FC: FBI seeks to rid Net of Daniel Pearl video, threatens charges

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,52772,00.html

   FBI Seeks Pearl Video Ban on Net
   By Declan McCullagh

   3:06 p.m. May 23, 2002 PDT
   WASHINGTON -- The FBI has ordered an Internet provider to cease
   distributing the unedited video of journalist Daniel Pearl being
   brutally murdered.
   
   On Thursday afternoon, FBI agents from the Newark field office told a
   Virginia company to delete the 4-minute video, which a customer had
   posted on the ogrish.com site.

   Pro Hosters, located in Sterling, Virginia, responded by removing the
   video -- which has sprouted on scores of websites after Pearl, a
   38-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter, was slain in Pakistan by a
   radical Muslim group.
   
   A videotape of Pearl's execution was delivered to a U.S. consulate in
   February, and a copy eventually appeared online. This month, CBS News
   broadcast a 30-second excerpt, which anchor Dan Rather defended
   as necessary to "understand the full impact and danger of the
   propaganda war being waged."
   
   Ted Hickman, the owner of Pro Hosters, said the FBI insisted the video
   be removed immediately and that agents also wanted the identity of the
   person who runs the ogrish.com site.

   [...]
   
   Sandra Carroll, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Newark office, said "the
   local office did investigate certain aspects" of the Internet
   distribution of the Pearl video.


   [...]




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