FRIENDS OF SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER EXPOSES AND TERMINATES CANADIAN TERROR WEBSITE

TORONTO, March 21/07 – Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC) has succeeded in removing the latest terrorist website from Canadian cyberspace. 

 The Arabic language website, Detachments of Martyr Ahmed Abualrish, was discovered by Wiesenthal researchers compiling the Center’s soon-to-be-released CD-ROM Report, Digital Terrorism & Hate 2007; its annual report on Internet extremism.  

 “One didn’t need to be an Arabic speaker to realize that this website was disseminating terrorist propaganda,” said Leo Adler, FSWC Director of National Affairs.  “The website’s banner featured a masked gunman alongside the map of Israel superimposed on rifles and a rotating image of young men who ‘martyred’ themselves.”

 “Our investigative research revealed that this site was registered to an individual living in Khan Younis, Gaza, but hosted on a Canadian server,” said Michael Ettedgui, FSWC Education Associate.  “Our translation of the website then exposed the group as a military faction of Fatah in Gaza dedicated to ‘the liquidation of the Zionist entity - [Israel] politically, culturally, militarily and economically.’”

The group also proclaimed that the ‘armed revolution is the only way to free Palestine’ and its ‘activities would only end when the Zionist entity is eliminated.’ 

“We contacted Montréal based Groupe iWEB Technologies Inc., the website host, with our findings.  They quickly responded to our request and removed the terror site,” said Adler.

“We commend Canadian Internet Service Providers for their ongoing support of our efforts and we will continue to work closely with them and law enforcement agencies to ensure such content is kept off  Canadian servers, he added.”