Al-Qaeda Web Forums Abruptly Taken Offline

Separately, Sunnis and Shiites Wage Online War

By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, October 18, 2008; A01

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Oct. 17 -- Four of the five main online forums that al-Qaeda's media wing uses to distribute statements by Osama bin Laden and other extremists have been disabled since mid-September, monitors of the Web sites say.

The disappearance of the forums on Sept. 10 -- and al-Qaeda's apparent inability to restore them or create alternate online venues, as it has before -- has curbed the organization's dissemination of the words and images of its fugitive leaders. On Sept. 29, a statement by the al-Fajr Media Center, a distribution network created by supporters of al-Qaeda and other Sunni extremist groups, said the forums had disappeared "for technical reasons," and it urged followers not to trust look-alike sites.

For al-Qaeda, "these sites are the equivalent of pentagon.mil, whitehouse.gov, att.com," said Evan F. Kohlmann, an expert on online al-Qaeda operations who has advised the FBI and others. With just one authorized al-Qaeda site still in business, "this has left al-Qaeda's propaganda strategy hanging by a very narrow thread."

At the same time, in an apparently unrelated flare-up of online sectarian hostility, Shiite and Sunni hackers have targeted Web sites associated with the other sect, including that of a Saudi-owned television network and of Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric.

On several occasions over the past three years, unknown hackers have shut down al-Qaeda-affiliated Web sites after they announced the imminent release of a new video message from Osama bin Laden or another extremist leader. It is often impossible to pinpoint the source of such online attacks, though some experts say the culprits could be independent activists.

A U.S. intelligence official, asked about the online attacks, declined to say whether U.S. spy agencies engage in them. American and British security forces each have joint commands overseeing online operations against extremists.

"There had been this aura of invincibility" about al-Qaeda's media operations, said Gregory D. Johnsen, a U.S.-based expert on violent Sunni groups in Yemen. "Now this has really been taken away from them."

In early September, the al-Fajr forums were drumming up anticipation of al-Qaeda's annual video marking the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "Await Sept. 11!" one message declared.

Instead, on Sept. 10, the forums vanished.

Rapid changes in domain-registration information and in servers suggested that the sites' webmasters were working intently to bring the forums back up, according to a statement from the SITE Intelligence Group, a leading private monitor of Web sites of extremist groups.

After about 24 hours, one forum, al-Hesbah, reappeared, according to Kohlmann, a senior investigator with the NEFA Foundation in Charleston, S.C.

Al-Qaeda's Sept. 11 video eventually appeared on al-Hesbah, which means "one who holds others accountable," on Sept. 19. By then, the shine had been taken off the anniversary for al-Qaeda supporters.

"Oh, my God, save my brothers on the jihadi forums," one user posted on al-Hesbah, according to Kohlmann.

"My dear brothers . . . increase your supplications for Allah to guide the bullet and to restore al-Ekhlaas successfully so that the message is spread," another user wrote, according to SITE, referring to the most prominent of the downed forums.

Johnsen said that on extremist "forums that are still up, you have people who are quite paranoid and quite confused" about what's going on. He said it is "certainly normal for jihadi chat rooms and forums . . . to have some kind of disruption. It was very clear this is something entirely different."

Al-Qaeda has continued posting videos and statements on al-Hesbah. But Kohlmann said comparatively few followers have passwords to that site.

Al-Qaeda webmasters may be too concerned about letting in infiltrators to issue more passwords for al-Hesbah or to move to an alternate forum with new passwords, Kohlmann said.

"It's the first time it's happened now in three years for al-Qaeda to have only one forum left carrying al-Qaeda's propaganda stream," Kohlmann said. The al-Fajr center was created in late 2005.

Al-Qaeda has had to rely on the sites of others to help distribute its videos, costing the organization some control of its message and shrinking its audience, monitors said.

The sabotage of sites operated by extremist groups makes it more difficult for those groups to inspire attacks and recruit attackers, said Erich Marquardt, editor in chief of the Sentinel, a monthly online publication by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

However, "the downside of knocking jihadist Web sites offline is that you lose the ability to monitor jihadist activities," eliminating opportunities for Western monitors to search for ideological weaknesses or clues to future operations, Marquardt said. "When these Web sites are taken offline, it closes an important window."

Separately, Sunni and Shiite Internet partisans are waging a tit-for-tat hacking war. For now, Sunni extremist sites are taking the brunt.

In September, hackers targeted what Iranian news media estimated to be 300 Shiite sites, many of them operated by Shiite religious leaders in Iran. Targets included the official site of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the leading Shiite cleric in Iraq. For several days, visitors to that site were connected instead to a YouTube video featuring American talk-show host Bill Maher mocking what he said were the cleric's edicts, or fatwas, on sexual matters. Aides to Sistani later denied that he had issued such edicts.

A group called Ghoroub XP, based in the United Arab Emirates, asserted responsibility. Its claim has not been publicly confirmed by any authorities.

Alleged Shiite hackers responded in force. By Oct. 1, hundreds of sites run by Sunnis, including those of religious figures, had vanished. In their place appeared a site featuring an Iranian flag superimposed over the intense gaze of a smiling woman.

There also was a message, citing a Koranic verse: "And one who attacketh you, attack him in like manner as he attacked you."

The site of the Saudi-owned network al-Arabiya was among those attacked, forcing the news organization to move its site briefly to another domain. Al-Arabiya managers issued statements saying their coverage was balanced and neutral.

One Iranian, who answered questions submitted in writing and was identified as a hacker by sources familiar with the online religious world in Tehran, asserted responsibility for disrupting one Sunni site and said Sunni extremists online provoked the attack.

"The war is only between Shiite groups in Iran and Wahhabis," said the writer, who declined to be further identified. Wahhabis are followers of a stringent Saudi-born branch of Sunni Islam.

"The way of hacking is that they attack and we respond," he wrote. "The future will reveal our next step."

Correspondent Thomas Erdbrink in Tehran and staff writer Joby Warrick and staff researcher Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.

US-led strike kills 25 Afghan civilians

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:57:25 GMT

US-led air strikes have killed many civilians in Afghanistan.

At least 25 civilians including women and children have been killed in an air strike by US-led forces in volatile southern Afghanistan, reports say.

"In today's air strike by foreign forces some civilians including women and children were killed," Helmand provincial police chief Assadullah Shirzad told AFP Thursday.

Shirzad did not give an exact number of casualties but locals claimed that at least 25 civilians were killed.

A BBC reporter said he saw the bodies of women and the children - ranging in age from six months to 15 in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.

The families took the bodies from their village in Nad Ali district -- where the air strike occurred-- to the governor's office to protest the killings.

International forces in Afghanistan have come under increased criticism since Afghan and UN officials discovered that a US-led military operation in the village of Azizabad in August killed 90 civilians, including children.

Seven years of western military presence in Afghanistan has led to more insecurity, a record opium production surge and a sharply upward sprial of civilian lives lost to errant American airstrikes and suicide bombers . More than 4,700 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence in the country this year.

Al-Jazeera - Afghan mayor turns Taliban leader

Akbari says he will not negotiate with the government until foreign troops leave The former mayor of Afghanistan's Herat province is now the most powerful local Taliban commander. Ghullam Yahya Akbari told Al Jazeera that he will not negotiate with the Afghan government as long as foreign troops are on Afghan soil. IN VIDEO Afghan mayor joins Taliban Given exclusive access to one of his 20 mountain bases hidden deep inside rugged terrain that Akbari says were also used to fight the Russians, Al Jazeera's Qais Azimy found a group of at least 60 well-armed Taliban fighters. Akbari's steely resolve to fight foreign forces comes amid reports of many soldiers defecting to the Taliban. Many are unhappy with the "un-Islamic" ways of the foreign troops. Young and old Some in Akbari's camps were just teenagers, others old enough to be enjoying retirement, but all had left families behind and were committed to the fight to push international troops out of Afghanistan. Akbari said he had 20 bases training fighters in the rugged mountain area "I will continue jihad against the Americans who have invaded our soil until the last drop of blood remains in my body," Askar, one of the fighters, said. The food they eat is mostly dry bread, but the fighters do have satellite television and complaints appear rare. "We are not doing jihad for our stomachs, we are doing jihad for Allah," another fighter said. Akbari said the 20 mountain bases under his charge were also used by some of the same fighters to drive out the Russians in the 1980s. "People may wonder why we live up in the mountains. That's because we want to avoid civilian casualties and fight with guerrilla tactics," he said. No talks The former mayor is not interested in peace talks and said he would even turn his guns against Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, if he negotiated with the Afghan government. The fighters said they were willing to fight to the death "I do not believe that Mullah Omar would do that but if they sit with the Afghan government and negotiate then for us they will be like all the other members of the government and we'll continue our jihad," Akbari said. A spokesperson for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) dismissed suggestions of an increase in Taliban support. "While they were in power this was the worst administration in the history of the country so why would the people of Afghanistan want the Taliban back?" Brigadier-General Richard Blanchette said. But Al Jazeera's Azimy said the group had grown in its reach since he last met the fighters more than a month before. It now held three young policemen hostage and appeared to be a real threat, he said. 'MPs strike' Twenty Afghan members of parliament have meanwhile gone on strike in protest at the worsening security situation in Herat, and over what they say is the government's inability to fix it. The move is another sign of the difficulties facing Nato-led forces in bringing peace to the country. Al Jazeera's Dan Nolan, reporting from Kabul, said that the strikes reflect further discontent on the part of Afghan officials. "The security situation, and the increased attacks by Taliban fighters has many fearing that they can no longer protect themselves or depend on the government to come to their aid," he said. Khalid Pashtun, a member of parliament, told Al Jazeera: "The MPs from Herat are telling us that, for the past few months, they have been expressing their concern, wanting to replace the governor and some of the higher authority people in Herat, but so far there is no response back from the central government. "I would agree with Nato that Akbari is not really a big threat to Herat security. But for the past few years he has tried destabilising the area. Lately, in Herat kidnapping is increasing, and most of these actions were blamed on him." Pashtun explained that Akbari was a prominent commander and that after the Russians left Afghanistan he was mayor of Herat between 1992 and 1996. "He was a very successful mayor. When the Taliban was in power, he was exiled to Iran, and we heard he was selling vegetables there, so he was extremely poor. "Since this government took over, he has been the head of the public works department. But one of his conditions for coming back was that he would be in the mountains until they replace the governor, but this condition has not been met yet."

Judge orders re-filing of charges in illegal campaign contributions case

09:01 AM PDT on Saturday, October 4, 2008

Richard K. De Atley
The Press-Enteprise

Three perjury charges must be re-filed in the illegal campaign contribution and perjury case against Inland auto dealer Mark Leggio and three codefendants, a judge ruled Friday.

San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Bryan Foster agreed with Leggio attorney Thomas J. Warwick that the counts did not sufficiently describe the alleged acts, which focus on the filing of a state campaign contribution disclosure form.

Prosecutors said Leggio, a major donor to local Republican candidates, made campaign contributions exceeding the legal limit from 2002 through 2006. A 37-county indictment returned last June says more than $50,000 in illegal campaign contributions were laundered.



Silvia Flores / The Press-Enterprise
Perjury charges against Mark Leggio lack adequate specificity, a judge rules.

Leggio donated the maximum amount to a candidate and sent over more money by having colleagues make the contributions and then illegally reimbursing them, the indictment alleged.

The four defendants -- Leggio, two employees of his auto agencies and one former employee -- have not yet entered pleas. Grand jury testimony said all three employees denied to an investigator that they had been reimbursed.

The challenged perjury charges stem from Leggio's filings of state-required campaign contribution reports. The language says Leggio stated as true in the document a "matter which he knew to be false," but does not give details.

"It says the document is wrong -- but it doesn't say how it is wrong ... it doesn't say anything," Warwick said of the three perjury counts. "The law requires specificity," he said during the hearing.

Warwick declined comment afterward.

Deputy Attorney General Michael J. Cabral said outside court the changes would be made to the three counts. "We just need to allege exactly what it was, that they had made contributions in somebody else's name," he said.

Foster denied defense motions that attacked the other charges in the 37-count indictment. He set Nov. 5 for the next hearing in the case.

The defendants can file more challenges, called demurrers, against the amended indictment.

Among the recipients of the suspect donations were current state Sen. Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, and 2006 Assembly contender Brenda Salas, the mayor of Banning.

Others include Bill Leonard, a former legislator who received contributions for his successful bid for the state Board of Equalization in 2002; Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia; Alan Wapner, an Ontario city councilman who got money in a failed run in 2004 for the 61st Assembly District seat; and Elia Pirozzi, a Rancho Cucamonga Republican who is now a San Bernardino County judge.

None of the candidates is suspected of being in on the alleged plot, and authorities have suggested no motive.

Leggio is the part owner of Mark Christopher Auto Center in Ontario, Mountain View Chevrolet in Upland and Diamond Hills Auto Group in Banning.

Reach Richard K. De Atley at 951-368-9573 or rdeatley@PE.com