Tareq Salahi's domain name snatched up

The domain name Tareqsalahi.com was purchased on Nov. 26 by an employee of a website, Small Film Planet, only hours after Tareq Salahi's name made national headlines when it was revealed that he and his wife Michaele attended a White House state dinner uninvited.

Salahi, shown here with his wife, already owns the rights to Michaele's domain name, michaelesalahi.com, which according to GoDaddy.com records, he bought in June of this year, but the site has yet to be activated. Around the same time, the Salahis also started a Facebook fan page for Michaele, which in the last week has become an outlet for people to weigh in on their controversial visit to the White House.

The Tareq domain name appears to have been grabbed by someone hoping to profit from it. The company owns hundreds of websites, and employee Mircea Roibu explained that they purchase names of figures in the news, and then redirect traffic to their own websites.

Roibo denied that Small Films Planet was engaging in "cyber-squatting," the practice of buying a domain name that someone else may want (for example, www.sarahpalin2012.com) and selling it back to them at a higher price. He did, however, suggest that if an offer was made, the owners "might be willing to sell it."

An email to Tareq Salahi about his and Michaele's sites was not returned.

Cross-posted on Washington Scene.