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Andrew Aaron Weisburd of Internet Haganah: Cyber Terrorist
by Victims of Weisburd
Friday, Apr. 29, 2005 at 3:33 PM
Why is the US Government allowing a foreign intelligence agency to commit cyber crimes in the United States?
Andrew Aaron Weisburd of Internet Haganah: Cyber Terrorist
A Critique of the Claims in the Article "Watchdogs Seek Out The Web's Bad Side"
| Statement in Article |
Translation |
A. Aaron Weisburd slogged up to his attic at 5 a.m. to begin another day combing through tips he had received about possible pro-terrorist activity on the Internet.
It did not take long for one e-mail to catch his attention: Ekhlaas.com was offering instructions on how to steal people's personal information off their computers. It was a new development for an Islamic discussion site accustomed to announcing "martyrdom operations," or suicide bombings, against U.S. troops and others in Iraq.
A. Aaron Weisburd, who works from his home in Carbondale, Ill., has established a Web site dedicated to fighting back against offensive and dangerous sites. Weisburd's online site has more than 30,000 unique visitors each month.
Weisburd quickly listed the discovery in his daily log of offensive and dangerous sites, alerting his supporters. A few days later, Ekhlaas experienced an unusual surge in activity, the hallmark of a hacker attack, forcing the company hosting the site to take it down. |
Having no life of is own, A. Aaron
Weisburd got up at 5 a.m. to begin another day of harassing people
online. Though, in the example, he claims to have been investigating
an Islamic discussion site, his long history under the project KOBE proves
that his motivation has nothing to do with terrorism and everything to do
with an irrational hatred for Muslims. When he states that the
website was announcing "martyrdom operations", you can be sure
that what he read was nothing more than discussion of the news about such
activities.
Weisburd's KOBE operation openly discusses and publishes information
about how to hack anarchist websites. His group hacks anarchist
websites and steal personal information from his target's personal
computers. Therefore, his concern about someone publishing some
comment about stealing people's personal information on the Islamic forum
is utterly fake and hypocritical. Moreover, since Weisburd's
operation has a history of publishing such comments under the names of his
targets, his own organization probably posted the offensive material in
order to provide "justification" for an attack.
Weisburd, then, sent his group of mentally deranged cyber criminals
after the website to commit various crimes such as denial of service
attacks and harassment of the website's host.
If the site was, in fact, a threat to national security, Weisburd
prevented the FBI from monitoring the website and gathering valuable
information concerning terrorist attacks. Without the website there,
the FBI could not monitor it. As a consequence, assuming Weisburd's
claims that the website was a terrorist website, Weisburd increased the
probability of a successful terrorist attack against Americans by denying
the FBI the opportunity to monitor communications on the website.
Anyway you look at it, Weisburd is a criminal, harasser and assistant to
terrorism. |
| It was another small victory for Weisburd, one of a new
breed of Internet activists. Part vigilantes, part informants, part nosy
neighbors, they search the Web for sites that they say deal in theft,
fraud and violence.
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Let's make it clear exactly what kind of
activities Weisburd and associates are engaged in. Also, let's make
it clear there is nothing new, from a political standpoint about their
behavior.
(1) Weisburd's operation does not merely "inform."
Weisburd's operation publishes forged article and posts in the name of his
targets to frame them. They file false reports with government
agencies to provoke investigations (a crime). They libel and slander
their targets.
(2) They are not "nosy neighbors." They are online
stalkers who illegally hack into the personal computers of their victims
and steal personal information. They use this information to harass
their victims. These activities are criminal.
(3) Weisburd's operation deals in theft, fraud and violence. They
have provoked violence against some of their targets through false
allegations.
(4) There s nothing new in this behavior. The only new twist is
that most of it takes place online. Past examples of this same
behavior in other venues include Hitler's brownshirts, goon squads in
Latin America, and rightwing vigilante harassment of leftists throughout
US history.
(5) Weisburd's operation is racist. He targets Arabs and Muslims
and does not target Israelis, even when engaged in similar activities. |
| Weisburd said he and his supporters are responsible for
dismantling at least 650 and as many as 1,000 sites he regards as
threatening, especially Islamic radical sites.
"I'm sort of like a freelance investigator," Weisburd said.
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Weisburd has not merely "dismantled"
websites. He has harassed individuals engaged in perfectly legal
online dissident, threatened their family members, harassed their
employers, and harassed their web hosts. He regularly uses lies,
disinformation and threats to accomplish these goals. Weisburd
decides what is "threatening." He has decided that
effective criticism of George Bush, for example, is threatening. He
has decided that display of upside down US flags on websites is
threatening. He considers all effective dissent threatening. |
| Like the foes they pursue, online crusaders like Weisburd
are adept at using the Internet's unique characteristics -- its anonymity,
speed and ability to reach across nation-state boundaries. Some work alone
and in secret; others like Weisburd have managed to put together
well-organized operations that run almost like companies. Their causes can
vary widely, be it stopping spam or holding large corporations accountable
for poor products or service. There are groups that investigate murders
and those that fight terrorism and other crimes. |
Many of Weisburd's "foes" are
innocent Americans exercising their right to free speech. Making any
kind of equivalence between these innocent Americans and Weisburd is
absurd. In fact, Weisburd is the biggest menace to the Internet. |
| The activists often operate at the boundaries of what is
legal and illegal. For his part, Weisburd insists that he uses only legal
means to go after his targets. A posting on his site explains that in
fighting crime he does not think it proper to commit one, but he admits he
cannot always control the actions of those who help him. |
Weisburd knows that those who help him are
violating the law, yet he continues to solicit their help.
Therefore, he does condone illegal activities and recruit others to engage
in illegal activities. His argument is no stronger than the
arguments of members of White Aryan Resistance who claimed that their
calls for action, which resulted in the murder of a Jewish radio host,
were not their own fault for they did not explicitly ask for the
murder. A jury found that their actions encouraged illegal
activities and the founder of White Aryan Resistance was successfully
prosecuted. What Weisburd is doing is encouraging others to engage
in hate crimes against Arabs, Muslims and Anarchists. |
| Government agencies and others are not sure what to make of
him. Some law enforcement officials praise his efforts. Kenneth Nix, a
police detective from Missouri who is on the Internet Crimes Task Force,
said Weisburd often provides information that "we didn't have
before." |
Weisburd and his volunteers obtain their
information illegally by:
(1) Hacking into the personal computers of their targets.
(2) Getting "volunteers" inside of web service providers and
telecom companies to illegally provide the information.
These activities are criminal. Weisburd provides this information
to police who use it harass innocent Americans engaged in First Amendment
free speech. The police are actively and knowingly protecting an
individual who engages in criminal activities on their behalf. |
| But others say that he is making more trouble than he is
doing good. Some U.S. officials think that they can learn more about
terrorist operations by monitoring suspicious sites as they operate.
Weisburd said an analyst from a federal agency recently wrote him a
scathing letter calling him a "grave threat to national
security" because his work was interfering with its investigations.
Marshall Stone, a spokesman for the FBI, said that while the agency
encourages citizens to report alleged wrongdoing, it believes any attempt
to stop criminals should be left to the government. |
Weisburd is a grave threat to national
security. He shuts down online communications exchange points that
the Federal Government monitors to find possible information on terrorist
threats, thereby making it more difficult for federal authorities to do
their work. Weisburd reports innocent Americans engaged in legal
dissent to federal authorities provoking wasteful investigations which take
resources away from the fight against terrorism. |
| Without due process, evidence could be tainted and become
unusable in court cases or, worse, targets could be condemned as guilty
when they are really innocent, said Paul Kurtz, executive director of the
Cyber Security Industry Alliance, a coalition of tech company chief
executives. "When we all become 'law enforcement officers' justice
becomes very blurry," he said. |
Police cooperation with Weisburd has
already resulted in police involvement with online racial hate crimes
against the family members of a dissident in Massachusetts (specifically,
the Dedham Police Department). Not only does his compromise the
police, he recruits them to commit civil rights crimes. |
Websites associated with Weisburd:
| Things You Can Do To Stop Andrew
Aaron Weisburd |
| What? Report someone to the authorities? Well,
yes, in this case that is exactly what you should do and here is why:
(1) Up until now, the only excuse the US Government has for not
prosecuting Weisburd is that no one has complained. No one has
complained because he has done these things anonymously. Now that we
know who he is, let's take that excuse away from the US Government.
(2) The suggestions to the right pale in comparison to what Weisburd
has done to dissidents on the web. He has done all of these things
AND employed illegal means. |
- Report him to the FBI: Visit his local FBI field office online
by clicking this
link or telephone them at (816) 512-8200. Ask to speak with
Special Agent Marshall Stone and ask them why they have not
investigated Weisburd for online terrorism. Point out that their
failure to prosecute Weisburd is an example of the FBI's current
practice of not providing equal protection under the law, a violation
of the US Constitution. Ask them if Weisburd has been involved
in harassing American anarchist websites. Request information on
how to file a formal complaint against Weisburd and follow through
with the information.
- Report him to Homeland
Security as a threat to national security and to the Internet.
- Report him to the Secret
Service as a cyber threat to Americans.
- Ask the Carbondale,
Illinois Police Department to investigate his online crimes
(hacking, unauthorized network intrusion, emailing viruses, etc).
- Contact Ariana Eunjung Cha
author of the article Watchdogs Seek Out The Web's Bad Side
and ask her to investigate these allegations.
- Ask the IRS
to investigate whether or not he is correctly reporting his PayPal
income. It is difficult to believe that his operation is wholly
funded by investigations and their are rumors that a foreign
government is financing his operation (the donation mechanism is a
cover).
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