YellowTimes.org a website that provides alternative news and opinions has been disabled following incessant hacker attacks, which its publisher Eric Marquardt believes is politically motivated.

The US-based website, whose articles are regularly published o­n malaysiakini , features views that directly question and criticise the impending invasion of Iraq and other US policies.

According to Marquardt, the website has come under the crosshairs of hackers over the past six months.

"In addition to e-mail spoof attacks, I think they are attempting to overload our servers through denial of service attacks, forcing our website to go offline" said Marquardt in an article published in the New Zealand-based internet news agency Scoop .

"Similar incidents happened last time we released an article from Imad Khadduri," he added.

Imad - a former Iraqi nuclear scientist who was instrumental in the country's nuclear weapons programme in the 1980s and early 1990s claimed that recent allegations concerning the competence and progress of the Iraqi nuclear weapons programme were baseless and untrue.

In an article published o­n YellowTimes.org before it was taken off-line by its hosting company, he painted a dismal picture of Iraq's scientific community with many out of jobs and scrounging for work after the Gulf War and subsequent allied bombing reduced any nuclear hopes to rubble.

He has also charged Khidhir Hamza, a former Iraqi scientist with whom Imad worked, with fabricating and exaggerating his importance in the nuclear programme outlined in Khiddir's book 'Saddam's Bombmaker'.

Both these articles were published by malaysiakini : Saddam's bombmaker is full of lies and Nuclear capability charge against Iraq 'ridiculous'

Determined to return

The Scoop article by Firas Al-Atraqchi said: "While several YellowTimes.org writers have been lauded for bringing previously unpublished news to its readers and informing the public of news that has been virtually 'blacked out' from mainstream North American media (CNN, New York Times, etc.), a marginal number of readers have found the website to be 'sick and diseased', and 'unpatriotic'.

The article added that websites which host alternative views or those that contradict US foreign policy are no longer tolerated o­n the Internet and are systematically coming under hacker attack and political pressures to "relocate".

However, YellowTimes.org has refused to buckle to pressure.

"This setback is not going to stop us from speaking out against leaders and governments who commit gross injustices against humankind.

"Believe me, YellowTimes.org will be back," said Marquardt.