An Arabic web site initially known as alneda.com and believed by U.S. officials to have been used by al-Qaeda to deliver messages possibly connected with further attacks, has resurfaced under the numerical internet address 66.197.181.234
However, a story on the site's front page illustrates the difficulty of obtaining accurate information from the internet about terrorism, especially when much of the needed information is in Arabic. Let me explain. A story I was referred to on this site initially appeared to be an eyewitness account of the death of Osama bin Laden.
Using a poor but nonetheless still relatively helpful automated Arabic-English translation tool available on line at http://tarjim.ajeeb.com/ajeeb/default.asp?, one headline appeared to be: "Osama's murder blessings but the jihad past to the day of resurrection."
Signed "An Abogafralkoiti," (an eyewitness) the account seemed to read in part, "Ossama Bin Ladin (sic) is murdered."
While the story appeared to talk about an apparent initial protection of bin Laden, things got bad in the opinion of the eye witness. (I have paraphrased).
The aerial bombardment on us started on the 10th day of Ramadan ... and that was at the beginning of the American air bombardment on Afghanistan the start of the Northern alliance's land manoeuvers ... On the 24th night of Ramadan very late in the evening we heard awful explosions near to us. They were right where Osama bin Laden was entrenched. That was a very long and difficult night and we were very worried as to what had happened to him as a result of that savage raid.
"In the morning and after the dawn prayer the information came to us about the disaster !! Osama's body was removed from the trench ... It was a guided missile from the giant aeroplane (a b52) and nothing remained except an old hole and (Osama's) remains."
However, a source close to this story and familiar with internet terrorism told me that while the story is indeed about AN Osama, it's not the one who everyone's after. He wrote that it concerns " the death of ‘Osama of Aden,' who alneda.com says is ‘a warrior for the sheik.' Our (Arabic) translator says the ‘communique' appears to have been written by a 12-year-old. It contains misspelled words, lots of exclamation marks and even begins with the phrase, ‘it was a dark and stormy night.' We think the site was hacked by a kid who decided to have some fun!"
Cyberterrorism expert Ben Venzke told USA Today in June that alneda.com, "is one of the only sites, if not the only site, for statements by al-qaeda and the Taliban."
The original alneda.com site was pulled after the United States government requested its removal. It has resurfaced under other names and addresses since the site was originally pulled.
The alneda.com domain name is now owned by a Maryland based internet pornographer whose business according to some accounts grossed over $3 million in 1999.
66.197. 181.234 is located on servers owned by burst.net out of Scranton, Pa. Burst.net has become increasingly hostile to inquiries concerning its hosting of terrorist web sites and continues to insist that "the government" is requiring them to host the sites.
An e- mail to shawn@host.noc (an apparent subsidiary of burst.net) who is listed as a contact for the site, was not answered by press time.