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Rediff.com  » News » 45 docs used Internet to plan attacks

45 docs used Internet to plan attacks

Source: PTI
July 05, 2007 21:33 IST
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A group of 45 Muslim doctors threatened to use car bombs and rocket grenades in terrorist attacks in the United States during discussions on an extremist Internet chat site, a media report said.

Police found details of the discussions on a site run by a three-member "cyber-terrorist" gang at the home of Younis Tsouli, 23, the Woolwich Crown Court in southeast London was told.

The three "cyber terrorists" - Tariq Daou,  Tsouli and Waseem Mughal, are facing lengthy jail sentences after admitting using the Internet to spread al Qaeda's propaganda inciting Muslims to a violent holy war and to murder non-believers.

They are the first defendants in Britain to be convicted of inciting terrorist murder on the Internet.

One 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," The Daily Telegraph reported.

This is thought to have been a reference to the USS John F Kennedy, which is often at Mayport Naval Base in Jacksonville, Florida.

The message discussed targets at the base, adding: "These are clubs for naked women which are opposite the First and Third units."

It also referred to using six vehicles and three fishing boats and blowing up petrol tanks with rocket propelled grenades.

Investigators have found no link between the Tsouli chat room and the group of doctors and medics currently in custody over attempted car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow, the report said.

However, part of the inquiry into the London and Glasgow incidents will focus on whether al Qaeda has recruited doctors or other medical professionals because they are less likely to attract suspicion and can move easily around the western world.

The three had close links with al Qaeda in Iraq, believed they had to fight jihad or holy war against a global conspiracy to wipe out Islam and waged "cyber-jehad" on websites from their bedrooms.

Tsouli promoted the ideology of Osama bin Laden via email and radical web sites. He said in one message he was "very happy" about the July 7 bombings in London in 2005.

Tsouli, along with Tariq Daour, a biochemistry, student, and Waseem Mughal, a law student, were intelligent computer literate men who promoted violent propaganda.

They created chat forums to direct willing fighters to Iraq and discuss murderous bomb attacks around the world, police alleged. Films of hostages and beheadings were also found by police.

21-year-old Daour of Bayswater, west London, who was born in the United Arab Emirates, admitted inciting another person to commit an act of terrorism wholly or partly outside Britain.

Moroccan-born Tsouli, 23, of Shepherd's Bush, west London, and British-born Mughal, 24, of Chatham, Kent, admitted the same charge on Monday.

They admitted to conspiring together and with others to defraud banks and credit card companies.

Daour had instructions for making explosives and poisons, the court was told.  Police found instructions on causing an explosive with rocket propellant and constructing a car bomb.

In one online conversation, Daour, asked what he would do with one million pounds, replied: "Sponsor terrorist attacks, become the new Osama."

The three men outwardly appeared to be leading normal lives, studying and living with their parents. Tsouli had come to the UK with his family from Morocco in 2001.

Mughal had a degree in bio-chemistry from Leicester University and was studying for his masters.

Daour, who was granted British citizenship in May 2005, had applied for a law degree.

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