The report from Canadian researchers at  The Citizen Lab that linked several websites belonging to the government of Syria, and the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah to web host iWeb also implicated numerous other web hosting providers in the United States and Germany for hosting Syrian government websites.

The Report  names SoftLayer, Vault Networks, HostDime, Strato Hosting,Tiggee LLC, and Giga Hosting as also hosting either Syrian government websites, or Hezbullah-associated websites.

After a 2008 report by the CBC (Canadian Public Television) that websites affiliated with Hezbullah and Hamas were being hosted on iWeb, an initial take down requests was not successful. Once the CBC translated Arabic content on a discussion forum found on one of the sites and contacted iWeb claiming that the content could be considered a violation of Canadian anti-terrorism legislation, the websites were removed. The sites for Al-Manar (almanar.com) and Hamas run Al-Aqsa TV (aqsatv.ps) were both previously hosted on iWeb. In reaction to the CBC story and take down request, iWeb issued a statement that noted “two websites that promote the activities of suspected terrorist organizations had indeed found their way onto iWeb’s infrastructure; however these sites were shut down as soon as this was confirmed”.

Al-Manar’s primary website is still being hosted in North America

Citizen Lab research shows that Al-Manar’s primary website is still being hosted in North America. Almanar.com. is currently hosted in a round robin DNS configuration by three different hosting providers: SoftLayer and Vault Networks in the U.S. and iWeb Technologies in Canada. Al-Manar has an additional domain (almanarnews.net) that is also hosted in round robin DNS configuration on three U.S.-based hosting providers: SoftLayer, Vault Networks and MegaNET.

Hezbullah’s media operations also include a radio station called Al-Nour (al-nour.net/) that broadcasts from Lebanon and offers audio streaming of its live broadcasts. Like Al-Manar, the U.S. includes Al-Nour on its Specially Designated Nationals List. 

The group found that the Al-Nour website is hosted on U.S. web host Tiggee, while the radio stream is hosted by U.S.-based web host, Sago Networks.  They also found additional Hezbullah-associated websites hosted on U.S. web servers.

One example is the website of “Islamic Resistance In Lebanon - Hezbullah” (moqawama.org) --which refers to itself as the “official website of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon” -- is hosted by U.S. web host Tiggeel.

Syrian Government Websites Hosted in the United States and Germany