Here are some links that point to evidence:
they can close them down and loose track of the viewers, or they can leave them open (monitored) and survey the visitors.
What a bunch of chimps those writers are! It sounds like they're prodding their followers to hack the sites. Hmm.. would that be a good thing? Let's think for a second:
What is the function of the Customs Service? (easy answer not applicable)
What are the odds that a terrorist webmaster is still maintaining a website after it becomes reasonable to believe the US govt is aware of the website?
So.. if that website is still online after newspaper articles are written about it, guess who the new webmaster is?
Whose site would you be hacking then?