Al-Qaeda Chatter on UseNet?

Free Republic Exclusive ^ | Nov. 21, 2002 | Johnathan Galt

[Mitchell]

I think this is a HipCrime Usenet attack. Although annoying and disruptive, HipCrime wouldn't seem to be Islamic terrorism. A Google search for "hipcrime" will provide some information on the history of this problem.

[b4its2late]

Interesting.

[TLBSHOW]

He is right. I should of linked it different as it is a very graphic picture of which I wanted to make the point we are up against a very graphic group.

Most photos like that are normally listed as such here at Freerepublic.

Bombs Add to Israeli Fury After Baby's Killing * Be Warned Very Graphic Photo *

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ac28683787f.htm

even then they can be too much! Thanks for the reminder freepers!

[TLBSHOW]

Thanks Cindy!

[proxy_user]

I agree it is HipCrime. If Islamic terrorists wanted to communicate through Usenet, they would simply used Mixmaster and a mail2news gateway like everybody else in alt.anonymous.messages.

[Cindy]

Mr. Galt,

I don't know a darn thing about Usenet or the postings, but I did notice that the last usenet posts you noted are in Virginia and posted in November, 2002.

stepping back in time...HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE: "SUBURBAN WASHINGTON'S TERROR TRAIL" by Tiimothy P. Carney and Terrence P. Jeffrey (November 5, 2001)
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/articles/11-05-01/cover.html

[JohnathanRGalt]

I always dismissed it as the work of some kook named Thomas Boschloo who lives in the Netherlands and apparently has some kind of grudge against the group. But now I see the words 'Moustapha' and 'Boschloo' often appear together in these posts.

Note that these 491 posts appear mostly in the, alt.privacy.anon-server newsgroup. Each message is '-- PGP SIGNED --' so the recipient can uniquely identify the sender -- rather than malicious spamming in a futile attempt to bring down UseNet --  it looks like some form of anonymous communication.

[Mixer]

Thanks for the ping. I think that Usenet is a high traffic place for terrorist chatter because it is so hard to regulate. There are so many groups and so many ways to spread the word withouit anyone catching on. Thnaks for looking into this and it might be a good idea for everyone to ping into this thread anything else that they see on Usenet that may contain cryptic code that the feds might be interested in seeing.

Johnathan.....great job as always.

[BiffSchneider]

We already had this thread several months back. Perhaps a FAQ? ;)

[Mixer]

Farmers=?; store=?; monolith=?; butchers=?; spoon=?; upper house=?; enigmas=?; tailor=?; dusts=?; onions=?; shopkeepers=? There has to be a decoder for all this uninteligible crap.

Yeah, I'll bet the koran would provide some answers.

[Mitchell]

I knew I'd seen a thread like this somewhere. I didn't remember if there was one on FR or not. I think kuro5hin had a similar thread too.

[proxy_user]

C'mon, alt.privacy.anon-server is an obvious place to attack. The guy probably has a beef with Froggie or something.

[DoctorMichael]

I have a bluebird in my pencilbox.

Repeat: I have a bluebird in my pencilbox.

[JohnathanRGalt]

I think this is a HipCrime Usenet attack....

Ok, here's a few links on HipCrime

Hipcrime was incarcertaed on August 23, 1998, and remained in the Dungeon until the Escape of November 1999. He was recaptured on June 8 2002, and will likely remain in the Dungeon indefinitely.

NOTE: "Hipcrime" himself is not responsible for the supersedes. He merely wrote the software that others are abusing for this purpose. The problem acquired the name "Hipcrime" because that is the tool that the vandals are using. In fact, more than one vandal could be involved.

The most recent tactic that HipCrime (see 3.1.4) has adopted in his/their campaign against news.admin.net-abuse.email is to post in other newsgroups articles which are either derogatory to America or pretending to be encoded messages for terrorists. The follow-ups for these articles are set to news.admin.net-abuse.email, with the intention that when the denizens of these newsgroups reply in understandable indignation, their replies all go into news.admin.net-abuse.email and drown out other conversations.

[JohnathanRGalt]

Relax. Those are Hipcrime or Hipclone attacks....

Here's a great thread: The time has come to hunt down HipCrime

[dsc]

These messages may very well be hipcrime attacks, but just as a general aside, terrorists might very well use the time-honored method of sending a pre-arranged phrase in the clear.

"When you hear me say, 'Lavender rhinos swan about the oven,' that means 'Execute plan A.'

[philetus]

I agree. Show all the pics.

Too many people haven't seen them.

[winner3000]

It's interesting that the terrorists targeted a nurse who was helping Palestinians from a refugee camp in Lebanon. Just another indication that they don't want to help the Palestinians and instead want to keep them in miserable conditions, so that they could be used against Israel.

[Cindy]

re post #47<

LINKS OF INTEREST:

MSNBC.com: "DEFENDERS: ADMITTED TERRORIST WALKS FREE" (ARTICLE NOTE: The suspect is identified as Fawzi Mustapha Assi.) (ARTICLE SNIPPET: ""This offense is neither a crime of violence nor does it involve a narcotic drug. It is an offense that involves allegations of support for an international terrorist organization. However, the items that were alleged in the offense do not involve weapons or indications of a crime of violence." said the judge. Assi was released on $100,000 bond and his father put up his Dearborn home as collateral, vouching that his son would appear back in court. But Assi never returned to the courthouse, his father lost his home and federal agents lost a man with suspected ties to terror, Local 4 reported.") (111102)

stepping back in time...BXA.doc.gov - BUREAU OF INDUSTRY AND SECURITY: "THERMAL IMAGING CAMERA INTERCEPTED ON ITS WAY TO HIZBALLAH (FAWZI MUSTAPHU ASSI)"

GOOGLE Search Term: "FAWZI MUSTAPHA ASSI"

[TxBec]

tailor = fashion designer?