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Internet
Haganah Founder Threatened with Beheading by John S. Pappas
Washington - 07/11/04 A group calling itself "Kataeb Mujahedeen" has threatened to behead A. Aaron Weisburd, founder of the Cyber-Terrorism watchdog site Internet Haganah - this week if he does not take down the Internet Haganah site. The threat is being taken seriously and authorities have been contacted, according to Mr. Weisburd. The threat was received July 9th, 2004 at the headquarters of Internet Haganah in Carbondale, Illinois. The letter containing the threat was addressed to Mr. Weisburd, Internet Haganah. The sender portion of the envelope listed "Kataeb Mujahedeen" as the sender and Cherry Hill, New Jersey as the originating city. The envelope post stamp lists Philadelphia as the city of origin and is dated July 6, 2004. Inside the envelope was a hand-written note that stated, "To the asshole Aaron Weisburd, here is our donation to you, either you close the website Internet Haganah by next week or you will (be) beheaded." The note was signed "Allahu Akbar (Allah is the Greatest), al-Mujahida al-Salafiya (Fundamentalist Holy Warriors) brigades, and was written in Arabic.
Internet Haganah is a group of web sites that lists Internet groups that promote Muslim-extremist terrorism. Internet Haganah is in the third year of operation. The organization relies on reader donations for income. Mr. Weisburd refuses to take down the Internet Haganah sites, but is taking the threat seriously and has contacted authorities regarding the threat, "You have to take something like this seriously on at least some level," he said, "but I already function at a pretty high level of alert anyway, so in terms of my daily life and routine, not much actually changes." Mr. Weisburd stated that he and Internet Haganah are not changing routines or security policy as a result of the threat. After being the victim of cyber-attacks, Internet Haganah took steps to improve security, virtually eliminating the terrorist's ability to take the site down through denial-of-service and other types of attacks. Mr. Weisburd believes that because they were successful at reducing the threat of cyber-attacks, the terrorists are now targeting him personally. "Initially the attacks were all in cyber space," he said, "and once I got all those mirrors of the site set up, network attacks against us became a waste of time. At that point, the next logical step would be for an increase in threats against me personally, which is what has happened." When asked if Internet Haganah would ever consider capitulating to the demands of the terrorists he replied, "Oh yeah, sure thing. As soon as hell freezes. The way to respond to thugs such as these is to stand up to them." On the web: http://haganah.us/haganah/ Related: Internet Haganah Ally ATC Reaffirms Solidarity © 2004 Johnny P News |
