Britain convicts its first online-terror culprits

By David Stringer

updated 2:15 p.m. ET July 5, 2007

LONDON - An al-Qaida inspired computer expert who dubbed himself "the jihadist James Bond" was ordered imprisoned for 10 years Thursday for running a network of Web sites and hoarding videos of the murders of Americans Nick Berg and Daniel Pearl.

Morocco-born Younis Tsouli, 23, who prosecutors said had uploaded guides to building suicide vests onto the Internet, used the online ID "irhabi007" — the Arabic word for terrorist and the code name of the fictional British spy.

With accomplices Tariq al-Daour and Waseem Mughal — who were also ordered imprisoned Thursday — Tsouli offered advice and motivation to would-be terrorists on a myriad of Web pages run from their London homes, prosecutors said.

The group was the leading distributor of terrorist material on the Internet prior to the three being arrested in 2005, said Evan Kohlmann, a U.S.-based terrorism consultant who gave evidence in the case.

"There are people, including law enforcers, who initially thought these guys were computer geeks or hackers," Kohlmann told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Washington.

"But they were a lot more dangerous, they were the key aides to al-Qaida. There was no one more skilled at what they did."

Images of Washington were found on Tsouli's computer hard drive, stored alongside details of how to make car bombs, cause explosions and produce poisons, prosecutors said.

U.S. law enforcement officials have said the Capitol building was featured in short video clips, but that they were skeptical an attack was being planned.

The case marks the first terrorism convictions in Britain based purely on evidence about use of the Internet, Judge Charles Openshaw said.

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