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Britain

Jets bomb plot planned in Pakistain, London court told

2009-02-26

A plot to blow up transatlantic airliners on their way to North America mid-flight was "orchestrated" from overseas, a British court heard on Wednesday. Prosecutors alleged eight Islamic fundamentalists who had aimed to cause death on an "almost unimaginable scale" were directed by masterminds overseas to take bombs disguised as soft drinks onto United States and Canada-bound planes. "Those responsible for making significant decisions in implementation of the plot -- the utilisation of the active cell of bombers, the date -- was all to be decided overseas," prosecutor Peter Wright told Woolwich Crown Court in southeast London. Wright, who had indicated the masterminds were based in Pakistan, added "This was not some half-baked plot by any group of enthusiastic amateurs dreaming up schemes over a kitchen table in east London".

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Britain

U.K. Terrorist Suspect Says He Was Filmmaker, Not Plane Bomber

2008-06-02

A man charged with being part of a terrorist plot to blow up seven transatlantic airliners denied that he planned to harm anyone, telling a London court that he and friends were making a documentary. Oh. Well. That makes it allright then ... Ahmed Ali, 27, testified that after spending time as an aid worker in refugee camps in Pakistan witnessing ``appalling'' conditions, he decided to make a movie to change public opinion about U.K. foreign policy. The group also planned to set off a small explosive device by the Houses of Parliament that would generate publicity for the film. ``Something like that would be sensational -- it would create mass media attention,'' Ali told a jury in London today. ``Never did we intend or think about murdering anybody.'' Sure, after all, small explosive devices have never killed anyone ... Ali is one of eight men accused by prosecutors of planning ``almost unprecedented carnage,'' by smuggling liquid explosives onto flights for destinations in Canada and the U.S. The investigation following the arrests prompted bans on passengers bringing more than small amounts of liquids and gels onto planes. The men on trial -- Ali, Assad Sarwar, Tanvir Hussain, Mohammed Gulzar, Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Khan, Waheed Zaman, and Umar Islam -- have denied wrongdoing. They are all in their 20s. This is the first day of their defense. In April, when the government opened its case, prosecutor Peter Wright said the group was almost ready to mount an attack when they were arrested in August 2006. Had the group succeeded its plot would have resulted in an unprecedented ``civilian death toll for an act of terrorism,'' he said. The group planned to disguise liquid explosives in soft-drink cartons and had identified daily flights from London to Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco, Washington, New York, and two to Chicago, prosecutors claim. The discovery of the plot caused temporary chaos at airports, with more than 2,380 flights from London canceled in the week after the men's arrest. Prosecutors claim that a computer memory stick owned by Ali contained detailed timetables for the targeted flights. He is the first of the group to testify. Another publicity stunt for the documentary, which would be posted on YouTube, was to film a sequence in which he and his friends would ``make demands in the style of al-Qaeda militants,'' Ali testified. Just a scene in the movie, of course ... Earlier today, Ali spoke of his experiences as an aid worker in Pakistan in 2003, working in refugee camps. Children died every day and many of the refugees, most of whom were Afghans, were ``maimed, with limbs blown off,'' said Ali, a graduate of City University in London.

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Britain

'British gang behind foiled Trans-Atlantic terror plot'

2008-04-04

Extremists plotted suicide attacks on at least seven flights from Britain to the United States in a simultaneous attack of “truly global impact”, a prosecutor said on Thursday. The eight men, whose arrest prompted tough limits on the carrying of liquids in hand baggage on to planes, wanted to target seven flights from London’s Heathrow airport to New York, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto and Montreal, prosecutor Peter Wright said as he opened the case against them. They aimed to use liquid explosives in soft drinks bottles to cause “a civilian death toll from an act of terrorism on an almost unprecedented scale”, Wright added. He said the accused were “not long off” activating their plan and had talked of up to 18 different suicide bombers targeting flights, when police busted the group in August 2006. The seven flights were operated by United Airlines, American Airlines and Air Canada. They left Heathrow daily, within roughly two and a half hours of each other — meaning they would have been in mid-air simultaneously, Wright said. “These flights were particularly vulnerable to a co-ordinated attack upon them while in flight. If each of these aircraft was successfully blown up the potential for loss of life was indeed considerable,” he said. “When the mid-flight explosions began the authorities would be unable to prevent the other flights from meeting a similar fate as they would already be in mid-air and carrying their deadly cargo,” he added. “These men and others were actively engaged in a deadly plan” which would have resulted in “a civilian death toll from an act of terrorism on an almost unprecedented scale,” he said. In the dock sat “some of those prepared to lose their lives,” he said, adding that they bore the “cold-eyed certainty of the fanatic” and were “indifferent to the carnage that was likely to ensue”. The eight men in the dock at Woolwich Crown Court in London were: Abdulla Ahmed Ali, also known as Ahmed Ali Khan, 27; Assad Sarwar, 27; Tanvir Hussain, 27; Mohammed Gulzar, 26; Ibrahim Savant, 27; Arafat Waheed Khan, 26; Waheed Zaman, 23; and Umar Islam, also known as Brian Young, 29. Seven are from London, while Sarwar lives in the midlands. I'da guessed most of not all of them with the possible exception of Brian were from Pakistain. All deny the charges of conspiracy to commit murder between January 1 and August 11, 2006 and conspiracy to commit an act of violence likely to endanger the safety of an aircraft between the same dates. Per the Khaleej Times, up to 18 could have been involved.

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