Al-Manar Terror TV, Banned By The U.S. And U.K., Now in U.K. And Netherlands

More jihad …. faster , faster, please! How's that working out for ya, Europe? Al-Manar is a US designated terrorist entity.

Al-Manar TV, Banned By The U.S. And U.K., Now Hosted On U.K. And Netherlands Servers MEMRI

Introduction

The public relations efforts of Hizbullah are aggressive
and sophisticated; Hizbullah is very active on social media with current
accounts on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook (over eight accounts have been created
and taken down over the past year), and attempts at apps on Apple, Google, and
Android. While it maintains a radio station, Al-Nour, its most important PR front
is its Al-Manar TV station and the Al-Manar TV website, which is the main outlet
conveying Hizbullah's activity to the world.

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Since Al-Manar TV began broadcasting via
satellite in 2000, it has been at the center of controversy throughout the
West. The channel has been banned in various capacities in the U.S., Canada,
France, Australia, Spain, Netherlands, and elsewhere. While these
countries have been successful in keeping Al-Manar TV off the airwaves, Hizbullah
has managed to circumvent the ban with its multiple-language website, www3.almanar.com.lb, which
live-streams its programming.

Thus,
the effort to thwart Hizbullah's PR activities by these countries – the U.S., Canada,
France, Australia, Spain, and Netherlands – is hampered by the fact that U.K.
and Netherlands servers are hosting Hizbullah's website.

The 2004 U.S. And U.K. Precedent For Shutting
Down Hizbullah's Websites

Countries
often shut down websites belonging to terrorist organizations upon learning
that they are hosted on servers on their own soil. The most recent example was Malaysia
– on November 1, 2012, the Malaysian newspaper The Star published a
report titled "Local Server Shuts Down Al-Qaeda's Online Library After
Being Alerted." According to the article, Tawhed.net, known to be one of
the largest Al-Qaeda affiliated websites, was removed from a Kuala Lumpur
server last week.

In
August 2004, the U.S. and U.K. carried out a joint online strike against Hizbullah's
online presence. At that time, Hizbullah's main websites were Hizbullah.org
and, for Al-Manar, Hizbullah.tv, and both were hosted on servers in the U.S.
and U.K. A Hizbullah official told Reuters that the U.S. and British ISPs
hosting the Hizbullah websites had shut them down, and that "these are [judicial]
measures American and British firms are taking against our sites." He
added, "Our hosts closed them down because of accusations related to
terrorism." The Hizbullah official went on to state that the group was
looking for new hosts and hoped to be back online within days, and that "these
sort of [judicial] measures have been happening for a while now. Every so often
our sites get closed. This time it was two sites at once."[1]

Al-Manar Website Now Hosted On Servers In
U.K., Netherlands

While
some European countries have not recognized Hizbullah as a terrorist
organization, the U.K. and Netherlands, like the U.S., officially classify it
as a terrorist organization. The U.K. lists Hizbullah's military wing as a
terrorist group, while the Netherlands, like the U.S., does not distinguish
between Hizbullah's political and military wings and considers the entire group
to be a terrorist organization.

Notably,
in January 2006, Netherlands officials blocked Al-Manar satellite broadcasts to
the country, and formally banned the channel. As recently as August 9, 2012, at
the sidelines of EU Foreign Ministries meeting in Cyprus, the British and Netherlands
governments called on the entire EU to follow their lead and designate
Hizbullah an official terrorist organization and to impose sanctions on its military
wing.

However, the primary servers for Al-Manar's Internet
domain, www3.almanar.com.lb, are currently located in the U.K. and Netherlands.

Looking Up Almanar.com.lb: IP Addresses And The
Companies Hosting Them On WHOIS[2]

A DNSBL Lookup and Trace Route on
www3.almanar.com.lb turns up three IP addresses; an ownership check on these IP
addresses will identify the companies hosting them.

Almanar.com.lb's IP addresses and the companies
hosting them are:

• IP 83.149.126.240 – LeaseWeb, Netherlands
• IP 85.13.202.236 – Coreix, UK
• IP 31.24.33.46 – ServerSpace, UK

See Appendix II for a week review of www3.AlManar.com.lb
movement between servers in the U.K. and Netherlands.

1. LeaseWeb – Amsterdam, Netherlands – And
U.S., and Germany

LeaseWeb, http://www.leaseweb.com/en, provides
dedicated server hosting, cloud and collocations. It is headquartered in Amsterdam,
Netherlands, with offices in Manassas, VA, and Frankfurt, Germany. Contact
information given: Phone (US) +1 571 814 3777; email [email protected] http://www.leaseweb.com/en/contact.

2. Coreix
– London, UK

Coreix.net, http://www.coreix.net/aboutus/company, is Coreix Limited, registered at Third Floor,
Refuge House, 9-10 River Front, Enfield, EN1 3SZ, telephone +44 207-183-1725. Coreix
states that it "specializes in providing high availability hosting services
and solutions for businesses." Contact information given: Phone 44 207 183
1725. Abuse contact information given: 03334560247, [email protected].

3.
ServerSpace Ltds – London UK

ServerSpace, www.serverspace.co.uk,
located in London, says that it "provides hosting and connectivity
services." Contact phone number given: 0800 142 2882.

Appendix I: Using WHOIS
Information To Identify Companies Hosting Terrorist Websites On Their Servers

Like all websites, those belonging to terrorist organizations
have domain names whose ownership information can be looked up using the WHOIS
protocol. When a new domain name is registered, the domain owner is required to
submit information to the WHOIS database; however, some domain owners opt
to use domain privacy services offered by registrars or third-party
privacy protection companies. This option leaves them technically compliant but
enables them to avoid listing their actual information in the database.

WHOIS is a protocol used for querying the
domain name ownership database. WHOIS is used for determining the registration
status of domain names and assisting law enforcement in enforcing national and
international laws. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
exercises control of the WHOIS databases, under the authority of the U.S.
Commerce Department.

Appendix II: Using The PING Utility Tracing Almanar.com.lb As It Jumps From Server To Server,
Country To Country: A Week In Review

*Steven Stalinsky is Executive Director of MEMRI

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Jacob

11 years ago

It’s okay Pamela. al-Manar is running pro-Obama coverage, that means they must love America and American values. It only makes sense.

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fern

11 years ago

The ‘.lb’ part of their url address, stands for Lebanon/Lebanese.

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fern

11 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.lb

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fern

11 years ago

Yes,
Al-Manar is a US designated terrorist entity.
and Coreix are totally aware of that too. Not dhimmis, but enablers.

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Tom Billesley

11 years ago

ServerSpace Ltd.
A company started in London by an Irishman.
LinkedIn profile for Tim Pat Dufficy
Tim Pat Dufficy, Managing Director, Founder, ServerSpace Limited
LinkedIn profile for Laila Zaied, Sales Executive at ServerSpace Limited

I am fluent in both Arabic and English with basic French and Russian skills. I have frequently dealt with customers from the Middle East and was able to help secure large sales of hosting solutions through negotiation and reasoning.

0

Tom Billesley

11 years ago

Coreix Ltd.
Companies House directors listing
A company started in 2003 by Neelum Ali, Imran Boota and Shazad Boota.
LinkedIn profile for Alan Dean, Managing Director since July 2012.

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Tom Billesley

11 years ago

ServerSpace Ltd. Companies House listing
A company formed by Tim Pat Dufficy and Conor Robert Dufficy in 2006.
Registered address
93-95 BOROUGH HIGH STREET
LONDON
UNITED KINGDOM
SE1 1NL
The address belongs to Euro Andertons Accounting, so probably an business accomodation address shared by many companies.

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Howie

11 years ago

I was able to get the DNS http://www3.almanar.com.lb/ frozen.
New one to go after
http://www.webstatsdomain.com/domains/www.almanar.com.lb/#mark_10
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/214427.php
Emailed Memri as well. Freezing the DNS record is much more effective than letting them jump from host to host.

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