Article 2 of the Constitution as evidenced in this new revelation implicating an institution with such vast reach and influence should shock the collective conscience of our nation.  The full breadth and depth of this Constitutional Crisis is unknown for it is still unfolding even as we find ourselves ripe in another election cycle for the 2012 elections.  Likewise, “Justiagate” recently uncovered by Attorney Leo Donofrio exposing the sabotaging of 25 Supreme Court Opinions in order to remove references to “Minor v. Happersett”, the only US Supreme Court decision to directly construe the natural-born citizen clause in relation to a citizenship issue; should be viewed as egregious disloyalty to the fidelity of the Republic no less considering Justia CEO Tim Stanley was associated with “Obama For America 2008.”  According to Donofrio,  "personnel may also be guilty of violating 18 U.S.C. 1018 by intentionally passing off tampered versions of US Supreme Court opinions as if they were official versions published by the US Supreme Court."

Regardless of political ideology, all Americans should demand the Constitution be upheld in its entirety and the news media begin to report on the issue of Presidential eligibility with the forthrightness and unbiased due-diligence it deserves.

An unconstitutional putative president is a matter of national security.

A fundamental sense of right and wrong has been leveraged against special interests at the expense of the Rule of Law.

Superman: I'm here to fight for truth, and justice, and the American way.

Lois Lane: You're going to end up fighting every elected official in this country! 

Sadly, Lois Lane was right.  We have been fighting every elected official and public officer in the country going on 3 years now demanding they honor their oath of office and uphold the Rule of Law.

Hopefully when Christopher Strunk goes before Justice Schack again on Tuesday,

Truth and Justice will prevail.

If not, “The American Way” can’t be far behind.