FC: FBI bumbling ruins chance for terrorist "cyber-sting"

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2002-07-30-al-qaeda-online_x.htm

   Man hijacks al-Qaeda site for FBI use

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- When Web operator Jon Messner gained control of one
   of al-Qaeda's prime Internet communication sites, he offered it to the
   FBI to use it for disinformation and collecting data about
   sympathizers.

   What followed, he says, was a week of frustration.

   FBI agents struggled to find someone with enough technical know-how to
   set up the sting. By the time they did, the opportunity was lost as
   militant Islamic Web users figured out the site was a decoy, said
   Messner of Ocean City, Md.

   "It was like dealing with the motor vehicle administration," said
   Messner, who runs Web sites, many of which sell pornographic
   materials. "We could have done something that could have seriously
   impacted things. It took me so many days just to get somebody who
   understood the Internet."

   [...]




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