Internet Service Provider Takes Terror Site Off Line Hours Before Iraqi Elections
By Jeremy Reynalds (01/31/05)
For a few weeks, one of the hottest jihadi terror sites appears to have been www.mawsuat.com
Now just a few hours days before the Iraqi elections β when terrorists are threatening to wipe the streets of Baghdad with the blood of those who vote β this site has been taken down by its American Internet service provider.
In addition to providing links to files of al Qaida publications, www.mawsuat.com also had about 40 Jihadi "snuff" videos (of killings reportedly committed by supporters of Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi) available for download.
These were mostly short three to five minute videos of masked insurgents reading some sort of proclamation to a prisoner; followed either by the individual's head being cut off or shot in the head execution style.
Despite the al-Zarqawi and al Qaida materials available on the site, a disclaimer read "We would like to inform all the media outlets, all the governments and agencies that Mawsuat.com is not affiliated with any group or organization. The sole purpose of this project is to inform."
The address provided for contact on the site was mawsuat@hotmail.com. An e- mail to that address asking what the individual hoped to achieve by the site was answered like this.
"To tell the other side's story without bias at the contrary of the most major networks in your land," the individual wrote. " (For) example, if you check some of the videos of some operations in Iraq, you'll find that the number of casualties of the American forces is far greater than what your Pentagon and your Fox News report."
The individual continued, "First of all, the cyber space doesn't belong to anybody the last time I checked. What I put in my website is my business. To be honest with you, I find it kinda amazing that you will be offended by my website and its content, yet the thousands of porn sites that show women of all ages displaying themselves all over the internet seem to be fine by you "people" β assuming you are an American.
He added, "Now here's my question to you, if you are so sensitive and have a lot of βmoral values.' Why don't you condemn this war and ask your government to stop it β especially that over 100, 000 Iraqi civilians were slaughtered so far by your war machine, or maybe you can't β so you pick on the underdog."
The writer closed by saying, "If you find my English to be pretty good maybe you should assume I'm educated."
The site was registered to Karim Berrada. The tracking information for his e-mail also gave the same name. The address provided for site registration was "28, sidiberezzouk st, rabat 10000 United States."
That information is of course false, as Rabat is the capital of Morocco. Googling Karim Berrada (www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22Karim+Berrada%22&btnG=Google+Search) produced a small number of results, many of which were Moroccan affiliated. However, the e-mail tracking information indicated that it probably originated in the United States.
Mawsuat.com is hosted by an American Internet service provider β Go Daddy (www.godaddy.com). When alerted of the site's content, the company initially removed it for a short time. However, it was back on line by the next morning β pending, company officials said, a more thorough investigation.
A couple of days later the site was again down. Visitors are now greeted with the words, "This site is currently unavailable. If you are the owner of this site, please contact us at 1-480-505-8855 at your earliest convenience."
A Go Daddy representative said after the company finished an internal investigation of the site contents, it appeared that the site was violating the terms of service and so it was taken down.
Morocco has had its brush with terrorism. Aljazeerah reported (www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2003%20News%20archives/August/20%20n/Four%20to%20Die%20for%20Casablanca%20Bombings.htm) that in Aug. 2003 a Casablanca court sentenced four men to death for their involvement in a wave of near-simultaneous suicide bombings in May that killed 45 people, including 12 bombers.
The government, Aljazeerah reported, blamed a clandestine Islamist movement, the Salafia Jihadia, for the May 16 night bombing and said some of its members had indirect links to al Qaida.
The four were found guilty of having planned the simultaneous bombings of a Spanish restaurant, a five-star hotel and a Jewish community center.
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