archy

Trial By Fire:
The Holocaust History Project Won't Be Silenced
This appears to be an escalation to violence from the far right.

In the early hours of March 6, 2006, a fire broke out at a warehouse complex near San Antonio International Airport, causing extensive damage to the offices of The Holocaust History Project (THHP), an organization that has been, for the last ten years, in the forefront of confronting Holocaust denial online, in addition to providing educational materials to students throughout the world. Arson investigators now have confirmed that the fire was intentionally set and are continuing their investigation.

It was just the latest in a series of attacks with the apparent intent to silence THHP. For the past 18 months, the THHP website has been under an unprecedented Distributed Denial of Service attack. This cyber attack began on September 11, 2004, and is being carried out by a specially modified version of the MyDoom computer worm, programmed to target the THHP web server.

The police haven't arrested anyone yet, so it's still possible that this had nothing to do with the work of The Holocaust History Project. But considering the history involved, I would be surprised if that was the case. The enemies of their work have been using cyberattacks to try and shut down THHP's servers for eighteen months; this looks like pursuit of the same goal by more violent means.

Ironically, the servers aren't at that address, so their work will continue uninterrupted. The warehouse complex where the fire was set is only the mailing address of THHP. However, the businesses in the complex suffered serious damage.

I'll post updates on this as I get them. If you want to thumb your nose at the Holocaust deniers (and who doesn't) I recommend publicizing this outrage and sending a small donation to THHP. I'm also keeping an eye out for any kind of fund to help the businesses who were caught in the crossfire.

Orac has more information.