Irhabi 007
Encyclopedia
Younes Tsouli is a Moroccan
-born resident of the United Kingdom who, in 2007, was found guilty of incitement to commit acts of terrorism (a crime introduced in the Terrorism Act 2006
) and sentenced to 16 years in prison. His crimes were carried out via the internet, where he was known by several pseudonyms based on variations of Irhabi 007; "Irhabi" being the Arabic word for "terrorist", and "007" a reference to the fictional British secret agent James Bond
. Tsouli's activities included the setting up of web sites and web forums in support of Al-Qaeda
, and distributing video material filmed by the Iraqi insurgency
. His primary co-conspirators were takfiris Waseem Mughal and Tariq Al-Daour. Their activities were funded by Al-Daour, who was found to be in possession of 37,000 credit card details, which were linked to more than €2.5 million worth of fraudulent transactions. Tsouli has been called the "world's most wanted cyber-jihadist", and his conviction was the first under British law for incitement to commit an act of terrorism through the internet.
on a forum called "Islamic Terrorists", where he initially appeared to be a harmless agitator, "At first I started publishing bits and pieces of what he was doing online for comic relief, and really had no appreciation of where he was headed". Tsouli and Weisburd taunted each other online "I would give him a message like, 'Your days are numbered – you’re going to get caught'. He, on the other hand, was participating in discussions about which part of my body they wanted when I was killed, and he said he wanted one of my fingers as a souvenir". In 2004 Weisburd geolocated Tsouli to Ealing in West London, and passed this information on to the authorities.
In early 2004, Tsouli joined two now defunct password-protected forums sympathetic to al-Qaeda in Iraq, Muntada al-Ansar al-Islami (Islam Supporters Forum) and al-Ekhlas (Sincerity). There, he gained a reputation as a resident expert on Internet technologies, especially on matters on both enhancing and defeating on-line security. He was well known as someone who could break into a web site and hide files containing al-Qaeda propaganda on these sites (examples of such propaganda include the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
produced film All Is for Allah's Religion, the al-Qaeda Internet magazine Voice of Jihad
(Sawt al Jihad), and videos of the beheading of Americans Nick Berg
, Jack Hensley
and Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr.
). He would then post links to these covert files on the forums he belonged to. He also mentored other volunteers on the art of computer cracking, both by answering questions on-line and through an al-Ekhlas posting entitled “Seminar on Hacking Websites”.
Eventually, Tsouli started posting non-computer related instructional material on-line, including tutorials on making suicide bomb vests and other explosive devices. He also started distributed cracked versions of computer software, including Arabic language translation software.
In 5 June 2005 Tsouli wrote "I am still the terrorist 007, one of the most wanted terrorists on the internet. I have the Feds and the CIA, both would love to catch me, I have MI6 on my back". Following the 7 July 2005 London bombings
, Tsouli wrote: "Brother, I am very happy. From the moment that the infidels cry, I laugh".
Between April and October 2005, he was contacted by American Ehsanul Sadequee
, who sent him a videotape he had made of potential targets including the United States Capitol
building, the World Bank
, a Masonic temple
, and a fuel depot.
, who was one of those responsible for the declaration, travelled to Bosnia where he and Abdulkadir Cesur filmed a video in which they wore ski masks, and, surrounded by weapons and explosives, said that they intended to attack sites in Europe to punish nations with forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. On 17 October 2005 Bektašević was arrested in Sarajevo
, and analysis of his laptop identified Tsouli in his buddy list, and his mobile phone records showed that he had recently called Tsouli. The Metropolitan Police
were informed, and on 21 October 2005, Tsouli was arrested in a raid on a house in Shepherds Bush, London. He was charged under the UK's Terrorism Act 2000
for "conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to cause an explosion, conspiracy to obtain money by deception, fundraising and possession of articles for terrorist purposes".
Trial began in May 2007. Judge Peter Openshaw
caused some controversy when he halted the trial to ask what a web site was, saying "The trouble is I don’t understand the language. I don’t really understand what a website is." Following this, Professor Tony Sammes was called upon to give a presentation which explained what the internet is, how people can access the internet, and what web sites are.
At the trial Tsouli's technical skills were emphasised. Evan Kohlmann
testified, "007 came at this with a Western perspective. He had a flair for marketing, and he had the technical knowledge and skills to be able to place this stuff in areas on the net where it wouldn’t be easily erased, where lots of people could download it, view it and save it."
On 4 July 2007, after two months at trial, Tsouli and his co-defendants Waseem Mughal and Tariq Al-Daour pleaded guilty to "inciting another person to commit an act of terrorism wholly or partly outside the UK which would, if committed in England and Wales, constitute murder" (a crime introduced in the Terrorism Act 2006
) and admitted to conspiring together and with others to defraud banks, credit card companies and charge card companies. Tsouli was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, Mughal to 7½ years, and Al-Daour to 6½ years. On 18 December 2007 at the Court of Criminal Appeal the sentences of all three men were increased - Tsouli’s sentence was increased to 16 years, Mughal to 12 years and Al Daour 12 years. At the time of their conviction, Tsouli was 23 years old, Mughal was 24 years old, and al-Daour was 21 years old.
Maróc
Maróc is a village located in Zala county in Western Hungary.-References:...
-born resident of the United Kingdom who, in 2007, was found guilty of incitement to commit acts of terrorism (a crime introduced in the Terrorism Act 2006
Terrorism Act 2006
The Terrorism Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that received Royal Assent on 30 March 2006, after being introduced on 12 October 2005. The Act creates new offences related to terrorism, and amends existing ones. The Act was drafted in the aftermath of the 7 July 2005...
) and sentenced to 16 years in prison. His crimes were carried out via the internet, where he was known by several pseudonyms based on variations of Irhabi 007; "Irhabi" being the Arabic word for "terrorist", and "007" a reference to the fictional British secret agent James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
. Tsouli's activities included the setting up of web sites and web forums in support of Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
, and distributing video material filmed by the Iraqi insurgency
Iraqi insurgency
The Iraqi Resistance is composed of a diverse mix of militias, foreign fighters, all-Iraqi units or mixtures opposing the United States-led multinational force in Iraq and the post-2003 Iraqi government...
. His primary co-conspirators were takfiris Waseem Mughal and Tariq Al-Daour. Their activities were funded by Al-Daour, who was found to be in possession of 37,000 credit card details, which were linked to more than €2.5 million worth of fraudulent transactions. Tsouli has been called the "world's most wanted cyber-jihadist", and his conviction was the first under British law for incitement to commit an act of terrorism through the internet.
Activities from 2003-2005
Tsouli first appeared on web forums in 2003. He attracted the attention of Aaron WeisburdInternet Haganah
Internet Haganah is a "global intelligence network dedicated to confronting Internet activities by Islamists and their supporters, enablers and apologists." It is composed of U.S...
on a forum called "Islamic Terrorists", where he initially appeared to be a harmless agitator, "At first I started publishing bits and pieces of what he was doing online for comic relief, and really had no appreciation of where he was headed". Tsouli and Weisburd taunted each other online "I would give him a message like, 'Your days are numbered – you’re going to get caught'. He, on the other hand, was participating in discussions about which part of my body they wanted when I was killed, and he said he wanted one of my fingers as a souvenir". In 2004 Weisburd geolocated Tsouli to Ealing in West London, and passed this information on to the authorities.
In early 2004, Tsouli joined two now defunct password-protected forums sympathetic to al-Qaeda in Iraq, Muntada al-Ansar al-Islami (Islam Supporters Forum) and al-Ekhlas (Sincerity). There, he gained a reputation as a resident expert on Internet technologies, especially on matters on both enhancing and defeating on-line security. He was well known as someone who could break into a web site and hide files containing al-Qaeda propaganda on these sites (examples of such propaganda include the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ; October 30, 1966 – June 7, 2006), born Ahmad Fadeel al-Nazal al-Khalayleh was a Jordanian militant Islamist who ran a paramilitary training camp in Afghanistan...
produced film All Is for Allah's Religion, the al-Qaeda Internet magazine Voice of Jihad
Voice of Jihad
Voice of Jihad was an online journal published by the Saudi branch of al Qaeda between 2004 and 2007.An April 27, 2005, edition of Voice of Jihad included an article asking sympathizers not to appropriate the term "Voice of Jihad" for their own publications.An issue was published in February 2007...
(Sawt al Jihad), and videos of the beheading of Americans Nick Berg
Nick Berg
Nicholas Evan "Nick" Berg was an American businessman who went to Iraq after the US invasion of Iraq. He was abducted and later beheaded according to a video released in May 2004 by Islamist militants...
, Jack Hensley
Jack Hensley
Jack Hensley was an American engineer from Marietta, Cobb County, Georgia, near Atlanta.While working in Iraq he was kidnapped and beheaded by Iraqi insurgents. His colleague, Eugene Armstrong, was beheaded the previous day...
and Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr.
Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr.
Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr. was an American helicopter engineer who lived in Saudi Arabia. He was a native of both Stafford and Eagleswood, New Jersey...
). He would then post links to these covert files on the forums he belonged to. He also mentored other volunteers on the art of computer cracking, both by answering questions on-line and through an al-Ekhlas posting entitled “Seminar on Hacking Websites”.
Eventually, Tsouli started posting non-computer related instructional material on-line, including tutorials on making suicide bomb vests and other explosive devices. He also started distributed cracked versions of computer software, including Arabic language translation software.
In 5 June 2005 Tsouli wrote "I am still the terrorist 007, one of the most wanted terrorists on the internet. I have the Feds and the CIA, both would love to catch me, I have MI6 on my back". Following the 7 July 2005 London bombings
7 July 2005 London bombings
The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in the United Kingdom, targeting civilians using London's public transport system during the morning rush hour....
, Tsouli wrote: "Brother, I am very happy. From the moment that the infidels cry, I laugh".
Between April and October 2005, he was contacted by American Ehsanul Sadequee
Ehsanul Sadequee
Born in Fairfax, Virginia on July 30, 1986, Ehsanul "Shifa" Sadequee is an American who was arrested by the FBI on four terrorism charges, convicted, and sentenced to 17 years in prison, to be followed by 30 years of supervised release.-Life:...
, who sent him a videotape he had made of potential targets including the United States Capitol
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
building, the World Bank
World Bank Group
The World Bank Group is a family of five international organizations that makes leveraged loans, generally to poor countries.The Bank came into formal existence on 27 December 1945 following international ratification of the Bretton Woods agreements, which emerged from the United Nations Monetary...
, a Masonic temple
Masonic Temple
Masonic Temple is a term commonly used in Freemasonry with multiple but related meanings. It is used to describe an abstract spiritual goal, the conceptual ritualistic space formed when a Masonic Lodge meets, and the physical rooms and structures in which a Lodge meets...
, and a fuel depot.
Arrest and conviction
On 11 September 2005, a group calling itself "al-Qaeda in Northern Europe" posted a declaration on the al-Ansar web site. Following this, 18-year-old Swedish citizen Mirsad BektaševićMirsad Bektaševic
Mirsad Bektašević , alias Maximus, is a Swede of Bosniak descent who in 2005 was arrested in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, charged with planning a terrorist attack against an unnamed target...
, who was one of those responsible for the declaration, travelled to Bosnia where he and Abdulkadir Cesur filmed a video in which they wore ski masks, and, surrounded by weapons and explosives, said that they intended to attack sites in Europe to punish nations with forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. On 17 October 2005 Bektašević was arrested in Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
, and analysis of his laptop identified Tsouli in his buddy list, and his mobile phone records showed that he had recently called Tsouli. The Metropolitan Police
Metropolitan police
Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
were informed, and on 21 October 2005, Tsouli was arrested in a raid on a house in Shepherds Bush, London. He was charged under the UK's Terrorism Act 2000
Terrorism Act 2000
The Terrorism Act 2000 is the first of a number of general Terrorism Acts passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It superseded and repealed the Prevention of Terrorism Act 1989 and the Northern Ireland Act 1996...
for "conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to cause an explosion, conspiracy to obtain money by deception, fundraising and possession of articles for terrorist purposes".
Trial began in May 2007. Judge Peter Openshaw
Peter Openshaw
Sir Charles Peter Lawford Openshaw , styled The Hon. Mr Justice Openshaw, is an English judge of the High Court, Queen's Bench Division, in London...
caused some controversy when he halted the trial to ask what a web site was, saying "The trouble is I don’t understand the language. I don’t really understand what a website is." Following this, Professor Tony Sammes was called upon to give a presentation which explained what the internet is, how people can access the internet, and what web sites are.
At the trial Tsouli's technical skills were emphasised. Evan Kohlmann
Evan Kohlmann
Evan F. Kohlmann is an American terrorism consultant who has worked for the FBI and other governmental organizations.He is a contributor to the Counterterrorism Blog, a senior investigator with The Nine Eleven Finding Answers Foundation, and a terrorism analyst for NBC News.-Early life and...
testified, "007 came at this with a Western perspective. He had a flair for marketing, and he had the technical knowledge and skills to be able to place this stuff in areas on the net where it wouldn’t be easily erased, where lots of people could download it, view it and save it."
On 4 July 2007, after two months at trial, Tsouli and his co-defendants Waseem Mughal and Tariq Al-Daour pleaded guilty to "inciting another person to commit an act of terrorism wholly or partly outside the UK which would, if committed in England and Wales, constitute murder" (a crime introduced in the Terrorism Act 2006
Terrorism Act 2006
The Terrorism Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that received Royal Assent on 30 March 2006, after being introduced on 12 October 2005. The Act creates new offences related to terrorism, and amends existing ones. The Act was drafted in the aftermath of the 7 July 2005...
) and admitted to conspiring together and with others to defraud banks, credit card companies and charge card companies. Tsouli was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, Mughal to 7½ years, and Al-Daour to 6½ years. On 18 December 2007 at the Court of Criminal Appeal the sentences of all three men were increased - Tsouli’s sentence was increased to 16 years, Mughal to 12 years and Al Daour 12 years. At the time of their conviction, Tsouli was 23 years old, Mughal was 24 years old, and al-Daour was 21 years old.