Taliban Using U.S. Firms to Host Web Sites
April 9, 2009 by national
Filed under Homeland Security
Militant groups are using the Internet to rally followers and boast of deadly new attacks — and they’re using American-owned Web hosts to do it, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.
On March 25, a purported Taliban Web site called the voice of the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” heralded a deadly attack on coalition forces in the country. The site claimed four soldiers were killed in the ambush and the “mujahideen took the weapons and ammunition as booty.”
The message, while written by the Taliban across the globe, was broadcast from Texas.
Web hosts like ThePlanet, located in Houston, are falling victim to the militant efforts, renting cyberspace at inexpensive prices and unknowingly becoming the voice of extremists.
“The relatively cheap expense and high quality of U.S. servers seems to attract jihadists,” Rita Katz, co-founder of the Site Intelligence Group, told the Post.
Pakistan has reportedly vented to U.S. officials about militants’ use of American Internet services since last fall, when an investigation found the Mumbai attackers made Internet phone calls though a server based in Houston.
Simple “Trace-Back” procedures can be used to determine the point of origin. Locate ‘em and take ‘em out before they cause harm!
This is the kind of surprise they will spring on us here in the U.S. I’m afraid that we will be ill prepared to handle such a situation. I don’t doubt the ability of the men and women who are on the streets 24-7 here to prevent such an attack but the upper echelon is asleep at the wheel and unaware of what will come.