U.S. company pulls plug on terrorist site

PHOENIX, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- A Phoenix Web hosting company took down an Arabic-language site this week after learning that its content was terrorist propaganda.

Bob Cichon, president of CrystalTech Web Hosting Inc., said he only learned of www.ek-is.org's ties to al-Qaida, when he got a call from the Arizona Republic.

The company's action does not mean the site is dead, the newspaper said, since it has other domain names and hosts around the world, said Eli Alsech of the Middle East Media Research Institute.

"It is the most stable jihad Web site," he said.

The site was the first to report the death of Abu Laith al-Libi, an al-Qaida commander killed in Pakistan this week.

Cichon said CrystalTech acquired the site from another company.