TALIBAN PROPAGANDA WATCH: Sites Down AND Hacked?

This from Wired.com:

Online fans of the Taliban, beware: A website of the Islamic Emirate may have been hacked.

Abu al-Aina’a al-Khorasani, an administrator an elite jihadi forum endorsed by the Taliban, warns in an online post that the “group’s main site and the site of its online journal Al-Sumud, have been the subject of an ‘infiltration operation.’”

Khorasani’s post on Fallujah forum warns online jihadis “to not enter any of the links that concern these websites, and not even to surf [the content] until you receive the confirmed news by your brothers, Allah-willing.” ….

(Forum post in Arabic here, Google English here and both in PDF at Scribd.com here)

Earlier in the week, when trying to access one of the Taliban’s sites, I got redirected to a different address, showing this page (Sribd.com) with a photo montage of Taliban atrocities

and some text in Arabic and English:

“So fight (O Muhammad) in the wat of Allah  Thou are not taxed (with the responsibility for anyone) except thyself – and urge on the believers.  Peradventure Allah will restrain the might of those who disbelieve.  Allah is stronger in might and stronger in inflicting punishment.  Whoso interveneth in a good cause will have the reward thereof, and whoso interveneth in an evil cause will bear the consequence thereof.  The group “Voice of Truth” group opposes all acts of the violence, brutality and barbarity.  We support for the voices of all Muslims on the basis and principles of the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah of our Prophet (SAW).”

The URL I got redirected to – http://www.voice-of-truth.net/ – still seems to be working, showing the same image and text.  Who does this URL “belong to”? The domain is managed by WhoisGuard Protected in California.

There’s also an e-mail address – voiceoftruth@hushmail.com – listed on the page.   What Google says, as of this posting, is that it appeared, at some point, on the Al Somod page.  I wonder where that goes?

So, is this a hack? Is it one of those “Is the Taliban using PayPal?” things again?  All theories welcome.

Update (1): A bit more on what we can find out about “Voice of Truth”. (Also crossposted at Long War Journal’s Threat Matrix)

TALIBAN PROPAGANDA WATCH: Don’t Be Fooled by Imitations!

One of the cardinal rules taught in journalism school is “Check your sources.”  Well, the Taliban Info-Machine seems to be having some problems with media running with information or videos claiming to be from the Taliban when it may not be so.

The solution?  A reminder to reporters and consumers of the media product, on a pro-terrorist web forum:

Noticed during the last period by some international media and a number of news sites on the Internet trading data recorded on video tapes anonymous and attributed directly to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan – Taliban!

We therefore call on all media and those interested in Afghan affairs in general, to verify the source before the publication and circulation of any information materials attributed to Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan…

They even give you the numbers to call to confirm this info (same as the ones I shared with you here), as well as the URLs of their own web pages, and of those (I guess) guaranteed to carry the Talban message undiluted:

(Al) Fallujah Islamic Forums
http://www.al-faloja1.com/vb

Al Jazeera Forums
http://www.aljazeeratalk.net / forum

Ansar-ul-Mujahideen Network
http://www.as-ansar.com/vb

If all else fails, I guess you can always try the webmaster of the Taliban’s Voice of Jihad page at alemarah1@gmail.com.

You can read the Taliban’s media alert in Arabic here at the terrorist web forum, or in PDF format at a non-terrorist forum (Google English, followed by Arabic version) here if you don’t want a jihadi webmaster to see your computer’s IP number.

Has the media have been naughty, or has someone been doing a good job fooling the media into thinking certain material is Taliban generated?

If it’s the latter, well done!