From Electronic Telegraph (London), Sunday, 7 January 1999:

Israeli claims to have hacked Saddam off the Net, By Tom Gross in Jerusalem

AN Israeli boy has become a national hero after he claimed to have wiped out an Iraqi government Internet site.

Nir Zigdon, 14, from Tel Aviv, said: "It contained lies about the United States, Britain and Israel, and many horrible statements against Jews."

He said that he discovered the site in an Israeli magazine, PC-Media, then claims to have created a computer virus and sent it in an e-mail attachment to the site. He said: "I figured that if Israel is afraid of assassinating Saddam Hussein, at least I can try to destroy his site. With the help of some special software I tracked down the site's server to one of the Gulf states.

"In the e-mail message, I claimed I was a Palestinian admirer of Saddam who had produced a virus capable of wiping out Israeli websites. That persuaded them to open the message and click on the designated batch file. Within hours the site had been destroyed. Shortly afterwards I received an e-mail from the site manager, Fayiz, that told me to 'go to hell'."

The website has not been renewed and defaults to www.arabia.com, an English-language Arabic newspaper with more moderate views. Since then, and following an appearance on Israeli television, Nir has received hundreds of telephone calls from Israelis congratulating him for his work. Israel has one of the most developed computer industries in the world, second in sophistication only to California's Silicon Valley. Many have businesses along the coastal region between Haifa and Herzliya, dubbed "Silicon Wadi".

Nir already works for one of those firms, Cellcom, after school where he manages 30 people - all considerably older than him - developing Internet software to withstand bugs and viruses. Nir, who mastered computers at four and created his first virus at 10, is part of a new generation of Israeli computer protigis. This "Internet Underground" has already identified and destroyed several neo-Nazi, paedophile and anti-Israel websites. But Nir is keen to distance himself from "hacktivists" who he says have become carried away by their expertise.

Last year, the FBI undertook a worldwide hunt to discover who hacked into the Pentagon's computer system. It led them to, amongst others, Ehud Tenenbaum, 18, operating from his parents' home in Israel. Using the nickname "The Analyser", Tenenbaum also hacked into the Israeli parliament, the American Navy's research centre on submarine warfare and the Nasa space agency.

Nir said that unlike Tenenbaum, he would never break into institutions of friendly countries. But he said he is planning an operation against neo-Nazi e-mail.

Cut and pasted by

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), February 06, 1999

Answers

Gee, and I was only kidding when I asked if there are any covert agents hanging out here... <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), February 07, 1999.

50 Billion of our tax dollars goes to Israel each year but this is not enough. Their government pays spies (Pollard) to give them defense secrets and then has the balls to make Pollards release a part of a peace agreement. This 18 yr old, another example. And this 14 yr old kid has no clue whether this site was telling the "truth" or not, because he is fed the same bullshit that the American public gets fed daily. BTW,in 1967, Israeli pilots fired on, and killed 87 U.S. sailors on the U.S.S. Liberty in order to blame Egypt and draw the United States support.The Palistinian people are being treated by the Israelis to the same type systematic elimination as Jews were by the Nazis.(they learned their lessons well). For the record, I am not anti-semetic,(which BTW has become a code word for anybody who disagrees with us), just anti-bullshit.

-- KoFE (Lookingforthe@real.story), February 07, 1999.

You are right on about the USS Liberty, but our government didn't make stink about it either. In fact, medals and citations to the officers and crew were made in secret so as not to offend the Israelis. It's ironic that you mentioned not wanting to be labled anti-semetic. I recently read that the Israelis that run Israel, the Askenasi [sp] may not be semetic at all. There are some rabbinical scholars in Israel who have come to this conclusion as well as some geneticists who are in involved in "Racial Specific" biological warfare research. Apparently the Sephardic jews are semetic and are treated very poorly in Israel. Ain't irony ironic?

Bill in South Carolina

-- Bill Solorzano (notaclue@webtv.net), February 07, 1999.

Strictly speaking, the semetic people are Arabs. The phrase "anti- semetic", when applied to someone who won't tote the Jew party-line, is not really appropriate, but has been used so long, that its use won't go away.

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@Anonymous.com), February 07, 1999.

The point of the original post was humor. I thought it hilarious that a 14-year old kid was reportedly doing amazing things with computers when we've got all these grown-ups trying to solve Y2K. It's a great pity you had to spoil it by turning it into a showcase for bias. Don't waste your time arguing with and flaming me because I'm not coming back to this soiled post.

-- A saddened and disgusted Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), February 07, 1999.

This post was soiled with the discriptions of the hackers that you wrote about.Sorry if you are uncomfortable with the sleazy U.S./Israeli policies. -----BTW, anonymous,99. Don't look to make any rascist friends here.

-- KoFE (Isdisgustedtoo@wake.up), February 07, 1999.

kofe you're exactly correct. And nothing you've said is racist. Israel might well be one of the most racist states on the planet. As for the anti-semitic thing, on tv I once saw some A-rabs accused of being "anti-semitic",(!) just because they disagreed with some Israeli policy. I think it's caled newspeak.?

-- humptydumpty (no.6@thevillage.com.au), February 11, 1999.