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An FBI spokesman confirmed Monday that federal investigators are probing whether the site -which is run by a Jordanian -played any role in the murders of Hossam Armanious, 47, his wife, Amal Garas, 37, and their daughters, Sylvia, 15, and Monica, 8. The family was discovered bound and stabbed to death in their Jersey City Heights home.

Hossam Armanious was an active participant in PalTalk.com discussions, using the nickname “I Love Jesus,” according to friends. Armanious, a Coptic Orthodox Christian from Egypt, would often engage in heated debates with Muslims in the site’s religious chat rooms, and family members have speculated that the murders stemmed from these discussions and his attempts to convert Muslims to Christianity.

By TOM TRONCONE
STAFF WRITER

The FBI is investigating a radical Islamic Web site that posted photos and information about people who use an Internet chat room frequented by a Jersey City man whose family was murdered Jan. 14.

The Web site, barsomyat.com, contained detailed information about some users of the PalTalk.com chat service whom the site’s members accuse of being outspoken critics of Islam, according to published reports.

An FBI spokesman confirmed Monday that federal investigators are probing whether the site -which is run by a Jordanian -played any role in the murders of Hossam Armanious, 47, his wife, Amal Garas, 37, and their daughters, Sylvia, 15, and Monica, 8. The family was discovered bound and stabbed to death in their Jersey City Heights home.

Hossam Armanious was an active participant in PalTalk.com discussions, using the nickname “I Love Jesus,” according to friends. Armanious, a Coptic Orthodox Christian from Egypt, would often engage in heated debates with Muslims in the site’s religious chat rooms, and family members have speculated that the murders stemmed from these discussions and his attempts to convert Muslims to Christianity.

“We are aware of that site, and we are looking at it,” FBI spokesman John Conway said. “It’s an interesting site to say the least. … It’s unknown to anybody right now what credence to put into this.”

It also is not known whether any photos of Hossam Armanious or other personal information were posted on the site prior to the murders. Users of the PalTalk service communicate via instant messaging, voice and, often, Web cams. Members of the barsomyat.com site apparently scanned the chat rooms to identify opponents.

The information was then posted with photos of the person. In one case, according to The New York Sun, a barsomyat.com post about a Christian man included his PalTalk nickname, photograph, real name and the city in which he lives, all hacked from his home computer.

Before the site was taken down Monday by its Minnesota hosting company, it contained photos of Hossam Armanious and Amal Garas. It called Armanious a “filthy dog” and Garas “his filthy wife,” according to the paper. A screenshot of barsomyat.com was posted on another Web site, Jihadwatch.com.

“They were slaughtered along with their children as a punishment from the heavens to those who curse the most divine of all who were created,” one member of barsomyat.com is quoted as writing.

Several Muslim community leaders said on Monday that they were unaware of the existence of the Web site and denounced it when told about the content.

“It is very sick,” said Mohamed El Filali, spokesman for the Islamic Center of Passaic County. “Nobody should be harmed because of a person’s opinion.”

Authorities have not zeroed in on a motive in the quadruple homicide. Several possibilities exist, including a financial motive or a vendetta from the family’s Egyptian homeland.

Each family member’s bound body was found in a different room of the Oakland Avenue home. Each bled to death from stab wounds to the neck and had other knife wounds.

Money was taken from Armanious’ wallet, Garas’ purse had been emptied, and someone had rifled through drawers. However, a “significant” amount of jewelry was left untouched, authorities said.

The absence of money in the home and the presence of jewelry have sparked debate about a possible robbery gone bad. There was no forced entry into the home. And no religious symbols were desecrated, including tattoos each Armanious family member had on his or her wrists.

Conway, a violent crimes investigator, said the FBI is “heavily involved” in the Armanious investigation and has been looking into the PalTalk connection since early in the investigation.

He acknowledged it was “hard to imagine anything else but” |the murders being fueled by a |dispute, but said agents were |exploring the gamut of possibilities.

Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said he was not familiar with the site, but that his investigators working with the FBI were likely aware of it.

He said the key factor in determining whether the site played a role in the killings would be pinpointing when information about Armanious was posted.

“If it was posted after the homicide, that makes the whole issue somewhat moot,” DeFazio said. “But if it was posted prior to the homicide it would give it some more credence.”

DeFazio said that without any definitive connection to any violence, the postings on the site are just words.

“There is a lot of hate talk that is propagated that is not dispositive of the motive,” DeFazio said. “This site has not been the only site indicating they support what happened to this family.”

The site was registered on Nov. 7 to VizaWeb Inc., a hosting company in Woodbury, Minn. Rick Mueller, one of the owners of VizaWeb, would not release the name of his customer, other than to say it was a person living in Jordan.

Mueller removed the site soon after learning of its content. The banner on the site while it was active showed a lamb with its throat being slit and a cross with a red “X” through it.

“We started hearing about this [Monday],” he said. “We took the site off-line as we look into the content. If what we are hearing is true, we will not put it back up. … We obviously do not support its content.”

FBI and Hudson County investigators are examining the bedroom computer of Sylvia and Monica, which prosecutors said was the only computer in the modest two-family home.

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