Posted on 04/30/2007 3:31:11 AM PDT by britemp
Five men have been convicted of an al-Qaeda-linked bomb plot in Britain which could have killed hundreds. Jurors in the massive year-long Old Bailey trial, heard of plans to target a shopping centre, nightclub and the gas network with a fertiliser bomb.
Police smashed the plot in 2004 after MI5 had watched an Islamist extremist network with links across the world.
The unprecedented investigation also linked back to senior al-Qaeda figures in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Two other men, Nabeel Hussain and Shujah Mahmood, were found not guilty.
GUILTY OF CONSPIRACY TO CAUSE EXPLOSIONS: FULL PROFILES OF THE MEN (L-R)
Jawad Akbar, 23 Omar Khyam, 26 Salahuddin Amin, 32 Anthony Garcia, 24 Waheed Mahmood, 35 The indictment in full
Omar Khyam, 26, from Crawley, West Sussex, was found guilty of conspiring to cause explosions likely to endanger life between 1 January 2003 and 31 March 2004.
Also convicted were Waheed Mahmood, 34, and Jawad Akbar, 23, also of Crawley; Salahuddin Amin, 31, from Luton, Bedfordshire; Anthony Garcia, 24, of Barkingside, east London.
The men, all British citizens, face life sentences.
In one of the largest terrorism trials ever brought before the British courts, the Old Bailey heard that the plotters had come together over a number of years.
The men had started out sympathetic to Muslim causes around the world - but the key plotters decided that violence was the answer as they came together for secret military training camps in Pakistan.
Back in Britain, they discussed various schemes, including targeting the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent on a busy Saturday or the Ministry of Sound nightclub in central London.
They also talked of attacking the gas or electricity network and Prime Minister's Questions in Parliament.
Tip-off
The group had bought 600kg (95 stone) of ammonium nitrate from an agricultural merchants and kept it at a storage unit in Hanwell, west London.
DISCUSSED TARGETS Bluewater shopping centre Utilities network Ministry of Sound nightclub Parliament Football stadium
This fertiliser was to be the key component in the massive bomb - similar to those used in other terrorism attacks around the world.
But unbeknown to the men, some of them were already on MI5's radar while, at the same time, staff at the storage unit tipped off police.
They replaced the ammonium nitrate with a harmless substance and kept the group under surveillance before swooping in a series of raids.
David Waters QC, prosecuting, said the bomb, or bombs, would have been used "at the very least to destroy a strategic plant within the United Kingdom, or more realistically to kill and injure citizens of the UK".
The Old Bailey heard the defendants had had at least two fellow conspirators.
One of them, an American called Mohammed Junaid Babar, admitted his role in the plot after being arrested by the FBI and became a vital prosecution witness.
The other was Mohammed Momin Khawaja, awaiting trial in Canada.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Oh, its’s again Pakistan, Pakistani. Saudi Arabia, Saudi.
Two very deserving candidates for the ‘Bomb Away To Kingdom Come’ award.
Gee what’s the common link here...could it be they are all Presbyterians?...played on the same cricket team?....drank tea left handed?
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