Irhabi 007

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Irhabi 007, now known to have been Younis Tsouli, was the on-line handle of a computer software cracker known to be a key Internet expert for al-Qaeda in Iraq. He has been accused of distributing weapons manuals, videos of insurgent feats such as beheadings and other inflammatory material on the Internet for two years without anyone knowing his true identity.

[edit] Early involvement in al-Qaeda in Iraq

In early 2004, Irhabi 007 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, Irhabi 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.

[edit] Arrest made

On October 21, 2005, Younis Tsouli was arrested near London under the UK's Terrorism Act 2000. The charges include "conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to cause an explosion, conspiracy to obtain money by deception, fundraising and possession of articles for terrorist purposes". From information found on his computer after the arrest, police believe that Tsouli is Irhabi 007.

Critics claimed that Jihadist website Al-Hesbah may have contributed to Tsouli's arrest, either directly or indirectly.^[1]

As of March 27 2006, no charges directly related to his alleged activities as Irhabi on the Internet have been laid.