esrever ni nevele enin: 02/19/17

When I first learned that Benjamin Norton deleted his blog post titled "Blatant Anti-Semitism Is Common Among Assad Supporters" (October 2014), I was immediately compelled to dig a little deeper. And here is what I discovered:

The earliest Wayback capture of Benjamin Norton's October 5, 2014 blog post was April 5, 2015:

https://web.archive.org/web/20150405070630/http://bennorton.com/blatant-anti-semitism-is-common-among-assad-supporters/

Here are the screen captures of the text version:

At the end of the post, Norton archived what he categorized as "just some of the many examples of the virulent anti-Semitism that is so rampant among Assad apologists."

The next Wayback capture of

Norton's blog post was taken on June 3, 2015, and it featured a new header picture, as well as a new title: "Meet the Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theorists Who Are Assad's Biggest Fans."

https://web.archive.org/web/20150603020204/http://bennorton.com/blatant-anti-semitism-is-common-among-assad-supporters/

Here are the screen captures of the text version:

Note the numerous differences between the two versions of Norton's blog post. He concluded his revised post with what he referred to as "just some of the many examples of the virulent anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, conspiracy theories, and simply delusional behavior that are so rampant among Assad apologists."

Note how Norton embellished his final paragraph with the terms "Holocaust denial," "conspiracy theories," and "delusional behavior."

I do not claim to know why Norton doubled the length of his blog post and embellished it with various smears and accusations. Nor do I claim to know why Nortpn decided to publish the post in the first place.

The final Wayback capture of Norton's blog post was July 2, 2016:

https://web.archive.org/web/20160702134404/http://bennorton.com/blatant-anti-semitism-is-common-among-assad-supporters/

Although the text was for unchanged, Norton archived more tweets that he categorized as "anti-Semitic," "Holocaust denial," "conspiracy theories," and "delusional behavior." Then, at some point after July 2, 2016, he decided to delete his original blog post from October 5, 2014. To be fair, I am not going to speculate as to why Benjamin Norton decided to delete his blog post, but I will admit, I was suddenly compelled to discover what else, if anything, he deleted.

It was not until October 2016 that I learned about Norton's deleted blog post. Here is the current link:

http://bennorton.com/blatant-anti-semitism-is-common-among-assad-supporters/

Why did Norton delete his blog post? That was the question I continually asked myself. What precipitated the deletion? To answer that question, I began doing keyword searches of his archived blog posts on the Wayback machine.

The Wayback machine captured 5,297 URLs for http://bennorton.com:

I started by using keywords such as "anti-Semitism" and "Holocaust denial." However, with those keywords, the only deleted post I came across was the one from October 5, 2014.

I kept asking myself, Why did he delete that blog post? Why not simply stand behind his post? Why not offer an apology? Or an explanation? Or a formal retraction? Anything but a deletion.

So, I decided to keyword search "Assad," and the Wayback machine provided me with 53 results. Thus, I began copying and pasting the captured URLs into my search engine, and that is when I discovered several other blog posts he deleted.

Here are the archived captures of Benjamin Norton's deleted blog posts related to Assad:

1. Bashar al-Assad's False 2014 "Election"

Deleted post: http://bennorton.com/bashar-al-assads-false-2014-election/

Archived post: https://web.archive.org/web/20150520175005/http://bennorton.com/bashar-al-assads-false-2014-election/

2. Palestinian Refugees Flood the Streets of Yarmouk Protesting Assad's Seige

Deleted post: http://bennorton.com/palestinian-refugees-flood-the-streets-of-yarmouk-protesting-assads-siege

Archived post: https://web.archive.org/web/20150131080221/http://bennorton.com/palestinian-refugees-flood-the-streets-of-yarmouk-protesting-assads-siege/

3. The "Anti-Imperialist" Nations of Iran, Syria, and Libya Participated in the CIA Torture Program

Deleted post: http://bennorton.com/the-anti-imperialist-nations-of-iran-syria-and-libya-participated-in-the-cia-torture-program/

Archived post: https://web.archive.org/web/20141231093849/http://bennorton.com/the-anti-imperialist-nations-of-iran-syria-and-libya-participated-in-the-cia-torture-program/

4. Statement of Worldwide Solidarity with Refugees from Syria

Deleted post: http://bennorton.com/statement-of-worldwide-solidarity-with-refugees-from-syria/

Archived post: https://web.archive.org/web/20141022024553/http://bennorton.com/statement-of-worldwide-solidarity-with-refugees-from-syria/

5. ISIS Blew Up Tadmor Prison, Destroying Evidence of Assad Torture

Deleted post: http://bennorton.com/isis-blew-up-tadmor-prison-destroying-evidence-of-assad-torture/

Archived post: https://web.archive.org/web/20150531112256/http://bennorton.com/isis-blew-up-tadmor-prison-destroying-evidence-of-assad-torture/

6. 56 Dead in One Day, a Glimpse of Assad's Brutality

Deleted post: http://bennorton.com/56-dead-in-one-day-a-glimpse-of-assads-brutality/

Archived post: https://web.archive.org/web/20150214062739/http://bennorton.com/56-dead-in-one-day-a-glimpse-of-assads-brutality/

7. Pew Study: Najority of Niddle East & North Aftica Opposes Assad

Deleted post: http://bennorton.com/pew-study-majority-of-middle-east-north-africa-opposes-assad/

Archived post: https://web.archive.org/web/20150603011753/http://bennorton.com/pew-study-majority-of-middle-east-north-africa-opposes-assad/

8. Left Unity's Socialist Perspective on ISIS on Western Intervention in Iraq

Deleted post: http://bennorton.com/left-unitys-socialist-perspective-on-isis-and-western-intervention-in-iraq/

Archived post: https://web.archive.org/web/20141222193616/http://bennorton.com/left-unitys-socialist-perspective-on-isis-and-western-intervention-in-iraq/

9. Pro-Assad Bingo

Deleted post: http://bennorton.com/pro-assad-bingo/

Archived post: https://web.archive.org/web/20150404181131/http://bennorton.com/pro-assad-bingo/

10. US Government Essentiallt Sides with Assad

Deleted post: http://bennorton.com/us-government-essentially-sides-with-assad/

Archived post: https://web.archive.org/web/20150603015505/http://bennorton.com/us-government-essentially-sides-with-assad/

11. Using Photos of Assad's Bombing to Oppose US/Gulf Bombing

Deleted post: http://bennorton.com/using-photos-of-assads-bombing-to-oppose-usgulf-bombing/

Archived post: https://web.archive.org/web/20141019221433/http://bennorton.com/using-photos-of-assads-bombing-to-oppose-usgulf-bombing/

12. Remembering Assad's Hama Massacre

Deleted post: http://bennorton.com/remembering-assads-hama-massacre-33-years-later/

Archived post: https://web.archive.org/web/20150214042427/http://bennorton.com/remembering-assads-hama-massacre-33-years-later/

13. Stratfor Report: Assad Shares Intelligence with US

Deleted post: http://bennorton.com/stratfor-report-assad-shares-intelligence-with-us/

Archived post: https://web.archive.org/web/20150603022233/http://bennorton.com/stratfor-report-assad-shares-intelligence-with-us/

Once I discovered Benjamin Norton's deleted blog posts, I decided to search the Wayback archives to see if he deleted any tweets related to Assad. With more than 5,000 archived tweets, and with no means for keyword searches of his tweets, I knew the task was going to be exhausting and time-consuming. After two weeks and approximately 20 hours of searching through the Wayback archives, I discovered more than 60 deleted tweets.

Here are the archived captures of Benjamin Norton's deleted tweets related to Assad:

1. "anti-imperialist" Assad worshippers