Men convicted over UK bomb plot

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: BBC

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.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6195914.stm

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This is one trial in which there was significant physical evidence - 600kg of ammonium nitrate (and not on a farm, either).

Also, a link to the 7/7 bombings:

It has also been revealed some of the plotters met two of the 7 July London suicide bombers.

Mohammed Sidique Khan was spotted on four occasions in 2004 with at least one of the conspirators. At one point MI5 officers followed Khan back to his home in Leeds but no further action was taken.

Because of their workload and other cases having immediate priority in 2004, MI5 did not monitor him as he was not considered a risk. A year later Khan would lead the bombers who killed 52 people in the London attacks.

The link with 7 July was deliberately kept from the Old Bailey jury for fear of prejudicing their deliberations on the fertiliser bomb plot.

[maddezmom]

1. British spies watched bombers a year before attacks

British spies watched bombers a year before attacks
30 Apr 2007 11:13:52 GMT
Source: Reuters
Alert Me | Printable view | Email this article | RSS <-> Text <+>

By Michael Holden and Mark Trevelyan

LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) - Counter-terrorism spies took photographs and recorded conversations of two British suicide bombers well over a year before they carried out their attacks, but concluded at the time they did not pose a major threat.

The two men, Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, surfaced as unidentified contacts of a group of men under surveillance by the MI5 intelligence agency and suspected of planning attacks in Britain using fertiliser-based explosives.

Five of those men were convicted on Monday in Britain's longest terrorism trial, and media were allowed for the first time to report on court papers detailing how Khan and Tanweer were observed by MI5 as it tracked the fertiliser gang in February and March 2004.

Their publication looked certain to revive a debate over whether MI5 missed vital clues that could have enabled it to prevent the suicide bombings of July 7, 2005, in which Khan, Tanweer and two other young British Muslims blew themselves up on three London underground trains and a bus, killing 52 people.

more:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L3065937.htm

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. From a BBC radio programme, October 2005:

WATSON cont: We’ve been told by a confidential source that Siddique Khan was secretly recorded and filmed talking to this terrorist suspect. We know his identity, but cannot reveal it for legal reasons, so we’ll call him Jamaal. Our source says he’s seen photographs and transcripts of a meeting between Jamaal and Siddique Khan. The Metropolitan Police declined to comment and we have no way of checking this information. But if there was a detailed surveillance operation involving Mohammed Siddique Khan, as our source says, then it becomes far harder to explain why he wasn’t pursued. Our source had other significant information to reveal. When Jamaal was detained by the British authorities last year, our source says Siddique Khan contacted him, demanding an urgent meeting.

WATSON: The two men drove to a small town by the sea. Siddique wanted to know what the security services had found out about Jamaal. It now looks likely that he was trying to find out whether his own cover had been blown. What’s even more alarming is that on the two occasions our source met with Siddique Khan, he was with the same three other men - who are not the same three who died in the London bombings. This raises the possibility that three other associates of Siddique Khan are still on the loose. When File on 4 learned about this, we immediately encouraged our source to disclose the information to the anti-terrorist police. Under the Terrorism Act, this is an obligation. But the man taking the potentially crucial information at the other end of the terrorist hotline didn’t seem bothered at all, saying, “No disrespect, but these people could have been anybody.” Our source was dismayed. We wanted to ask the Home Office and Metropolitan Police about these allegations, but they declined to be interviewed. A Home Office spokeswoman said they would not comment on the work of the intelligence and security services. One of the issues we wanted to raise with the government was the quality of intelligence assessments in the run-up to the London bombings, especially in light of the fact that the Joint Terrorist Analysis Centre - or JTAC - downgraded its UK terror threat assessment just weeks before the 7th July. It is something we were able to discuss with Sir Paul Lever, a former chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, which advises the Prime Minister on security threats.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/25_10_05_bombings.pdf

[Kagemusha]

4. One wonders, what's a major threat?

52 people was a lot but we're not talking Twin Towers level stuff at all. One wonders if the assessment was so wrong - at the time it was made, at least.

[Eugene]

3. US informant played key role in "British bomb plot"

Source: Reuters

US informant played key role in "British bomb plot"
30 Apr 2007 12:45:38 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Michael Holden

LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) - A U.S. citizen who had plotted
to assassinate the Pakistani president played a central role in
convicting five Britons found guilty at a London court on Monday
of plotting bomb attacks.

The main prosecution witness in the year-long trial, dubbed the
"British bomb plot" by U.S. officials, was a 32-year-old militant
turned informant named Mohammed Junaid Babar.

Babar was born in Pakistan and moved to New York as a child.
He studied pharmacy at the city's St John's University and had
planned to go to medical school but dropped out.

Babar said he had become radicalised by the first Gulf War
which followed Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L30577705.htm

[Eugene]

5. UK bomb plot leaders sentenced to 40 years-judge

Source: Reuters

UK bomb plot leaders sentenced to 40 years-judge
30 Apr 2007 13:25:32 GMT
Source: Reuters

LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) - Omar Khyam and Anthony Garcia, two
of five Britons found guilty on Monday of plotting a series of al
Qaeda-inspired bomb attacks across Britain, were sentenced to life
imprisonment, or 40 years in jail.

Khyam coordinated the group, which planned to use 600 kg (1,300 lb)
of ammonium nitrate fertiliser to make explosives to be used in
nationwide bombings in revenge for Britain's support for the United
States after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.


Link: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LAL001866.htm

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. All 5 found guilty got 'life' - with minimum sentences between 35 and 40 years

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6195914.stm

[varun]

7. All of them had connections to Pakistan

- our true and trusted "ally".