Calif. Hacker Sentenced in Al Jazeera Site Attack
Thu November 13, 2003 01:40 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Los Angeles-area man has been fined and sentenced to community service for hacking into the Web site of satellite TV network Al Jazeera during the U.S.-led war in Iraq and rerouting visitors to a page featuring an American flag and the motto Let Freedom Ring.

At a sentencing hearing on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Howard Matz told Web designer John William Racine II: I don't think of you as an evil person ... but this was a crime. It wasn't just a childish prank.

Matz sentenced Racine, 24, to 1,000 hours of community service and a $2,000 fine. Racine, also known as John Buffo, vowed to the judge that he would never do such a thing again.

Prosecutors said the Qatar-based Arabic television broadcaster did not respond to U.S. government inquiries about whether the hacking caused it any financial losses.

Racine posed as an Al Jazeera employee to get a password to the network's site, (http://www.aljazeera.net), then redirected visitors to a page he created that showed an American flag shaped like a U.S. map and the patriotic motto, court documents said.

In June, Racine pleaded guilty to wire fraud and unlawful interception of an electronic communication.