By Andrew Alderson, Chief Reporter, Sunday Telegraph
They are both British and in their 50s. One is a City financier, the other an ex-member of the Armed Forces. And 18 months ago they became the unlikely financiers of a secretive organisation that, alongside BBC journalists, last week revealed how a cleric banned from Britain is using pseudonyms to broadcast his support for terrorism into the UK.
The two "patriots" who set up Vigil keep their identities secret, but others from the organisation agreed to talk to The Sunday Telegraph.
Vigil's founders believe that the police, security and intelligence services are so overstretched that they need help.
The organisation seeks to make Britain a safer place by disrupting and exposing terrorist activity. It is also working with media groups to highlight the threat from Muslim extremists. Last week it teamed up with BBC2's Newsnight and Radio 4's File on 4.
Vigil is non-profit making and does not charge for its services. It operates from a discreet office in London, but the address is kept secret in case it is, in turn, targeted by Muslim extremists.
It has five paid staff and a further 25 workers, many with military, security, intelligence and financial experience who charge only their expenses.
The group says it is non-political and non-religious: it has Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists working for it.
Only two of its staff are willing to be identified. One is Dominic Whiteman, its director and spokesman. Mr Whiteman, 34, who has a business background, said: "We are motivated by the scale of the terrorist threat in the UK: 3,000 people living here have been through Osama bin Laden's training camps and 16,000 people in the UK are al Qaeda sympathisers.
"Vigil was formed because we realised that there were a lot of recently retired ex-military and intelligence personnel who had a stack of contacts around the world and who knew a lot about the war on terror. We also learned that some individuals working on their own were getting some amazing raw intelligence. We felt some of this expertise was being under-utilised.
"We are vigilant but we are not vigilantes. We are also aware of our boundaries: we gather evidence that can be used in a court room but we don't meddle. If necessary, we also liaise with the FBI and US anti-terrorist units."
Vigil carries out an estimated 70 per cent of its work on the internet. It monitors extremists groups and tries to infiltrate them. However, if it obtains details of protest rallies and other meetings it also attends them. Some of its operators are fluent in Arabic, while others are banking and financial experts who try to trace terrorist funding around the world.
Vigil's two sponsors originally provided tens of thousands of pounds each for the group. Mr Whiteman said: "They are both real patriots who want to do their bit to make Britain a safer place."
Vigil's running costs for the past 18 months have totalled less than £200,000. As well as its two original sponsors, other donors have provided funding.
The other Vigil operator willing to be identified is Glen Jenvey, 42, a freelance counter-intelligence investigator from Wiltshire. He set up the internet sting which last week saw Omar Bakri Mohammed praise the London 7/7 bombers on the internet. Bakri, who now lives in Beirut, also appeared to advocate a terrorist attack on Dublin airport.
Bakri was excluded from the UK in August on the grounds that his presence was not conducive to the public good. He ran the radical al Muhajiroun group in London until it was proscribed last year.
Mr Jenvey also helped to uncover last week's allegation that an immigration worker at the Home Office is a senior member of Hibz ut Tahrir, an extremist Muslim group that Tony Blair wants banned.
Before working for Vigil Mr Jenvey infiltrated the Tamil Tigers while working for the Sri Lankan High Commission in London in the 1990s.
More recently, he set up an internet sting that provided evidence linking Abu Hamza, the British radical Islamic cleric, to terror camps. Mr Jenvey had set up an Islamic internet site using a fictitious name. Hamza sent him propaganda films designed to attract recruits for jihad training in Afghanistan and Bosnia.
Earlier this year Hamza was jailed for seven years for inciting murder and race hate. Hamza, 47, who preached at Finsbury Park mosque in London, was convicted of 11 of the 15 charges against him but is seeking to have them overturned.
Scotland Yard confirmed it was "working closely with Vigil, particularly its director and spokesman who has made officers aware of chat-room material. This material will be considered and appropriate action taken."
Patrick Mercer, the Tory spokesman for homeland security, has also worked with Vigil.
He said that he had been impressed by the group's professionalism. "Anything of this nature that helps the security services has to be encouraged," he said.