(CBS) - A leafy street in an English country village might not seem like the frontline in the war on terror. But an elaborate Internet sting run from Glen Jenvey's bedroom helped bring in the man U.S. officials had long called a serious terrorist suspect but had been unable to touch.
Abu Hamza al Masri is now in a British jail fighting extradition to the United States.
And as CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips reports, Jenvey, also known as Pervez Khan, is a major reason why.
Jenvey set up a false Web site, posing as an Islamic extremist site.
Using a pseudonym, Jenvey set up a site called Islamic News, collecting material from militant Islamic movements around the world. His intention, he says, was to flush the real terrorists out.
It was like dangling bait in the waters -- and Hamza bit.
Impressed with Jenvey's site, he started e-mailing him and more.
"I was so convincing to them that they then provided video and audio tapes of their most private meetings," says Jenvey.
The tapes were key. While Hamza, in his sermons, had often supported terrorist acts abroad, he had protected himself from British anti-terror laws by never publicly calling for violent action within the U.K.
As Chad points out in his post internet stings like this, along with the arrest of terrorist computer expert Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, should deter terrorists from using the internet in future operations. The absence or decreased use of such a communication tool should cause problems for terrorists.
Its hard to coordinate international attacks when you can't communicate quickly and securely.