March 27, 2008

MSM Notices We PWND Lee Media

We've graduated from the New York Times characterization as 'internet vigilantes' to the Boston Globe's 'internet watchdogs'. While the latter is preferable to the former, it kinda lacks, I dunno, pizzaz.

We need a name for what we do that's cooler. Any suggestions?

Boston Globe:

For more than a year, a Burlington-based Internet company hosted a website that taught its members how to outfit a suicide bomber, aired Al Qaeda propaganda videos, and offered an "exclusive" Taliban video showing the beheadings of three "spies," according to computer records.
more stories like this

The English-language website, Leemedia.net, was taken down earlier this month - but not in a counterterrorism crackdown, government officials said. Instead, the Web server, Endurance International Corp. Inc., shut it down after Internet watchdogs made repeated demands to remove the terrorist material.

The case of Leemedia.net, which was operated by a suspected terrorist sympathizer in Karachi, is the latest example of how US Internet companies are unknowingly hosting possibly hundreds of the most virulent Islamic extremist websites in the world, inciting young Muslims to kill Christians and Jews.

The article is pretty fair but does cite sources within the intel community who think there is no real connection between online jihadis and actual jihadis--a claim we've debunked here dozens of times.

No connection? Let's just look at the connection between Lee Media and actual terrorists:

We had occasion to go through our archives from the al-Nusra forum - a site that ceased operation after it's webmaster ceased breathing, killed as he was fighting for al-Qaida in northern Lebanon - and turned up this link to a LEE-distributed video.
Repeat after me: no connection.

But also let me caution that just because we target some websites does not mean that we target all websites. Fox News just ran a pretty lame story accusing people like Aaron at Internet Haganah of just that. You can see his rejoinder here and that of Mrs. Weisburd here.

Thanks to Bill Warner who helped pass news of the Lee Media project on to the Globe.


PREVIOUS:
It Sucks to be Lee Media Today (PWND)
Cry Havoc, and Let Slip the Blogs of War: U.S. Companies Hosting Terror Supporters (HELP NEEDED!)
Lee-Media: Taliban Behead Three "Spies"
LEE Media Network Presents: "Does this bomb vest make me look fat?"

By Rusty Shackleford, Ph.D. at 08:50 AM | |