Web site vexing to Minutemen By Victor Allen, Tribune
A Scottsdale-based Internet company said Monday it will force one of its Web site clients to stop encouraging harassment of the Minuteman Project or face being shut down.
Swarmtheminutemen.com is encouraging people to go into the desert border areas to blast their radios or bang pots and pans together in an effort to confuse and harass Minutemen volunteers.
The Web site also prompts site visitors to engage in activities such as sending repetitive anonymous e-mails and fax messages to the Minutemen, and even come up with other ideas to disrupt the project.
The Minutemen, a volunteer program founded by Chris Simcox of Tombstone, has operated in Arizona as a private border enforcement group, relaying information about illegal border crossers to authorities.
Dozens of people from across the country went on patrol in April in a display that received international media attention, and project organizers said smaller operations are still continuing.
The anti-Minutemen site claims knowledge of people who intend to ". . . physically interfere with their operations. . . . They will go wherever the Minutemen are in their area and stop them from operating." The site says information about the location of Minutemen operations will be made available to the public.
A person claiming to represent the group responsible for the Web site declined to give his name.
An Internet search for the site registrant showed the owner used privacy domains provided by Domains by Proxy, a subsidiary of the Go Daddy Group. The company provides private domain names for Web sites in which the Web site authors can hide their identities.
After being advised of the Web site?s content, officials at the company took quick action.
Nick Fuller, communications manager for the Go Daddy Group, said the company?s Abuse Department and legal counsel had reviewed content on the site.
"I know there?s some stuff on the site that could be in violation of our terms of service," Fuller said. "They?ve been asked to remove them. If they refuse to do so we will take the domain down."
That doesn?t mean the site will not exist if it does not comply. Fuller said it is possible for the registrant to use another provider. Swarmtheminutemen.com has been on the Web for less than a week. Gary Cole, operations manager for the Minutemen, said the organization has filed a complaint with the FBI about the site. So far, interference with border patrolling has been a minor annoyance, he said.
"We ran an operation this weekend, a very successful one," Cole said.
Bill Bennett, office administrator at the Tumbleweed Newspaper owned by Simcox said, "We?ve gotten a lot of harassment calls. Basically what they?re doing is just try to keep us on the phone."