by Sean Beesley
July 19, 2004
While america and the world combat terror, it appears that the terrorists and their supporters themselves are tapping into america’s booming web hosting industry to spread their venom.
With the war on terror in full swing and terrorists scrambling to reorganize and regroup, the anonymous nature of the Internet has become an essential tool. as we often hear in news reports terrorists and their supporters have become more reliant on websites, message boards and chat rooms to communicate, rally supporters, and grotesquely display their barbaric acts of beheading to the world. We in the western world generally assume that these sites are set up and run in some remote Middle Eastern country spewing their hate to the world from afar. However, the first instalment of new report by MEMRI (Middle Middle East Media Research Institute) has a shocking revelation.
The Middle East Media Research Institute has released part one of it's report on terror-affiliated Websites. In a special report entitled Islamist Websites and Their Hosts Part I: Islamist Terror Organizations, which they state is to be the first of many reports on the topic. MEMRI has listed 25 terror affiliated or official Websites active as of July 16, 2004. Based on the information shown, 20 of the sites are hosted in North america, 19 in the United States and 1 in Canada. The remaining sites were from the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Russia, United arab Emirates, and Iran. Meaning 76 percent of the official or affiliated terror sites mentioned are hosted in the United States, while two sites or 8 percent are from the middle east. The american hosted sites include the website of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, army of ansar al-Sunnah ; known supporters of al-Qaeda, several pro al-Qaeda sites including one that publishes al-Qaeda's al-Battar Training Camp magazine, the official website of Hamas, a pro- Hizbullah weekly magazine, al-aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of arafat’s Fatah organization, Hizbullah TV station al-Manar, website of Palestinian Islamic Jihad Secretary General Dr. abdallah Ramadhan Shalah., and al-Quds Brigades, military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. While the site for Izz al-din al-Qassam, military wing of Hamas, is hosted in Kelowna, Canada.
In general, hosting companies have general terms and conditions regarding content that they require their clients to agree to. The majority of these terms state that the dissemination of hate is prohibited. However, with a large increase in third party subcontracting of hosting services and thousands of news sites emerging everyday, it is not know how widely these conditions are enforced. Canada Free Press is presently contacting the companies listed in the report as to their comments.
Sean Beesley is the publisher and editor of Spin Killer.
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