"The Cold-Eyed Certainty of the Fanatic"
Sean O'Neill, Crime & Security Editor
The eight young men sitting in the dock presented a picture of respectability. They were dressed in suits and ties, or smart sweaters, and each had combed his hair carefully or trimmed his beard neatly. But these young Britons, aged from 23 to 29, had allegedly planned and volunteered to take part in a terrorist suicide mission that would have rivalled the barbarity of September 11. The “plot” had been finessed in the East London suburb of Walthamstow and the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, but its impact would have been global.
The intention, it was alleged at Woolwich Crown Court yesterday, was to detonate liquid explosive bombs on seven transatlantic airliners that would have all been in mid-flight. Around 2,000 passengers and crew could have died.
The selected flights would all have left Heathrow over a period of 215 minutes en route for Chicago, San Francisco, New York, Washington, Montreal and Toronto. The prosecution said that some would almost certainly have been in the air over the United States or Canada when the bombs were set off and could have plunged to the ground into a town or city. The fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks was within the date range of August to October 2006 discussed by the terror cell’s leaders.
A jury at Woolwich Crown Court was told that the flights allegedly at risk were operated by three carriers, United Airlines, American Airlines and Air Canada.
Peter Wright, QC, for the prosecution, told the court that a wealth of detailed information about flights and baggage restrictions was found on a USB memory stick in the pocket of one of the alleged ringleaders of the plot. Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, was arrested by police in the car park of Walthamstow Town Hall on the evening of August 9, 2006. Detained with him was Assad Sarwar, 27, of High Wycombe, also alleged to have been a key figure in the conspiracy. The two men had driven to the rendezvous by car.
Mr Sarwar had spent an “industrious” day, said Mr Wright, and had been in frequent contact with Mohammed Gulzar, 26, the third organiser of the conspiracy.
All three sat in the dock, along with five other defendants who are alleged to have volunteered to carry homemade bombs on board aircraft and kill themselves and hundreds of other people.
Mr Wright said: “These men and others were actively involved in a deadly plan designed to bring about what would have been, had they been successful, a civilian death toll from an act of terrorism on an almost unprecedented scale.
“They had the cold-eyed certainty of the fanatic, prepared to board an aircraft with the necessary ingredients and equipment to construct and detonate a device which would bring about not only loss of their own lives but the lives of all those taking that journey.” The seven flights, which, according to Mr Wright, had been researched in detail and highlighted on documents recovered from Mr Ali’s memory stick, all flew daily from Heathrow. The first to leave was bound for San Francisco, while the final two were destined for the cities of New York and Chicago.
Mr Wright said that the alleged conspirators could have set off their bombs when all the aircraft were in the air and the authorities almost powerless to prevent a succession of deadly attacks. The passengers and crew would have been “at the mercy of the suicide bombers who happened to be on board with their devices”. So too, if the bombs were detonated late into the flights, would have been thousands of people on the ground.
Mr Wright added: “A coordinated strike was capable of producing quite catastrophic consequences for the passengers and anyone who happened to be in the path of a stricken aircraft plummeting to earth over a populated part of northern Europe or North America.”
Mr Wright said that although the cell had focused on seven flights, there had been discussions between the planners about other targets, flights from different terminals and as many as 18 people willing to be suicide bombers. Research had also been conducted on flights to Denver, Miami and Boston.
After the arrests police pieced together the nature of the plot, the identitities of the personnel and how far they had got with their preparations. Mr Wright said: “They were almost ready to put the plot into practice – they were not long off.” The trial continues.
‘Seven planes, eight plotters’
The charges
All the defendants face two charges which they deny:
1. Conspiracy to murder: that between January 1, 2006, and August 11, 2006, they conspired with others to murder persons unknown.
2. Conspiracy to commit an act of violence likely to endanger the safety of an aircraft: that between January 1, 2006, and August 11, 2006, they conspired with others to commit an act of violence, namely an explosion on board an aircraft in flight likely to endanger the safety of the said aircraft.
The court heard that seven highlighted flights departed daily from Heathrow Terminal 3 within two hours and 35 minutes of each other.
The seven flights
1415 United Airlines Flight 931 to San Francisco
1500 Air Canada Flight 849 to Toronto
1515 Air Canada Flight 865 to Montreal
1540 United Airlines Flight 959 to Chicago
1620 United Airlines Flight 925 to Washington
1635 American Airlines Flight 139 to New York
1650 American Airlines Flight 91 to Chicago
The prosecutor
Peter Wright, QC, who successfully prosecuted the Ipswich prostitute murders case at the beginning of the year, leads the prosecution team. Mr Wright took silk in 1999 and is the first person to hold the appointments of Queen’s Counsel and Treasury Counsel. He was a member of the prosecution team at the trial of Harold Shipman in 2000.
The judge
Mr Justice Calvert-Smith is a former Director of Public Prosecutions and has been a High Court judge since 2005. He is the judge appointed to oversee the conduct of all major terrorism trials.
SOURCE
The eight young men sitting in the dock presented a picture of respectability. They were dressed in suits and ties, or smart sweaters, and each had combed his hair carefully or trimmed his beard neatly. But these young Britons, aged from 23 to 29, had allegedly planned and volunteered to take part in a terrorist suicide mission that would have rivalled the barbarity of September 11. The “plot” had been finessed in the East London suburb of Walthamstow and the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, but its impact would have been global.
The intention, it was alleged at Woolwich Crown Court yesterday, was to detonate liquid explosive bombs on seven transatlantic airliners that would have all been in mid-flight. Around 2,000 passengers and crew could have died.
The selected flights would all have left Heathrow over a period of 215 minutes en route for Chicago, San Francisco, New York, Washington, Montreal and Toronto. The prosecution said that some would almost certainly have been in the air over the United States or Canada when the bombs were set off and could have plunged to the ground into a town or city. The fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks was within the date range of August to October 2006 discussed by the terror cell’s leaders.
A jury at Woolwich Crown Court was told that the flights allegedly at risk were operated by three carriers, United Airlines, American Airlines and Air Canada.
Peter Wright, QC, for the prosecution, told the court that a wealth of detailed information about flights and baggage restrictions was found on a USB memory stick in the pocket of one of the alleged ringleaders of the plot. Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, was arrested by police in the car park of Walthamstow Town Hall on the evening of August 9, 2006. Detained with him was Assad Sarwar, 27, of High Wycombe, also alleged to have been a key figure in the conspiracy. The two men had driven to the rendezvous by car.
Mr Sarwar had spent an “industrious” day, said Mr Wright, and had been in frequent contact with Mohammed Gulzar, 26, the third organiser of the conspiracy.
All three sat in the dock, along with five other defendants who are alleged to have volunteered to carry homemade bombs on board aircraft and kill themselves and hundreds of other people.
“These men were known to each other and shared a common interest – an interest that involved inflicting heavy casualties upon an innocent civilian population all in the name of Islam,” Mr Wright said. The group’s plan was to carry out a “series of coordinated and deadly explosions” as their target aircraft were in mid-air, he said. He added: “These men were indifferent to the carnage that was likely to ensue if their plan was successful. The identities of their victims was irrelevant. What they intended to bring about was a violent and deadly statement of intent that would have had a truly global impact.”They had drawn up detailed plans for the construction of improvised explosive devices which would have been disguised in soft-drink bottles and carried on board flights as hand luggage. The bombs would have been assembled in flight and the devices detonated to deadly effect.
Mr Wright said: “These men and others were actively involved in a deadly plan designed to bring about what would have been, had they been successful, a civilian death toll from an act of terrorism on an almost unprecedented scale.
“They had the cold-eyed certainty of the fanatic, prepared to board an aircraft with the necessary ingredients and equipment to construct and detonate a device which would bring about not only loss of their own lives but the lives of all those taking that journey.” The seven flights, which, according to Mr Wright, had been researched in detail and highlighted on documents recovered from Mr Ali’s memory stick, all flew daily from Heathrow. The first to leave was bound for San Francisco, while the final two were destined for the cities of New York and Chicago.
Mr Wright said that the alleged conspirators could have set off their bombs when all the aircraft were in the air and the authorities almost powerless to prevent a succession of deadly attacks. The passengers and crew would have been “at the mercy of the suicide bombers who happened to be on board with their devices”. So too, if the bombs were detonated late into the flights, would have been thousands of people on the ground.
Mr Wright added: “A coordinated strike was capable of producing quite catastrophic consequences for the passengers and anyone who happened to be in the path of a stricken aircraft plummeting to earth over a populated part of northern Europe or North America.”
Mr Wright said that although the cell had focused on seven flights, there had been discussions between the planners about other targets, flights from different terminals and as many as 18 people willing to be suicide bombers. Research had also been conducted on flights to Denver, Miami and Boston.
After the arrests police pieced together the nature of the plot, the identitities of the personnel and how far they had got with their preparations. Mr Wright said: “They were almost ready to put the plot into practice – they were not long off.” The trial continues.
‘Seven planes, eight plotters’
The charges
All the defendants face two charges which they deny:
1. Conspiracy to murder: that between January 1, 2006, and August 11, 2006, they conspired with others to murder persons unknown.
2. Conspiracy to commit an act of violence likely to endanger the safety of an aircraft: that between January 1, 2006, and August 11, 2006, they conspired with others to commit an act of violence, namely an explosion on board an aircraft in flight likely to endanger the safety of the said aircraft.
The court heard that seven highlighted flights departed daily from Heathrow Terminal 3 within two hours and 35 minutes of each other.
The seven flights
1415 United Airlines Flight 931 to San Francisco
1500 Air Canada Flight 849 to Toronto
1515 Air Canada Flight 865 to Montreal
1540 United Airlines Flight 959 to Chicago
1620 United Airlines Flight 925 to Washington
1635 American Airlines Flight 139 to New York
1650 American Airlines Flight 91 to Chicago
The prosecutor
Peter Wright, QC, who successfully prosecuted the Ipswich prostitute murders case at the beginning of the year, leads the prosecution team. Mr Wright took silk in 1999 and is the first person to hold the appointments of Queen’s Counsel and Treasury Counsel. He was a member of the prosecution team at the trial of Harold Shipman in 2000.
The judge
Mr Justice Calvert-Smith is a former Director of Public Prosecutions and has been a High Court judge since 2005. He is the judge appointed to oversee the conduct of all major terrorism trials.
SOURCE
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