AP : Airline Plot Suspects Made Martyr Videos

Airline Plot Suspects Made Martyr Videos

By DAVID STRINGER | April 4, 2008

LONDON (AP) — British Muslims who plotted coordinated bomb attacks on trans-Atlantic airliners said in martyr videos they were seeking revenge for U.S. and British military action in Iraq and Afghanistan, a prosecutor said Friday.

Prosecutor Peter Wright told jurors at a London trial that at least six members of the gang videotaped messages, some praising al-Qaida's founder, Osama bin Laden.

Eight men planned to strike at least seven jetliners bound for the United States and Canada — targeting flights to major cities such as New York, Washington and Toronto, Wright said.

Prosecutors calculated that about 1,500 people on board the passenger jets — and potentially scores more on the ground if the planes exploded over cities — could have been killed if the attacks had been carried out.

Wright showed a jury clips of several videotapes in which the men each sat alone in front of a black flag inscribed with a message in Arabic.

In one, Umar Islam, 29, angrily wagged a finger at the camera, denouncing the U.S. and Britain for their role in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories.

"This is revenge for the actions of the U.S. in the Muslim lands and their accomplices — the British and the Jews," Islam said, wearing a black and white checkered headscarf.

Arafat Waheed Khan, 26, was seen in a clip of another tape wearing a similar headscarf and seated in front of the same flag.

"I say to the nonbelievers, as you bomb, you will be bombed. As you kill, you will be killed," Islam said in his message, referring to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, said bin Laden had warned the West to expect carnage. "Now the time has come for you to be destroyed," he said.

Islam lambasted the British public, saying they deserved to suffer because they cared more about football 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.

Wright told the jury Thursday that the group had expressed hopes of recruiting as many as 18 suicide bombers.

Seven United Airlines, American Airlines and Air Canada flights from London's Heathrow airport to Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Washington, Toronto and Montreal had been singled out for attack, he said.

Though no specific date had been selected, research conducted by the cell indicated the group planned to strike in a single afternoon in late 2006, Wright said.

He said the plotters planned to smuggle hydrogen peroxide-based explosives on board, injecting the mix into bottles of Lucozade and other soda drinks and using a hollowed out camera battery to hide a detonator.

A suitcase buried by another of the suspects, Assad Sarwar, 27, in a woodland at Kingswood, in High Wycombe, west of London, contained explosives and bomb making equipment, Wright said.

Wright acknowledged the men had not yet assembled a viable device before their arrest.

"The successful creation of a viable device was only a matter of time," he said.

Wright showed a jury a video of an experiment by government scientists using the same ingredients to create working bombs. Thick panels of reinforced glass shattered as the small device 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.

Airlines imposed tough new limits on the amount of liquids and gels — and types of carry-on luggage — passengers can take on flights as a result of the alleged plot.

Major disruption was caused to British airports and hundreds of flights were grounded when police arrested the suspects in August 2006.

All eight men, each of whom has ties to Pakistan, deny charges of conspiracy to murder and a charge of planning an act of violence likely to endanger the safety of an aircraft. Both offenses carry maximum sentences of life imprisonment.

Wright said Sarwar had not planned to join others in carrying out the suicide bombings. He had additional plans, Wright said, 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.

In addition to Islam, Khan, Ali and Sarwar, the defendants are Tanvir Hussain, 27; Mohammed Gulzar, 26; Ibrahim Savant, 27; and Waheed Zaman, 23.