Jehadi website ping: (let me know if you want on or off)
Posted on 10/23/2004 10:54:53 PM PDT by JohnathanRGalt
The swift action taken last month by the Colorado-based ISP Level3 and the Virginia-based ISP Network Solution prove that this can be done. After being alerted, both ISP’s tracked and shut down Hamas and Hizbollah websites.
Governments can take action, too. Last week, the British government, responding to the U.S. request under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between the two countries, ordered the closure of 20 media websites in 17 countries that advocated terrorism.
U.S. government efforts to punish those who provide terrorists with “expert advice or assistance” for operating websites was denounced by Arsalan Iftikhar, the legal director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), as “open[ing] the floodgates to really marginalizing a lot of the free speech that has been a hallmark of the American legal and political system.” Yet, our war against the plague of Islamist fundamentalism is unlikely to succeed as long as its most virulent organs of communication are allowed to operate freely on the internet and on TV, inciting violence for jihad. Currently, anyone can purchase web-hosting services without providing any real personal information aside from a valid credit card number.
On September 9, 2004, the Treasury Department designated as terrorists the U.S. branch of the Saudi-based Al Haramain Islamic Foundation (AHF). However, on September 10th, a day after Al Haramain was designated as terrorist, its website (www.alharamain.org), which is registered and run by U.S. Director Suliman Al-Buthe – also designated as terrorist - disingenuously stated that America’s financial war on terror is doomed to failure because it is “smearing anyone who attempted to understand the root causes of anti-American terrorism.” Further, in American attempts to part the terrorists from their money, “the collateral damage are the poor, the orphans and the children.”
Al Haramain is also listed as a member on the website of the Friends of Charities Association (www.foca.net), which is registered by the same Suliman Al-Buthe, and hosted by W3Gateway.com, Inc., of Houston, Texas. FOCA was established in January 2004 in Washington, D.C. According to its website, it “represents some of the leading charities who have devoted their existence to translating donor intent into action to relieve suffering illiteracy and poverty around the world.” Among its listed members are two major Saudi organizations with documented ties to Islamists terrorism: the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) and the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO). The Al Haramain office is still open in Jeddah, despite official announcements of its closure.
And W3Gateway is not the only American web-hosting company providing services to terror organizations. Until a few days ago, Network Solutions hosted both Hezbollah and Palestinian Jihad websites. Both organizations are designated by the U.S. government as terrorist organizations, as is Hamas, which operates its primary English-language site (palestine-info.co.uk) from the Washington, D.C., data center of HopOne Internet Corporation. Network Solution also hosted the website of the Islamic Resistance Support Association (moqawama.org), which carried descriptions of all Islamist terrorists’ attacks, news, and information concerning the “resistance.”
In response to reports that Network Solutions is providing services to Palestinian Islamic Jihad (palestineway.com), a current customer wrote to the company to complain. A company representative responded, “Network Solutions has no responsibility or duty to police the rights of trademark owners concerning domain names.” This response sidesteps the issue, which is that an American company is providing services to a designated terrorist organization (or individual). The Network Solutions representative added that “If the domain owner in question is conducting criminal activity we would ask you to defer to either the police or the proper authorities” – a strange comment, considering the fact that the company is the one conducting activity in violation of U.S. laws and regulations that prohibit any support to terrorists, including selling services to, and receiving money directly or indirectly from designated terrorists, or their representatives.
Network Solutions also provided services to Hassan Nasrallah (Nasrallah.net), the Secretary-General of Hezbollah and a designated terrorist. They would even forward your letter to him if you wrote to: Attn: Nasrallah.net, c/o Network Solutions, P. O. Box 447, Herndon, VA 20172-0447. However, as of last weekend, Network Solutions appears to have suspended palestineway.com, nasrallah.net and moqawama.org.
Mr. Iftikhar claims the U.S. effort to shut down these websites, as limited as it is, “really does nothing but worsen the image of America in the rest of the world.” However, it is not only America that is the target for the Islamists murderous attacks coordinated through their websites.
The Patriot Act, enacted by a huge, bipartisan majority after September 11, 2001, defines the facilitation of communication for terrorist purposes as a terrorist act. Providing internet services to terrorist groups meets that criterion. Congress should enact new legislation requiring American-based ISPs to demand that their clients, the web-hosting companies, identify their customers. This can be done through methods similar to Know Your Customer procedures, which are already in place for American banks. As for foreign Web-hosting companies, OFAC regulations and the executive orders behind them seem to be a perfect control mechanism.
In addition to the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties, Congress should also ratify the Council of Europe's Convention on Cyber Crime. Clearly, no convention will not stop states that support terrorism from facilitating terrorists websites and television broadcasting, but limiting their operations and making it more difficult for them, would make a difference. Allowing these websites and TV broadcasts to operate, allegedly to be monitored by the intelligence community, allows the Islamists’ hate propaganda to continue poison the minds of millions worldwide, while the terrorists go on killing.
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Rachel Ehrenfeld, a member of the Committee on the Present Danger, is Director of American Center for Democracy, and author of Funding Evil; How Terrorism is Financed – and How to Stop It (Bonus Books, 2004).
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=15605
Because ISPs are not regulated by any federal agency. The Internet is still in its Wild West phase (and I hope it remains that way).
ISPs have Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs). Sites can only be legally terminated (per contractual agreement) when they violate those AUPs. If someone's on there spouting anti-American bullcrap, that's not grounds for site termination.
I'm not wild about the current arrangement, but consider how screwed up it'd be if we actually started shutting down sites based on errant content. You can bet your butt that the Leftists' first order would be to shut down Free Republic based on a few errant posts.
We can.
The one big exception to the 1st Amentment protections of "free speech" has to do with advocation and/or encouragement of illegal activity.
NAMBLA has already been slapped down once for their "speech" regarding recruitment of young boys into butt-banditry.
Links Of Interest
http://www.truthusa.com/LinksOfInterest.html
We certainly can, and if not legally it could be done covertly. My guess is that we let them do their thing and try to gather intelligence from it. Same reason the Brits didn't stop Lord Haw Haw, or the Germans the BBC transmissions to France.
________________________________
ON THE NET...
http://members.hostedscripts.com/top.cgi?user=ila000
meshawir@hotmail.com
http://meshawir.freewebspace.com/
meshawir@hotmail.com
http://www.hostinganime.com/meshawir/
ma7jooob@yahoo.com
http://www.hostinganime.com/meshawir/english.html
http://meshawir.freewebspace.com/
meshawir@hotmail.com
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22hostinganime.com/meshawir%22&hl=en&lr=&filter=0
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22meshawir/english%22&hl=en&lr=&filter=0
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22meshawir%22&hl=en&lr=&filter=0
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22meshawr%22&hl=en&lr=&filter=0
http://www.alqa3edah.q6.net/
http://www.n66n.com/up/pic1/AAJJ0.gif
internet haganáh
http://haganah.us/haganah/
SITE Institute
http://www.siteinstitute.org/
But what of the great jihad hero and front man, Mohammed Atta? “Air Force spokesman Col. Ken McClellan said a man named Mohamed Atta had once attended the International Officer's School at Maxwell/Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala.”
Could be another guy. Who knows.
From what I've read about Atta, I'd say it's not the 9-11 Atta.
It's far from 'Wild West'. The ISPs are actually physical entities, the terrorist website locations can be trace-routed to businesses with real street addresses.Because ISPs are not regulated by any federal agency. The Internet is still in its Wild West phase (and I hope it remains that way).
But you're missing an important point. Most of those AUPs clearly state that sites may not host hateful content or whatever content the ISP chooses not to host for whatever reason the ISP chooses. ISPs are businesses, not the Federal Government. The First Amendment only says that the Government may not abridge 'Freedom of Speech' -- you have no right to force a business or another individual to print or host what the business chooses not to carry.
ISPs have Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs). Sites can only be legally terminated (per contractual agreement) when they violate those AUPs. If someone's on there spouting anti-American bullcrap, that's not grounds for site termination.
Threats: Use of the EV1® service to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting or otherwise) that threatens or encourages bodily harm or destruction of property.
Harassment: Use of the EV1® service to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting or otherwise) that harasses another.
Errant content on FR is quickly removed by our Admins. The poster may also be terminated from FR for whatever reason. The ISP of FR (Verio) has also hosted several Islamist terror sites --- but removed them when public pressure and publicity made the case that hosting terror was counter productive to business.I'm not wild about the current arrangement, but consider how screwed up it'd be if we actually started shutting down sites based on errant content. You can bet your butt that the Leftists' first order would be to shut down Free Republic based on a few errant posts.
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