Al-Qaeda Hacker Caught 349
anaesthetica writes "The Washington Post is carrying a story on a young man suspected to be the al-Qaeda hacker 'Irhabi 007'. From the article: 'Celebrated for his computer expertise, Irhabi 007 had propelled the jihadists into a 21st-century offensive through his ability to covertly and securely disseminate manuals of weaponry, videos of insurgent feats such as beheadings and other inflammatory material... The Internet has presented investigators with an extraordinary challenge. But our future security is going to depend increasingly on identifying and catching the shadowy figures who exist primarily in the elusive online world.'"
Wonderful. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wonderful. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Wonderful. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Wonderful. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Wonderful. (Score:3, Insightful)
Hacker? How about script kiddie? (Score:4, Insightful)
That's fascinating and all, but where is the cyber-terrorism we are quivering over? When is it going to be an offensive move rather than mere proselytizing?
Re:Hacker? How about script kiddie? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Hacker? How about script kiddie? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hacker? How about script kiddie? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hacker? How about script kiddie? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Hacker? How about script kiddie? (Score:2, Funny)
Sadly, you have to wait a few months before bringing out the "Might have killed #2 guy - Oops, we were close, but we didn't," headline couplet again, or people might catch on.
Re:Hacker? How about script kiddie? (Score:2, Informative)
Nov. 16, 2001 -- Air strikes in Afghanistan may have killed Mohammed Atef, the No. 2 man in the Al Qaeda terrorist network, Pentagon officials said today.
( http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Nov2001/n11162001 _200111168.html [defenselink.mil])
March 18, 2004 - Pakistani officials believe they have the No. 2 man in al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, cornered.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Mar2004/n03182004_ 2004031811.html [defenselink.mil]
September
Re:Hacker? How about script kiddie? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hacker? How about script kiddie? (Score:3, Insightful)
Pure fantasy, your Internet voice is restricted to people who already believe it and look for it, with a billion pages out there, a few stupid sites are neither here nor there in the overall human consciousness.
Though it won't stop self righteous gits from looking
Re:Hacker? How about script kiddie? (Score:2)
Btw, I went to the movies yesterday to see that new Spike Lee film [wikipedia.org] and saw not on but two upcoming movies about 9/11. One's about the flight 93 [wikipedia.org] that got downed in PA, and the other is simply called "World Trade Center [wikipedia.org]" and it's directed by
Irhabi 007 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Irhabi 007 (Score:3, Interesting)
And it makes a legitimate point that has been ignored in other posts -- calling himself 007 indicates interesting things about his view of himself.
Re:Irhabi 007 (Score:3, Insightful)
your rights online (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:your rights online (Score:2)
And here we have.... (Score:2)
Barnum had it right, "there's a sucker born every minute". The funny thing is that the 'quote' is more telling than that. Apparently he was accredited for it that by a single newspaper story which was planted by a competitor, and retold by thousands who have never known the truth, kinda like many of these 9/11 tales.
Re:your rights online (Score:2, Insightful)
> were scrubbed almost completely making any sort of forensic analysis
> of the physical evidence impossible.
What forensic evidence? Planes hit buildings as seen by thousands (first) and billions (second), there are photos of the Pentagon plane approaching.
I'm confused as to what you need evidence for. Unless it's one of those nutjobs who think someone planned to crash planes, immediately ran up to those floors and planted bomb
Cherry picking "facts" (Score:2)
If you have a thousand random facts it is not hard to cherry pick a few of the randomly negative ones to invent a consipiracy theory to sell a book or a political agenda. Every years there will be a new book on what really happened on 9/11 just like there is a new Kennedy assassination book, a new FDR let Pearl Harbor happen book, etc.
It's also easy to misrepresent a fact to people
Re:your rights online (Score:2)
BS (Score:5, Insightful)
"They" being, of course, the "terrorists". The vast majority of muslims, i imagine, just wish we'd stop fscking around with their lives so they can get on with them (which might include participating in some of that freedom we all enjoy).
Re:BS (Score:3, Insightful)
hold on hold on hold on (Score:2, Insightful)
Yay. I wonder where this slippery slope ends up?
Also, I find it odd that this alleged hacker chose a moniker that would sound more familiar to Republican voters than to someone who would wholeheartedly reject Western ideals (ie: your average terrorist).
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:5, Insightful)
You can play semantics if you want, the rest of us will live in the real world.
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:2)
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:3, Informative)
So shut the fuck up and read it before you jump to conclusions.
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:3, Interesting)
Considering that he was arrested and the police had all the grounds to get logs from his ISP as well as run proper forensics on his equipment we are talking about incompetence of truly biblical proportions here.
This is a classic exam
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:3, Insightful)
While you might argue (strawman alert!) that he is no more guilty of anything than for the sake of argument, the average NRA member. I would argue thatthe average NRA member is not providing information about weaponry for the express purpose of killing persons known and unknown. This specific Al-Quaeda member (seemingly) was. The NRA is not a proscribed organisation. Al Qaeda is. The NRA is not waging a
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:2)
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:3, Interesting)
He was arrested in the UK. IIRC it is now illegal to even say anything that could even be construed as "glorifying" terrorism, we are already slipping down that slope. You can now be imprisoned for 3 months without even being charged with anything.
What a country.
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:2)
Your only chance generally is to either convict them for shady reasons (Moussaoui, death penalty for not telling about an imminent crime seems a bit harsh in just about every context) or total surveillance (your honor, right after the part on the tape where he disobeys the Quran by fucking his fellow sucide bomber's girlfriend we can hear how he explicitly sings in the shower about blow
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:5, Insightful)
It is funny that the city actually involved in the 9/11 attack is one of the most liberal cities in the country.
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:4, Insightful)
Instead of coddling the KKK (terrorists), let us make sure that these groups have a ready outlet to protest the discrimination and poverty they undoubtably face. We need less Bin Ladens and more MLK Jrs from the Middle East, and no more Western apologists.
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:3, Insightful)
To be clear asshole (if I may call you that), I do not want to coddle the KKK or actual terrorists. That first part was a joke, you see. "Sarcasm" is what the kids call it these days.
What I was saying in my previous post was: when you make living conditions for innocent people better, fewer of them eventually become criminals. Is that clear enough for you?
"Violence begets violenc
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:3, Insightful)
Osama hasn't spent any time behind bars, and neither have most Palestinian terrorists. Having a different religion and being near the Middle East seems to be what is required to make them angry.
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:3, Insightful)
Do you see OBL blowing himself up? The OP is correct that imprisoning people without due process does more to help terrorism then hinder it. You only have to look at Internment in Northern Ireland to see. Prior to that and the civil rights abuses the IRA had little to no support.
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:2)
stupid liberals
Liberals are smart. At least, the smart ones are.
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:2)
In sport, it has been traditional for Australians to if not support, then at least show some sympathy for the underdogs, especially if they were the home team. In war, that can get you locked up.
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:5, Informative)
However, the 90 day extension of the holding powers was stopped [bbc.co.uk] by parliament in Blair's first Commons defeat; instead the previous 14-day holding period (without charge) was extended to 28 days, which is still a dangerous piece of legislation for a liberal democracy IMHO.
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:2)
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:2)
You make it sound like a success for freedom and democracy, that they didn't get the 90 days that even the Home Secretary was embarassed about asking for.
Yet, you can still spend a month in police cells in the UK without having done anything wrong - the original 14 day limit was absurdly draconian (especially when the police aren't using more than a day or so of that time to investigate), and they
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:2)
Overall though, I DO find it a worrying piece of legislation for a liberal democracy, as I said at the end of the sentence you half-quoted.
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh come on. Google his name. His name came up after they arrested another guy with a working suicide belt. This isnt a case of the slippery slope, this is how you bust terrorist cells.
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:2)
Unless it's said by Sinn Fein? Gerry Adams said something about believing it to be easier to raise money in London than it is in DC these days this past St. Patrick's Day.
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:5, Interesting)
The UK on a slippery slope? Ridiculous! We tumbled and reached the bottom long ago. Now the government are just standing over us, pissing for enjoyment.
(Activist convicted under demo law [bbc.co.uk])A new Enabling Act will allow government ministers to alter any legislation at will, as long as the do not create any new offences which carry a penalty greater than 2 years imprisonment.
(Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill [parliament.uk])And just in case we haven't got the message yet, the government are going to create a vast database (like the Stasi one, but more frightening and much more expensive) and force everyone in the country to be photographed, fingerprinted, iris scanned and required to notify the authorities of their whereabouts. (Identity Cards Bill [parliament.uk])
How wrong we were.Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:5, Insightful)
The worst thing is that we will never know what actually happened, what this guy did, how he did it, why he did it.
There will not be a trial, the guy will be shipped off to some godforsaken place and be held forever under who knows what kinds of aweful conditions getting regular "pressure" from the CIA or the egyptian intelligence or whatever.
It's sick what has happened to our country. It's really really sick and aweful. The worst thing is that nobody really cares. Everybody will simply accept what the press and the president tells them. For all we know this could just be some high school student who thinks he is l33t. The president will call him a terrorists and the public will just buy it without any further evidence. We will never know.
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately many americans feel like you do. They have lost their all common sense. "I don't care what happens to him" justifies all kinds of torture and evil.
I do have one question for you though. How do you know? How do you know if anything they say about this guy is true? How do you even know if he exists or not? Do you even care? I suspect not. All somebody has to do is to say is that he is a terrorist and you believe it.
Unfortunately there are too many americans like you.
So you already know he's guilty. (Score:5, Insightful)
And you've decided that strictly from the report the government released.
Why do you have so much faith in the government's honesty, veracity and accuracy?
If anything, the events of the past few years would seem to indicate that governments are not to be trusted as you seem to trust them.
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:4, Insightful)
And, I'm sure he doesn't care what happens to you. After all, to him it was you that picked the wrong side.
The only real difference is that he's working to bring down the evelolution of 2500 years of of western culture, philosophy, and legal tradition from the outside. You're working on bringing it down from the inside.
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:2)
TFA: "The savvy, English-speaking, presumably young webmaster taunted his pursuers, calling himself Irhabi -- Terrorist -- 007.... Scotland Yard arrested a 22-year-old West Londoner, Younis Tsouli, suspected of participating in an alleged bomb plot. In November, British authorities brought a range of charges against him related to that plot....British investigators eventually confirmed to us that they believe
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:3, Interesting)
Back in the old BBS days, I often went by the name Necromancer - not very original, but I was a teenager. In spite of that name, I never did try to raise the dead or anything like that. Just because I called myself a thing did not make me that thing.
RTFA (Score:2)
Nor is the 007 part of the moniker all that surprising given the fact that he is British (or at least based in England) and could also be taken as a name chosen so as to be understandable and resonate with westerners and thus instill fear in them (though I grant you it is likely pure childishness). Of course it could also appeal to potential terrorists familiar with weste
familiar to Republican voters? (Score:2)
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeap, my thoughts exactly. Most of what he allegedly did goes right into the free speech category. Some years back there was the "Anarchist cookbook", a compilations of ways to blow things up (and likely yourself in the process). Lots of noise was made around weather it should be allowed online or not. The result? It's pretty easy to find on the net.
What he "disseminates" is even closer to what free speech is about, because it has a lot of political content. I saw Fahren
Re:hold on hold on hold on (Score:2)
If you're an accountant for a terrorist group, you're also a terrorist. If you sweep the floor for a terrorist group, you're a terrorst. If you are the pedicurist for a terrorist group, you are a terrorist.
This is not difficult at all. What is difficult is drawing the line between terrorists and freedom fighters. Once you've decided a group is terrorist, then you also consider anybody who knowingly supports and advances the terror activities of that group terrorists. What they do doesn't
And Joseph Goebbels isn't a Nazi either (Score:2)
The Net is SO scary! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The Net is SO scary! (Score:2)
Re:The Net is SO scary! (Score:2)
Re:The Net is SO scary! (Score:5, Funny)
You've obviously never seen tubgirl before.
1 down, quite a few more to go (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:1 down, quite a few more to go (Score:2)
br. fixt! (P2P makes baby jesus cry and supports terrorism and kills innocent children)
Re:1 down, quite a few more to go (Score:2)
he chose would suggest that he was a British citizen rather than a recent immigrant.
OTOH, spammers fit rather well into the disinformation war that the USA and British
governments have maintained since before the start of the Iraqi war. After all, viral
marketing is still just marketing, all in the name of capitalism. Spammers need only
be "turned" by our collective governments to become additional ag-prop dis
Hacker? (Score:2, Insightful)
Boy the bar really has been lowered, hasn't it.
yep, so they caught him... (Score:4, Insightful)
Kidding aside, its interesting how the PR against him makes him sound evil incarnate... Next, this will be used to hobble our on-line rights so they can catch more of the terrorists... not a good thing IMO. Of course, I can't speak for everyone, but the PR is a bad sign. Criminals are criminals, no matter how bad they are. Sensationalizing the story, or the criminal, only serves nefarious purposes IMO.
just copyright one of the recordings (Score:5, Funny)
The new standard ? (Score:2, Insightful)
Weaponmanuals and if you like, training using them is available perfectly openly. I suppose if you partake in such while looking Arabic you get looked at strangely these days. Still, there's nothing even remotely illegal about either.
It is true that secure, anonymous communication is a benefit to those with criminal intentions. But that's a small price to pay for the benefit they provide to t
Re:The new standard ? (Score:4, Informative)
No, it's not. Clearly you didn't RTFA.
First of all, this guy was discovered accidentally -- he was arrested for what he was doing offline (allegedly plotting a bombing), not online. Second of all, what this guy did online wasn't merely post "inflammatory material" on various forums. He was actively breaking into servers to covertly host data, like videos and messages. If you go on an online forum today and post "Support the Jihad against the Western infidels!", you can't be arrested (at least in the US; I understand that the laws in the UK may have changed so that it is illegal). If you go and break into someone's server and then put your message there, then you might be in trouble.
In short, this guy isn't being arrested because he was exercising his right to free speech. What he did would have been illegal if the material he was posting had been propaganda supporting Bush's agenda.
Re:The new standard ? (Score:2, Informative)
"Irhabi" means terrorist in Arabic. That should be more than enough to put him behind bars.
Judge: So what did this guy do?
Prosecutor: He's a self-proclaimed terrorist.
Judge: Can't argue with that.
Re:The new standard ? (Score:2)
Lots of people adopt stupid names online. I remember seeing someone using the name "AxEMuRDeReR" in a FPS game (possibly with slightly different capitalization -- I wasn't paying that much attention).
Judge: So what did this guy do?
Prosecutor: He's a self-proclaimed axe murderer.
Judge: Can't argue with that.
The ACTUAL charges. (Score:5, Insightful)
"Tsouli has been charged with eight offenses including conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to cause an explosion, conspiracy to cause a public nuisance, conspiracy to obtain money by deception and offences relating to the possession of articles for terrorist purposes and fundraising. So far there are no charges directly related to his alleged activities as Irhabi on the Internet,
LOOK! No Internet-publishing charges! They found out who he (allegedly) was by accident!
My only question is where are the Internet spooks who should be hunting these guys? They break into servers in the US and put beheading videos on them, and no one bothers to check the logs? Where are the honeypot jihadi forums? Is anybody looking into wtf http://www.whois.sc/irhabi007.com [whois.sc] is all about? Is the owner a fan or an identity theft victim?
Re:The ACTUAL charges. (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah, exactly. Way too many people here just assumed that he was being charged for "propaganda", without bothering to RTFA. Hey, if you could be arrested for propaganda in support of the enemy, I can think of quite a few people who'd also be eligible for prosecution. Except the Feds haven't touched them...
The internet spooks are hunting these guys, more than most of us will know. Except most of that evidence will likely never see the inside of a courtroom. It's used instead to build up a picture of the ter
Re:The ACTUAL charges. (Score:3, Informative)
"In order to establish a conspiracy offense it is not necessary for the Government to prove that all of the people named in the indictment were members of the scheme; or that those who were members had entered into any formal type of agreement; or that the members had planned together all of the details of the scheme or
Re:The ACTUAL charges. (Score:3, Informative)
Here's a clue for YOU. The guy is a British subject, and was arrested and charged in the United Kingdom.
So why are you quoting US law?
Criminal? Yes. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Criminal? Yes. (Score:2)
Re:Criminal? Yes. (Score:2)
Define 'enemy'. Any allied regiment previously provided with "aid and comfort" as well as "technical assistance" by these Western countries may become an enemy if there are enough political and economical interests that would require that.
This has been like this for decades, nothing new there, but I'd hoped that by now it should be cle
Benjamin Franklin (Score:2)
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
'Kiddies (Score:2, Funny)
I expect its not so much about catching them, more about using them as keys into cells. Every-time they do something online they are providing an opportunity to be traced and hopefully this will lead to some big busts. Trading a few weapons manuals and videos o
Oh no! (Score:2)
And even more evil, hes not on the side of the US and write bad things about it. Off to the thought ministery and reprogram him, cant have that can we?
Its pretty darn sad how little value the word terrorrist has theese days. Nowadays ot seems to mean smalltime criminal punk with the wrong skin colour. Racism? You bet it is.
Take a look at the numbers, how many of your
Heja fucking Sverige (Score:3, Insightful)
For your benefit: Tsouli was arrested because he was a bomb plot suspect. They found out he was a known "hacker" later. "Tsouli has been charged with eight offenses including conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to cause an explosion
Feel silly? You should, and ashamed because your comments are callous as well as stupid considering "car accidents" like 9/11, the London bombings and Theo van Gogh's murder. Accidents happen. Murder doesn't just happen.
Its a self serving press release, NOT a news story (Score:2, Interesting)
Come on, RTFA closely. Given the proclivities of Slashdot readers this may make for interesting reading but it is neither news nor does it say anything about our "rights" nor any erosion of them.
The only question it raises is why has the Washington Post seen fit
DragNet (Score:4, Insightful)
The "investigators" didn't trace the well-known propagandist's Internet packets from his well-known websites to his terminal, to his person. No mention of a labyrinth of anonymizing proxies, or ever-changing public login terminals. They busted a credit fraudster and discovered his other, more dangerous gigs.
Meanwhile, the NSA, Echelon and other global "security" agencies are snooping on hundreds of millions of people's traffic. Supposedly to protect us from people like this Qaeda asshole. But they don't do even the basic network forensics a corporate IT department would immediately do when trying to find a bad guy.
Maybe if they caught the few, highly destructive bad guys like this Qaeda asshole, their "security" budgets would dry up. Maybe they've got their own reasons not to hit too hard against online credit fraudsters - collusion with international mobs, spooking the insurers, stumbling across covert finance networks for national "intelligence" agencies.
They're getting $HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS, invading our privacy, imprisoning people without evidence they're suspect, invading unrelated countries, breaking laws to spy on us at home. Meanwhile, Scotland Yard's traditionally tight nets of reasonable evidence and human intelligence have caught a terrorist operative. Who actually spreads terror, publishing the propaganda about terrorist attacks widely.
The demonstrated answer to these terrorists is our well understood police techniques. The justice system we've developed over hundreds of years, that is based on evidence and logic. Not only does it prove who did what when, but it avoids the damage caused by destroying liberty in the name of protecting it. Now we'll watch the mass media pump this arrest for more money and power for secret government operations that don't actually work.
computer expertise? (Score:3, Insightful)
Washington Post? The stenographers club? (Score:5, Interesting)
Listen: the Post has swallowed the hook, line, sinker, and fishing trawler for over ten years now. They gobbled down the fake Clinton scandals verbatim from Ken Starr, and for the last four years have spectacularly slurped down every worm dangled in from of them from the faked intelligence for weapons in Iraq to aluminum tubes to Colin Powell's magnificient self destruction in front of the U.N. presenting descredited notions from Cheney's little Special Office of special intelligence.
They and the NY Times have been shown that they've been hosed like third graders accidently playing in a Vegas poker game, BUT THEY STILL KEEP SWALLOWING THE SAME LINES OF BULLSHIT FROM THE SAME DAMNED LIARS. I think they're in too deep, there at the editorial offices of WaPo. They can't admit that they've been absolutely wrong on every worshipful point in this fake "war" against a common noun. The paper of record is in too deep.
The "terrorists" from 9-11 died in the damned planes. And there weren't enough in the whole world to man the twelve planes they wanted to fly that day, according to the 911 commission. The only real terrorists left alive after 9-11 were the head of al queda and bin laden (he was the financier of the attack, not the movementleader) and these "warriors" haven't caught them after five years.
Posting stuff doesn't make you a terrorist. That's a thought crime.
This is bull. They can't get the real men who had something to do with 9-11, so they manufacture these little "victories" against no-one who get to be tortured by farmboys in gulags around the world until they die.
There is no "Terror" you can have a war against. Every stupid move against the fringe and uninvolved MAKES men and women who want to kill you. We've torrtured thousands of probably innocent people. George and the WaPo will get their "terrorists" until the end of time. Like the "war" against the idea of "communism", they define who the enemy is, make a pile of money, control the zeitgeist, and declare it over when they find some new enemy after the last enemy stronghold is a mafia-run nation whose main export is prostitutes. Drugs, communism, atheism, terrorism, whatever, they'll always find some new thing to terrify and entertain people with, until the last superhurricane wipes out Washington DC.
Re:Has anyone... (Score:2)
"Irhabi posted a 20-page message titled "Seminar on Hacking Websites," to the Ekhlas forum. It provided detailed information on the art of hacking, listing dozens of vulnerable Web sites to which one could upload shared media.
"Irhabi released his will on the Internet. In it, he provided links to help visitors with their own Internet security and hacking skills in the event of his absence."
Re:Has anyone... (Score:2)
He's just some lamer who wanted the attention and a place to get porn.
Re: "Hacker" (Score:2)
Re:Irhabi 007 ? (Score:2)
Re:Irhabi 007 ? (Score:2)
abstinence (or abstination if you will) (Score:2)
--
Okay, back to all seriousness - there is currently no cure for AIDS, and I'm sure he never said that. I'm also quite sure he never mentioned that everybody should abstain indefinitely, as that indeed would mean no procreation and thus extinction of the human race. I'm going to guess that he was referring to not having
Re:One more reason to strip away my rights... (Score:2)
Re:Oh yEss (Score:2)
The summary reads like a great thing has been done. I'm not so sure. Selling out freedom of speech in the name of a sense of security sounds like a step backwards to me.
Not to say anything of whether or not the hacker is implicated with "terrorist factions" (which, in itself, is a matter of perception, but that's a whole other post) - I just mean spinning the censorship of "sensitive"
Re: (Score:2)