Posted on 02/02/2005 2:48:27 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
ALBUQUERQUE, NM (Talon News) -- A photograph posted on an Islamic web site is apparently that of an action figure and not a U.S. soldier being held hostage. Liam Cusack, the marketing coordinator for Dragon Models USA, said the figure pictured on the web site is believed to be "Special Ops Cody," a military action figure the company manufactured in late 2003.
"It pretty much looks exactly like the same person," Cusack told CNN.
On the Islamic web site, CNN reported, a group calling itself the Al Mujahedeen Brigade, posted a photograph of a man it claimed was a captured U.S. soldier named John Adam. The group threatened to behead Adam if Iraqi prisoners are not released by U.S. forces.
The picture is available on line (web site), where numerous terrorist pronouncements have been posted before.
However, the web site, www.ansarnet.ws, states, "ANSARNET.WS would like to warn all news agencies, news staff, members, readers, and visitors not to attribute temporary postings of the public on the bulletin part of its web site as being ANSARNET.WS publications."
Johnathan Galt, who has extensively researched Internet terrorism for a number of years, speculated on why a fake soldier was used.
"My guess, it's getting harder to capture a real soldier so they had to trump up a fake one for the propaganda value," Galt told Talon News. "They weren't above pulling fake, staged videos of GI's raping Iraqi women off porn sites and using them for propaganda either. Never believe anything you see on the Internet (or the media) without thorough checking."
Ansarnet is hosted by the Houston-based Everyone's Internet (EV1). The company has repeatedly refused to respond to questions concerning its reported hosting both directly and indirectly of terror web sites.
Another web site which carried the picture, Baghdad al Rashid, appears to be hosted by an Internet Service Provider called Savvis. A call to the company was answered by an individual who said the company may or may not be directly or indirectly hosting the site. He explained that Savvis routinely sells space on its computer servers to people, who then lease that same space out to other groups or individuals. He asked that concerns be directed in writing to the company's abuse department.
Those responsible for Baghdad al Rashid appear to have provided false registration information. On Feb. 1, the day the action figure appeared to have been uploaded to the Internet, the site was registered to a Azoubair Ebno 3awam of Baghdad. On December 1, the site was registered to Hassan Alsayed purportedly of Aleppo Syria.
Copyright © 2005 Talon News -- All rights reserved.
Johnathan GALT??? Is the author serious? Last I heard, Mr. Galt was trying to make a secluded valley in Colorado safe for capitalists!
...Azoubair Ebno 3awam...
What kind of a name is that? That and "Johnathan Galt" help give this article a made-up sort of feel.
Time to send in G.I. Joe for a rescue!
Jihad Faked a Hostage and Ayn Rand Inspired This Article PING!
Interesting.
Several weeks ago, I signed up EV1.net's Internet service. A lot cheaper than MSN or AOL.
I was pleased with it 'til today.
EV1.net better come clean about what they're doing. A lot of people in Texas (and elsewhere thru the country) won't be pleased.
...Azoubair Ebno 3awam... What kind of a name is that?
---
They are just phonetic spellings from Arabic. I'm guessing that Ebno is probably Ibna (son of). The "3" in 3awam is probably the letter "aiyn" in Arabic. It looks like a backwards 3 when written by itself. I have seen it represented by a 3 before.
They had these at the PX at Camp Doha.
I smell Info Ops. Good job, guys.
-R
I'm sending in Auz, Taz & T-gore the bounty hunter
Thanks for the clarification.
As an aside, the russian letter for "z" looks like a "3" also.
I am pretty sure that EV1 would be giving logs and whatever information the FBI wanted to them. Could be a "honeypot" where you keep the hosting in the USA so that it is easier to track who is visiting the site.
Sounds like they've been taking lessons from some of the rat media people.
"There will be no beheading this time, infidel! This time we will melt him!" Cheeze-wiz, Batman!
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