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  Supporting the Sustainable Management of Amphibian and Reptile Biodiversity

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can
change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." --Anon.

 

 CRAIG HASSAPAKIS - DEFAMATION - SLANDER

 

Slander is a form of defamation where there are legal claims for false statements of fact about a person that: 1) harms the reputation of the other person, 2) those hearing or reading the statement must identify it specifically with the plaintiff, and 3) that must be a false statement of fact.

Below we list and provide documentary evidence of defamation by Craig Hassipakis against Dr. Robert Browne in concert with the establishment of a highjacking of Amphibian and Reptile Conservation journal.

Because of Craig Hassapakis's ongoing defamation we, in the public interest have decided to release our email strings concerning various aspects on his journal highjacking. We note that gmails can be forged, gmail addresses and passwords can be highjacked, and gmails can be sent simply through persons accessing gmail on active computers. However, at the readers convenience, and in readers consideration of email validity in respect to multiple parties in gmail strings, and consistency of language, style, and flow, we will only place genuine email strings on our posts.

In contrast to Craig Hassapakis, where he publishes unsubstainiated claims hence defamation/slander, we are happy to provide documentary evidence for any of our claims and do so on this page.

Background - see Internet fraud for more background

Dr. Browne in 2012 prevented Craig Hassipakis selling the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation journal to a disreputable journal group for US$5,000 on ethical grounds of responsibility to the authors of the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation journal and to the moral principles of the ARC of global representation and ownership as an NGO.

In 2012 Dr. Browne refused to transfer his recognised at least 50% ownership of the Amphibian and Reptile journal to Craig Hassipakis. Dr. Browne also was owed money by Craig Hassipakis for costs associated with the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation journal after repeated promises by Craig to pay.

In 2012 Craig Hassipakis then claimed ownership of the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation journal and established a highjacker website, threatened Dr. Browne with a defamation campaign through the "the court of public opinion", and when Dr. Browne refused to submit began a slanderous defamation campaign through the Internet against Dr. Browne and others supporting the ARC.

Craig Hassipakis defamation and slander against Dr. Robert Browne.

As International Chair of the ARC Dr. Browne has born the brunt of Craig Hassipakis' public defamation campaign.

Craig Hassipakis defamation includes fraud as published by ZenScientist http://www.zenscientist.com/index.php/filedrawer/func-finishdown/1925/ referring to a report article on some new sites for a newt in Iraq published by Amphibian and Reptile Conservation journal. The PDF slanders Omar Al-Sheikhly, Dr. Robert Browne, and Prof. Nasrullah Rastegar-Pouyani as authors on the report article. The publishers of ZenScientist were not given, or did not publish, the full email string by Craig Hassapakis that included Omar Al-Sheikhly refutation of all of Elnaz Najafi Majd's claims.   

On this site is also a blacklisting of our journal from an Iranian government authority, produced without our knowledge or opportunity to contest, that we are contesting. This mischevious act by Craig Hassapakis was supported by a disgruntled Iranian academic that resented our Middle East Chapter chair replacing him as a department head. We support several major conservation initiatives in Iran that include majot successes for Critically Endangered amphibians, and projects for crocodilans. This attack by Craig Hassapakis has created problems for these programs.

We note that Craig Hassapkis's begins his initial attack on our programs in Iran in 2013 with his dafamatory and fraudulent email as per the PDFs below. "This has caused a disturbance and crisis within the Iranian herpetology community and the journal Amphibian & Reptile Conservation (ARC) must respond." The only reason there was any problem with the "Iranian herpetology community", if any, was because of Craig Hassapakis. The article was authored by Omar Al-Sheikhly from Iraq, and Elnaz Najafi Majd was from Turkey, and this sort of unsubstantiated rhetoric is typical of the ongoing deception of Craig Hassapakis.

PDF from ZenScientist

Full email string PDF 

Of particular note as parts of Craig Hassapakis's fraud, are the unsubstantiated reliance of Craig Hassapakis on the vague email by his good friend Elnaz Najafi Majd, as per ZenScientist webpage above, the deception of ZenScientist  in not publishing the full email string in PDF from ZenScientist, and the lack of opportunity for Omar Al-Sheikhly to defend his position.

The circumstances were that a good friend of Craig Hassapakis', Elnaz Najafi Majd, a PhD student from Turkey and her father were invited through Dr. Browne's recommendation to accompany the reports primary author, Omar Al-Sheikhly, to visit some salamander sites.  Elnaz Najafi Majd made no substantial contribution to the paper did not answer correspondence from Omar Al-Sheikly. Therefore Omar Al-Sheikly as primary author, whose role includes selection of co-authors, did not consider Elnaz Najafi Majd as deserving co-authorship and neither do we as managers of the Amphibian and Reptile journal.  

In the below statement by Craig Hassapakis on August 20th 2013 he says that:

"ethical violations that Omar Fadhil Al-Sheikhl, Robert Browne, and others have evidently conspired to commit and subsequently successfully executed by publishing a paper"

"Through good evidence of an eye witness (Elnaz Najafi Majd) to actual parts of the field work" ... "and Anna Bachmann"

It is interesting to note that although deleting Omar Al-Sheikhly's email, Craig Hassapakis includes an email by Anna Bachmann that has no relevancy to the "issue of whether the information in the paper is good or not" in Anna's words. 

Craig Hassapakis considers evidence as an email by Elnaz Najafi Majd where she states as her own eye wiriness that  "he (Omar Fadhil Al-Sheikhl) accompanied me 3 days in my field studied in sulaimaniya Province in Iraq in May 2012".

As is shown in Omar Fadhil Al-Sheikhl's email as per Full email string PDF this was not the case and in fact Elnaz Najafi Majd and her father were simply guests to Omar's research.

Craig Hassapakis states that "Results were published by those will no official permission, authors (Robert Browne and possibly others) involved who made no intellectual contribution to the paper (with the possible acception of editing) and allowed these false and unethical results to be attributed to those who had no right in disclosing and subsequently published (Robert Browne as the section editor and peer-review editor for the paper in question)."

In fact Craig Hassapakis was clearly editor in charge of the articles, with Dr. Robert Browne as article co-author where Dr. Browne greatly contributed to the writing of the article along with Prof. Prof. Nasrullah Rastegar-Pouyani.

On being presented the article Craig Hassapakis then presented it to Howard Clark who then produced the pre-proof and the proof under Craig Hassapakis' over site, which was then published when presented to Dr. Robert Browne as publisher. There are no grounds for ethical misconduct in this process.

Craig Hassapakis then states "This has caused a disturbance and crisis within the Iranian herpetology community. This has in part (and other blunders, work ethic issues, and other work related matters of importance) has prompted the ARC acting board to vote in the affirmative to disassociate (and dissolution of activities between Craig Hassapakis, Editor and Publisher, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation and Howard Clark, Graphic Designer and Associate Editor, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation and Robert Browne---"former" journal associate) from any and all involvement with the journal Amphibian & Reptile Conservation by an official vote to do so.! "Robert Browne henceforth has no official standing in the journal Amphibian & Reptile Conservation" The publisher Craig Hassapakis will ... continue the activities of the journal.! "Craig Hassapakis, Editor and Publisher, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation at: [email protected]."

There was no board except an advisory panel with the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation journal at the time of Craig Hassapakis and Howard Clark's "official vote". The above paragraph is entirely defamatory and simply written to support Craig Hassapakis fraudulently setting up his highjacker journal for his own monetary gain.

Many other instances of Craig Hassapakis's fraudulent slander and defamation have occurred since 2013 but we move on to 2015 where two of Craig Hassipakis' more heinous recent lies concerning Dr. Browne were recently published (as below) in concert with Craig Hassipakis attempting to have the original and genuine ARC site blacklisted.

This was wisely refused by the referred Academic Internet site below, where Craig Hassapakis has consistently provided false information to science ethics regulators. 

In reference to the contents of Craig and others posts on the site below, we will show that as Craig Hassipakis becomes emboldened by gullible persons accepting his lies, like all pathological lier's he moves onto the next extreme.

http://scholarlyoa.com/2015/05/05/two-oa-journals-share-the-same-title-and-each-claims-the-other-is-not-legitimate/

Lie 1. Craig Hassapakis says: May 9, 2015 at 11:39 AM: Robert’s unscrupulous behaviors have plagued his career in science having been fired from every position he has ever held: Memphis Zoo, Amphibian ARK, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, and ARC.   
   
Dr. Browne has never been fired from any jobs in his lifetime. Dr. Browne left Memphis Zoo on his own choice, after rejecting a large grant for his further 2 year employment on ethical grounds and in fact stayed and worked in the zoo laboratory for several months over his employment period without payout finish important conservation projects. His supervisor drove him to the airport, and paid for a nice lunch where future work together was discussed.   
 
Dr. Browne was held in employment for 6 months at Antwerp Zoo on supplementary funds after his contract had expired. He was then supported in establishing the Sustainability America project in Belize and the associated establishment of the Internet based Amphibian and Reptile Conservation journal and its associated organisation.  Dr. Browne obtained three large grants for amphibian conservation in Iran and published many articles while at the zoo and was highly regarded. Dr. Browne's work for the Amphibian Ark (AArk) was to write the “Amphibian Research Guide for Zoos’ which is still a foundation document for amphibian conservation.  
   
Lie 2. Craig Hassapakis says: May 9, 2015 at 11:39 AM When we were communicating (we don’t now) he explained to me personally that the primary reason he moved to Belize was to be out of the reach of the law!   
   
Dr. Browne moved to Belize before his association with Hassapakis and the formation of the ARC. Belize is an ex-commonwealth country and has a legal system based on British Law. People do not move to Belize to escape the law as there is a high degree of surveillance of non-nationals by a well equipped and vigilant immigration department, supported by the Belizean police force and Interpol. It seems very easy for persons to break judicial perjury laws and not be charged, and defamation laws as there are not any in the USA than in Belize.   

In fact Hassapakis co-authored a document published the Froglog the ASG/ASA newsletter 106 " A Unique Collaboration, Robert Browne, Craig Hassapakis and Howard Clark; http://www.sustainabilityamerica.org/Froglog-article.html  " formally recognising that the ARC journal was based in Belize with the support of www.sustainabilityamerica.org as it still is.

A particularly disgusting, malicious, and vindictive tactic by Craig Hassipakis to highjack the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation journal was to undermine the relationship of Sustainability America's with some of their affiliates in Belize. One must seriously question the character of a person that attacks a sustainability project, through a pack of lies, at this time of environmental crisis.

Entities can break juridicial perjury laws in the USA and not be charged, and defamation laws do not effectively exist. Also see Craig Hassipakis judicial perjury, and Craig Hassipakis defamation slander 

 

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 Dr Robert Browne

Dr. Robert Browne Chairperson

Dr. Browne established the Internet based ARC in 2011 and expanded it globally in 2013. Robert is committed to achieving the ARC's goal to provide for the sustainable management of amphibians and reptiles. He has a wide international experience in herpetological conservation and has published over 40 scientific articles on amphibian and reptile conservation. see Biography