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January 23, 2008

"Terrorist 007" And His Islamist Internet Adventures (3 of 3)

This article by Adrian Morgan (Giraldus Cambrensis of Western Resistance) appeared today in Family Security Matters and is reproduced with their permission.

"Terrorist 007" And His Islamist Internet Adventures

Part Three of Three

Part One can be found here and Part Two here

Two American nationals, Syed Haris Ahmed and Eshanul Islam Sadequee, were alleged to have used the internet to send reconnaissance videos of Washington "targets" to Younes Tsouli at his home in Shepherds Bush, West London. In March 2005, these had met with members of an apparent cell of Canadian terrorists who were arrested on June 2, 2006. These Canadian individuals have not yet had their trials, but some of these are believed to have had internet links with Younes Tsouli.

The Canadian suspects - twelve adults and five minors - had all come from the Toronto/south Ontario region. The adults were named then as Fahim Ahmad, 21; Jahmaal James, 23; Amin Mohamed Durrani, 19; and Steven Vikash Chand, 25, all of Toronto; Zakaria Amara, 20; Asad Ansari, 21; Shareef Abdelhaleen, 30; Ahmad Mustafa Ghany, 21; Saad Khalid, 19; and Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43, all of Mississauga; Mohammed Dirie, 22 and Yasin Abdi Mohamed, 24.

Since their initial arrests and charges made, some were issued bail, though bail hearings for all are now being individually placed under judicial review.

The oldest of those arrested, 43-year old Qayyum Abdul Jamal, had apparently used the Mississauga Muslim Community Centre as a venue to radicalize young visitors, stated the Globe & Mail. Jamal, who was a bus driver and father of four, was not an imam. He had cleaned the mosque and had sometimes run errands. Five of the young people arrested had worshipped at this mosque. Jamal had also led Friday prayers at the one-room Al-Rahman mosque. Other suspects attended the Salahuddin Islamic Centre in Kennedy Road, Scarborough, Toronto.

Immediately after the arrests, there were claims that members of the group had been on "terror training" outdoor exercises, that they were intending to attack the CBC building in Toronto, the Toronto Stock Exchange and the offices of the intelligence agency CSIS (Canadian Security and Intelligence Service). They were also said to have planned to stage an ambitious assault upon the Ottawa Parliament building to kidnap hostages in an attempt to have Canadian troops withdrawn from Afghanistan. The group were said to have tried to acquire three metric tons of ammonium nitrate. This fertilizer, which can be used to make bombs, was apparently purchased by Saad Khalid, one of the arrested individuals, but the authorities substituted it with an inert substance.

The plot to storm the Ottowa parliament had apparently been suggested by a former Hindu and convert to Islam, Steven Vikash Chand. He also called himself Abdul Shakur. He had been a member of the Royal Regiment of Canada from June 2000 until April 2004. Chand's lawyer Gary Batasar was given an eight page dossier of the allegations. The plan had been to take politicians hostage until they agreed to withdraw Canada's 2,300 Afghanistan-based troops, and to behead hostages until that aim was achieved. The dossier claimed that Chand, then aged 25, personally wanted to decapitate Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

A month after the arrests, the "mole" who had secretly worked as an agent for the CSIS for two years revealed himself on CBC's "Fifth Estate". To the surprise of many, he was Mubin Shaikh of the Toronto mosque Masjid-i-Noor. In 2005 Shaikh had argued vehemently for sharia law to be introduced in Ontario. He told CBC that the suspects were "fruitcakes... with the capacity to do some real damage."

Shaikh ran a training camp attended by the suspects. This was held north of Toronto in a field in the village of Washago, Ontario. Here they dressed up in camouflage, used guns in target practice and made a video to recruit others for jihad.

Shaikh's involvement with the CSIS came when he heard that Canadian national Momin Khawaja had been arrested in the spring of 2004. Khawaja had links with the now-jailed "Operation Crevice" cell who planned to blow up British targets. Khawaja allegedly intended to supply the British jihadists with radio-controlled detonators. Shaikh did not believe Khawaja (who still awaits trial) was a jihadist. CSIS then asked Sheikh if he would monitor a group of individuals.

The wife of Zakaria Amara, one of the accused Canadian suspects, said of Mubin Shaikh: "I know this man. May Allah curse him and make him suffer." Zakaria Amara had apparently posted poetry onto Muslim websites since 2002, when he was aged 16. One poem included the words: "Yes I know my bones are very tender/And by Allah, you won't see me surrender." In an internet discussion he had suggested that if someone wanted to engage in terrorist training "then go to Peshawar or Kashmir and train properly."

Fahim Ahmad (pictured) was said to be the "emir" or leader of the group. He had allegedly rented a car that had been used in August 2005 by two Somali Canadians to smuggle weaponry into Canada. These individuals, Yasin Abdi Mohamed and Ali Mohamed Dirie, were among the list of suspects.

According to a pdf document from the NEFA Foundation (page 4), Fahim Ahmad and another Canadian suspect, Jahmal James, had met with Syed Haris Ahmed and Eshanul Islam Sadequee in Toronto in March 2005.

More British Arrests

Shortly after the Canadian arrests, two people were arrested in Northern England. One was a 21-year old man called Aabid Khan from Bradford, Yorkshire. He was arrested on June 5, 2006, as he arrived at Manchester Airport on a plane from Pakistan. The other arrested individual was a 16-year old youth from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, who was arrested on June 7. Various police raids had taken place, including a raid on an internet cafe. The two individuals were charged with conspiracy to murder and conspiring to cause public nuisance by using poisons or explosives under Section 57 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Police confirmed to the Bradford Telegraph and Argus newspaper that the ongoing inquiry was related to the arrest of the 17 suspects in Canada, and that a third individual was being sought.

Four more people were arrested in East London on June 19 and 20, 2006. A BBC reporter claimed: "Police are trying to establish whether they were giving support to an alleged al-Qaeda cell in Canada."

On June 30, the trial began at the Old Bailey of the 16-year old schoolboy, Aabid Hussein Khan and a third man, 21-year old Sultan Muhammad. None of the suspects were in the courtroom in person. They remained in custody and appeared via a video link. Aabid Khan was also charged with having a computer for the purposes of "commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism". Sultan Muhammad was accused of having a compact disc which led to a suspicion of a "potential act of terrorism".

The 16-year old schoolboy was the grandson of "one of the leading figures in British Islam, who has been a vocal critic of terrorism". The home of this leading Islamic scholar, who has not been identified, was also raided by police.

The trial of the school boy and the older men was adjourned. They appeared at the Old Bailey on March 2, 2007 accompanied by another man, 28-year old Ahmed Sulieman, and the trial was adjourned again. On July 20, 2007, their trial was adjourned until November, 2007. The trial still has not been brought to a conclusion, but it seems apparent that the case deals with use of the internet to plan terror.

Younes Tsouli's British Connections

The BBC's security correspondent, Gordon Corera claimed that At-Tibyan, one of the websites set up and maintained by Younes Tsouli, had been linked with three British trials where convictions were secured.

Yassin Nassari was a regular user of the At-Tibyan website, which had a forum. 28-year old Nassari and his Dutch-born wife arrived at Luton airport in Bedfordshire on an Easyjet flight from Amsterdam on May 13, 2006. On May 30, 2007, a jury at the Old Bailey heard that Nassari's wife Bouchra El Hor had written him a letter, which was found in their luggage. This seemed to be a "farewell" letter prior to her husband's imminent "martyrdom", though she successfully argued that it referred to marital difficulties.

She wrote: ""The moment has come where you and I have to separate for the cause of Allah. I am so proud, my husband, and I am happy for you that Allah had granted you this chance to be a Mujihad in the cause of God. I am writing to let you know that you have my support and to remind you to be strong and do not let Satan influence you... to remind you that jihad is now compulsory and we are now obligated to protect Islam, to help our brothers and sisters to fight the kuffar."

"I really wish I could go with you because I too feel obliged to do all this and look to participate in any way I can. God willing, I will do anything in my power to raise our son the best way I can so he can be a righteous Muslim. I will also tell him all about his father so he can be proud of him and follow in his footsteps."

Nassari, a drop-out from Westminster University, was charged with "possessing an article for the purposes of terrorism and possession of a document of record likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism". In his airport luggage Nassari had a laptop in his possession. This carried blueprints of an Al Qassam 1.5 missile - the home-made rocket used by Palestinian Islamists against Israel.

Nassari was sentenced to three and a half years' jail on 18 July, 2007. He smiled when sentenced. His wife Bouchra el Hor was acquitted of "failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism." On the At-Tibyan website, Nassari had called himself "Mock Turtle". Here he shared jihadist videos with Tsouli's accomplice, Tariq al-Daour.

The At-Tibyan web forum was also used as a vehicle of communication by a group of students from Bradford University. On July 27, 2007 four students - Akbar Butt, aged 20 from Southall in London, Awaab Iqbal, aged 20 from Rochdale, Usman Malik, aged 21 from Wolverhampton, and Altzaz Zafar, aged 20 from Rochdale, Lancashire were jailed from 27 months to three years. They were found guilty of possessing material useful for terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2000. This related to material on their computers, including a US military manual which detailed how to make explosives, and a suicide bombing manual.

On an internet chat room (apparently At-Tibyan) Usman Malik had conversations with a cousin in Syria who was later arrested as a suspected terrorist. The cousin advised him to have a cover story when going to Pakistan for terror training. The group had a British contact on the chat room called Imran, who lived in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province. He had invited them to come to his home, and to invent cover stories.

On this chat room, a 17-year old Muslim from Essex who was still at school had conversations with the four students. Mohammed Irfan Raja ran away from home to join these students, leaving behind a farewell message that appeared to show he intended to go on a jihad mission abroad. He arrived at Bradford with three CDs containing extremist material. He became disillusioned and returned home, and his parents contacted police. Raja was sentenced to two years' youth detention.

Peter Clarke, who heads the counter-terrorism unit at Scotland Yard said: "This was not an adolescent fantasy. These five young men had decided to become active jihadists and to seek training at camps in Pakistan or Afghanistan. It is clear these men were intent on committing terrorism overseas."

Another convicted individual who had links with Younes Tsouli's At-Tibyan website was Mohammed Atif Siddique. He lived at his parents' home in Alva, Clackmannanshire, in Scotland. He had been arrested on April 13, 2006 after several weeks of surveillance. He had tried to board a flight to Pakistan on April 5, 2006 with a laptop containing Al Qaeda propaganda.

Siddique studied computing at Glasgow College of Nautical Studies. A fortnight after his arrest, he was released without charge. On October 23, 2006 he was charged on five counts under the Terrorism Acts of 2000 and 2006.

On September 17, 2007 Siddique was found guilty on three terrorism charges at Glasgow High Court. Evan Kohlmann, who had assisted the prosecution in the trial of Younes Tsouli and his associates Waseem Mughal and Tariq al-Daour, gave evidence at Siddique's trial. Siddique had used the internet to distribute terrorist material

According to Scotland's Daily Record, newspaper, Siddique was linked to "a plot to behead the Canadian PM". Siddique is believed to have been "radicalized on the internet by a man from the north of England.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is suspected of being a major recruiting agent for the terrorist cause. He is related to a central figure in the alleged Canadian plot."

Siddique was jailed for eight years on October 23, 2007. He had CDs and videos on bomb-making and weapons use that could have been used for terrorist purposes. He had also been found guilty of threatening to carry out a suicide attack in Glasgow.

The Implications Of Terrorist 007's Activities

Tsouli managed various websites, and hacked into other servers to use their space for his ends. Internet forums are protected by passwords, yet it is mostly possible to enter these as a "member". However, most forums have the ability to send private messages. Unless a hacker gains access to the pass codes of a forum administrator, these message spaces are generally inacessible.

Tsouli appeared to be careless at times, even though he ensured that in the case of his arrest he had made hacking manuals and instructions for creating web sites available to his audience. His activities on web forums appear to have been made quite openly.

He had retained evidence of one disturbing discussion on his computer. A message read: "We are 45 doctors and we are determined to undertake jihad and take the battle inside America. The first target which will be penetrated by nine brothers is the naval base which gives shelter to the ship Kennedy."

This apparently referred to the decommissioned aircraft carrier the USS John F Kennedy, normally based at Mayport Naval Base in Jacksonville, Florida. The message listed possible targets at the base: "These are clubs for naked women which are opposite the First and Third units."

The message indicated that the "doctors" would use three fishing boats and six Chevrolet GT vehicles to mount an attack and using rocket-propelled grenades to attack gasoline tanks. The message had arrived on February 12, 2005. Tsouli had replied: "He needs the recipe for making car bombs," and had sent instructions to the respondent.

What makes this more disturbing is that on June 30, 2007 a flaming Chevrolet Jeep containing gas cylinders and gasoline bottles was driven into the entrance of Glasgow airport. This was tied to two failed car bombs earlier discovered in London's West End. The arrested suspects were doctors, working for Britain's NHS.

There are no direct links to Tsouli in this plot, but his relaying and distribution of terrorist manuals and material has undoubtedly made it easier for such dangerous plots to become a reality.

When Tsouli stood trial at Woolwich Crown Court, there was some alarm that the presiding judge, Peter Openshaw, seemed unaware of the basics of the internet. At one early stage in the proceedings, he had asked: "What's a website?" As a result, the trial was adjourned so he could undergo a crash course in the web and its terminology.

In December 2007, Tsouli's 10-year jail sentence was increased to 16 years. His associate Tariq al-Daour had his sentence increased from to six and a half years to 10 years. Al-Daour had been granted British citizenship in 2005. He had on his computer 37,000 numbers of stolen or "hacked" credit cards which he made available for Tsouli's use in purchasing web space for his sites. Waseem Mughal's sentence was increased from seven and a half years to 12 years.

"Terrorist 007" is now in Belmarsh jail, where many of Britain's convicted Islamists are housed. Though prisoners are denied access to the internet, 20 prisoners are allowed to own laptop computers. The prison governor of Belmarsh, Claudia Strutt, operates a "soft" regime at the prison, according to prison officers. Hopefully these computers are checked regularly, in case hidden files appear detailing how to hack and set up websites.

Tsouli brought the jihad of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq to an international internet audience. Propaganda is a valuable tool for the jihadist, and the internet is an effective means of disseminating such propaganda, and creating online "communities". Tsouli did not personally meet most of those with whom he conspired.

From now on, counter-terrorism activity will have to be fought as strongly on the internet as much as it is fought on the ground.

Adrian Morgan

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Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at January 23, 2008 6:30 AM

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