WSJ.com - Community Service Is Sentence For Al-Jazeera Site Hijacker The Wall Street Journal
November 14, 2003 11:55 a.m. EST E-COMMERCE/MEDIA Community Service Is Sentence For Al-Jazeera Site Hijacker Associated Press LOS ANGELES -- A Web designer was sentenced to community service for hijacking the Web site for the Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera and redirecting its traffic to a site showing an American flag and the words "Let Freedom Ring." John William Racine II, 24 years old, of Norco, Calif., was ordered Wednesday to perform 1,000 hours of community service and pay $2,000. He pleaded guilty in June to felony charges of wire fraud and unlawful interception of an electronic communication. U.S. District Judge A. Howard Metz said during the sentencing hearing that he believed Mr. Racine "immediately recognized how much terrible havoc" was caused by the hacking. Mr. Racine's plea agreement indicated that he acted after learning in March that Al-Jazeera's Web site had posted photos of American prisoners of war and soldiers killed during the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Representatives at Qatar-based Al-Jazeera have said they believe more than one person was responsible for hacking their site during the invasion. DOW JONES REPRINTS This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit: www.djreprints.com. * See a sample reprint in PDF format * Order a reprint of this article now. Aljazeera.net was subject to several attacks in March, including one where visitors were redirected to a pornography site. But authorities suspect Mr. Racine acted alone, forging documents to have the Web site's password changed. That provided unhindered access to the site and blocked access by its legitimate administrators, according to the plea agreement. Web traffic from Al-Jazeera's site was redirected by Mr. Racine for about three days ending March 27, prosecutors said. Copyright � 2003 Associated Press URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106882867635151000,00.html Updated November 14, 2003 11:55 a.m. Copyright 2003 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
