The Al Jazeera Hack

[DuctapeFatwa]

Picture this: A U.S.-based activist hacks into the Fox News Web site and diverts traffic to a screen where the phrases "Peace and Justice" "End the Occupation" and "Defeat Empire" flash across...what do you suppose would happen to this activist legally and socially? Certainly, she wouldn't get a soft reprimand from the U.S. courts and Rupert Murdoch (the owner of Fox News). She wouldn't be told "It's ok this time, we understand you are angry at the promotion of an illegal war...just don't do it again!"

No. She would be called unpatriotic. She would be fined severely, berated on cable television, demonized in editorials and possibly would face a long jail sentence. After all, hacking into a Web site and email -- which is the legal equivalent of committing wire fraud and causing disruption to an electronic communication -- is a felony in the U.S. and carries a maximum jail sentence of 25 years and a fine of $500,000. ... In fact, Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Justice Department just completed what they called "Operation Cyber Sweep,"..One can almost picture Ashcroft riding along the information superhighway lassoing in "evil doers." However, he seems to have let one slip by.

Between March 24 and March 27 -- at the outset of the U.S. invasion of Iraq -- 24 year old Web designer John William Racine II, of Norco, Calif., hacked into Al-Jazeera's Web site, blocking access to Internet users and Al-Jazeera's own Web masters....forged documents and created "Muhammed Jasim AlAli," al jazeera.net’s "new" system administrator. Using this fake identity, Racine changed the password for entry into the Web site's network and halted the site completely....Al Jazeera has declined to disclose the amount of money it lost..Racine pleaded guilty...His punishment for committing these felonies? 1,000 hours of community service and a $2,000 fine. No jail time, no probation, no hefty fine and little public discussion of this man’s fundamentally undemocratic and inherently racist actions...."I don't think of you as an evil person...but this was a crime. It wasn't just a childish prank," U.S. District Judge Howard Matz told Racine..Eric Burns - evil. John Racine - not evil. Al Jazeera - evil, Fox News - not.

As Racine hacked Al Jazeera’s site for publishing images of war and U.S. military casualties, the NYSE also took matters into its very powerful hands. The stock exchange barred Al Jazeera’s two business analysts Ramsey Shiber and Ammar Sankari from reporting about business news from its floor. Soon afterwards, the NASDAQ stock market did the same. The reporters, who provide some of the only business commentary directly to the Arab world, were told that the NYSE was cutting back on broadcasters. No one else was let go....We cannot forget the April 8 death of Al Jazeera journalist Tariq Ayoub...Nor can we forget that in November 2001 US forces destroyed Al Jazeera’s Kabul office - also a widely known civilian location.
Apparently, freedom of speech is only protected if it comes wrapped in red white and blue bow.

http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2003-12/14pandya.cfm

[sexybomber]

1. Fuck John Ashcroft.

He is nothing more than a bicth afraid of TRUE AMERICAN JUSTICE. FUCK JOHN ASHCROFT. i'l say i tloudeand celar! clear!

fuck john aschfroft.

[FDRrocks]

3. He just has to tighten the belt...

of Fascist America. Seriously though. Idiots call the left Anti-American while the RW commits illegal acts and destroys civil liberties. Cognitive Dissonance anyone? Or maybe they are just brown shirt fucks who care about people getting blow jobs but not illegal wars.

[madrchsod]

2. get ready

this is going to happen next year here and other democratic websites. we had a taste of it this week -expect more. to bad there isn`t anyone to complain to.

[interceptor]

4. We did?

Where? I missed that...

[madrchsod]

5. yes we did

during the rush show..he was talking about du and presto! a dos attack-what ever that is...

[RandomUser]

6. Al-Jazeera is despised by Iraqis

They hate the fact that Al-Jazeera was peddling pro-saddam propaganda. This anti-Al-Jazeera sentiment was expressed by both pro-occupation (http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/) and anti-occupation (http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/) Iraqi bloggers online.

[DuctapeFatwa]

7. It is despised by people everywhere who feel more comfortable

hearing only their own point of view.

They have taken flak from people in the East for having Crusaders on, and covering Crusader press briefings, and they have taken flak from the West, for not limiting their coverage to the above, as FoxNews does.

[RandomUser]

8. Actually, these are people with very different points of view

on the occupation. Both sides of the spectrum. And yet they despise Al-Jazeera because of the tactics and spin used.

Al-Jazeera is every bit as spin-heavy and "fair and balanced" as Fox.

[htuttle]

9. By the time the invasion started...

...Saddam's government was demonizing Al Jazeera as a tool of the Americans, and the US was demonizing Al Jazeera as a tool of Saddam.

Go figure.

I read it, and don't find it particularly spin-heavy in the news content. What spin there is I can easily filter out. I have yet to find an outright lie or untruth in it -- unlike Faux.

[RandomUser]

11. There are specific personal incidents cited

on those blogs that deal with Al-Jazeera news crews on the ground in Iraq. So it's not because of Saddam demonizing Al-Jazeera that makes the Iraqis despise it. If anything, they've always taken anything Saddam said with a grain of salt.

[DuctapeFatwa]

13. LOL I think you meant to disagree with me, but you rephrased

what I said. Don't be alarmed, it happens all the time. ;)

[RandomUser]

15. LOL. Not alarmed, just a tad confused

I'm not saying they don't have crusaders (they've interviewed Bush officials) and such on their shows. I'm saying I disagree that Al-Jazeera is only despised by those who fear a different point of view.

The comment of people being from different ends of the spectrum was meant in reference to the Iraqi Bloggers who despise Al-Jazeera, though I can see how it can be mistaken as a reference to the crusaders and guest interviewers on Al-Jazeera. (I should have been more clear in my sentence construction).

I also disagree with the implication that anyone who despises Al-Jazeera is doing so because they fear a different point of view. They list specific instances in their blogs of personal interactions with Al-Jazeera journalists and coverage on the ground in Iraq as evidence of Al-Jazeera's bias.

[DuctapeFatwa]

17. Oh there are people of all stripes who only want their views on

Think of the people in the US who think that Fox is just another example of the evil leftist media.

And in the east there are people whose opinion of Al Jaz interviewing bush regime henchmen is no different than Ms Average Fox viewer's would be if Shepherd Smith interviewed Agent bin Laden (sabbatical) himself!

Interestingly, most of the criticism of Al Jaz has had to do with their reporting on what different factions are saying, and covering civilian victims of the crusade.

But in fairness, those who are most vocal in their criticism have probably not considered that if Malaysia invaded and occupied the US, Canadian TV would probably not have a lot of reports involving cute Malaysian tots lisping things about daddy "killing the bad guys," but would certainly have extensive coverage of American civilian "casualties"....

[RandomUser]

19. I don't think Fox is evil

Just less than balanced. In truth, all news organizations have a bias, but some are more strongly off-neutral than others.

And the criticism is not just about coverage, but the way they deliberately skew coverage. It's not about Al-Jazeera not covering the American perspective ( cute Malaysian tots lisping things about daddy "killing the bad guys," ), but rather about Al-Jazeera not covering the Iraqi perspective truthfully.

[DuctapeFatwa]

20. The fact that several different factions are mad at them is in their favor

The pro-crusader "exiles" flown in from Dearborn don't like it that they hold a mike up to the Islamic Revolution guys, who don't like it that they hold it up to Bremer and his people, OR the pro-Saddam Sunnis, who are livid because they also interviewed the anti-Saddam Sunnis, and so on and so forth, and back to the crusaders who are (unneccesarily, IMO) concerned that someone in the west will notice that the one thing all the factions (Karzoids excluded) agree on is that they do not wish their country occupied by the crusaders.

There have actually been some truly historic cooperation precedents set between people who have absolutely nothing in common other than their shared desire to rid Iraq of the invaders.

Bush did say he was a uniter...

[RandomUser]

21. Reporters in Iraq

Here's an account from one of the blogs. Looks like they're talking about Al-Arabiya. There are other comments elsewhere about Al-Jazeera, too. These are blogs by Iraqi citizens who have lived through the war, not exiles flown in by Americans.

October 19 entry from the Iraqi dentist who is on the Healing Iraq blog.

One afternoon I had just got back from work and was going to change my clothes when suddenly *BOOM* The windows shattered all around me in pieces, there was a smell of something like gunpowder. I looked out but there was dust everywhere. I remembered that my brother was outside. I carefully opened the door, and to my surprise found 4 American soldiers in our garden, they were knocking on my grandmothers house door, I worriedly asked them what happened. They told me to stay away. I offered to open the door for them, which I did. They entered and went upstairs all the way to the roof, I stood in the hall with one of them who informed me that a bomb exploded behind their humvee just in front of the house, no one was hurt. They were suspecting someone attacked them from this house. The others came down, apologized to me and my grandmother (who didn't understand what was going on anyway) then left the house.
I went out to find a crater in front of the house. My god that was close. By a miracle nobody in the street was hurt. The idiots who planted that bomb were dumb enough to put it inside a sewers drainage which absorbed the shock of the blast. The only damage was the sound it made. Most of our windows were shattered.
After a while the soldiers left the place. Suddenly a reporter and a cameraman from Al-Arabiyah station appeared, they were so fast. I crossed the street to take a look. They were talking to some bearded guy who I hadn't seen before in the neighbourhood. He was enthusiastically talking about the humvee that flew in the air, and the 4 injured soldiers. I didn't see any of that. I was bewildered. Someone next to me told me that nothing like that happened at all. My brother and a couple of friends of his started to chant in front of the camera: LIAR, LIAR,... Everyone laughed at this, but the bearded guy started to swear by Allah. Someone pointed out that the bearded guy wasn't even in the area when the bomb exploded. Uh oh, I thought, he seemed to know about it before it happened. The cameraman violently shoved my brother and his friend aside telling them to shut up. I stepped forward and gave hime a push from behind. He almost fell over. I warned him that the camera he was holding would be in a thousand pieces if he dared touch my brother again. He backed up. A neighbour of ours hollered them to come and see the damage in their house. They refused to do so and left.
In the evening, Al-Arabiyah reported the following: 3 Americans badly injured and one Jeep damaged at .... in Baghdad. They showed the bearded guy talking and edited the rest of it.

Thats the way media in present day Iraq works.

[RandomUser]

22. And here's a list

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=638648

You'll find I always try to look at every perspective on an issue, even sides I don't agree with. Al-Jazeera is basically Fox.

[DuctapeFatwa]

23. It is an issue Americans get very emotional about

Although most Fox viewers, for example, don't (and haven't ever) gotten Al Jaz on their dish, nor do a great many of them have enough grasp of Arabic to understand it if they did, they have heard the bush regime's criticisms, and while there is a lot of opposition to their showing any of the purported "Al Qaeda" videos of Agent bin Laden, the thing that seems to be the most emotionally charged issue is covering civilian casualties in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

I am probably being uncharacteristically (and unrealistically) optimistic, but I think that even regime loyalists on some level find it painful to know that their government is killing and maiming innocent people. I think that they feel shame. And they are angry at Al Jaz or anyone who photographs their shame and broadcasts it to the world.

It is easier to call it lies and propaganda and terrorist rhetoric than confront the reality of what their country has become, and what they, in their support of it, financial, political, emotional, what they have become.

Whether this will prove to be a catalyst for introspection, and hopefully, change, or merely a trapdoor into the bottomless pit of collective self-loathing, remains to be seen.

[TexasPatriot]

10. this is absurd

and i'm sure that this is the sort of story that plays well in the Arab world...

The activists are always screaming 'American double standard' - when we turn around and play by one we give validation to a lot of their other tinfoil-hat conspiracy crap.

I'd love to see Qatar attempt to extradite this guy. Watch the Arab world drop their own version of Kevin Mitnick's Incarceration on his ass.

[RandomUser]

12. I don't condone the double standards on hacking

I believe you're right that a double standard is beig apply vis-a-vis Mitnick.

I'm just pointing out that Al-Jazeera is every bit as "fair and biased" as Fox. An American hacking into Al-Jazeera is like an Iraqi hacking onto Fox's website. Neither of which I regard as possessing lots of journalistic integrity. But with the media bias everywhere nowadays, journalistic integrity is hard to find.

[DuctapeFatwa]

14. Actually, it is the Crusaders who may have given Al Jaz a large

chunk of their credibility, simply by bombing them (more than once, in more than one country) murdering, maiming and disappearing their reporters, and zog zog zog.

That tends to make any news organization look mighty damn credible.

[RandomUser]

16. That's a funny image

I think a few terrorists bombing Fox News would also help give Fox a sizeable jump in credibility with the general public, unwarranted and undeserved as that may be.

[ThomC]

18. I don't know anyone that respects al jazeera

Most people see through their propaganda.