On 9/11 Hackers Take Down ... Al Qaeda Website

Instapundit has a link to a site that is denying a great story. Yeah, that's right denying. But once you understand, you can hardly blame them.

Here's the story as reported by the Hindustan Times:

Hackers prevented Al Qaeda from releasing a videotape to mark the seventh anniversary of 9/11. Al Qaeda has traditionally issued a video or audiotape by either Osama bin Laden or Ayman al Zawahiri, the terror network’s two leaders, to mark their massive terrorist attack on the US.

As-Sahab, Al Qaeda’s media unit, had indicated earlier this week that it would post such a videotape on September 11. As-Sahab had banner images on the internet showing a silhouetted head with a question mark and the words, “Wait 11 September”....

Sources close to US intelligence said, “Hackers knocked out Al Qaeda’s online means of communication, thus preventing them from posting anything to commemorate the anniversary.”

Western intelligence suspects two hackers who have targeted Islamicist sites before were responsible: Aaron Weisburd from Internet Haganah and Rusty Shackleford from the web group My Pet Jawa.

The response from My Pet Jawa, which has been known as the Jawa Report for years, is priceless. They basically deny doing anything and then point out that even if they had done something they would post the exact denial they just posted.

Neither does reporting on it mean that I even approve of taking down al Qaeda's main propaganda outlet.

But if I was responsible I'd deny it.

And:

Neither I nor Aaron know who is responsible. But we:

would say that even if [we] actually knew what was going on.

Note in that second quote they link to another site where people claim ... to also not know what is going on.

I would just like to say, for the record, I also don't know what is going on or who is responsible. Of course, now that I think about it, I would say that even if I did know. The Jawa Report finishes with:

But apparently all al Qaeda's cyberspace are belongs to us.

I'll just end by saying a job well done and hats off ... to whomever was responsible. Whomever that may be.