By D. Ian Hopper
AP Technology Writer Tuesday, July 30, 2002; 1:52 PM
WASHINGTON –– When Web operator Jon Messner gained control of one of al-Qaida'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."
Barry Maddox, a spokesman for the FBI's Baltimore office, said he "cannot confirm or deny" that his office worked with Messner earlier this month.
"If we received information of any sort from anything related to 9/11 or any continuing terrorist type activity, we would take it under consideration and pass it on," Maddox said. "We're not going to turn down anything."
Though many of his Web sites involve pornography, Messner said he became interested in Alneda.com, a militant Islamic Web site that promotes the Al-Qaida terror organization and carries messages from its top members.
Alneda originally was registered in Malaysia but has been chased out of several countries after pressure by authorities. It also has shown up on computers in Michigan and Texas.
Messner used a software program that probes Web site addresses whose registrations are about to lapse, meaning the address will go into a pool available for sale. When it did, Messner snapped it up and filled the site with Web pages from the original Arabic site.
He hoped U.S. officials could use the site for disinformation campaigns or to collect data on visitors who used its message boards or other resources.
Even though some features didn't work yet, his decoy site fooled some Web users.
