Azzam has "A Friend in Pennsylvania"

Free Republic Exclusive ^ | June 26, 2002 | Johnathan Galt

[JohnathanRGalt]

Azzam has "A Friend in Pennsylvania"

Al-Qaeda moved their web server, Azzam.com from Malaysia back to Pennsylvania (at BurstNET) on May 28th. The update rate was just too slow -- besides they are very well protected by someone inside the US Government. In other words, Azzam has "Friend in Pennsylvania".

Readers of the Free Republic news forum are well aware of Azzam.com. In September 2001, an appeal was made to:

Help stop the Taliban from collecting money on the web The FBI was then informed of the sites existence and nothing was done.

Two days ago (June 24,2002) we read about a: U.S. Hosted Islamic Website Coaching Muslims How To Pass Through Customs (You don't need to guess which website the article refered to.)

Enter Stage Right's intrepid reporter, Jeremy Reynalds, contacted BurstNET about the Al-Qaeda site last month and got this answer from a system administrator in charge of the site:

"BurstNET DOES NOT voluntarily host the azzam.com web site. It has either been removed from our equipment [It hasn't] or has been left untouched by gov't official request. It was formerly hosted here, was under government investigation, and was/will be removed as soon as the govt allowed us to do such. It would have been removed the instant we found out about it, had we not been instructed by the 'powers that be' to leave it untouched ... We are a Jewish owned corporation, do you really think we want to host such crap?"

There are two possibilities --

1) The Govt' has a vast bureaucracy of native Arabic speakers trained in political espionage and is monitoring these sites heavily. The army of agents reason-for-existance is to spend uncounted hours surfing the vast Islamist web looking for secret Al-Qaeda communications so they can get the jump on them before the next 9-11. The thought of having one less site to monitor really bothers a bureaucrat seeking job security.

2) The only other possibility I can think of is treason from inside the FBI/CIA -- there was a 'joke' going around FBI local offices that the reason their investigation into terrorist groups were quashed by higher-ups in Washington was that someone on the inside was really working for bin Laden.

Although Mayor Giuliani rejected the Saudi 'gift' of 10 million dollars, perhaps some U.S. Civil Servant trying to make it inside the beltway on a GS-16 salary wasn't so honest and honorable.

The possibility is not so far-fetched. It's happened before. Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen come to mind.

Here is the new "Afghan News" link, with today's (June 26, 2002) Al-Qaeda news straight from Pennsylvania:

http://66.197.135.110/~azzam/afghan/home.php

I found this choice quote on their site (use the 'month view' to read last month's archives):

[Azzam News, May 28 2002] ".... Furthermore, we would like to inform our visitors that we have decided to temporarily switch back to our old site in order to continue to provide news at a fast download speed, .... We would also like to request our visitors to continue to supplicate to Allah to enable us to resolve the problems on our site and for it to remain open, because a web-site does not remain open or shut down except by the Permission of the Almighty.

I wonder who this 'Almighty' person is and what is he doing in Pennsylvania?

---

DEMAND ANSWERS: Why are ISPs forced to host terrorist web sites?
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/530866253

-- Johnathan Galt

[Tom Pain]

In Intelligence, it's considered better to know where your enemy meets(and monitor it) than to have no idea(and NOT monitor it).

[Mixer]

I keep a careful watch on this site all the time. I try to expose them to FReepers all the time. The problem is that they are not going to say anything too illegal on that site because they know they are being watched daily. So they push the envelope to the very end and see how much they can get away with.

[sheik yerbouty]

More like a "fiend" in Pennsylvania.

[concerned about politics]

A net.

[rageaholic]

The AOL Life/Beliefs/Islam chat room is full of farakanites, osama bin laden supporters, wannabe Palestinian meat bombs, and various other narrow minded muslim types trash talking the USA (in most cases their home).

The latest arab conspiracy theories and anti Israel hatred aquired from their Imams flows freely. Every once in a while terroristic threats are made, which I report.

Its fun to bait them, it is like a video game, only the other characters are real individuals who you can confuse, anger and humiliate. And they are so deserving of your pent up wrath.

[NMR Guy]

With the server in place in Pennsylvania, the powers that be have access to:

1. The IP addresses of everyone who hits the site.

2. The URL of the site that linked to Azzam, in cases where there is a linking site.

3. A knowledge of any methods or tactics advocated there.

One of the things I enjoy about running my own web server is scrutinizing the logs... and seeing who is wasting time looking at the various things on my server.

For example, if you click here, I'll see your IP address in my log, know that you came from Free Republic, and see that you wasted time looking at my NMR of Mountain Dew page :-)

[dennisw]

"wannabe Palestinian meat bombs" 

Hahhah..... I may try to use a friend's AOL account to take a look.

[Aaron_A]

I have seen a few posts mentioning that azzam.com is hosted by BurstNet. But my traceroutes keep pointing to EV1 - Everyone Internet in Houston TX (Most likely hosted on a reseller off rackshack.net).

Here are the last 6 hops.

129.250.3.41 Dallas p64-0-0-0.r21.dllstx01.us.bb.verio.net
129.250.5.5 Houston p16-3-0-0.r00.hstntx01.us.bb.verio.net
129.250.30.216 Houston ge-1-1-0.a03.hstntx01.us.ra.verio.net
128.241.2.102 Houston ge-0-0-0.a03.hstntx01.us.ce.verio.net
207.218.223.34 Unknown tayhou-223-34.ev1.net
216.40.201.216 Unknown azzam.com

So what's going on?

[JohnathanRGalt]

Tom Pain wrote: In Intelligence, it's considered better to know where your enemy meets (and monitor it) than to have no idea (and NOT monitor it).

I take it that you subscribe to 'possibility 1' in the list of 2 above. Perhaps it's the opposite of Intelligence keeping all those terrorist sites up. The opposite of Intelligence is Stupidity.

"If anybody harbors a terrorist, they're a terrorist. If they fund a terrorist, they're a terrorist. If they house terrorists, they're terrorists. I mean, I can't make it any more clear to other nations around the world" What does that make American ISPs hosting terrorist web sites? They are taking money from Hamas, Hezbullah, Chechnya Mujahideen, KLA, Tanzeem, Al-Qassam Martyr's Brigade, Lashkar-e-Taiba, ... and dozens of other groups all listed by the U.S. State Department as terrorist.

The terrorists are paying for all these web sites with valid credit cards with funds drawn on US Banks. Why hasn't the FBI investigated the people paying for the sites? Perhaps they have been ordered not to? I am beginning to think that an IRS audit, for example, of the person paying for the Al-Qassam Martyr's Brigade's Texas web site might turn up some Saudi backing -- this might cause a problem for someone in the State Department.

[dighton]

The terrorists are paying for all these web sites with valid credit cards with funds drawn on US Banks. Why hasn't the FBI investigated the people paying for the sites?

Are you entirely sure they haven't?

[JohnathanRGalt]

I have seen a few posts mentioning that azzam.com is hosted by BurstNet. But my traceroutes keep pointing to EV1 - Everyone Internet in Houston TX

Al-Qaeda is sneaky - by now they are used to people pulling their plug by just getting their ISP to shut them down for violations of AUP And, if we can't get the terrorists on violations of AUP, we can get them on violations of TOS

So, what's an evil terrorist web site going to do in order to keep their site up and running -- so they can continue recruiting, collecting funds, and in general terrorising innocent people around the world?

They use nested frames for the domain name and point to the actual site using IP addresses. This confuses people unless they use the Netscape browser and view the HTML source to see the frameset. Also, when their domain goes down, the server stays up and they just have to get a new cheap ISP to host their domain name. I've detailed the structure of Al-Qaeda's web pages at my web page: Letter to the ISP of Azzam.com

[JohnathanRGalt]

Why hasn't the FBI investigated the people paying for the sites?

Are you entirely sure they haven't?

Because the terrorist web sites are still up -- someone must be paying for them.

[gjpino]

I was in there today under "Sheik Yirbouti" (yes, I ripped this off) and sometimes under "Smarter Than Thee".

I wish every American who thinks as Bush does about Islam spend a few minutes in there.

[Diddle E. Squat]

I wish every American who thinks as Bush does about Islam spend a few minutes in there.

I guess you haven't grasp that there are many variations of Islam, and not all are violent and supporters of Osama types?

Some elements of the KKK claim that (their interpretation of) Christianity requires that they stay 'pure'(white) and thus discriminate against other races. Should every American who thinks as Bush does about Islam spend a few minutes on their website?

[RightlySo]

Jonathan,

I, too, have been very upset in the past regarding these insidious web sites. In a time of war, they should be stopped.

This Article I Posted

The above is an article I put together regarding web sites attempting to raise money for the Taliban. Finally, the computer folks at the FBI listened to me, but Azzam.com persisted in finding new sources of ISP hosts.

The following are other groups trying to raise money for radical Islam and/or should be considered enemies of the USA:

al-rasheed
Al Akhtar Trust
Al Mujahedeen Trust
Wafa Humanitarian Organization
Mamoun Darkazanli Import-Export Company
Asbat Al-Ansar
Salafist Group for Call and Combat
Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya
Islamic Army of Aden
Harakat Ul-Mujahidin of Kashmir
Al-Jihad
CAIR
Nation of Islam
American Muslim Council

Let's all work together to try to expose the bastards.

[gjpino]

Ask yourself why so many important Imams denounce America. Ask yourself why so many Muslims support Osama. Ask yourself why all the Muslim groups here in the US were slow to condemn the terrorism and only recently even admitted that Osama is a terrorist. Ask yourself why "mainstream" Muslim groups encouraged Muslims to NOT cooperate with the FBI.

Ask yourself if Islam seperates civil governance from Religion. Ask a Muslim if they want to see Sharia'h Law as the law of the US.

Look at Muslim history. Look at the Muslim present>> 40 countries, 40 hellholes, 40 repressive regimes.

I can go on and on.

Are ALL Muslims terrorists? NO. All Communists weren't killers either, but that fact didn't make Communism palatable. Was every Nazi a killer? NO. Just because surely some Nazis were sickened by the results of fascism, that doesn't mean we were wrong in warring with them.

MUSLIMS ARE EITHER AT YOUR FEET OR AT YOUR THROAT. INSTEAD OF PICKING THE COFFEE, WAKE UP AND SMELL IT.

[Diddle E. Squat]

MUSLIMS ARE EITHER AT YOUR FEET OR AT YOUR THROAT. INSTEAD OF PICKING THE COFFEE, WAKE UP AND SMELL IT.

And are you next going to tell me that when Blacks move in, "there goes the neighborhood'?

[glorygirl]

Just to let you know I clicked and prefer DIET Mountain Dew. Plenty of caffeine for those late nights on FR and no sugar!

[Aaron_A]

Jonathan,
Thank you for the clarification - I guess I should have visited the site and checked it out in a bit more detail :). Appreciate your info...the re-director is likely a cheap host resellling the Rackshack service.

Maybe we should use this thread to list all the sites out there, along with their hosts and post them on a website like yours. I will start looking through my bookmarks for other sites.

Alot of their ISPs of choice are also located in Pakistan - not much leverage there.