- Impact
- 3,028
California man pleads guilty to cyber attack on Al-Jazeera website
A 24-year-old man of Los Angeles, California on Thursday pleaded guilty to launching cyber attack on the website of the popular Arabic-language satellite TV network, Al-Jazeera of Qatar, during the Iraq war.
John Racine, a web designer, pleaded guilty to two charges of wire fraud and unlawful interception of an electronic communication, prosecutors said Thursday.
Racine will be arraigned Monday in federal court in Los Angelesand is expected to be sentenced to three years probation, community service and a fine of 1,500 US dollars, according to a plea agreement.
Racine gained control of the Al-Jazeera domain name by forging photos and signatures. He then diverted traffic and e-mails from Al-Jazeera's Arabic website to a site he designed "Let Freedom Ring."
He said he did so in protest against the network's airing of pictures of dead and captured American soldiers fighting in Iraq in March.
Both Al-Jazeera's Arabic and English-language sites were hackedor shut down frequently during the Iraq war and two of its reporters were banned from New York's stock exchange. US and British officials had criticized the TV network for violating international conventions by showing pictures of prisoners of war.
Xinhua news
