Berg execution website shut down

Malaysian Web host takes action

By John Oates, 14th May 2004

The website which originally hosted the video of Nicholas Berg being beheaded has been shut down.

Malaysian web hosting company Acme Commerce Sdn. Bhd. took action because the number of requests threatened to overwhelm its systems. The company told the BBC the decision was taken because the volume of requests was so great it jammed connections to hundreds of other servers operated by the company.

Acme Commerce also said would have taken action earlier if it had been aware of the contents of the video. The company said it had no wish to be associated with al-Qaeda or with any group that would distribute such gruesome images.The site - called al-ansar.biz - is believed to have links to the terrorist group.

The Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the government would not allow any company operating on behalf of a terrrost organisation, or hosting web pages for such a group, to operate in the country.

Acme Commerce had hosted the site for more than a year. Its business manager told Malaysiakini online news service: "We have cut off all websites that are connected to terrorism."

The five-and-a-half minute video is still available elsewhere on the Web. It shows Berg in orange pyjamas sitting in front of a line of five masked men. A statement is read out in Arabic before one of the men produces a large knife, pushes Berg to the ground, cuts off his head and holds it up to the camera.

There is suspicion surrounding the video in some quarters. Al Jazeera claims it was monitoring the site which was the supposed source of the video and it was not there. ®