[Prime Choice]

So, why can't we just shut down Hamas, Hezbullah, al-Qaeda, and all the other terrorist orgs. operating openly using American ISPs?

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.

[JohnathanRGalt]

So, why can't we just shut down Hamas, Hezbullah, al-Qaeda, and all the other terrorist orgs. operating openly using American ISPs?

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).

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. 

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.

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.

Here's the EV1 Acceptable Use Policy:

1. Illegal use: Use of the EV1^® service to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting or otherwise) that, intentionally or unintentionally, violates any applicable local, state, national, or international law, or any rules or regulations promulgated thereunder.
   

2. 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.
   

3. Harassment: Use of the EV1^® service to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting or otherwise) that harasses another.

Why is al-Qaeda not subject to EV1 policy like a common spammer, child pornographer, or other mass murderer would be? (I'm refering to EV1 here because that ISP currently hosts a large number of terror sites and does not uniformly enforce it's AUP against terror sites like it does against spamvertised and porn sites).

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.

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.