Web Hosts Terminates al-Qaida Sites

Al-Qaida websites have been taken off the Internet twice last week by Web hosts after being warned by local newspapers.

After it received a call from a Tampa Tribute reporter, an al-Qaida associated site was shut down on Monday by Tampa, Florida-based Noc4Hosts. Internet security authority Paul Henry exposed the new al-Qaida encryption program hosted at alekhlaas.info.

On Wednesday, after being informed by The Arizona Republic, Phoenix, Arizona-based Web hosting provider CrystalTech Web Hosting took down an al-Qaida website. The site was allegedly being used by al-Qaida to recruit car bombers, encourage war on the West and offer a forum for Islamic militants.

The website, ek-is.org, offers forum discussions about weapons, explosives and propaganda, often appearing like a resource for terrorists, reports The Arizona Republic. The site contained video casts of an American tank being blown up, including messages from al-Qaida leaders and forums in which terrorist acts are candidly discussed, says the Middle East Media Research Institute, a non-profit group in Washington, D.C. that monitors and translates Islamic websites.

CrystalTech president Bob Cichon said he was oblivious of the site’s content when the Web host posted the site earlier this week. Cichon says CrystalTech has no alliance with extremists or terrorists of any kind, and that his staff had no way to investigate the website since its content was completely written in Arabic. And while the site has been taken down, it still has other domain names and Web hosts worldwide that permit a continued presence using alternative Web addresses.

In recent years, there have been numerous efforts by al-Qaida and other terrorist groups to promote their message using hosting providers in the United States.