<http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,BT_CO_20041115_000923,00.html> The Wall Street Journal November 15, 2004 4:57 a.m. EST Banned Chechen Web Site Now Operating On Swedish Server DOW JONES NEWSWIRES November 15, 2004 4:57 a.m. STOCKHOLM (AP)--A pro-independence Chechen Web site that was shut down by the Lithuanian government and then removed from a Finnish server because of a posting that claimed responsibility for the school massacre in southern Russia began operating on a Swedish-owned server. Jean Hamberg, managing director for Port80 AB, a Stockholm-based Internet service provider, said the Web site, www.kavkazcenter.com, was up and running on its servers since late last week. "Nobody has complained about it," he told The Associated Press on Monday. "No officials, I should say." The site is regarded as a clearing house for pro-Chechen information and a mouthpiece for Chechen rebel leaders battling Russian troops in the breakaway province. Lithuania's State Security Department shut the site down in September when it was hosted by Elneta, an Internet service provider in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. In early October, the site surfaced on a server owned by Finland's Sonera, but was shut down by the Finnish government. Russia's government has called the site an "information tool of international terrorists." On Sept. 17, the site posted a letter - purportedly by Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev - in which he claimed responsibility for the three-day siege of a Russian school in Beslan. More than 330 people died in the standoff, nearly half of them children. It was impossible to confirm whether the letter on the Web site was genuine, but Basayev's previous claims of responsibility have appeared there. Hamberg said the Web site would stay online, since it appeared to have not violated any law. "Our policy is if they're doing anything illegal, then they're out," he said. "If they're not doing anything illegal we don't wish to interfere." The Swedish government had no comment on the site. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'