Ansar al-Mujahideen: Zombie forum badly in need of brains

The arrest of Faical Errai, senior administrator of the Arabic-language Ansar al-Mujahideen forum, gave the surviving members of the administrative team a perfectly good opportunity to leave the field of battle.

But no.

So, here is a little more of what is known about their forum:

A review of the administrative log of the site, circa January 2009, reveals four or five individuals were involved in setting up the forum. First and foremost was Faical Errai, in Spain, assisted to a large extent by a gentleman in Qatar. Additional help was provided by a Tunisian, a Palestinian in the West Bank (Nablus?), and a Jordanian. Initially, all these individuals shared the main administrative login (userid 1). Later separate admin accounts were created. Examples:

Spain [Thu, 06 Nov 2008 02:39:36 GMT]: INSERT INTO adminlog VALUES ('1', '1', '1225939176', 'options.php', '', '', '80.31.9.61');

Qatar [Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:45:50 GMT]: INSERT INTO adminlog VALUES ('3415', '23', '1229636750', 'user.php', 'modify', '', '78.101.221.99');

Tunisia [Sun, 14 Dec 2008 18:49:16 GMT]: INSERT INTO adminlog VALUES ('3283', '38', '1229280556', 'user.php', 'viewuser', 'user id = 70', '41.225.240.71');

Nablus [Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:06:43 GMT]: INSERT INTO adminlog VALUES ('916', '1', '1226347603', 'queries.php', 'modify', '', '213.6.181.83');

Jordan [Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:16:38 GMT]: INSERT INTO adminlog VALUES ('240', '1', '1226009798', 'template.php', 'search', '', '79.173.241.146');

It takes more than dedication and the administrative login to keep this site in service. The following discussion from the private messages database of the forum will prove most illuminating. They have long since changed locations, but the email address and name servers reveal the presence of a third party with a long history of involvement in operating networks of websites for al-Qaida.

click to view full size

Yes, that is the same 'M3ark' as in the al-Ma'ark forum, among other things.

I totally expected these guys to abandon ship after Evan Kohlmann revealed in the CTC Sentinel that the forum's database had fallen into enemy hands. And certainly after Faical was arrested you would have thought they would understand that their security - not to mention that of the forum and all its thousands of members - is hopelessly compromised.

I'm not sure I can promise martyrdom for most of these gents, but a jail cell and some quality time with their friendly neighborhood secret police can probably be arranged...

Posted on 04 September 2010 @ 15:23