Al-JazeeraUs-WebsiteShutdown

From 911Encyclopedia:

On Sep7th 2001, only 4 days before Sep11th, the US mirror of Al-Jazeera was shut down for unknown reasons by the North Texas Terrorism Task Force of the FBI : "An 80-member FBI terrorism task force on Wednesday and Thursday raided the offices of InfoCom Corporation, a Texas-based company that hosts a broad array of Arab Web sites, including the Arab world's leading news channel. The FBI said the action was part of a two-year investigation by the North Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force, but declined to give specific reasons for the raid". Source: http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/printer/13407

Infocom is based in Richardson, Texas and launched their Internet Services Division in 1995. They provided computer services for both the Islamic Association for Palestine and for the Holy Land Foundation (See HolyLandFoundationAffair) http://www.infocomcorp.com/investorrelations.shtml

The story of the North Texas Electronic Task Force on Sep7th is much longer: As the Guardian revealed on September 10th, 2001 it was in reality "Five hundred websites - many of them with an Arab or Muslim connection" - crashed, when the anti-terrorism taskforce already raided InfoCom Corporation in Texas on Sep5th! "The 80-strong taskforce that descended upon the IT company included FBI agents, Secret Service agents, Diplomatic Security agents, tax inspectors, immigration officials, customs officials, department of commerce officials and computer experts." Three days later, they were still busy inside the building. As reported, they copied every hard disc they could find. InfoCom hosts websites for numerous clients in the Middle East, including (the satellite TV station), al-Sharq (a daily newspaper in Qatar), and Birzeit (the Palestinian university on the West Bank). In addition, InfoCom is the registered owner of ".iq" - the internet country code for Iraq.

Several Muslim groups have linked the raid to an article which appeared in the Wall Street Journal on August 13th, 2001. Written by Daniel Pipes (->), director of the foreign policy research institute in Philadelphia, it called on the US to "support Israel in rolling back the forces of terror" by shutting down websites belonging to the Islamic Association for Palestine and the Holy Land Foundation. Just across the road from InfoCom's offices, in Richardson on the outskirts of Dallas, is the headquarters of the Holy Land Foundation (HLF). Apart from their physical proximity, InfoCom and HLF are intimately connected through two brothers: Ghassan and Bayan Elashi. The Elashis are of Palestinian origin and of a religious disposition. Ghassan is chairman of HLF and vice-president (marketing) of InfoCom. Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,549590,00.html

http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/printer/13407/ Already on July 8, 2001 , the business news portal Aiwagulf reported, that Arab Wide Web (AWW), the Dubai based Internet portal and InfoCom Corporation, Texas (USA) an Internet services company have announced a strategic alliance to provide innovative hosting and e-commerce solutions in the Middle East. Source: http://www.aiwakuwait.com/news/fnews/default.asp?fn=2001_7_2

Note: Daniel Pipes continued to point on "suspicious" US-citizens in 2002 and founded Campus-Watch.Org.