The Al-Jazeera Web Site Incident (fwd)

[Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@ibm.rhrz.uni-bonn.de>]

WSJ.com - Community Service Is Sentence For Al-Jazeera Site Hijacker

The Wall Street Journal

November 14, 2003 11:55 a.m. EST

E-COMMERCE/MEDIA

Community Service Is Sentence
For Al-Jazeera Site Hijacker

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- A Web designer was sentenced to community service for
hijacking the Web site for the Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera and
redirecting
its traffic to a site showing an American flag and the words "Let Freedom
Ring."

John William Racine II, 24 years old, of Norco, Calif., was ordered
Wednesday to perform 1,000 hours of community service and pay $2,000. He
pleaded guilty
in June to felony charges of wire fraud and unlawful interception of an
electronic communication.

U.S. District Judge A. Howard Metz said during the sentencing hearing that
he believed Mr. Racine "immediately recognized how much terrible havoc" was
caused
by the hacking.

Mr. Racine's plea agreement indicated that he acted after learning in March
that Al-Jazeera's Web site had posted photos of American prisoners of war
and
soldiers killed during the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Representatives at Qatar-based Al-Jazeera have said they believe more than
one person was responsible for hacking their site during the invasion.
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Aljazeera.net was subject to several attacks in March, including one where
visitors were redirected to a pornography site. But authorities suspect Mr.
Racine
acted alone, forging documents to have the Web site's password changed. That
provided unhindered access to the site and blocked access by its legitimate
administrators, according to the plea agreement.

Web traffic from Al-Jazeera's site was redirected by Mr. Racine for about
three days ending March 27, prosecutors said.

Copyright © 2003 Associated Press

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106882867635151000,00.html

Updated November 14, 2003 11:55 a.m.

Copyright 2003 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved


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