The Defense Department attacked and shut down in 2008 a honey pot website for extremists run by the Saudi government and the CIA, according to a March 19 Washington Post article.

Despite objections from the CIA, military cyber operatives crippled the online forum because it was being used to plan attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, the military contends. Supporters of the site said it was a boon to intelligence, allowing agencies to identify attackers and gain information, and giving the Saudi government enough information to round up some extremists before they could strike.

"The site wasn't a pipeline for foreign fighters, it was a broad forum for extremists," said one of four former senior U.S. officials who spoke about the operation to the Post.

The CIA told the newspaper on the record that "it's sheer lunacy to suggest that any part of our government would do anything to facilitate the movement of foreign fighters to Iraq."

Dismantling the site inadvertently caused the disruption of more than 300 servers in Saudi Arabia, Germany and Texas according to a U.S. former official.

Cyber experts also question whether dismantling websites is effective, since a mirror site can be up and running within one to two days.

Because the site was taken down by military personnel, Congress wasn't notified of the operation, the article states.The Justice Department and the National Security Agency participated in the operation, according to the Post.

For more:
- check out the Washington Post article

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