American IRA website terrorized by FBI, closed on threats

[Dynamite Bob]

[Reformatted for legibility.  Please ensure that materials posted are
readable.  KMSelf]

(Its started, gentlemen.  This is Bush gratifying Blair now, using
the Bill of Rights -now useless- to mop up the wetness.)


http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,567864,00.html

    Staff and agencies
    Thursday October 11, 2001 

    An American web site accused of supporting the Real IRA has been
    shut down at the request of the FBI as it cracks down on terrorist
    groups, it emerged today.


    The New York-based web site - iraradio.com - contained an archive of
    weekly radio programmes said to back the dissident republicans.

    Travis Towle, the owner, today claimed that the FBI asked his
    internet service provider to stop giving web space to the site or
    face having its assets seized as a backer of terrorism. 

    "They just yanked us," Mr Towle told the New York Daily News.

    "I think what is going on is being done out of fear."

    John McDonagh, a native of Queens, New York, said that his show -
    broadcast every Saturday afternoon - would go on. He claimed IRA
    stood for Irish Republican Activist and denied he had any connection
    to the Real IRA.

    "If I was running a Taliban web site 15 years ago, I would be
    considered a patriot helping the American cause," he added

    "Today, I would be considered a traitor. It is getting to be
    difficult to predict who the government is going to call a
    terrorist."

    Despite Mr McDonagh's claim that he would go on broadcasting, a
    statement on the web site said Mr Towle's Cosmic Entertainment Group
    had shut it down.

    "In light of the foregoing and the recent tragic events in the
    United States, the Cosmic Entertainment company board of advisers
    has deemed it advisable and in the best interests of the company to
    temporarily shut down the iraradio.com web site until the turbulence
    and uncertainty facing our nation has decreased."

    The FBI refused to comment on the shut down for security reasons.

    The Real IRA is banned from raising funds in America and anyone
    found giving them cash can be prosecuted and jailed. 

    It is one of a series of organisations designated as a terror group,
    on a list that also includes Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network and
    Hezbollah.