Pro-Taliban Web Sites Hosted In Houston

Pro-Taliban Web Sites Hosted In Houston
Three anti-American, pro-Taliban Web sites have ties to a Houston company, according to News2Houston Thursday.

Taliban News is an anti-American Web site that provides an alternative view on terrorism. It's one of three controversial sites that are indirectly hosted by Everyone's Internet.

When Everyone's Internet found out about the sites, it shut them down, according to company officials. Then, late Wednesday, the U.S. Customs Department ordered the service provider to put them back online.

"We don't want to support, in any way, anything that might be construed as pro-terrorism or pro-Taliban. We want to be a good corporate citizen and at the same time, we want to act in a lawful manner and under the terms of the contracts we provide services," said Robert Marsh, with Everyone's Internet.

Because of a Web-hosting middleman, Everyone's Internet cannot track where sites originate.

One of the three pro-Taliban Web sites went blank earlier this week. Another, in Arabic, was operational Thursday morning, but was shut down by the afternoon -- not by the U.S. government or Everyone's Internet, according to News2Houston.

The third pro-Taliban site is still operational and interesting viewing for some Internet surfers.

"I think one of the essentials of a democracy is freedom of speech and that if you're living in the U.S. and it's a democratic country, then you should be able to have access to any material -- whatever it is," said Mel Melwitt, an Internet user.

"The information is certainly valuable to the American people, I understand, depending on what's going on and what their perspective is," said Heath Flagtvedt, an Internet user.

Customs officials would not comment about the Web site controversy.

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