[W]hen people have questions, one of the most visited places for answers is Wikipedia, the crowd-sourced encyclopedia with entries on everything from Antarctica to zombies.
The pages are often exhaustive in their detail, though anyone may become an editor to alter a page and even blur the truth — at least temporarily.
One Wikipedia page that has seen dozens of strategic cuts and additions is the entry for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Peter Galbraith.
Between 2008 and 2011, 84 edits were made to the Galbraith page by a Wikipedia editor identified only as “Devotedamerican.” The bulk of the work was to delete or soften controversial details in Galbraith’s career.
The part of Galbraith’s life Devotedamerican worked hardest to scrub regarded the former diplomat’s work to codify Kurdish autonomy for the region of northern Iraq where the ethnic group lives in large numbers. In 2004, Galbraith served an advisory role in drafting Iraq’s constitution, which, in its final form, extended Kurdish sovereignty over oil rights.
In 2009, the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv revealed that Galbraith had benefited financially from this constitutional provision, receiving a large financial stake in the Norwegian company given access to the Kurdish oil reserves.
Oil analysts estimated in a 2009 New York Times article that Galbraith’s 5 percent stake in the company, DNO, could be worth more than $115 million.
Devotedamerican repeatedly deleted whole paragraphs on the Galbraith page referencing the oil controversy, describing it as “libelous content.” After every edit to minimize the oil deal, other Wikipedia editors objected and repealed the changes.
In obscure Wikipedia “Talk” forums, Devotedamerican repeatedly drew heat for the edits.
“Devotedamerican — please stop deleting all new additions to this article and be a little more constructive,” wrote an editor identified as Zalali. “If there is something specific that you think is missing from this paragraph, then please add, instead of deleting it.”
Zalali was Devotedamerican’s archnemesis on the Galbraith wiki page, frequently calling out the changes.
“It is undeniable that Galbraith was presenting himself to everyone at the time as an independent adviser to the Kurds when in fact he had a direct financial interest in the outcome,” Zalali wrote in November 2009. “This is a big deal.”
Devotedamerican shot back, asserting that Galbraith had only “offered informal advice to the Kurds who obviously knew about and welcomed his role in developing a Kurdistan oil industry.”
“What is the moral issue here?” Devotedamerican continued. “He helped a people who were victims of genocide develop the political and economic means to govern themselves and to defend themselves.”
Devotedamerican also sought to discredit Dagens Næringsliv, the paper that broke the oil stake story. Wikipedia initially described the paper as “Norway’s leading business publication.” Devotedamerican changed the description to “a Norwegian tabloid that focuses on financial and business matters, sometimes with a bent for the sensational.”
“Dagens Naeringsliv is not a respected paper and behaves like a sleazy tabloid. Its coverage of Galbraith is a case in point,” Devotedamerican wrote after an editor questioned the change.
Besides the Kurdish oil edits, Devotedamerican also deleted details about Galbraith’s abandoned 1998 bid for Congress in Massachusetts.
Asked Tuesday if he knew who the Wikipedia user “Devotedamerican” was, Galbraith quickly said, “No.” Asked if he or any aide or associate was Devotedamerican, Galbraith shook his head no.
Asked what he would hypothetically put at the top of his own Wikipedia page, Galbraith listed his post as co-mediator of the 1995 Erdut Agreement, which ended the Croatian war of independence.
“After all, it did end a war,” Galbraith said.
In fact, that is the second item in the bio at the top of the Galbraith Wikipedia page.
Besides the oil edits, Devotedamerican added many details about Galbraith’s life and work in a series of edits demonstrating a deep knowledge of the gubernatorial candidate. The additions relate to a period spanning from his time as a co-mediator during the Croatian war of independence in the 1990s to his more recent electoral career in Vermont.
In March 2009, after a Wikipedia editor asked if Galbraith was serving any lobbying role or working for President Barack Obama, Devotedamerican declared that Galbraith was not involved in either way.
“The reason you can’t document his lobbying contracts is that there are not any,” Devotedamerican wrote in the forum. “Being friends with foreign leaders does not make one a lobbyist for them. He lives in Vermont, not Washington and I doubt the very many foreign governments are all that interested in lobbying Montpelier. And, in any event, he is not working for the Obama Administration.”
Besides the Galbraith page, Devotedamerican’s edits on other pages all related to the gubernatorial candidate and suggest an intimate knowledge of his family.
The user has edited the Wikipedia pages for Galbraith’s brother, James, as well as his parents, John and Catherine.
The edits included changing the birthplace of his mother from Plandome, New York, to Manhattan, as well as adding her birthdate and work as a lawyer. Devotedamerican also added the birthdate of James Galbraith and clarified that the candidate’s father, famed economist John Kenneth Galbraith, was born in Canada but later served as an American economist.
The plethora of edits was flagged to VTDigger by FourViolas, a Wikipedia editor from Vermont who reported having stumbled upon Devotedamerican’s work while inserting policy positions on the pages of all the Vermont gubernatorial candidates.
In an email, FourViolas asked to be identified only by Wikipedia username, saying the community appreciates anonymity.
Galbraith said all the details Devotedamerican added were publicly available and that he has many defenders who supported his work with the Kurds.
He asserted that the oil autonomy the Kurds were given has made them a more economically stable people. Indeed, Kurdish economic stability is credited with helping to secure the region from the Islamic State group, and the Kurdish forces are said to be some of the best in the fight against IS in Iraq.
“The Islamic State would have taken over much more territory,” Galbraith said. “The genocide of the Yazidis would have been worse, and of the Christians, and probably of the Kurds, so yeah, the judgment of history is certainly that for the Kurds to have their own oil, which is something I helped do, was right.”
Galbraith also asserted that the coverage about his Kurdish oil money had inflated the real numbers. He also said the Norwegian paper’s investigation into his oil connections was “retaliation for Afghanistan.”
In 2009, Galbraith worked to audit Afghanistan’s presidential elections under the mantle of the United Nations. He had a tumultuous relationship with his U.N. counterpart, Kai Eide, a Norwegian.
In the interview, Galbraith said his problems with Eide spurred overzealous coverage by the Norwegian publication. It was a point strikingly similar to the one made by Devotedamerican when looking to discredit the publication on Wikipedia.
“Dagens Naeringsliv is simply the spear of a Norwegian campaign to discredit Galbraith after he criticized Eide’s cover up of the Afghan election fraud,” Devotedamerican wrote.
After being shown the Wikipedia edits, and Devotedamerican’s ardent defense of Galbraith’s foreign policies, the gubernatorial candidate smiled.
“Sounds like there is a real patriot out there,” he said.
