Korean Beheading Video Hosted on California Terror Web Site

June 23, 2004

Editor's Note: MND does not link to terror-related websites. We have replaced "." with the word "(DOT)" in the web address to defeat search spiders.

While the gruesome beheading of 33-old-year South Korean translator Kim Sun-Il was not shown by Al Jazeera TV, the video and still pictures quickly made their way onto the internet. MND has made an edited version of the video in WMV format available here. WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC IMAGES.

They're online at wwwDOThostinganimeDOTcom/iraqnews1/indexDOThtml, a free web site service apparently located in Westchester, Ca.

In addition to a number of links on the front of the page to where the graphic images are available for viewing, and disturbing still pictures of Kim, there is this text in English and a link to a Reuters news service article. Some of this text is apparently taken from that article.

The text reads, "Kim's parents had urged the Seoul government to do everything to save their son, who had a degree in theology as well as Arabic and had hoped to be Christian missionary in the Arab world. Yonhap (News)said the president was a devout Christian and the name of the company, which donated 10 percent of its profit for missionary work, was a biblical reference."

Hosting Anime also hosts a number of other terror related sites. They include:
wwwDOThostinganimeDOTcom/gim/GIMfaroqDOThtm, wwwDOThostinganimeDOTcom/neda2/page/new.htm,
and wwwDOThostinganimeDOTcom/neda3/sout/indexDOThtm.

Pictures of engineer Paul Johnson after he was beheaded are displayed on
wwwDOThostinganimeDOTcom/neda3/sout/indexDOThtm, and wwwDOThostinganimeDOTcom/neda2/page/newDOT.htm is a web site with the same design and graphics as an al Qaeda site formerly known as www.DOTalnedaDOTcom.

The wwwDOThostinganimeDOTcom/neda2/page/newDOThtm also has banner links in English to a number of legitimate charities such as www.directrelief.org, which according to its web site has been in existence since 1948 "providing humanitarian aid to people in need world wide."

A statement on the group's web site reads "Our mission is to improve the health of people living in developing countries and those who are victims of natural disasters, war, and civil unrest. We work to strengthen indigenous health efforts of our international partners by providing essential material resources – medicines, supplies and equipment."

There is also a link to the March of Dimes and the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). Made aware by a reporter of that link, the NWF's Senior Communications Director Ben McNitt said by e-mail, "National Wildlife Federation is in no way associated with the web site you referred me to ... and NWF does not want this site to provide links to any NWF web site."

McNitt said that the NWF has not contracted with Hosting Anime for any form of advertising on its web sites.

All of the banner links also had a small portion of Arabic script on their bottom right hand side.

Repeated calls to Hosting Anime requesting comment were not returned.

Jeremy Reynalds

He was honored with the prestigious Jefferson Award in 1994. Reynalds emigrated from England to the United States in 1978 and became a naturalized American citizen in 1999. He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico and is a candidate for the Ph.D. in intercultural education at Biola University, located in La Mirada, California, just outside Los Angeles.

He is also the author of two books and a contributor to a third, which deals with the media's images of the homeless. He may be reached by e-mail at reynalds@joyjunction.org.