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Jihadist Web Site Re-Ditched

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By HOWARD ALTMAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 1, 2008

For the second time this week, what is said to be key a al-Qaida Web site has been taken off the Internet by a hosting site after a call from a reporter.

On Wednesday, a Web site run by the propaganda arm of al-Qaida was taken down from a Web site in Phoenix after a call from the Arizona Republic newspaper. On Monday, a Web hosting company in Tampa removed a related site after a call from The Tampa Tribune.

The site hosted in Phoenix – www.ek-ls.org – was one of six previously hosted in Tampa, said Paul Henry, an Internet security specialist. It was Henry who uncovered a new al-Qaida encryption program hosted at www.alekhlaas.info, the web site taken down in Tampa on Monday.

The Tampa host company, Noc4Hosts, "is not in cahoots with al-Qaida," said Steve Eschweiler, the company's general manager.

The site, he said, was one of several hundred thousand the company hosts. Web hosting companies keep banks of computer servers where individual Web sites are based.

"If there is anything anti-American, we will take them down," Eschweiler said. "We work closely with authorities any time something like this comes up."

Eschweiler said he took down the site after a call from the Tribune. He would not say whether he has been contacted by investigators about the site.

He did say authorities sometimes request that he keep up certain sites.

"If it is not immediately taken down, there is a reason for that, but I can't really say anything more than that without disclosing information," Eschweiler said. "Read between the lines. We are as American as anyone."

Bob Cichon, president of the Phoenix-based Crystal Tech Web Hosting Inc., expressed similar sentiments.

"We are Americans, and we don't care for information like that," Cichon told the Tribune. "I have no idea what the content was. Using the help of the press and people who contacted us, we felt it was in the best interest to bring it down."

Cichon said the site was up for only a few days.

He said he filed a report with the FBI.

The Arizona Republic story is available at http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/arti....

Editor Howard Altman can be reached at (813) 259-7629 or haltman@tampatrib.com

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