University of Florida Computer Servers Promoting Terrorist Friendly Web Site
By Jeremy Reynalds (bio)
Other Articles by Jeremy Reynalds
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Computer servers owned by the University of Florida in Gainseville are apparently being used by a student at the University on his school web site to promote an anti-American, terrorist- friendly web site, www.al-sakher.com
The school web site, grove.ufl.edu/~olayyan/hateb1.html, has a prominent link to www.al-sakher.com, which contains an abundance of anti-American rhetoric and pictures such as this one, captioned on the site as: "America Lost the War."
It was not possible to determine for sure site owner Yousif al-olayyan's exact status at the school, as he has apparently decided to remove his name from all university directories. A school official said that students can decide to be unlisted if they wish.
However, a check of the University of Florida's Grove web site read that "Grove is operated by the Center for Instructional and Research Computing Activities (CIRCA) at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Accounts on this computer are available to all University of Florida students. You can apply for a grove at the CIRCA office in E520 CSE."
Jordan Wiens, a network security engineer at UF, said that because the UF web site only contains a link to a site that provides apparently objectionable material that it probably does not violate the school's acceptable use policy of its computer resources.
An e-mail seeking comment sent to the address listed on the university owned web site, yousif@al-olayan.com, was sent back by the computer server marked "user unknown."
While www.al-sakher is bad enough, the same owner also administers another site, www.arab3.com which has the potential to be even more dangerous in light of officials belief that terrorists are using the internet as a means of communication.
This site is self-described as a "centralized service where images can be uploaded to the internet and a hyperlink for the image will be ready for use anywhere. arab3.com take the right to copyright all uploaded images to the server. Everybody is allowed to submit and manage images, however, any image violate the conditions will be removed. arab3.com take no responsibility for the loss or damage of any uploaded images."
That site contains pictures like this.
Both www.al-sakher.com and www.arab3online.com are located on servers owned by Colorado-based www.venturesonline.com. A spokesman for the company said that he would keep an eye on the sites but he was unable to do anything unless the sites violated the terms of service.
The Gainesville FBI has been notified about these sites.
Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and director of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter. He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico and is pursuing his PhD in intercultural education at Biola University in Los Angeles. He is married with five children and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His work can be viewed here and weekly at www.americasvoices.org. He may be contacted by e-mail at reynalds@joyjunction.org
