AN AMERICAN website moderator alerted police to a terror plot due to a message posted on the internet by a Blackburn man, a court heard.

The moderator of the Infovlad forum website told Preston Crown Court he contacted the Metropolitan Police when a user named Sheikh posted that he would carry out a suicide mission in London.

The user’s IP address was traced to 23-year-old Ishaq Kanmi, of Cromwell Street, Audley, Black-burn, the court heard.

The message, posted in May 2007, wrote that anyone who had voted for Tony Blair should be targets and prompted Kanmi to be banned from the website, the jury was told.

Analysis of the site showed Kanmi was also posting under several different names, often putting up messages using the computer at Blackburn Central Library, the court heard.

The moderator, who was giving evidence under the pseudonym of Rusty Shackleford after an order was granted to protect his identity, said: “Another moderator deleted the post, but I saved it and gave it to the police.

"I called someone at the Metropolitan Police and emailed to someone working in the counter-terrorism unit.”

He added that, after reading a BBC report that a Britain had announced he was the UK al Qaida leader, he emailed the former Infovlad user to ask if he was the same person.

The moderator told the court: “He replied ‘yes’ and there would be an announcement. It got my attention.”

Cross-examining the moderator, defence solicitor David Gottlieb pointed out that the pseudonym was the name used by character David Gribble in television show King of the Hill when ordering a pizza.

Mr Gottlieb said: “Gribble is a heavy smoking gun fanatic who believes any conspiracy theory available.

“Would that describe you in real life?”

The moderator replied: “No it would not.”

Kanmi denies two counts of soliciting to murder Gordon Brown and Mr Blair.

He has also pleaded not guilty to professing to belong to a terrorist organisation, namely al Qaida, inviting support for the same organisation, disseminating terrorist publications and collecting, or making, a record of information likely to be useful to a terrorist.

(Proceeding)