The on-going soap opera formerly known as the al-Hesbah forum

Al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia Denies Being Infiltrated in Purported Internet Sting:

Evan Kohlmann - The Counterterrorism Blog

Al-Qaida's Committee in the Arabian Peninsula has issued a new communiqué dismissing the recent arrests of alleged Al-Qaida operatives by Saudi security forces and denying rumors posted on Mohammed al-Massari's Internet website that the popular Al-Hesbah discussion forum was used by intelligence agencies to infiltrate Al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia.  According to the statement, "[t]he purpose of the recent allegations is only to make the supporters of the mujahideen fearful of using the Internet... we can only say good things about our brothers from the Al-Hesbah network.  Even if we suppose that they really did—per se—infiltrate into our network as it is alleged, we have already taken all the necessary precautions with respect to such a scenario."

For those of you just tuning in

• the website of Mohammed al-Massari is currently called tajdeed.org.uk

• the al-Hesbah forum, which had upwards of eight different domain names assigned to it at various times, ceased operation under mysterious circumstances on 18 March 2006. Subsequently reports surfaced claiming that person or persons involved in running al-Hesbah had been arrested. The latter remains unconfirmed.

• it was actually denizens of the al-Boraq.com forum who alleged that something having to do with al-Hesbah was somehow responsible for the failed attacks launched by al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia on ARAMCO's facility in Al-Buqayq.

Meanwhile, Evan Kohlmann wrote us on 06 April to say that "the Islamic Army of Iraq just issued a statement begging the Al-Hesbah administrators to stand strong and to please resurrect their forum."

We haven't had this much fun since Irhabi007 thought his favorite forum was infested with Polish spies...

Posted on 08 April 2006 @ 12:35