Slashdot | Texas Arabic Hosting Provider Shut Down By FBI

[Bill Stewart]

At 11:46 PM 09/06/2001 -0500, Jim Choate wrote to the Cypherpunks list
 > http://slashdot.org/yro/01/09/07/0048215.shtml

It's an outrageous story.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010906/us/business_raided_2.html
http://www.middleeastwire.com/newswire/stories/20010905_meno.shtml
http://www.txcn.com/texasnews/463428_TXCN_ba_FBIRaid.html
http://www.wfaa.com/wfaa/articledisplay/0,1002,31013,00.html - 9/5/01
http://www.wfaa.com/wfaa/articledisplay/0,1002,31120,00.html - 9/6/01
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010906/wr/mideast_usa_internet_dc_3.html

Infocom Corporation, http://www.infocomcorp.com/
is a web hosting and computer sales company based in Richardson, Texas,
supporting over 500 clients, particularly Arabic web sites,
which were shut down temporarily during the raid (many are back up now).
Clients include Al-Jazeera television and the newspaper Al-Sharq, both 
based in Qatar, and
several major Muslim American organizations such as the
Council on American Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America,
the Islamic Association for Palestine and the Holy Land Foundation.

On September 5, the FBI raided them, with a sealed search warrant,
looking for information on terrorist groups.
They also served subpoenas on the Holy Land Foundation,
based across the street, which some of the news articles say
the FBI suspects of having ties to Hamas.
FBI spokeswoman Lori Bailey said the investigation was not aimed at 
InfoCom's clients,
but she declined to say why authorities targeted the company.
80 agents were involved in the search of the files, and carried boxes of 
material
out of the building.  It was part of a two-year investigation by the
North Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force (multi-agency incl. FBI, SS, Customs.)

The Reuters article on Yahoo describes Al-Jazeera as
	"a major regional news source for Arabic speakers.
	Often dubbed ``the Arab CNN,'' it has emerged as a major force in a
	region where most broadcasters operate under direct state control."

One of the Slashdot commentators said it reminded him of the
Steve Jackson Games raid.  Given the presence of news organizations,
potentially including journalism work products subject to ECPA protection,
this is my reaction as well.

Later stories include the FBI denying accusations of anti-Arab bias,
and a statement by 10 American Islamic groups accusing them of an
"Anti-Muslim witchhunt promoted by the pro-Israel lobby in America".
The FBI denied the raid was any kind of witchhunt,
``We were executing a search warrant as part of a criminal investigation.
It had nothing to do with anti-Islamic or anti-Palestinian or
anti-Middle East issues or anything like that,'' said special agent Lori 
Bailey.