Just two months after British Muslim extremists attacked London , authorities in the United Kingdom arrested two other Britons accused of planning deadly terrorist operations. Younis Tsouli of West London and Waseem Mughal from Kent were arrested last September after the names of the two men, both 22 years old, came up in the phone and email records from two terrorist suspects arrested in Bosnia .
Accused of plotting terrorist attacks, Younis Tsouli had Jihadist materials on his computer, among which was information about locations in Washington DC. Newsweek reported that its sources have revealed that Tsouli?s target list may have included the US Capitol building and the White House. His charge sheet from Scotland Yard says that Tsouli possessed materials indicating that he meant to use ?a CBRN vehicle,? a term implying a car bomb that includes a chemical, radiological, biological or nuclear (CBRN) element (practically speaking, it would be one of the first two ? chemical or radiological). Tsouli and Mughal may have been planning other attacks as well. Among materials found on Tsouli?s computer was a video on how to make a suicide bomber?s vest.
Weeks ago, two different sources, neither of them media outlets, reported that information on Tsouli?s computer also revealed that he was the infamous cyber Jihadist Irhabi 007. Irhabi 007 was known to be one of the main architects of the online Jihadist presence, a purveyor of terrorist group propaganda and videos, including the videos of the Nicholas Berg beheading and other popular and gruesome materials from Iraq and Saudi Arabia . He was also an administrator of at least two Jihadist websites (full Terror Web Watch profile on Irhabi 007 available here). Authorities in the UK, however, have yet to verify that Younis Tsouli is indeed Irhabi 007.
In a number of ways, Tsouli, if he is revealed to be Irhabi 007, could represent the second generation of Islamic terrorists ? one more frightening and potentially dangerous than that which preceded it. Like the London bombers, Tsouli was a British citizen. Although an administrator of Jihadist websites, he did not speak Arabic that well. He was adept in French and English ? both of which pointed to a possible North African family background and European upbringing. He appears to have used the Internet to maintain international connections both with the terrorists in Saudi Arabia and Iraq whose materials he made available online, and also with the Bosnian terrorists whose arrests eventually led to his own. Raised during the Internet age, Irhabi 007 was technically savvy and adept, at ease not only with using computers, but he also boasted of skills in ?hacking? and ?cracking? computer systems and password protected software. The materials found on his computer indicated that he also may have been planning to use information circulated on the Internet in constructing explosive devices and carrying out attacks. Irhabi 007 never bragged about traveling to training camps in Central Asia and the Middle East, and it is possible that he never did, instead garnering the tools and knowledge to carry out terrorist attacks from the Internet and from others within his social network in the UK or elsewhere in Europe. If this next generation of terrorists can live in western countries and does not have to travel to traditional regions to obtain training, then it will take away a major opportunity for identification and interdiction in counterterrorism efforts. Also frightening about Tsouli/Irhabi 007 were his ambitions to be a technical pioneer, not only in facilitating online Jihadist activities, but in the unconventional ?CBRN? attack he is accused of plotting. Tsouli?s contemporaries, coming of age in Europe and elsewhere during the Global War on Terror and the information age, will have in its midst more individuals of similar skills and backgrounds who also harbor ambitions to innovate with new, creative, and more devastating attacks than their predecessors.
None of the eight charges leveled at Tsouli refer directly to his role as a possible administrator of Jihadist websites and distributor of propaganda. However, the idea that Tsouli may have been inspired by the Jihadist ideological and instructional resources online and also leveraged them to design attack plans is highly relevant in formulating strategy to combat future terrorists like him. While Jihadist online activities have been observed with mounting concern as the volume and circulation of deadly materials available increases, there is only now appearing evidence that the so-called online Jihadists are plotting attacks in the physical world, that al-Qaeda?s cyber presence is effectively developing its intended function as a tool of ideological recruitment and practical instruction in carrying out terrorist attacks.
If Irhabi 007 does turn out to be Younis Tsouli, then it would represent one such instance where the Jihadist cyber world and physical world have started to reinforce one another. Tsouli reportedly had a video on his computer showing how to make a suicide bomber?s vest. It is possible that this video is the same as one commonly circulated on Jihadist websites, along with other instructional videos in different topics relating to explosives (for examples, see Terror Web Watch or Terror Web Watch).
The cyber dimension was also prominent in another recent attack, where at least one of the Saudi al-Qaeda terrorists who carried out the attempted attack on the Abqaiq petroleum facility was reported to be an active member of Jihadi message boards in Saudi papers . That organization, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula , has for about two and a half years been posting propaganda, statements, and video to these message boards.
It is possible that materials now being circulated on Jihadist websites have inspired Tsouli?s plots and may have also provoked or been utilized in others. The relative newness of this online presence and its increasing membership mean that it is likely to contribute to or inspire terrorist plots more often in the future.
While the news that Younis Tsouli may have been Irhabi 007 provides a useful component to counterterrorism analysts looking at the subject of the online Jihad, it will have negative repercussions in efforts to track and capture others involved in his dangerous online world. Right now, the news that Irhabi 007 may have been arrested has started to make the rounds on some of the websites on which he was well-known. The news has been met with calls for members and administrators of message boards to practice diligent security measures, including urging all members to use proxies to mask their IP addresses. They believe that Irhabi 007 was successfully tracked down and captured because of his online activities, and this belief will likely lead to heightened security among all members, making it more difficult for such people to be located or compromised in this future. It may also be expected that members of these sites that worked closely with Irhabi 007 will now disappear offline or disguise themselves. The leaking of the news that Irhabi 007 may have been arrested will set back future efforts, at least over the short term, to uncover and track others online.
