April 13, 2008
The Taliban are Back on U.S. & Australian Soil [UPDATE: Pwnage Complete!]
Update: All Taliban sites removed, thanks so much to everyone who helped out.
Sites removed by hosts thanks to your complaints:
http://www.freewebtown.com/wewrwr/
http://www.freewebtown.com/mickpoor/
Arabic(?): http://www.geocities.com/belallasdw/
Arabic(?):http://www.geocities.com/preytursei/
RELATED CONTENT SERVERS:
http://www.geocities.com/adasaqr/
http://www.geocities.com/djfdeeerhue/
http://www.geocities.com/addssdd_fdgdfg/
Pashtun: http://www.alemarah.110mb.com/
http://www.freewebtown.com/colonpoul/
http://www.freewebtown.com/mickmoon/
English: http://www.engl.110mb.com/indexeng.htm
Urdu: http://www.urdo.110mb.com/indexurdu.html
The OFFICIAL websites of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the group more commonly known as the Taliban, are once again being hosted on servers in the United States, Australia, & the Netherlands. The websites are used as press release outlets for two of the Taliban's top spokesmen. One of the websites is in English.
The English language website was updated as recently as today with "press releases" from the Taliban including "Puppet police commander among 10 gourd police were killed in Kandahar" & "Martyrdom Operation At Military convoy of Canadian soldiers in Kandahar" [sic].
Hosting these websites violates U.S. & international law. You can help by following the instructions below on how to complain to the service providers.
These free hosting companies have been responsive to complaints & have removed Taliban websites from their servers in the past. Because of the large volume of websites hosted by these companies, there is very little chance that they know they are providing services to the Taliban. As always, the number of complaints is directly correlated to how quickly the websites come down.
Please link this post or send it along to every one you know. Those who have friends or relatives fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan might be especially troubled to learn that the very people that are trying to kill their loved ones maintain a business relationship with domestic companies.
Here is a sample e-mail that should be the e-mail addresses included in the letter. The letter to the 110mb.com should be self explanatory, but the letter to the Tulix address goes to Freewebtown (always very responsive to complaints) while the letter to yahoo-inc.com goes to Yahoo!, the parent company of Geocities.com (usually very slow to respond to complaints):
UPDATE: As expected, the folks at Tulix took down the Freewebtown sites almost immediately, so I've removed their abuse e-mail and the associated websites from the sample letter below. The PWNage has begun!
UPDATE II: 110mb sites have also been removed, PWNage continues!
UPDATE III: 110mb failed to take down the MAIN PAGE, so their e-mail is back in. This is an Australian company with servers in The Netherlands.
UPDATE IV: All but the main Pashtun language site are down. I never thought I'd see the day where Yahoo!Geocities responded more quickly than other providers. Please e-mail the final service provider, 110mb.com and let them know they are violating Australian law. They took down the Taliban's English language website, but left up their Pashtun page, which is their main outlet. And it's not like they have the excuse that since they can't read Pashtun they can't verify if this is really the Taliban--the header reads "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" in English:
Update V: Last site removed, PWNage complete! 110mb.server@gmail.com
I am writing to inform you that your company is illegally hosting one or more websites from the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan", the group more commonly known as the TALIBAN.Thank you for your help. Taking down Taliban websites can seem a bit like whack-a-mole sometimes, but rest assured that your efforts are not wasted. Every hour spent by the Taliban in finding new hosts for these websites is one hour less spent fighting on the field.Providing business services, even free ones, to the Taliban violates Dutch, Australian, EU, U.S. and international law as per UN Resolutions. Please cease and desist immediately and report all relevant information, including IP logs, to law enforcement.
In the U.S. providing business services, even free ones, to the Taliban violates the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Each IEEPA violation carries a fine of up to $250,000.
In Australia providing webhosting to the Taliban violates the Section 80.2 of the Criminal Code which defines "sedition" as "the assistance of an enemy
engaged in armed hostilities with the Australian Defence Force."In all other countries providing business services to the Taliban violates the Charter of the United Nations (Anti-terrorism — Persons and Entities) List, under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 & UN Security Council Eesolution 1267 which says, "Asset holders are under an obligation to freeze the assets or economic resources of persons involved in terrorism as listed in the Consolidated List", of which the Taliban are listed.
Your company is hosting one or more of the following websites belonging to the Taliban:
Personal note to Adil Watanmal, Qari Muhammad Yussuf (Ahmadi) & Zabihullah Mujahid: Today cyber war, tomorrow a Predator.
