Hackers Deface & Crash Panama’s Parliamentary Site

An the end of four months (Sept-Dec 2007), after Pedro Miguel Gonzalez was elected leader of the Panama legislature, hackers brought down the website of the nation's parliament after posting the flag of America on it.

National Assembly officials said that the website, www.asamblea.gob.pa/, on which the American flag appeared, was taken down on January 9, 2008 and continues to be in that state. Reuters published this on January 22, 2008. One official said that the strike almost certainly is an act of the US.

Assembly President Gonzalez, who was elected in September, is blamed for killing Sergeant Zak Hernandez Laporte, an American soldier whose Humvee was secretly attacked shortly before the US president George Bush had been on an official visit to Panama in the year 1992. The hacking incident on the website, which happened after the US forces launched a hostile attack against Panama and overthrew General Manuel Noriega in 2004, caused a major disruption in the diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Gonzalez, who was vindicated of killing in Panama in 1997, however, continues to be wanted in the US. The White House has expressed deep disappointment and dismay over the elevation of Gonzalez to President.

Washington strongly opposed the candidature of Gonzalez and said the move was sure to disrupt the bilateral relation of the two nations.

The site crashed on Panama's 'Martyrs Day' when the nation remembers the death of about 20 soldiers in 1964 during conflict between protesters against the US and soldiers deployed in the Panama strip that was at the time under the control of the US, added Reuters on January 22, 2008.

Even now it isn't clear who has been behind the sabotage of the assembly site. Both Democrats and Republicans have strongly criticized Gonzalez's election.

Democrat Max Baucus, Chairman of the US Senate finance committee, said that Pedro Miguel Gonzalez, the person accused of killing an American serviceman, elected as leader of Panama's national assembly, seriously obstructs the US Congress' thoughts over establishing a free trade agreement between the US and Panama. Guardian Unlimited published Baucus' statement on January 22, 2008.

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» SPAMfighter News - 1/31/2008