GerritsenBeach.net

On July 18th 2008, my website came under attack from a now known source, which I believe, based on information received, the attacker is CLOSELY CONNECTED to Mr. Stephen Jemal of SSJ Development. Let’s recap.

I posted a story about Mr. Jemal being sued for an alleged non-payment of a loan connected to his real estate projects in our area. I later posted a story about a “DoS Attack” on GerritsenBeach.net after it was contained, informing everyone of the resulting down time. I reported the incident to Verizon, the attacking IP’s owner.

Later that night after the attack, I received a letter via email from Stephen Jemal’s attorneys, demanding that I take down my post, citing defamation. Here is that demand letter.

I believe that the demand letter makes completely ridiculous and unreasonable demands of me and the website, including:

1. Removing the entire publication about Mr. Jemal
2. Removing any reference of the publication from Google, all other search engines, and other blogs (like I run Google and control their root user name and passwords!),
3. Publish a retraction / clarification approved by Mr. Jemal and distribute that throughout the internet,
4. signing a “non-disparagement” agreement, and… oh yeah
5. Sign an immediate settlement of TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS for legal fees, and additional consideration to induce Mr. Jemal not to file a lawsuit.

Whew! Mr. Jemal’s representation conveyed that the article “painted” him badly. (This Article)

Here is the problem with all of this: What statement did I make that was false? What statement did I make that was defamatory? Oh, that’s right… NOTHING. Needless to say, that demand was flatly rejected.

This is where things take a very interesting turn.

After posting about the DoS attack, I received multiple emails from ####@SSJDevelopment.com stating that he knows that someone VERY CLOSELY connected to Mr. Jemal, used a “bash script” that he had taught this person.

Upon reviewing the website logs, the script described was indeed the script used to attack this website. Based on the connection between the two pieces of information, I have reason to believe the author of the email.

Mr. Jemal’s attorneys have since told me that the attack on the site was the work of a “renegade employee” who acted without knowledge or authorization of Mr. Jemal. They also told me that Mr. Jemal fired this employee.

While I am not in total agreement with this statement (the offensive IP originated from the Jersey Shore where the alleged offender claims to live, not in Brooklyn where this “renegade employee” worked), I accepted their statement. I was also accused of using this information in an attempt to extort a settlement, which I was not doing at all – I was simply adding information to the negotiations, attempting to give all a fuller view of the circumstances surrounding the blog entry, and released the information with no thought to how it would “be painted” or inferred.

Stay Tuned! We remain on Red Alert (but will take off the annoying red color)and anticipate negotiations ending shortly.

“Never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter.”
-Sir Winston Churchill

“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”
-Albert Einstein

“All wars are fought for money.”
-Socrates

Please Standby

This bus shelter has quite a history. It was the shelter that was destroyed last year within days of being installed here:

• Look at the Fancy Bus Shelters
• That didn’t take long
• The Never Ending Story
• Bus Shelter Destruction: Not My Kid!

Other than the people who declared war on me because of this site. No one, who knew how, has ever attempted a Denial of Service attack(DoS).

If you were on the site at all today you might of noticed that the site was either not working or it was very slow. This was the result of the DoS.

The the Denial of Service attack was targeting “Developer Stephen S. Jemal in $5.5 Million Dollar Contract Dispute with His Investment Companies“and the PDF in the post.

That post has a PDF document of complaint regarding the Stephen Jemal court case.

A specific IP has been making up to 50 requests a second for the PDF that I am hosting of the court complaint regarding the case.

The attack brought down my server, which hosts over 120 domains, for a few hours.

It was brought back up by denying access to that IP.

Now my server is just responding to the requests with a “403″ forbidden error. Serving up the 403 error will use practically no bandwidth and will be a lot less stressful for the server compared to a successful command, which brought down the server in the first place.

I will be monitoring the activity on my site.

I have also reported the attack to the Verizon security team, the IP’s owner, of the Denial of Service attack.

I would hate to actually find out if this attack was ordered by the Jemal’s.

The GB Little League (13 & 14 yrs old) ALL STARS won the Brooklyn Championship on July 17, 2008.

The next game will be this Saturday, July 19, 2008 1:30 p.m. (in Westchester) against the Manhattan Champs. Parents and supports (FANS) that are going will leave at 11 a.m. from the field off Florence Avenue.

Any reader want to give me a run down of the next game? Maybe even better pictures of this game?

Introducing comment of the week:

Comment from Nick Lak | on Seba Avenue Park is a Disgrace
Time: July 11, 2008, 7:03 pm

Even their graffiti sucks. Thumbs Dooooooown.

(Stephen Jemal assumes the position for a Daily News writer. - Courtesy of Daily News)

The investment companies that fund the Jemal’s Brooklyn projects in Mill Basin, Gerritsen beach and Sheepshead Bay have filed a civil suit against Stephen S Jemal and Sharon E Jemal in Texas Northern District Court.

The companies “Gerritsen Beach Investments Ltd” and “Riviera Investments I Ltd” filed their complaint on 7/14/2008 the cause is stated as a “Contract Dispute“.

The plaintiffs claim that the  Jemal’s (Stephen and Sharon) have not paid them back $5,580,000 plus interest. The Jemals are also allegedly also refusing to pay them back!

Both of the investment companies are being represented by Todd Hoodenpyle of Singer & Levick

What does this mean for his existing construction projects? Time will tell.

• Here is the Complaint that was  filed in court [Warning PDF]
  

For anyone that picks this up in the media, it would be really nice to have a credit for breaking this story.

The Brooklyn Cyclones hosted the Girl Scouts of America on June 27, 2008.

At this annual event, Girl Scouts troops were invited to march along the base lines and stand on the field during the National Anthem. The Cyclones took the game with a 4-3 walk-off win against the Aberdeen Iron Birds. As a nice surprise, Mets OF Ryan Church played for the Cyclones after beginning a rehab assignment the night before. The girls got autographs, received a Commemorative Patch and some even slept on the field at KeySpan Park for the Post-Game Sleepover.

If you missed out, there is another Girl Scout Night at the Richmond County Bank Ball Park when the Brooklyn Cyclones are facing the Staten Island Yankees on Saturday, July 26 at 7:00 p.m. Pre-game parade begins at 6 p.m. for all Girl Scouts, all kids 12 & under get to run the bases after the game & there will be a post-game SWAP will all scouts before the movie screening of Nancy Drew down on the field.

I apologize for the string of “bad” posts but these are the things that are just happening.

A follow up to the Seba Avenue Park a Disgrace

A few days ago the bus shelter that was destroyed on Everett Avenue had its posters turn up at seba avenue park.

The seba avenue bus shelter was wrecked by a thrown beer bottle. Its horrible to have these shelters destroyed like this. We only have a handful of these shelters and alot of people use them.