AMERICAN COMPANY HOSTS APPARENT AL QAEDA "NEWS" BROADCAST
By Jeremy Reynalds (10/08/05)
The anchor for a brand new Internet based video "news" service doesn't need makeup, and isn't likely to win any prizes for his looks or his clothing. He's dressed in all black and hooded.
The unnamed individual is the announcer for a news channel apparently just rolled out by al Qaeda called "The Voice of the Caliphate."
Information about the channel was provided by the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF). The GIMF is thought of by many analysts as being the "real deal" when it comes to assessing the current status of al Qaeda.
The GIMF posted on forums and http://soutgimf.s5.com details of the group's latest project. According to one article (http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2369784), the project was billed as the "first of its kind in the media world."
According to the same article, the GIMF bill the new broadcast as "‘a transparent vision with an Islamic view,' and a ‘voice of truth in a time of evil.' The GIMF announcement was accompanied by a fanfare of media flashes for forum readers to download and distribute among their colleagues.
"The stated aim of the new initiative is to confront the ‘media obfuscation carried out by the collaborationist (i.e. Iraqi government) media channels, and the frantic media war directed against our mujahid brothers all over the world, which spares no effort to blacken the image of the mujahideen and conceal their victories.'"
While http://soutgimf.s5.com didn't contain footage of the group's promised broadcast, there was a 19 min. edition of what appeared to be the show available on www.dos222.com, an American- hosted soft porn site that also doubles as a cyber home for radical Islamic video propaganda.
The Arabic broadcast starts with the sound of swords clashing followed by apparent Islamic chanting.
A hooded announcer ominously intones the "news." Then there's video footage of what could be an al Qaeda training camp, with students sitting in classroom flanked by weapons.
The video then shifts back to the hooded announcer reading more "news."
Then there's a still picture of abducted Jerusalem resident Sasson Nuriel,51, before he was killed.
As Internet Haganah's Aaron Weisburd commented (www.haganah.us/harchives/005069.html), "Before they murdered him, Hamas videotaped the man in the manner made popular by Al Qaida in Iraq." (More information is available at www.www.alqassam.ws/arabic).
The broadcast continues with footage of explosions, followed by the masked announcer reading more of al Qaeda's brand of the "news."
The www.dos222.com site is hosted by the Orlando- based www.dimenoc.com. An employee at the company, contacted earlier about a snuff video available on the site, asked that the address be submitted to Dimenoc's abuse department, where the matter would be fully investigated. However, the site is still running.
Another company employee of the company, contacted for this story, said that the company would investigate the concern if a link could be provided to the terror material contained on the site. Otherwise, he said, there was nothing really that could be done.
An earlier e-mail requesting comment to the individual apparently responsible for the site was returned as undeliverable.
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