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Al-Jazeera hacker fined $2000 and sentenced to 1000 hours of community service

LOS ANGELES (AP) --

A Web designer was sentenced to community service for redirecting traffic from the Web site for the Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera to a site showing an American flag and the words "Let Freedom Ring."

John William Racine II, 24, of Norco, was ordered Wednesday to perform 1,000 hours of community service and pay $2,000. He pleaded guilty in June to felony charges of wire fraud and unlawful interception of an electronic communication.

U.S. District Judge A. Howard Metz said during the sentencing hearing that he believed Racine "immediately recognized how much terrible havoc" was caused by the hacking.

There was no listing for Racine in Norco, and no listing for his attorney in state directories.

Racine's plea agreement indicated that he acted after learning in March that Al-Jazeera's Web site had posted photos of American prisoners of war and soldiers killed in Iraq.

Representatives at the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera previously said they believe more than one person was responsible for the hacking. Aljazeera.net was subject to several attacks last March, including one where visitors were redirected to a pornography site.

But authorities suspect Racine acted alone and used readily available information from the Internet and forged documents to have the Web site's password changed. That provided unhindered access to the site and blocked access by its legitimate administrators, according to the plea agreement.

Web traffic from Al-Jazeera's site was redirected by Racine for about three days ending March 27, prosecutors said. In addition, about 300 e-mails were hijacked.

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