Terrorism's Hook Into Your Inbox

If Tsouli was the ideological leader of the group, al-Daour was the financier and logistics coordinator. On one computer seized from al-Daour's West London apartment, investigators say they found some 37,000 stolen credit card numbers. Alongside each credit card record was other information on the ID theft victims, such as the account holder's address, date of birth, credit balances and limits.

All told, investigators said al-Daour and his compatriots made more than $3.5 million in fraudulent charges using credit card accounts they stole via online phishing scams and the distribution of Trojan horses -- computer programs embedded in innocent-looking e-mail messages or Web sites that give criminals control over infected computers.

Authorities said both al-Daour and Mughal compiled shopping lists for items that fellow jihadists might need for their battle against the American and allied forces in Iraq, including global positioning satellite (GPS) devices, night-vision goggles, sleeping bags, telephones, survival knives and tents. Records show the men had purchased other operational resources, including hundreds of prepaid cell phones, and more than 250 airline tickets using 110 different credit cards at 46 airlines and travel agencies.

Al-Daour also allegedly laundered money through online gambling sites -- using accounts set up with stolen credit card numbers and victims' identities -- running up thousand-dollar tabs at sites like AbsolutePoker.com, BetFair.com, BetonBet.com, Canbet.com, Eurobet.com, NoblePoker.com and ParadisePoker.com, among others. All told, al-Daour and other members of the group conducted 350 transactions at 43 different online wagering sites, using more than 130 compromised credit card accounts. It didn't matter if they lost money on their wagering. Winnings were withdrawn and transferred to online bank accounts the men controlled.

Investigators in the United States and abroad spent hundreds of hours tracking the trio's financial activities across thousands of merchants in more than a dozen countries. But many of the details in this story about how the three U.K. residents financed their operation were never presented in court.

In May, the magistrate overseeing the trial, Justice Peter Openshaw, interrupted the proceedings with a statement that observers said stunned prosecutors for the Crown. "The trouble is I don't understand the language. I don't really understand what a Web site is."

Ultimately, the three men were convicted on the strength of evidence showing they had incited others to commit terrorist acts, rather than any evidence of cyber crimes. But one investigator who worked on the case said the story of how the three men funded their operations needed to be told because it serves as an indicator of methods other start-up terror cells either have already adopted or are likely to latch onto going forward.

"There is no law enforcement agency in the world that, if this wasn't a terrorism financing case, would follow up on this," one investigator said. "They just don't have the resources."

The Counter-Terrorism Challenge

Kohlmann said Irhabi and his alleged compatriots beginning in 2003 laid the groundwork for the Internet strategy that al-Qaeda and like-minded organizations would adopt over the next few years.

"Many Muslim men, a number of whom are living in the U.S. and the Middle East, see themselves at war with society and aspire to be part of a larger group," Kohlmann said. "It seems far-fetched that someone living in London who has never been to Iraq could suddenly become a key player, but Irahbi did. The power of the Internet means that people who don't ordinarily fit the terrorist profile can now be part and parcel of it."

Aaron Weisburd, who directs Internet Haganah, a Web forum dedicated to tracking pro-terrorist Web sites online, said cyber crime and credit card fraud have been a steady subplot underlying most of the terrorist-related sites he's tracked online since 2002.