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Hamas' Vicious AqsaTube

[Jerusalem Post] Amir Mizroch - Last week the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, an Israeli intelligence think-tank, released a report detailing the establishment by Hamas of AqsaTube, a video-sharing web platform closely modeled on YouTube, but filled with videos praising suicide martyrdom and showing how to build bombs and carry out attacks. Following publication of the story in the Jerusalem Post, Google removed its AdSense program from the website, and one day later, AqsaTube's French Internet service provider OVH took the Islamist site off-line. On Wednesday, AqsaTube was back up, bigger than before, hosted by the Russian service provider 2X4. On Thursday, the ITIC released a second report on AqsaTube, detailing its return and highlighting a video praising deceased Chechen terrorist Kuttab, one of the main figures behind the fighting against Russian soldiers. Several hours after ITIC's report was released, AqsaTube was again off-line. ITIC director Reuven Erlich said, "The fight has no end, but it makes Hamas' life harder, and that's the value of taking them on. For technical reasons, Hamas prefers to make use of Western Internet service providers....Sure, they could just go from one provider to another, and they could end up with a Malaysian provider for example, who won't feel the need to kick them off, but Hamas wants Western providers, and while they do, they are vulnerable." Furthermore, AqsaTube is not a website that can be ignored, Erlich said, pointing to the increasing use of on-line video to train terrorists. "These kinds of sites are like pedophile sites, and the fight against them needs to be coordinated internationally, just like authorities do against pedophiles," Erlich said.
2008-10-24 01:00:00
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