Terror Group Threatening European Countries Backing Bush Has Alleged U.S.Cyber Home
By Jeremy Reynalds (08/06/04)
Radical Islamics claiming affiliation to al Qaeda have again posted threats against the United Kingdom, Italy, Bulgaria and other European countries backing President George W Bush’s policy on Iraq.
According to Bulgaria’s Sofia News Agency (SFN), the statement from Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades read in part, “We will urge our members in Italy, UK, Bulgaria and entire Europe to get ready for a new kind of battle. Be prepared to shed blood. We are launching a bloody and endless war.”
This is the third time that Islamic terrorists have threatened Bulgaria, SFN reported.
Last week the same group vowed a war on European countries, including Bulgaria. “We will not hesitate to shed blood in all parts of Europe, in Rome and other places, as long as countries move in the orbit of the pinnacle of unbelief, America,” SFN reported the statement said.
On July 21 an Islamic group named Tawhid, claiming to be al-Qaeda's European cell, threatened Bulgaria and Poland with bloodbaths unless they withdraw troops from Iraq.
Bulgaria is contributing a 485-strong light infantry unit to the international peacekeeping forces in the southern Iraqi town of Karbala, SFN reported. The troops are under Polish command.
Despite a deadly bomb attack on the Bulgarian base last December, and the death of two Bulgarian hostages, Bulgarian authorities have vowed they will not capitulate to the terrorist’s threats but stay the course in Iraq.
While it is was not immediately possible to determine whether the threatening message against Europe and other countries was posted on the group’s Hosting Anime web site, the group does have a presence there at www.hostinganime.com/abu-hafs.
Hosting Anime is an internet service provider that hosts a number of al Qaida and other terrorist web sites. It appears to operate by renting space on the servers of the Houston based Everyone's Internet (EV1), which has hosted sites in the past for groups such as the Hamas.
The radical sites hosted by Hosting Anime (and apparently EV1) include
www.hostinganime.com/meshawir
www.hostinganime.com/meshawir/aljhad.html
www.hostinganime.com/e3dad123/film.htm
www.hostinganime.com/e3dad123/files.htm
www.hostinganime.com/meshawir/moga63h.html
www.hostinganime.com/gim/GIMfaroq.htm
www.hostinganime.com/seer/index.htm
www.hostinganime.com/iraqnews1
www.hostinganime.com/iraqnews1/index.html
www.hostinganime.com/iraqnews2
www.hostinganime.com/iraqnews3
www.hostinganime.com/abu-hafs
www.hostinganime.com/neda5/sout
www.hostinganime.com/neda5/sout/index.html
www.hostinganime.com/neda5/sout/index2s.htm
www.hostinganime.com/neda5/sout/news.htm
www.hostinganime.com/neda5/sout/bttar.htm
www.onefreehost.com/neda4
www.onefreehost.com/neda4/index.htm
www.hostinganime.com/neda4
www.hostinganime.com/neda4/index.htm
www.hostinganime.com/neda4/new.htm
www.hostinganime.com/neda4/sout/index.htm
www.hostinganime.com/neda4/lqaa.htm
www.hostinganime.com/neda4/bdr.htm
www.hostinganime.com/neda4/aboomar.htm
www.hostinganime.com/neda4/yaammat.htm
www.hostinganime.com/neda4/alakat.htm
www.hostinganime.com/neda3/sout
www.hostinganime.com/neda3/sout/new.htm
www.hostinganime.com/neda2/sout
www.hostinganime.com/neda2/sout/index.htm
www.hostinganime.com/neda2/page/new.htm
www.hostinganime.com/neda2/pic/ww.jpg
www.hostinganime.com/sout19/b15doc.zip
www.hostinganime.com/sout19/s20pdf.zip
www.hostinganime.com/qaedoon/index.htm
www.hostinganime.com/qaedoon/sout.htm
www.hostinganime.com/qaedoon/replay16-07-2004.htm
www.hostinganime.com/qaedoon/replay.htm
www.hostinganime.com/sout19/s20doc.zip
www.hostinganime.com/sout19
www.hostinganime.com/sout19/index.htm
www.hostinganime.com/sout19/new.htm
www.hostinganime.com/sout19/bttar.htm
www.hostinganime.com/abuhagar/abuhager.htm
www.hostinganime.com/gim/GIMfaroq.htm
www.hostinganime.com/faroq/Osama2usa.htm
www.hostinganime.com/salahamza/book4.html
www.hostinganime.com/salahamza/book6.html
www.hostinganime.com/haramin/index.htm
Apparent parent host EV1 has not returned a number of e-mails seeking comment but did generate an automated response in the last few weeks which read in part, "We have received your report of possible abuse of our network resources. The current number of notifications that require investigations limits the number of personal responses from the staff to senders and this might be the only response you receive regarding your notification; however, we do investigate each report."
In addition, when asked a few weeks ago if EV1 administration would respond to an e-mail seeking answers about the company's continued relationship with Hosting Anime, a receptionist said, “If they're interested they will contact you. All we say is that they're unavailable and we can take a message.”
Writing on an SFN bulletin board recently (www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=37501), internet terror researcher Johnathan Galt commented about EV1, "The (Hosting Anime) site is hosted at EV1.NET in Houston Texas. They host *MOST* (of) the latest murder videos and terrorist announcements. We need an international furor to force the U.S. Govt. to release all the details of these two companies. Why is the identity of the murderers and the people helping them kept secret? Important clues as to the identities of the murderers are held in the server logs of EV1. A court order is needed in order to force the companies to make them public."
An attorney for the U.S. Dept. of Justice’s Counter Terrorism Division asked that written research about Hosting Anime’s alleged activities be faxed to her.
In March, Aljaazeera reported (http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D2D48F79-B330-40E3-A17D-B4CDD01EE1A0.htm) that Abu Hafs Brigades has been surfacing more and more recently.
It has claimed responsibility for several deadly attacks in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad last April. The brigades were named after the training commander of al-Qaida network and were founded after his death in 2001.
He was an Egyptian national, who was nicknamed al-Masri meaning 'the Egyptian' in Arabic, Al Jazeera reported.
Following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, American authorities put Abu Hafs’ name on top of the list of wanted people. He was one of the most wanted people in the US, dead or alive.
On 16 November 2001, a US air raid destroyed a house near Kabul reportedly sheltering Abu Hafs.
Al Jazeera reported that while news of Abu Hafs’ death was widely disputed inside and outside Afghanistan, it was confirmed three days later from Pakistan where the Taliban's Ambassador Abd Al-Salam Dhaif said “Abu Hafs al-Masri died from injuries he suffered after US warplanes bombed his house near Kabul.”
But who was Abu Hafs al-Masri?
He was a core member of the Islamic Jihad group, which successfully carried out the assassination of the Egyptian president Anwar al-Sadat on 6 October 1981. He joined Osama bin Ladin in the early 1980s, Al Jazeera reported, when the two were fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan.
He also helped establish al-Qaida’s fundamental base, according to Al Jazeera. As a former Egyptian police officer, he was in charge of the group’s security.
Abu Hafs assumed control of the training camps after the former commander Abu Ubaida al-Banshiri was drowned in Victoria lake, Uganda, in 1996. His ties with Osama bin Ladin became stronger, Al Jazeera reported, when one of his daughters was married to one of bin Ladin's sons.
Abu Haf was associated with many deadly attacks in worldwide, Al Jazeera reported.
While al Qaida was based in Sudan in 1992-1993, Abu Hafs allegedly took part in attacks on American forces operating under the international military force in Somalia (Operation Restore Hope).
In 1997, Al Jazeera reported it was said he and another top bin Ladin aide, Ayman al-Dhawahiri, orchestrated the killing of 58 tourists in al-Uxur, Egypt.
In 1999, the FBI announced evidence of Abu Hafs’ links to the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in which 250 people were killed. He was charged with killing US citizens.
Abu Hafs was also wanted, Al Jazeera reported, by a number of international security and intelligence agencies. An Egyptian court sentenced him to seven years in prison in absentia. The FBI put a five million dollar reward for information leading to his arrest.
Ten months before Abu Hafs al-Masri's death, Osama bin Ladin nominated him as his successor in the event of his death or arrest.
The nomination surprised many of bin Ladin's aides and inner circle, Al Jazeera reported. It was expected that bin Ladin's eldest son, Muhammad, would succeed his father in leading the controversial organization.
According to Al Jazeera, Abd Allah Azzam, the father of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, was quoted by Arab fighters there as having expressed his annoyance at, “bin Ladin's favoritism towards Egyptian Muslim fundamentalists.”
(Printer friendly version) Email: Jeremy Reynalds
