By
Rebecca Missel
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Statements against homosexuals and minorities posted
Racial slurs and anti-homosexual remarks were posted on the Students Against Death Penalty Web site in an apparent hate crime, a club officer said.
Ahmad Saad Nasim, Students Against Death Penalty Webmaster, discovered the hacking yesterday at about 11:30 a.m.
Nasim said one of the comments read, "This club is for motherfuckers."
Other postings lashed out against homosexuals and international students - both groups are represented in the club.
"I don't suspect anyone at the moment," Nasim said. "But I changed it back because we don't want visitors to think we're racist."
One of the most offensive postings was a message written over the picture of Gary Graham, a man executed in June after his appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court. He was convicted of killing a man in 1981.
"That n----r deserved it, right?" it said.
The Web site is currently part of Geocities.com, a personal home page service of Yahoo, and Nasim has filed a complaint to the company.
"Whoever did it was really racist and a smart programmer," Nasim said. "It's hard to hack into stuff like that."
Links to other anti-death penalty sites were rerouted to pornography sites, and Nasim received a threatening message on his answering machine, he said.
"It's very disturbing that someone feels like that's the way they need to express themselves," said Andrew Silverman, UA law professor and club member.
Associated Students President Ben Graff pledged his organization's full support in protecting affiliated clubs like Students Against Death Penalty, a new club with about 15 members.
"I completely denounce the childish efforts of whatever group did this," he said. "We defend (the clubs) to our last breath."
Graff hoped the Dean of Students office would pursue the case to its fullest extent and also said he would try to help increase security on the Web site.
In a poll taken in July 2000, many Arizonans are questioning the death penalty and looking at it in a more critical way, Silverman said.
"I don't think (this event) reflects what many people feel about the death penalty," he said. "But clearly it is an issue that evokes a lot of emotion."
Home phone numbers for club members have been removed from their advertisements and the club is in the process of changing their Web site to the ASUA cluster.
The University of Arizona Police Department has placed the hacking some time between midnight and 11 a.m. on Sunday, said Sgt. Mike Smith, UAPD public information officer. The case is still under investigation.
"I was shocked because we are an educational group on campus," Nasim said. "We just want to let people know that the death penalty is inhumane."
