Jul 4, 2007
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) -- Three al-Qaida-inspired men who ran radical Web sites from their London homes have admitted using the Internet to incite terrorism.

Tariq Al-Daour, 21, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to inciting others to commit an act of terrorism. Co-defendants Younis Tsouli, 23, and Waseem Mughal, 24, admitted the same offense Monday.

Morocco-born Tsouli, Britain-born Mughal and Al-Dour, who was born in the United Arab Emirates, also admitted conspiring to defraud banks, credit card companies and charge card companies.

The men were two months into a trial at which they had initially pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors said the computer-savvy trio used e-mail and radical Web sites to encourage others to follow the ideology of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, becoming embroiled in terror plots as far away as Sarajevo.

They were arrested in October 2005 in a series of internationally coordinated raids in Bosnia, Britain and Denmark.

The jury was told that Tsouli's online ID was "irhabi007" -- the Arabic word for terrorist and the code-name of fictional spy James Bond.

Among their possessions seized by police were videos of hostages being beheaded in Iraq, CDs containing instructions for making explosives and poisons, and pages from a book titled "The Book of Jihad."

Prosecutors also presented transcripts of online conversations, including one in which Al-Daour, asked what he would do with 1 million pounds (US$2 million; euro1.4 million), replied: "Sponsor terrorist attacks, become the new Osama."

The men are due to be sentenced Thursday.

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