From the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (The UK’s formal name).
Jet plot suspects recorded martyr videos
LONDON – In chilling videos shown to a jury Friday, men accused of plotting to bring down jetliners over the Atlantic called for revenge for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and praised Osama bin Laden.
Six of the eight defendants videotaped messages denouncing the West for what they said was its suppression of Muslims, prosecutor Peter Wright said as he outlined his case to jurors at a London court.
The defendants, all Britons with ties to Pakistan, are accused of plotting to blow up at least seven jetliners bound for the United States and Canada in 2006.
Some of the group were heard on secret police surveillance discussing plans to take their wives and young children on the suicide missions, Wright said.
Wright showed a jury clips of the so-called martyr videos, recorded for distribution after the attacks. Each man wore a black-and-white checkered head scarf and sat alone in front of a black flag inscribed with a message in Arabic.
“I say to the nonbelievers, as you bomb, you will be bombed. As you kill, you will be killed,” said Umar Islam, 29, as he angrily wagged a finger at the camera, denouncing the U.S. and Britain for their role in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories.
Another defendant, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, predicted waves of new attacks on the United States and Britain.
“We will take our revenge and anger, ripping amongst your people and scattering the people … decorating the streets,” he said.
Islam lambasted the British public, saying they deserved to suffer because they cared more about sports and television soap operas than the plight of Muslims.
“Most of them are too busy watching ‘Home And Away’ and ‘EastEnders,’ complaining about the World Cup, drinking your alcohol, to care about anything,” he said.
All the defendants “expressed similar chilling sentiment in their respective videos,” Wright said. The footage, in which the suspects spoke in English, was not publicly released.
Prosecutors calculated about 1,500 people on board the passenger jets — and potentially many more on the ground if the planes exploded over cities — could have been killed if the planned coordinated attacks had been carried out.
Soft drink bottles injected with hydrogen peroxide-based explosives were to be smuggled on board and bombs assembled in jetliner toilets, Wright said. A hollowed-out camera battery was to be used to hide a detonator.
Major disruption was caused to British airports and hundreds of flights were grounded when police arrested the suspects in August 2006. Airlines quickly imposed tough new limits on the amount of liquids and gels — and types of carryon luggage — passengers can take on flights.
Wright told the jury Thursday the group had expressed hopes of recruiting as many as 18 suicide bombers.
Seven flights from London’s Heathrow airport to Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Washington, Toronto and Montreal were singled out for attack, Wright said.
The cell planned to strike all seven in a single afternoon in late 2006, though a precise date had not been selected, he said.
Wright said the group purchased an apartment in a London row house and used it as a bomb factory and had collected large quantities of hydrogen peroxide for use as explosives.
Wright acknowledged the men had not been able to assemble a viable bomb, but he insisted they were close to achieving success.
He showed a jury a video of an experiment by government scientists using the same ingredients to create explosives. Thick panels of reinforced glass shattered as the bomb exploded, spraying shrapnel across a laboratory.
In a pressurized airliner cabin at 30,000 feet, the same explosion would have caused a “devastating and lethal effect,” Wright said.
All eight men deny charges of conspiracy to murder and planning an act of violence likely to endanger the safety of an aircraft. Both offenses carry maximum sentences of life imprisonment.
Wright said one defendant, Assad Sarwar, had not planned to join the others in carrying out the suicide bombings. He was plotting to cripple nuclear power stations, a European gas pipeline, Britain’s electricity grid, an airport control tower and the main exchange for Britain’s Internet Service providers, the prosecutor said.
A suitcase buried by Sarwar, 27, in a wooded area at Kingswood, in High Wycombe, west of London, contained explosives and bomb-making equipment, Wright said.
In addition to Islam, Ali and Sarwar, the defendants are Arafat Waheed Khan, 26; Tanvir Hussain, 27; Mohammed Gulzar, 26; Ibrahim Savant, 27; and Waheed Zaman, 23.
These fools may have a single point in their delussional hatred: People may be too wrapped up in “American Idol”, Political Correctness, and other Western cultural aspects to see the clear and present danger manifested by these islamofascists.
More on Assad Sarwar:
Islamist Hoped to Strike Nuclear Plants
LONDON (AP) – A man accused of plotting to down trans-Atlantic airliners was also developing plans to cripple nuclear power stations, a European gas pipeline and Britain’s electricity grid, a prosecutor told a court Friday.
Assad Sarwar, 27, a British Muslim with ties to Islamic radicals in Pakistan, also wanted to destroy the main exchange for Britain’s Internet service providers and target an airport control tower, prosecutor Peter Wright said.
Wright said Sarwar decided not to join the seven other defendants in carrying out their planned suicide mission to blow up at least seven flights to the United States and Canada.
“On the evidence you may conclude he had other terrestrial targets in mind as well,” he said.
All eight defendants have denied the charges.
Sarwar compiled detailed information on London’s Canary Wharf finance district, a Belgium-Britain gas pipeline, Britain’s electricity grid and oil refineries for possible attacks, Wright said.
He also stored information about an air traffic control tower at London’s Heathrow airport on a computer memory stick.
“The horizon of Sarwar’s terrorist ambition, we say, was limitless,” Wright said.In a diary, Sarwar made references to the Fawley oil refinery, in Hampshire in southern England, the Coryton oil refinery in Essex in southeast England, and Kingsbury oil terminal in central England.
Sarwar visited Pakistan between June 13 and July 8, 2006 _ likely to confer with Islamist leaders over the planned jetliner attacks, Wright said.
Things to remember from more than one TV Season ago: In the US we also had and most likely still have Islamists conducting recon on US facilities, large buildings, water reserves, military bases, and hospitals.
most terrorists look like retards.