Internet Haganah

www.haganah.us/haganah/index.html

In some ways, this site is actually similar to this very Web site – but instead of keeping tabs on kook sites and weird sites, the Internet Haganah site is dedicated to opposing Islamist terrorist organizations, or in their own words "Global jihad." ("Haganah" is a Hebrew word meaning "defense," as in "Defense against jihad." ) Aaron Weisburd is the creator of Internet Haganah, a self-proclaimed “global open-source intelligence network dedicated to confronting Internet use by Islamist terrorist organizations, their supporters, enablers and apologists.” Weisburd is a Web designer who took it upon himself to start a Web project to catalogue and keep track of Arabic and Muslim Web sites that, in his opinion, promote terrorism and "jihad" against Western culture.

However, this site tries to do more than just keep tabs on extremest Islam web sites. Internet Haganah also encourages its members to take down these sites, by sending complaints to the Web hosting services that allow them to exist. Weisburd makes an effort to ensure that the complaints sent against targeted Web sites are legitimate complaints, and he encourages people to look for genuine proof that the Web sites in particular are condoning or supporting terrorist activities. Attempting to take down Web sites that don't agree with your own personal philosophy is an acto of censorship, but Weisburd belongs more in the gray area that many vigilantes operate under. His site has been accused of vigilantism, and it's certainly possible that some Web sites that merely sympathize with the anti-American cause (without actually doing anything illegal) may have also been targeted by Internet Haganah.

The "Internet" section of this site keeps tabs on "jihadist" Web sites, such as al-farouq.com (the Web site of the self-proclaimed "Islamic Hackers Army" ). (Weisburd can read Arabic writing, which certainly helps since few of these sites are written in English.) There's also a newsblog with sections on the Middle East, the Americas, Europe, and Asia.