Who Hacked Al-Qaeda?

By Azadeh Moaveni

Recent visitors to the al-Qaeda-affiliated website www.alneda.com were in for a surprise. A link that once guided the terror group's supporters to "martyrdom: your path to immortality" now led to "Lola: I do things your wife won't." Mystery hackers had sabotaged the site, which U.S. and foreign counterterrorism experts say is maintained by al-Qaeda backers with access to propaganda produced by the group's top leaders. The hackers linked al-Neda (the Call) to pornography sites and later installed a fake site in its place. Al-Neda typically addresses the merits of jihad and offers tips on keeping operations secret. An audiotaped statement on the site last month from al-Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith included new threats against the U.S. It also suggested that Abu Ghaith, who was assumed to have perished in the U.S. bombing campaign, is still alive. Al-Neda's operators accused the U.S. of causing their website's disruption. "Do not be deceived by the blasphemous behavior of the crusaders," warned a statement on a hastily established website last week. An American intelligence official declined to comment on whether the U.S. had hacked al-Neda. But whoever did was borrowing an al-Qaeda tactic: find a direct channel to the sympathizers.

--By Azadeh Moaveni