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Britain

Jihad From Jail

2012-02-20

Islamic snuffies using network website MohammedanPrisoner.com to preach hatred from behind bars Abu Hamza, Abu Qatada and Osman Hussain are some of the snuffies using the site Website is used as networking tool for jihadist turbans Posts celebrate murder of innocent people and urge fresh atrocities against the West Inmates urged to lie about their reform to get early release to continue holy war Letters reveal prisoners are radicalising other inmates Ministry of Justice said it recognises risk posed by bad turban offenders Islamic snuffies are using the internet to spread their hatred from behind bars. Dozens of letters written by some of the world's most dangerous snuffies - including those locked up for murderous plots in Britannia - have been published on MohammedanPrisoners.com The hate-filled messages celebrate murder of innocent people and urge fresh atrocities against the West. The website is being used as a networking tool for the jihadist hard boyz - many with links to al-Qaeda - and encourages the public to send emails, with the promise that their letters will be passed onto the inmates. Its users include notorious hate preachers Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada. who was released under strict bail conditions, which include a ban on him using the internet, this month. Leaders of terrorist plots targeting passenger planes and London landmarks are also said to have used the website, including Hussain Osman, nabbed for his botched attempt to blow up Shepherd's Bush Tube station in 2005. It is claimed the website was set up by Abdul Muhid, a member of the banned Al-Muhajiroun group, who has served time in jail for inciting murder and hatred during protests over Prophet Mohammed cartoons. The Sunday Times reported that among messages posted on the website, are some from Abdulla Ahmed Ali, caged for at least 40 years as leader of a suicide plot to blow up trans-Atlantic passenger jets. Ahmed hails the 'humiliating defeat' inflicted on NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... forces in Afghanistan by the Taliban. His message - posted last month - read: 'If the mushriks [non believers] can leave their families and sacrifice their lives and limbs to occupy, enslave and oppress the ummah [global Mohammedan community] then we too can sacrifice 100 times that to defend it.' There are also jihadist messages from Bilal Zaheer Ahmad, nabbed last year after calling on Mohammedans to copy Roshonara Choudhry and murder MPs who voted for the Iraq war. Ahmad's letters also includes calls for inmates to lie about their reform so they can be freed early to the continue their holy war and reveal bad turban material is freely available to inmates and that he is in direct contact with Choudhry. Last July he wrote: 'I received a letter from that sister during the week. She said it feels like she was only locked away yesterday and the last year of her life has been the best.' Choudhry, who attempted to murder former Labour minister Stephen Timms, is also reported to have posted on the website, describing the euphoria she felt from having the support of Mohammedans when she was nabbed at the Old Bailey. Another inmate, Hamza Davidson, 34, who is serving a life sentence, is said to have claimed to be studying books by Bilal Philips, a Jamaican preacher who calls for homosexuals to be executed and was banned from Britannia. Other letters reveal snuffies are radicalising other inmates. A Commons select committee report on radicalisation this month claimed one prisoner was persuaded to become a jacket wallah within 72 hours of arriving at London's Belmarsh prison. The website also features jihadist video footage and legal experts have warned the website could have breached laws on inciting terrorism. Labour MP Steve McCabe, who sits on the Commons home affairs committee, said: "Some of this stuff sounds dangerously close to incitement. 'If the prison authorities claim they are monitoring and censoring material, then they are clearly not doing it effectively.' The website was taken down after the newspaper contacted Muhid - but a single homepage remains and features and email address fro people to send their letters, and quotes from the Qur'an. Muhid denies glorifying terrorism, has offered to take down anything amounting to incitement and stressed inmates' letters had to be screened by prison authorities. He said he did not intend to break the law, and added: 'Our role is to connect prisoners with the outside world...increasing the morale of these people.' But Muhid admitted a disproportionate number of letters were sent to inmates with terrorism links and said the only just law is Islamic law. A Ministry of Justice (MoJ) source said prisoners were not able to contribute directly to websites and that the department was aware of it. An MoJ front man said: "The National Offender Management Service (Noms) recognises the risks posed by bad turban offenders and those who seek to radicalise others and takes their responsibility to effectively manage these risks seriously. "Since 2007 a dedicated, expert unit has led a programme of work across prisons and probation to strengthen our response to the threat from these offenders, drawing on our long history of managing terrorist prisoners and other dangerous individuals. "All high-security establishments have a dedicated counter-terrorism unit, and a national unit also exists to analyse intelligence from the High Security Estate. 'Noms' response to the current threat has included staff training in extremism awareness, the ongoing development of interventions designed to assist offenders in disengagement from extremism and the strengthening of the role of the Mohammedan chaplain in prisons.'

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Britain

Airline Bomb Plotters Convicted

2010-07-08

Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Khan and Waheed Zaman were convicted by a jury at Woolwich Crown Court. The three men were among eight tried in connection with an al Qaida-inspired plot to detonate homemade liquid bombs on transatlantic jets. They were cleared by a jury of their role in targeting aeroplanes but put on trial again to face charges of conspiracy to murder. A Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spokesman said the jury found all three men guilty today. Savant, of Denver Road, Stoke Newington, Khan, of Farnan Avenue, Walthamstow, and Zaman, of Queen's Road, Walthamstow, will be sentenced tomorrow. Abdulla Ahmed Ali, of Walthamstow, Assad Sarwar, of High Wycombe, and Tanvir Hussain, of Leyton, were found guilty of the airline bomb plot last year. The al Qaida-inspired plot led by Ali involved smuggling liquid bombs in drinks bottles on to planes bound for North America. The hydrogen peroxide devices would have been assembled and detonated in mid-air by a team of suicide bombers. Ali singled out seven flights to San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal, Washington, New York and Chicago that departed within two and a half hours of each other. If successful, the explosions could have exceeded the carnage of the September 11 attacks. The arrest of the gang in August 2006 sparked tight restrictions on carrying liquids on to aircraft which initially caused travel chaos.

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Britain

Wife of airliner bomb plotter 'wanted him to become a martyr'

2010-02-16

The wife of the leader of a plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners kept a diary in which she pledged support for his cause and hoped that he became a martyr, a court has heard. Cossor Ali wrote about making herself slimmer for his return from Pakistan and added that she was becoming “more and more attached to the cause for which you are striving.' She added: “I hope and pray Allah grants your wish and gives you the highest level of shahada' – a word which is said to refer to martyrdom. In another entry she said: “I hope that when you attain shahada, I will have at least one small child and will be pregnant with another or at least be pregnant with a healthy baby at the least inshallah [god willing.]' Mrs Ali, who married her husband in July 2003, gave birth to their first child prematurely nine months later but the baby had died shortly afterwards. By the time her husband, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, was arrested in August 2006, they had an eight month old baby boy. Richard Whittam QC, prosecuting, told Inner London Crown Court: “It is the prosecution case that she knew her husband intended to commit an act of terrorism that involved his own death.' She is accused of failing to disclose information that she knew or believed might have been of material assistance in preventing the commission of an act of terrorism between March 2004 and August 2006. Ali and two other men were convicted in September last year of conspiracy to murder by detonating improvised explosive devices on board passenger aircraft. The devices were to be disguised in soft drinks bottles and Mrs Ali admitted in a statement to police that her husband had brought bags of a soft drink powder back from Pakistan with him but she thought that he was developing a drink to sell with his friends. The court heard that Mrs Ali, 28, was born in Britain and lived with her husband in a one bedroom flat in Walthamstow, East London. When police searched the couple's flat they found a completed passport application for their baby in the cot in the bedroom. In a Rizvi notebook found in the bedroom, Mrs Ali had allegedly written: “I think I am going to make myself slimmer inshallah [god willing] as it will be good for me and I think you will be happier. I am going to start doing exercises on a daily basis and when we are together, I want you to do fighting training with me.' In the notes, allegedly written while Ali was away in Pakistan in early 2005, she had added: “I am really looking forward to you coming home now. I have been thinking about all the housework I have to do in the flat. I will clean everything properly. She continued: “I desperately miss my soulmate, husband, lover, comforter and companion.' A further entry asked Ali to choose her “over the hoors' - women in paradise - and wait for her to join him. She said she had read a “beautiful and inspiring' book and added: “I am even happier with what you are doing. It makes me eager to join you on your quest.' In another Pukka notepad found in the bedroom cupboard, she wrote “preparation list for Ahmed's return' and the entry “straighten hair on 08/02/04.' In the same notepad Ali had allegedly written a will in March 2004 in which he wrote: “We know with full certainty that we are going to die so let us aim high and strive for the best death ie shahada and let us do the most pleasing deed to Allah and make the greatest sacrifice, fight with life, tongue and wealth in the path of Allah.' Ali had made a suicide video in which he said that Allah had promised those who became martyred with a guarantee of janna [paradise] for himself, his family and his friends. He referred to Osama bin Laden and said he planned to “punish the kufr [non-believers] and teach them a lesson they will never forget,' Mr Whittam told the court. Mrs Ali denies the charges and the trial continues.

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Britain

Jihad suspect has terror case thrown out

2010-02-02

A judge has thrown out the case against a man accused of preparing terrorist acts after ruling he had no case to answer. Prosecutors had alleged that Mohammed Usman Saddique (aged 27) of Walthamstow, east London, England, kept jihadist books and CDs at his home and had contact with convicted members of a plot to blow up transatlantic jets. But the trial, which was being heard at Inner London Crown Court, was aborted yesterday after his defence put in a submission to have it dismissed. The jury had earlier heard that Mr Saddique possessed extremist documents at his home. One CD found at the premises had a folder entitled "Anarchy" which itself contained a subfolder titled "bombs". Files on it carried instructions on how to make explosives, the court heard. The little sod was organized, at least. That's little Saud to you ... In an earlier statement, Mr Saddique confirmed that some of the jihadist material found in his house was his but said they were in his possession "out of curiosity" and were not being kept "with any malicious intent". It was also alleged during the trial that the accused man knew and associated with convicted conspirators of an attempted terrorist plot. Telephone records linked him to Abdulla Ahmed Ali and Tanvir Hussain, prosecutors said. Both men were convicted, alongside Assad Sarwar, in September last year of conspiracy to murder by the detonation of improvised explosive devices on board transatlantic passenger aircraft. The cost of that lengthy trial and retrial ran into the tens of millions of pounds, legal sources estimated at the time. It also led to demands for an apology by Muslim convert Donald Stewart-Whyte, who was cleared by the jury of involvement in the plot. Referring to the collapse of the case against Mr Sadddique, a spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service said: "The judge felt it should go to trial. Having heard the prosecution case and the defence submission of no case to answer, the judge has decided that the case should not continue."

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Britain

3 UK men accused of providing aid to aircraft plot

2009-10-07

A British prosecutor accused three men Tuesday of conspiring with the mastermind of a plot to kill thousands of airline passengers by blowing up their trans-Atlantic flights using liquid explosives. Prosecutor Peter Wright was making his opening statement on the second day of the trial of Adam Khatib, 22, Mohammed Shamin Uddin, 39, and Nabeel Hussain, 25. Authorities say if the attack had been carried out, it would have been on par with the Sept. 11 attacks. The trio "was prepared to help in the commission of terrorist acts and indeed did so," Wright told jurors at a London court. All three deny the charges but have yet to present their cases. Last month, Abdulla Ahmed Ali was convicted of being the ringleader of a plan to down at least seven trans-Atlantic flights in simultaneous attacks which security officials say were directed by senior Islamic militants in Pakistan. He was given a minimum of 40 years in prison. Two others — Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain — were also convicted of helping plot the attacks.

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Britain

Leader of airline bomb plot told he will spend 40 years in jail

2009-09-15

The British leader of the plot to bomb seven transatlantic planes is facing the prospect of dying in jail after a judge said today he was likely to remain a dangerous and motivated terrorist for the rest of his life. It's surprises like this that prove the universe is independent of our thoughts. Abdulla Ahmed Ali was one of three men sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted last week of planning to lead a squad of suicide bombers in smuggling liquid explosives aboard planes heading from London to North America. The al-Qaida plot could have killed 1,500 people. Passing sentence, Mr Justice Henriques said the terrorists were involved in "the most grave and wicked conspiracy ever proven within this jurisdiction. The intention was to perpetrate a terrorist outrage that would stand alongside the events of September 11 2001 in history." He told Ali, 28, the ringleader and a former mobile phone salesman: "You have embraced Islamic extremism and it is that burning extremism that motivated you throughout this conspiracy and is likely to motivate you again. You are likely to remain a serious danger to the public for an indeterminate time." Ali, of Walthamstow, east London, was sentenced to life and told he must serve 40 years before he could be considered for parole. It is the joint highest sentence handed down in a British terrorism case. The judge made it clear the evidence pointed to an attack within days. The cell was arrested on 9-10 August 2006. An email sent by Ali to his controllers in Pakistan on 6 August showed the terrorists were close to staging the attack. The three men, and a fourth member of the cell convicted of conspiracy to murder, were given life with minimum terms of between 22 and 40 years in prison before they can be considered for release. Assad Sarwar, 29, from High Wycombe, will serve a minimum of 36 years. The judge called him a "vital and leading member" of the plot, "trained in bomb making in Pakistan". He bought litres of chemicals to make explosives and in one day made 83 phone calls seeking hydrogen peroxide. "You were the trained chemist and quartermaster and you were in direct communication with Pakistan," the judge said. Tanvir Hussein, 28, of Leyton, east London, was described by the judge as Ali's "right-hand man", modifying the batteries, bottles and bulbs that were to be used to make the bombs to be smuggled past airport security. He was told he would serve 32 years without parole, with the judge accepting he was not a religious fanatic but perhaps had been blinded by his "long-term loyalty to Ali". The cell's fourth member, Umar Islam, 31, of Plaistow, east London, convicted of conspiracy to murder, was told he would serve a minimum of 22 years. The former bus inspector was described by the judge as a "foot soldier" who was unaware the target was blowing aircraft out of the sky. Nadim Radford QC, representing Ali, said he was a victim of political turmoil. Radford said of the defendants: "They were caught in a political turmoil of their own making, where they misjudged what they should do. He was very greatly affected by what he felt was the harm being done to innocent people from his similar background." Radford said the airlines plot was at an early stage when police broke it up. Which should make it ok. After all, the lads never actually blew up any airplanes. They only planned meticulously and acquired the weapons to execute their plan.

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Britain

British mosque has been recruiting ground for 20 years

2009-09-09

A mosque frequented by the leader of the airline plot terrorist cell has been a recruiting ground for extremists for more than 20 years. The Queen's Road mosque in Walthamstow, northeast London, where Abdulla Ahmed Ali met his associates, is controlled by the ultraorthodox Tablighi Jamaat. Intelligence services around the world believe that Tablighi's fundamentalism makes some of its followers easy prey for terrorist recruiters. Tablighi Jamaat, if you've been asleep since 2001, is a Pak proselytizing organization that recruits impressionable yoots for al-Qaeda and similar worthy causes. Two decades ago the same mosque was hosting talks by followers of Omar Bakri Mohammed, one of the first Islamic clerics in Britain to preach jihad. The learned Omar was the founder of al-Muhajiroun, recall, which split off from Hizb-ut-Tahrir because they weren't radical enough. Hizbutt is another jihad recruiting and propagandizing organization. The disclosure of the mosque's history indicates that, despite the focus on the Pakistan-based terrorist threat, the roots of Islamist radicalisation are deeply embedded in Britain. The men involved in the fertiliser bomb plot of 2004, the July 7 and July 21 bombings of 2005 and the airline plot were all radicalised in Britain. Their initial contacts with the al-Qaeda network were through fundraisers and recruiters in Britain and Rashid Rauf, who has been identified by security sources as a key link man in Pakistan, was from Birmingham. Verily, the links between Britain and Ye Olde Countrie are tight. The fellows are born and bred in Land of Hope and Glory, but they speak Urdu or Pashto and they travel to Lahore for religious education and to marry their first cousins. Ed Husain, of the Quilliam Foundation, an anti-extremist think-tank, said the first contact with radicals for many young Muslims was at British colleges and universities. "In the 1990s it was Arab political refugees, not Pakistanis, that helped radicalise many British Muslims," he said. "Pakistani militants provide training for would-be violent Islamists. But they go out radicalised and willing -- it is folly to think that visits to Pakistan are points of first contact with extremism." Why's it folly? They maintain Pak cultural islands and the itinerant Arabs have about the same effect in Britain they have in Pakistain: they're members of the Islamic Master Race. Ali, who will be sentenced for the airline plot next week, was heavily influenced by a suspected al-Qaeda facilitator who is known to the authorities. That man, who has not been arrested and lives freely in East London, claims that he has no links to terrorism and is a Tablighi missionary. But long before the Walthamstow mosque came under Tablighi influence, it hosted "study circles" led by Bakri Mohammed's followers. I attended one of those meetings as a reporter in August 1989 and heard young men decry the evils of drink, discos and "free intermingling of the sexes". They'll address the free intermingling of the races later... One called Kysar, then aged 19, told me: "Islam isn't a religion where you can only adopt part of it. You have to adopt the whole Islamic viewpoint on society. There can be no compromise with the divine system revealed to us." "If you're not part of the problem you're part of the solution!" or something along those lines. That the airline bomb plot was based in Walthamstow has shocked residents of this northeast London suburb. They're shocked! Shocked! The area prides itself on having a mixed and well-integrated community and, unlike in many areas of East London, there are no ghettos. Sounds like a multicultural herd of sheep, dunnit? But the plot has revealed that Islamist extremism is deeply rooted in elements of the large Muslim population. Many of the people whom Ali tried to recruit to his terrorist cell were his Walthamstow school friends and his bomb factory was an upstairs flat in the busy Forest Road. In the flat, Ali -- who had lived almost all his life in Walthamstow -- experimented with bottle bombs and liquid explosives and recorded martyrdom videos. Bombmaking components were disposed of in the rubbish bins across the road in Lloyd Park, once the garden of the philanthropist William Morris. Meanwhile the multicultural sheep were placidly grazing, congratulating themselves on their placidity... Afzal Akram, the local councillor whose brief includes "community cohesion", insisted that Queen's Road mosque itself was not part of the problem. "No, no! Certainly not! Why, I go there myself!" "It's got nothing to do with the imams or the mosque -- some of my friends and family pray there, I've been there myself," he said. "Sometimes I even give the sermons!" "None of the mosques here have been used to preach extremism. Individuals may have met at particular mosques and individuals may live within a stone's throw of the mosque. But I wouldn't put two and two together." "You might come out with four, and that wouldn't be a good thing." Mr Akram says that extremism locally is little more than youngsters "mouthing off" and "spouting conspiracy theories". But the Government is spending £90,000 in the borough to teach "leadership" to young Muslims. That way they'll be able to organize their friends and families into Stürm brigades. The Queen's Road mosque declined to comment, despite approaches made through the Muslim Council of Britain. However, two years ago Tablighi Jamaat set up a website, to publicise its plans for a giant mosque next to the Olympic site, on which it said: "We do not teach an extremist line, but we clearly can't speak for every single one of those who have ever attended our mosques -- there are several thousand people at our weekly gatherings." They added: "We utterly refute any links to terrorism or terrorists." "Oh, yasss! We're ever so multicultural! Here! Feel my fleece! Want some grass?" One community leader, who is involved in interfaith work in Walthamstow, said the Muslim community did not recognise that extremism was a problem. "I don't want to add fuel to the fire, but the problem is within the Muslim community and its attitude to the extremists," he said. "You speak to the community elders and they smile and say, 'It's not a big problem, if we ignore them they'll go away'. That seems a dangerous attitude to me and the wrong one to take."

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Britain

Airline Bomb Plot Reveals Links to Pakistan

2009-09-09

[Asharq al-Aswat] A plot to blow up at least seven transatlantic aircraft using liquid bombs was masterminded from Pakistan, intelligence services said as more details emerged Tuesday of the complex planned attacks. British police were forced to go to extraordinary lengths to build their case against the men who prosecutors say were hoping to cause more deaths than the September 11, 2001 attacks. The trial, which ended in the convictions of three British Muslims on Monday, was peppered with evidence that members of the London-based gang were frequently in communication with figures linked to Al-Qaeda in Pakistan. "In terms of Al-Qaeda involvement, there is a large part of this plot that has been thought through or invented in Pakistan," one senior counter-terrorism source said after the trial. The jury were shown intercepted emails in which Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, Tanvir Hussain, 28, and Assad Sarwar, 29, asked Pakistani contacts for advice on building bombs in drinks bottles to detonate on flights over the Atlantic. Prosecutors believe the absence of evidence establishing these links had led to a jury in the men's first trial in 2008 failing to reach a verdict that they had plotted to blow up the planes, forcing a second trial to be held. Ken MacDonald, the former head of the Crown Prosecution Service and Director of Public Prosecutions, said: "We felt that this was a strong case from the start, unfortunately the jury in the first trial could not agree. "The additional evidence that we had (in the second trial) were the emails," he told BBC radio. The emails were obtained by a court order in California requiring Yahoo! to disclose them. Reports said the men's main point of contact was Rashid Rauf, a British-born Muslim who fled to the tribal areas of Pakistan in 2002 after the murder of his uncle and developed strong links with Al-Qaeda. Intelligence services also reportedly believe he was a key contact of the gang in the 2005 bombings of the London transport system which killed 52 people. The trial heard that Ali had already been identified as a dangerous radical when he was stopped at London's Heathrow Airport in June 2006 on his return from a trip to Pakistan. Customs officials found a large quantity of batteries and a high-sugar powdered drink in his luggage. Both are ingredients for homemade bombs. He was not arrested, but police broke into his flat one night and installed hidden cameras and microphones. Over the next few months, they watched as Ali and his colleagues experimented with injecting drinks bottles with a mixture of the explosive liquid hydrogen peroxide which they planned to carry on to flights and detonate with a bulb filament. But the biggest counter-terrorism operation ever mounted in Britain, costing 35 million pounds (57 million dollars, 40 million euros), was reportedly almost thrown into jeopardy by US intervention. Fearful that the gang were close to carrying out the plane bombings, the US authorities put pressure on Pakistan to arrest Rauf in 2006. Andy Hayman, a senior police commander who worked on the case, said in the Times newspaper that his detention "hampered our evidence-gathering and placed us in Britain under intolerable pressure." British police were confident that they had the gang completely under surveillance, but Rauf's arrest forced them to bring forward the arrests in Britain when they would have preferred to wait longer. Rauf escaped from police custody in Pakistan in mysterious circumstances in 2007. US officials said they believed they killed him in an attack with an unmanned drone but his death has never been confirmed. The discovery of the plot in 2006 sparked chaos at airports, as authorities worldwide immediately introduced draconian regulations limiting the amount of liquids that passengers can carry on to flights. Many of the rules remain in place.

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Britain

Three British men guilty of airline bomb plot

2009-09-08

[Al Arabiya Latest] Three Britons were found guilty on Monday of plotting to kill thousands by blowing up transatlantic airliners using liquid explosives, in near-simultaneous attacks aimed to cause massive loss of life. Ringleader Abdulla Ahmed Ali was found guilty of conspiring to murder thousands in the plot, whose discovery triggered wide-ranging new rules on carrying liquids on commercial aircraft. Tanvir Hussain, 28, and Assad Sarwar, 29, were found guilty on the same charges of plotting to carry out bombings on aircraft flying from London's Heathrow airport to the United States and Canada. The three men were previously found guilty of conspiracy to murder, but the jury in their first trial could not decide on charges that they had plotted to kill people by bringing down airliners. Four other men were found not guilty of the plot and the jury failed to reach a verdict in the case of an eighth suspect, Britain's Press Association reported. The bombers intended to simultaneously destroy at least seven planes carrying over 200 passengers in August 2006 using explosives hidden in soft drink bottles, prosecutors said. Home Secretary Alan Johnson hailed the verdicts, saying: "I am pleased that the jury has recognized that there was a plot to bomb transatlantic flights and that three people have been convicted of that plot."

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Britain

Prosecutor: Britons disguised bombs as drinks

2009-02-17

Eight British Muslims plotted to cause unprecedented carnage by blowing up passenger planes over the Atlantic Ocean with homemade liquid bombs disguised as soft drinks, a prosecutor said at their trial Tuesday. Peter Wright said the men planned to smuggle the bomb ingredients aboard jets bound from Britain to North America disguised as "soft-drinks bottles, batteries and other innocuous items" carried in hand luggage. "They were to be detonated in-flight by suicide bombers," including several of the accused, he said. Eight men aged between 22 and 30 deny conspiracy to murder. But Wright said the defendants were close to carrying out their plan when they were arrested in August 2006. The arrests led to the grounding of hundreds of flights and disruption for thousands of people and triggered huge changes to airport security -- including restrictions on carrying liquids on planes -- that persist to this day. Wright said the plot would have caused "a civilian death toll from terrorism on an almost unprecedented scale." He said alleged ringleaders Abdulla Ahmed Ali and Assad Sarwar, both 28, "shared a common interest ... that involved inflicting heavy casualties upon an unwitting civilian population, all in the name of Islam." The defendants, he said, were "men with the cold-eyed certainty of the fanatic." The blasts were intended as "a violent and deadly statement of intent that would have a truly global impact." Wright said that the plot was organized in Britain but was being directed from Pakistan. A court order restricts reporting of some details of the case, which is expected to last 10 months.

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Britain

3 cop plea in aircraft bomb plot

2008-07-14

LONDON: Three men accused of plotting to bring down trans-Atlantic passenger jets with liquid explosives pleaded guilty to planning to set off bombs but maintain they did not seek to destroy airliners, prosecutors said Monday. Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, Assad Sarwar, 28, Tanvir Hussain, 27, and five co-defendants are charged with a plot to kill hundreds of passengers at the height of the summer vacation season by detonating explosives concealed in soft-drink bottles on flights over the Atlantic Ocean or U.S. cities. The unraveling of the alleged plot led to tough new restrictions on the amount of liquids and gels passengers can take in their carry-on bags. Prosecutors said Ali, Sarwar and Hussain had admitted to a charge of conspiring to set off explosions but say that they are innocent of the more serious charge of conspiracy to murder. The eight men are still being tried on the murder conspiracy charge, which carries a maximum life sentence. Ali and Sarwar have told the court they wanted to set off explosions as a publicity stunt to promote an anti-Western documentary. Ali said he hoped a small, nonfatal, bombing -- at Britain's Houses of Parliament, at an oil refinery, or at an airport -- would jolt Londoners and draw attention to his movie, which would be released online. Yeah, regular Spielbergs they were I'll bet.. Ali, Sarwar, Hussain and co-defendants Ibrahim Savant, 27, and Umar Islam, 30, have also admitted to "conspiring to cause a public nuisance" by publishing alleged martyrdom videos, the prosecution said. The Crown Prosecution Service did not say when the guilty pleas were entered or what sentences the lesser charges carry. Defense attorneys did not address the jury Monday. The eight men are accused of stockpiling enough hydrogen peroxide to create 20 liquid bombs, although they did not create any viable explosives. "We did not want to kill or injure anyone," Ali testified last month. Nah. We're good boys... Prosecutor Peter Wright scoffed at that idea Monday, calling the defendants' accounts "inherently improbable." He said that the attacks were imminent when the men were arrested in August 2006 in raids in and around London. The defendants had even prepared the martyrdom videos to be shown after the airline bombings. Kinda hard to 'splain that one away, innit? Performance art ... The men were "almost ready to go," Wright told Woolwich Crown Court in London. "This was no propaganda video, no documentary, no exercise or stunt -- this was for real," he said. "Human beings ready, able and willing to commit carnage for the sake of Islam." He accused the defendants of wanting "to murder as many civilian passengers as possible upon as many civilian aircraft as possible. "Each was prepared to kill and to do so on a wholly indiscriminate basis, irrespective of age, belief, sex and to do so without the slightest blink of an eye," Wright said. The attack "was intended to be an act of terrorism to not only alter aviation history but also to strike a blow on behalf of radicalized Islamists the world over," he said. In his opening statement in April, Wright said officers found a computer memory stick in Ali's pocket with details of flights from London's Heathrow Airport to Chicago, New York, Boston, Denver, Miami and Montreal. He said that there did not appear to be any interest in return flights. There usually isn't...

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Britain

Suspect was in 'al-Qaeda' video

2008-06-18

A man accused of being part of a plot to blow up passenger planes has told a court how he agreed to appear in an 'al Qaeda-style militant' video. But Tanvir Hussain, 27, denied that the footage he recorded alongside five of his co-defendants in July 2006 was part of a set of martyrdom films. "No, no, certainly not!" Eight men deny conspiring to murder and endanger aircraft leaving the UK. Their arrests in August 2006 led to a ban on passengers carrying most liquids on board aircraft. Prosecutors allege the men planned to make hydrogen peroxide bombs disguised as soft drinks to detonate in mid-air on at least seven planes flying out of London's Heathrow airport. Mr Hussain told the jury at Woolwich Crown Court that the videos were meant to be included in a documentary protesting against western foreign policy. The messages would be interspersed with 'shocking images of people dying in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine', he said. He said he was 'taken aback' when his friend and co-defendant Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, revealed plans to blow up a device in a public place as the two men spoke at his flat in April 2006. Mr Hussain said: 'He said to me: 'It ain't going to be nothing big, just a loud bang to cause panic and alarm.'' Michel Massih QC, for the defence, queried whether he had asked Mr Ali if he intended to kill anyone. Mr Hussain replied: 'I didn't ask him. I know Ahmed wouldn't do nothing like that.' Mr Sarwar and Mr Ali's co-defendants are Tanvir Hussain, 27, of Leyton, east London, Waheed Zaman, 24, and Arafat Waheed Khan, 27, both of Walthamstow, east London. Also charged are Mohammed Gulzar, 26, of Barking, east London, Ibrahim Savant, 27, of Stoke Newington, north London, and Umar Islam, 30, of Plaistow, east London. All eight deny two joint charges of conspiring to murder and to endanger aircraft. "Lies! All lies!"

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