Posted on 03/26/2006 5:13:04 AM PST by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
Edited on 03/26/2006 6:10:41 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
For almost two years, intelligence services around the world tried to uncover the identity of an Internet hacker who had become a key conduit for al-Qaeda. The savvy, English-speaking, presumably young webmaster taunted his pursuers, calling himself Irhabi -- Terrorist -- 007. He hacked into American university computers, propagandized for the Iraq insurgents led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and taught other online jihadists how to wield their computers for the cause.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
They should kill him just for hacking.
http://www.lauramansfield.com/j/007.asp
March 1, 2006: Me and Terrorist 007:
Tracking a terrorist through cyberspace
By Laura Mansfield
It’s been two years since I first locked horns with a cyber jihadi by the name of Terrorist 007.
I was working as the assistant director for the Northeast Intelligence Network (NEIN) and a writer for World Net Daily when I ran into Terrorist 007, or Irhabi 007, on the old Ansar forum, an Arabic language message board frequently used by Al Qaeda sympathizers. (I've since left NEIN and am now on my own at LauraMansfield.com.)
Irhabi 007 was bragging about his hacking abilities, in an attempt to weasel his way into the “in crowd” of vetted jihadis. Over the next few months, I watched as Terrorist 007 began to establish himself as an expert, and gain the respect of the fellow jihadis.
My friend Jill St. Claire and I began building a dossier on 007, just as we were doing on Abu Banan, the apparent director of Global Islamic Media.
One thing that stood out about Terrorist 007 initially was that he posted primarily in English. He was apparently learning Arabic, because over the next two years, he began to shift to posting more and more in Arabic.
As time went on, 007 became more and more brazen. He began to post links to cracked commercial software programs, as well as to various jihadi audio and video propaganda files. He gradually began to expand into posting detailed instructional material on making suicide bomb vests, improvised explosive devices, and other terrorist tools.
007 was always one of the first to post links to Voice of Jihad (Sawt al Jihad) and Al Battar, publications created by Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia) and distributed by Global Islamic Media.
Over the months, it appeared that 007 was making inroads into an “inner circle” of internet jihadis, including Abu Banan.
007’s identity was elusive. At times he claimed to be in the United States; other times he claimed to be in the UK. His tendency to use British spellings of words led credence to theories that he was in the UK.
As time went on, Terrorist 007 continued to amass a huge collection of Al Qaeda propaganda films, and as one website after another was pulled down by authorities, he began to appropriate server space belonging to unsuspecting companies and institutions who left open doors on their webservers by enabling anonymous FTP uploads. One of the first to be appropriated by 007 was a server at George Washington University in Washington DC.
When Nick Berg was beheaded in Iraq in April 2004, Irhabi 007 had one of the most extensive collections of links to videos of the beheading.
The bandwidth storm that followed the release of the beheading video combined with the public outcry over the brutality of the murder brought down the Ansar website as well as several other jihadi forums; others went to a password protected mode to limit access.
By the time American hostage Paul Johnson was kidnapped and beheaded in Saudi Arabia in June, 007 was an integral part of the network responsible for distributing the video films, “borrowing” server space from an unsuspecting California company, slipping in through the anonymous FTP security hole.
It was only a few weeks later that I discovered Terrorist 007 “borrowing” web space from the State of Arkansas. I made the discovery during my weekly terrorist update on Ernie Brown’s syndicated radio show America at Night while checking jihadi sites for last minute updates.
When I noticed that 007 was posting jihadi material on the servers of the Arkansas Department of Transportation, I immediately notified the authorities through the chain of command at the Northeast Intelligence Network
But since that rarely brought any results, I also went directly to the media, tipping off a friend at CNN about my find.
The initial press release from NEIN has been removed from their servers, but can be accessed through their Google cache here
A more extensive set of links that NEIN published is located here
Among them were files highly sought after by jihadis, including the al-Qaida films "Badr al Riyadh," "American Hell in Iraq," "Russian Hell," "Martyrs of the Confrontation" and "Wills of Martyrs." Other files posted included the beheading video of Nick Berg, as well as audio and video clips of various al-Qaida leaders, including Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Musa'ab al-Zarqawi.
The files were located at ftp://www.ahtd.state.ar.us/ incoming/GIS/007 and at ftp://www.ahtd.state.ar.us/ incoming/GIS/ALQA3EDAH
Within hours, the FBI had confiscated the server. The ensuing publicity brought me to the attention of Terrorist 007. He began posting to me in English on the jihadi forums, and at one point he even told his cyber friends that he planned to find me and marry me.
In late summer of 2004, 007 informed his buddies on the boards that he was going to be going on a trip to the Bahamas, and advised them not to worry about his absence from the boards. In a couple of weeks, true to his word, Terrorist 007 was back on the boards.
He began expanding his horizons, putting up numerous websites containing extensive libraries of both propaganda videos and audios, and of instructional materials teaching terrorism techniques, how to make more and more destructive killing devices, and basic hacking techniques as well. For many months, Terrorist 007 was a source of “WAREZ”, pirated commercial software. At one point, the ever helpful 007 posted ripped copies of Arabic language translation software to help those who needed assistance in translation!
By spring of 2005, 007 was feeling the bandwidth pinch again, and began stealing credit card numbers to use in purchasing domain names and web hosting for his websites. His favorite technique seemed to be keystroke loggers. On many occasions, my virus protection intercepted attempts by 007 to download a keystroke logger to my company as I monitored his websites.
In May and June 2005, 007 had posted maps of the London transit system, as well as photographs of various tube terminals in London on his websites. It is unknown at this time if there was any connection between these posts and the London bombings in July 2005.
Then, last fall, shortly after Joel Hinnrichs committed suicide with an explosives vest at Oklahoma University, Terrorist 007 abruptly disappeared. Some analysts even speculated that Hinnrichs was 007, although that seemed unlikely. It seemed more likely that 007 had disappeared from view, and was actually using a cyber alias. This theory gained credibility after law enforcement discovered that Hinnrichs had downloaded the instructions for creating his explosives from one of 007’s websites.
His absence was noted on the jihadi boards; many of his fellow jihadis speculated that he had gone to Iraq to participate in the jihad there.
What we know now is that Terrorist 007 was arrested in October 2005 near London. His real name is Younis Tsouli. His arrest came as part of a series of arrests that began with a raid in Bosnia. Tsouli had apparently been in email contact with the men arrested in that terror raid, and in late October, British police arrested Tsouli and two other men under the Terrorism Act.
Tsouli was charged with ten charges “including conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to cause an explosion, conspiracy to obtain money by deception, fundraising and possession of articles for terrorist purposes.” Police allege that Tsouli and his coherts intended to detonate a huge car bomb in central London.
A senior Scotland Yard source said: "We are convinced that if we had not acted swiftly a massive bomb, designed to kill and maim hundreds of innocent people, would have been set off in London, probably before the end of the year and possibly during the Christmas rush."
According to the Sunday Mirror, the Tsouli is accused of the following:
# Possession of a video showing how to make a car bomb.
# Possession a video showing a number of places in Washington DC and including a CRBN (chemical, radiological, biological and nuclear) vehicle.
# Conspiracy to murder.
# Conspiracy to cause an explosion.
# Conspiracy to cause a public nuisance, conspiracy to obtain money by deception and other offences under the Terrorism Act.
As law enforcement began to examine Tsouli’s computer, they found pictures of several locations in Washington D.C., according to Scotland Yard, as well as computerized slides demonstrating how to make a car bomb and a DVD explaining how to create a suicide bomber belt.
From other information on the computer, police realized that they had managed to finally apprehend the elusive Terrorist 007.
The role that Irhabi 007 played in the growth of the global jihad should not be underestimated. He was very active in recruiting new members to the jihad, and provided valuable expertise to the group. His tutorials on how jihadis can conceal themselves through the use of anonymous proxy servers have no doubt helped many terrorists elude detection over the last several years.
The instructional material he provided has almost certainly resulted in the deaths of innocents.
Terrorist 007 is now in custody. But dozens of his followers remain, and several have already begun to carry on where he left off.
Interesting.
Yep, and he death should come from beheading.
Isn't it so nice what the Jihadi do with their welfare provided college educations? Rattle snakes make poor pets.
Portscanning a range of IPs on port 21 and testing for anonymous login acceptance is not "hacking". That's just taking advantage of something the sysops, for some reason, allow.
Calling this guy a hacker is an insult to those who can really bust your chops, even when properly configured.
If the evidence is definitive and if he receives a typical British "life" sentence; I hope they will hand him over to the countries that can link him to violence.
You need to direct that comment to Rita Katz Michael Kern of the SITE Institute who is responsible for the 'Terrorist 007, Exposed', WAPO article.
Laura Mansfield, who did the original research and original article in post 3 didn't refer to Irhabi 007 as a hacker.
'Tis true. Republican women are the life of the party and, more importantly, the lifeblood of the party. Here are these 2 women discovering, documenting, researching, presenting, .............
bttt
Correct. My comment was directed more in general at the thread topic, not you or the author or your post. I replied to #3 because it was the one which indicated the methods used.
ping
We should treat this war like the war it is. One without borders or uniforms.
Why doesn't our overpopulated CIA hunt down people like this and put them out of commission? There are zillions of violent jihadis in Western nations acting as a fifth column - in Mosques, coffee shops and even Islamic grocers.
:)
Yup.
As posted above, the "cyber-criminal" angle is being overplayed by ignorant WaPo warsluts. The MSM takes angles to stories like this because of their inherent belief in gatekeeper model of informaiton dissemination. This angle is very dangerous to American citizens' First Amendment Rights, there is little difference between the "inanimate guns kill people, let's outlaw all guns" mantras that WaPo agitates. There is but a baby step until they argue that the "internet kills people, let's ban the internet".
(Regarding his 'net crimes, not his bombing plot) All this guy did was facilitate the initial dissemination of digital files. All of the beheading, propaganda files, though maybe not the bomb making files, are readily accessable on hundreds of servers and dozens of torrent streams concurrently at this moment throughout the world. The dissemination of information regarding instructions for the creation of suicide bomb belts is a Federally protected Right as restated by the US Supreme Court in 1996. Inciting the use of weapons is still a crime here. Point being, he's barely more mentionable than a Stormfront goober, his stock is up because he is "AlQaeda brand" of domestic criminal.
INTERNET-HAGANAH.com: "THE WEB BROWSER AND OPERATING SYSTEM PREFERENCES OF THE USERS OF THE TAJDEED FORUM" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "From an upcoming report by the Society For Internet Research regarding the users of the Tajdeed forum (tajdeed.org.uk and tajdeedi.co.uk) operated in the UK by the Saudi exile group Party of Islamic Renewal (PIR)") (April 14, 2006)
INTERNET-HAGANAH: "VIDEO OF LONDON BOMBERS CLAIMING RESPONSIBILITY" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Produced by Al Qaida's Al Sahab production company, presumably in Pakistan or Afghanistan, aired by Al Jazeera, and distributed on the internet by dear old Irhabi[Terrorist]007.") (September 2, 2005)
MSNBC.msn.com: "WEB VIDEO TEACHES TERRORISTS TO MAKE BOMB VESTS" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: ""The video was accompanied by a note that explained it was there for the purposes of aiding the brothers, the fighting brothers, in cities in central Iraq," says NBC terror analyst Evan Kohlmann. Related story Latest on the Mosul attack Specifically, the note mentioned wanting to help fighters in Fallujah, Ramadi and Mosul, though there's nothing to tie this to Tuesday's attack. The person who posted the note and video on the Internet called himself "terrorist007." NBC News will not reveal most details, but the video demonstrates each step of bomb making: *select a fabric and sew the vest; *mix explosives; *arrange shrapnel to kill victims in a large radius; *attach a detonator.") (Updated December 22, 2004)
INTERNET-HAGANAH: "COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE GLOBAL JIHAD: THREE PLAYERS JOIN FORCES" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Witness the collaboration between Abu Banan/Global Islamic Media and Irhabi007 in distributing the Al Qaida publication Sout al Jihad, with additional services provided by the French Islamist site ribaat.org" (September 1, 2004)
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2006/09/22/0923terrorsuspect.html
"Bond denied Roswell terror suspect
Prosecutors cite e-mail saying man wanted to join Taliban"
By MONI BASU
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/22/06
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "A Roswell man accused of helping plot terrorist attacks wrote an e-mail in 2001 expressing a desire to join the Taliban in Afghanistan, prosecutors said in federal court Friday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Gerrilyn Brill denied bond for Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, 20, who along with Syed Haris Ahmed, 21, a former Georgia Tech student, was indicted in July on charges of discussing plans for waging jihad, or holy war."
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "McBurney said Sadequee shot "casing videos" of several sites in the Washington D.C. area including the Capitol, the World Bank, a Masonic temple and a fuel tank farm. He then used a computer at the offices of Raksha, an Atlanta non-profit that offers social services to the South Asian community where one of Sadequee's sisters works, to send the video files to a British man named Younis Tsouli. Tsouli called himself "Irhabi (Arabic for terrorist) 007" and ran a Web site that taught terror tactics"
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