Liquid bomb plot

How the plot began - and how it was smashed:

This case shows how over-zealous police can imagine all sorts of fictional stuff if they are given free reign.

These men were panning to blow up London but they
were wrongly accused of trying to blow up seven American airplanes all at once killing 3000 passengers.

Nevertheless, they are British born and bred muslim terrorists.

We should be united in condemning their plans.

The three men Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain were planning to kill people in London in 2006.

These men are a disgrace to the muslim community.

After following this case, my faith in our courts is restored.

The jury did not buy everything claimed by the police.

They evaluated the evidence independently and made their own judgement.

Well done Woolwich Crown Court!!

Court saved a lot of British lives, and at the same time, delivered proper juctice.

I am pleased today.

Read the whole story below:

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'Airliners plot': The allegations

BBC Thursday, 3 April 2008

The trial of eight men accused of a plan to suicide-bomb passenger planes has begun at Woolwich Crown Court in south London.

The eight men all deny conspiring to murder others and endangering aircraft.

Below are the key allegations in the prosecution's introduction to what is expected to be a long and complicated case.

THE PLAN

Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, opened the trial saying the men had intended to target planes leaving the UK for North America.

Some of the men intended to take a home-made explosive on board the flights and detonate it themselves.

The prosecution says the explosions would have been co-ordinated and that the plot was nearing the moment of completion when arrests were made.

Some of the men were under surveillance, the court heard. The security services watched two of the men in a flat on Forest Road, Walthamstow, as they made "final preparations", said Mr Wright.

THE TARGETS

The alleged plan was to target a series of planes leaving from Heathrow Airport for North America. Police say they found a list of flights on a memory stick belonging to Mr Ali following his arrest. The memory stick allegedly listed scheduled flights from three carriers - America Airlines, United Airlines and Air Canada:

1415 UA931 LHR-SAN FRANCISCO (United Airlines)
1500 AC849 LHR-TORONTO (Air Canada)
1515 AC865 LHR-MONTREAL (Air Canada)
1540 UA959 LHR-CHICAGO (United)
1620 UA925 LHR-WASHINGTON
1635 AA131 LHR-NEW YORK (American Airlines)
1650 AA91 LHR-CHICAGO (American)

Prosecutors say the alleged plotters would ensure that all the targeted planes were in the air before putting their plan into operation. In other words, the alleged bombings would take place in sequence - but the authorities would not be able to intervene. The allegedly targeted planes would all be either 777, 767 or 763 jets able to each carry between 241 and 285 people.

Prosecutors say the trial will reveal that the two main conspirators talked of targeting up to 18 flights.

THE BOMBS

The bombs the men allegedly planned to use would be home-made. Each alleged bomber would board a plane with the "necessary ingredients and equipment".

They would then construct the devices mid-flight and detonate them.

The prosecution say the trial will show that the alleged bombers' devices would be sufficient to "cause a loss of their own lives but also all of those who happened by chance to be taking the same journey".

The alleged bombs would involve 500ml plastic bottles of the Oasis and Lucozade soft drinks. A sugary drink powder, Tang, would be mixed with hydrogen peroxide, used as a hair bleach, and other organic materials.

Hydrogen peroxide and the other ingredients can become explosive if mixed to a specific strength. Mr Wright said hydrogen peroxide had been used in "previous terrorist incidents".

The mixture would be injected into a bottle with the help of a syringe. The bottle's cap would not have been removed and the hole would have been resealed, said Mr Wright.

A second substance, a type of high explosive, would be hidden within an AA battery to form the small charge required to detonate the main bomb.

The charge would be detonated, said Mr Wright, by linking the bottle of explosives to a lightbulb and a disposable camera. The charge from the camera's flash unit would be enough to trigger the explosion, he said. The BBC has not comprehensively detailed the alleged bombs' composition.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7329221.stm
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'Astonishment' at terror verdicts

BBC - Monday, 8 September 2008 18:33 UK

Operation Overt was a massive security operation to smash what prosecutors said was a plot to murder people using liquid bombs on planes. Three men have been convicted of conspiracy to murder - but the jury was unable to decide whether or not they planned to target planes.

The defence ridiculed the picture painted of their client, saying prosecutors were presenting the defendant as a cross between Carlos the Jackal and spoof spy Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7604808.stm
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'Astonishment' at terror verdicts

BBC - Tuesday, 9 September 2008 13:04 UK

Counter-terrorism officials are said to be "dismayed" by the outcome of a trial in which eight men were accused of a plot to blow up transatlantic planes.

Three men were convicted of conspiracy to murder but the jury did not convict any defendant of targeting aircraft. One man was cleared of all charges.

The BBC's Frank Gardner said there had been "astonishment" in Whitehall as the evidence was considered to be strong.

Prosecutors have until the end of the month to consider a retrial of the men.

Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain were convicted of conspiracy to murder but a jury was unable to reach verdicts on the other charge.

The court was also unable to reach any verdicts on four other men.

The men had been accused of plotting to bring down transatlantic airliners with home-made liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks.

Sweeping airport restrictions on liquids in hand luggage were brought in following the arrests in August 2006.

Limits remain

Despite the verdicts, the government said the case had proven it was possible to "create liquid bombs from domestic items" and that limits would remain in place.

A statement from the Department for Transport said: "Aircraft could be vulnerable to such devices so we are right to continue to require restrictions for liquids carried as hand luggage."

Efforts to develop new detection methods which would allow the restrictions to be eased would continue, it added.

Frank Gardner, the BBC's security correspondent, said counter-terrorism officials had thought it was an open-and-shut case, with the strongest evidence yet in a British terror trial.

Police and prosecutors expected the jury to accept the alleged links between the accused, al-Qaeda and a fleet of transatlantic airliners, he said.

But as these links did not stand up, the recriminations were beginning, he added.

An official close to the investigation when the men were arrested has told the BBC the US government was partly to blame.

The official said it had pressed Pakistan into making arrests before all the legal evidence had been gathered.

'Airport chaos'

Seven men admitted plotting to cause a public nuisance. An eighth man was cleared at Woolwich Crown Court.

But after more than 50 hours of deliberations, the jury did not find any of the defendants guilty of conspiring to target aircraft.

The jury was unable to reach verdicts on charges relating to the alleged plot to blow up aircraft in respect of Ali, Sarwar and Hussein.

And jurors were unable to reach verdicts on those charges or conspiracy to murder charges against Ibrahim Savant, 27, of Stoke Newington, Umar Islam, 30, of Plaistow, and Waheed Zaman, 24, and Arafat Waheed Khan, 27, both of Walthamstow, all London.

Mohammad Gulzar, 27, of Barking, east London, was found not guilty on both counts.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the police and security services had saved "countless" lives by disrupting the group.

Professor Michael Clarke, the director of the Royal United Services Institute, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the pressure for early arrests may have come from President Bush - even though he had reportedly been advised to wait by the then prime minister, Tony Blair.

Prof Clarke said the case reflected the different approaches of the British and the Americans.

"The United States say they are in a 'war against terror' and all they want to do is smash any conspiracies.

"What we're concerned with is a criminal justice approach. What we want is evidence that would be admissible in court because for us this is an issue of criminality.

"For the British, the evidence will never be better than the night before the plot is sprung. For the Americans when you see a plot you break it."

Recorded videos

The court heard prosecutors allege that the eight men were planning to carry liquid explosives on to planes at Heathrow, knowing the devices would evade airport security checks.

Police said the plot had been inspired by al-Qaeda in Pakistan - and the August 2006 arrests caused chaos at airports throughout the country.

But in their defence, the seven men, who had recorded videos denouncing Western foreign policy, said they had only planned to cause a political spectacle and not to kill anyone.

Ali, the ringleader, of Walthamstow, east London, created home-made liquid explosives in a flat which prosecutors said were designed to evade airport security.

He and five of the others - Mr Savant, Mr Islam, Mr Zaman, Hussain and Mr Khan - had recorded what the prosecution alleged were "martyrdom videos" denouncing the West and urging Muslims to fight.
Prosecutors said the bombers would then have completed and detonated the devices during their flights once all the targeted planes had taken off.

The plot came to light after the largest ever surveillance operation involving officers from both MI5, the Metropolitan Police and other forces around the country.

Ali, Sarwar and Hussain, along with Mr Savant, Mr Islam, Mr Khan, and Mr Zaman, also admitted conspiring to cause a public nuisance by making videos threatening bombings.

VERDICTS

Conspiracy to murder:
Abdulla Ahmed Ali
Assad Sarwar
Tanvir Hussain
One man not guilty

No verdicts on four others

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7605583.stm
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'Astonishment' at terror verdicts

By Dominic Casciani - BBC News - Tuesday, 9 September 2008

An unprecedented surveillance operation with hundreds of police officers, and a plot that prosecutors said was unparalleled in its terrible ambition.

The jury at Woolwich Crown Court could not agree on whether plotters were planning a mass suicide attack against airliners with home-made liquid bombs - but three men are now facing very long sentences after being found guilty nevertheless of a conspiracy to murder.

Prosecutors had told the court that the bombs were intended for planes - the bombs were ingeniously small and the ringleader had a record of scheduled flights to the US.

But the bombs were never fully constructed - and tickets had neither been bought nor plans to travel made. And in the case of four of the accused - men who recorded alleged "martyrdom videos" - the jury could not reach a verdict, making a retrial highly likely.

The race to bring the men to justice took place over a matter of weeks.

The story of what the police call Operation Overt begins in the aftermath of al-Qaeda's 9/11 attacks on America.

The trial heard how the Islamic Medical Association, a charity shop in Clapton, east London, raised money and collected equipment to send to refugee camps on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Most of those who donated to the shop only ever saw what was happening around the world on their television screens.

But some of the defendants in this trial believed passionately in aiding fellow Muslims and undertook voluntary work at the charity's Chatsworth Road base.

Four of them went on to deliver aid - and their experiences in those camps radically altered their worldview.

The camps existed before 2001 but grew in the wake of the US-led invasion in Afghanistan.

Abdulla Ahmed Ali, the ringleader, told the trial he had been shocked by "appalling" conditions in the camps. His anger was compounded by the failure of the 2003 mass protest against the Iraq war.

The anger felt by men like Ahmed Ali accelerated the political and theological debate among hard-line Islamists over whether the UK was a legitimate target for attacks.

And as the security services watched individuals moving in these circles, Ahmed Ali and his friends became of interest.

MI5 officers twice approached Arafat Khan - Ahmed Ali's old school friend and one of those who may be tried again - the court heard.

Baggage opened

And when Ahmed Ali himself returned from Pakistan in June 2006, investigators secretly opened his baggage. Inside they found a strange powdered soft drink, Tang, and a large number of batteries.

It was enough to raise suspicions and in the following weeks, the police mounted the UK's largest surveillance operation, calling on an additional 220 officers from other forces.

Assad Sarwar, the High Wycombe man convicted as the quartermaster of the plot, was seen busily buying items that did not fit with his daily needs - and more importantly had a potentially deadly context.

On one occasion, surveillance officers even saw him dispose of empty hydrogen peroxide bottles at a recycling centre. Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical used legitimately as a hair bleach but also useful for bomb-making.

Sarwar and Ahmed Ali were seen meeting in an east London park rather than indoors. It smacked of a counter-surveillance ploy.

When MI5 secretly broke into a flat being used by Ahmed Ali, what they found alarmed them further - it appeared to be a possible bomb factory.

They left behind a camera and microphone, and on 3 August Ahmed Ali and Tanvir Husain were seen constructing devices out of drink bottles.

And here was the puzzling thing - if these were bombs, why were they so small?

During one bugged conversation in the bomb factory, the security services heard some of the men reviewing the plans and talking of "18 or 19".

We do not know if that means 19 devices, 19 targets or 19 conspirators - the same number as those who hijacked planes on 11 September 2001.

According to the evidence heard in court, on 6 August 2006 surveillance officers watched Ahmed Ali spend two hours in an internet cafe researching flight timetables.

Prosecutors alleged that the bombs did not need to be big because they were designed to blow a small hole in the fuselage.

In 2001 Richard Reid tried to bring down a jet with a small explosive device in his shoe.

Saajid Badat, his accomplice who backed out of boarding another flight, revealed they had learned their skills in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Counter-terrorism chiefs had been expecting jihadists to try again - and this appeared to be it.

But after 50 hours of deliberations, the jury simply could not decide. The defendants argued in court that they had never intended to attack planes.

Ahmed Ali told the court his idea stopped at letting off a small device at Heathrow to frighten people as part of a political statement.

Deep links

This was not a plot developed in isolation, seemingly out of nowhere - and BBC News can also reveal deeper links between some of these defendants and other men convicted of terrorist offences.

Mohammed Hamid is another east London man who helped out at the same charity shop as some of the convicted defendants. He took seven containers of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan in early 2002.

In 2008 he was convicted of organising terrorism training camps in the UK. One of his camps in the Lake District included the 21 July 2005 London bomb plotters.

The ringleader of that plot, Muktar Ibrahim, was in phone contact with Ahmed Ali, according to mobile records recovered by detectives. Contact between their phones stopped when both men went to Pakistan in late 2004.

Detectives believe the 21 July ringleader received bomb-making training in a secret camp during this period - as did a third man - Mohammad Sidique Khan, the leader of the 7 July London suicide bombers.

What happened in Pakistan, and who these plotters met, remains a mystery for now.

The real common factor in the lives of all those so far convicted, in all the trials we have seen during the past three years is far easier to identify: a simple and seething anger over British and American foreign policy and an overwhelming belief that Muslims are its victims.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7564184.stm
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BBC - Monday, 8 September 2008

Three guilty of bomb conspiracy

Three men have been found guilty of a massive terrorist conspiracy to murder involving home-made bombs.

Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain's convictions follow a huge terrorism inquiry, which led to sweeping airport restrictions.

The three, and a further five men, were not convicted on charges of plotting to bomb transatlantic airliners.

Seven men admitted plotting to cause a public nuisance. An eighth man was cleared at Woolwich Crown Court.

'Inspired by al-Qaeda'

The group had been accused of plotting to bring down transatlantic airliners with home-made liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks.

But after more than 50 hours of deliberations, the jury did not find any of the defendants guilty of conspiring to target aircraft.

The jury was unable to reach verdicts on charges relating to the alleged plot to blow up aircraft in respect of Ali, Sarwar and Hussein.

And jurors were unable to reach verdicts on those charges or conspiracy to murder charges against Ibrahim Savant, 27, of Stoke Newington, Umar Islam, 30, of Plaistow, and Waheed Zaman, 24, and Arafat Waheed Khan, 27, both of Walthamstow, all London.

Mohammad Gulzar, 27, of Barking, east London, was found not guilty on both counts.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the police and security services had saved "countless" lives by disrupting the group.

The court heard prosecutors allege that the eight men were planning to carry liquid explosives on to planes at Heathrow, knowing the devices would evade airport security checks.

Police said the plot had been inspired by al-Qaeda in Pakistan - and the August 2006 arrests caused chaos at airports throughout the country.

The court heard that the alleged plot could have caused unprecedented casualties, with a global political impact similar to the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

But in their defence, the seven men who had recorded videos denouncing Western foreign policy said they had only planned to cause a political spectacle and not to kill anyone at all.

The ringleader, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, of Walthamstow, east London, created home-made liquid explosives in a flat which prosecutors said were designed to evade airport security.

He and five of the others - Savant, Islam, Zaman, Hussain and Khan - had recorded what the prosecution alleged were "martyrdom videos" denouncing the West and urging Muslims to fight.

Prosecutors said the bombers would then have completed and detonated the devices during their flights once all the targeted planes had taken off.

'Political spectacle'

Sarwar, 28, of High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, was said in court to be the quartermaster of the plot, buying supplies needed to make the bombs.

Prosecutors said that Mr Gulzar had flown into the country to oversee the plot's final stages - something he vehemently denied during the trial.

The plot came to light after the largest ever surveillance operation involving officers from both MI5, the Metropolitan Police and other forces around the country.

Ali, Sarwar and Hussain told the jury they had wanted to create a political spectacle in protest over foreign policy. It would have included fake suicide videos and devices that would frighten rather than kill the public.

Ali, Sarwar and Hussain, along with Savant, Islam, Khan, and Zaman, also admitted conspiring to cause a public nuisance by making videos threatening bombings.

'Considering retrial'

The home secretary said: "I am indebted to the police and security services who, by successfully disrupting this group, have saved countless lives.

"I would also thank the Crown Prosecution Service which has worked tirelessly to ensure that these individuals have been brought to justice.

"I am sure they will now consider what to do where no verdict was reached."

The Crown Prosecution Service said the case "is still the subject of ongoing proceedings, and the prosecution is considering a request for a retrial in respect of the plot to blow up airliners against all seven men upon which the jury could not agree."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7528483.stm
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