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Khawaja alleged to have worked on detonators for U.K. domestic terrorists
May 01, 2007 04:30 AM
Sandro Contenta
FEATURE WRITER
Five British men convicted yesterday in an international plot were the first "homegrown" terrorists inspired by Al Qaeda to murder fellow citizens on British soil, police say.
Sentenced to life in jail, they blazed a terror trail followed by a growing number of cells in Britain, where 1,600 people are actively plotting attacks at home and abroad, according to the MI5 intelligence agency.
The year-long trial heard that the men were radicalized by local imams, motivated by U.S.-led wars on Muslim countries and trained in Al Qaeda-linked guerrilla camps in Pakistan.
Ottawa resident Momin Khawaja is accused of conspiring with the five to blow up sites in Britain – ranging from shopping centres to the House of Commons – with 600 kilograms of ammonium nitrate fertilizer in homemade bombs.
Khawaja, to be tried in Ottawa later this year, insists he is innocent.
British plots involving men who met suspected Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan include the scheme that resulted in yesterday's convictions, the foiled attempt last summer to blow up a dozen airliners en route from London to the U.S., and the July 7, 2005 suicide bomb attacks on London's transit system.
All but one of the men convicted yesterday – British citizens aged 23 to 35 – have family roots in Pakistan. They were arrested in March 2004, months after several of them received training in explosives at a camp near the Afghan border.
"It was the first time since 9/11 that we in the U.K. had seen a group of British men intent on committing mass murder against their fellow citizens," said Scotland Yard's Peter Clarke, Britain's top anti-terrorist police officer.
Praise for the police turned sour when a court-ordered ban on one piece of evidence was lifted at the end of the trial: British security agents, who had the fertilizer bomb plotters under surveillance, witnessed them meeting two of the four suicide bombers who went on to kill 52 people in London in what became known as the 7/7 attacks.
There's no evidence suggesting Khawaja took part in meetings with the London suicide bombers. But prosecutors allege he attended an Al Qaeda-linked training camp in Pakistan in summer 2003 – the same time Sidique Khan, the ringleader in the London attacks, attended a guerrilla camp there.
Khawaja has been charged in Canada with participating in or contributing to the activities of a terrorist group and facilitating terrorist activity. The 26-year-old software developer has pleaded not guilty. He was arrested in Ottawa March 29, 2004, a day before six Britons were detained in London and nearby towns, and a seventh in Pakistan. Omar Khyam, 25, Anthony Garcia, 25, Jawad Akbar, 23, Waheed Mahmood, 35, and Salahuddin Amin, 32, were found guilty of conspiring to cause explosions likely to endanger life. Two other suspects, Shujah Mahmood and Nabeel Hussain, were found not guilty.
The backgrounds of some suggest full integration into British life: Khyam, considered the ringleader, led his school cricket team in Crawley, south of London; Garcia, a rap and basketball fan, changed his Arabic name to improve his modelling career.
Police surveillance tapes caught gang members discussing sites for possible bomb attacks, injecting poison in beer cans sold at a soccer game, and crashing a British Airways plane with 30 suicide attackers.
In one conversation, Akbar suggested bombing the `kufs,' a derogatory term for non-Muslims, in a London nightclub.
"The biggest nightclub in central London, no one can put their hands up and say they are innocent – those slags dancing around," Akbar says. "When we kill the kuf, this is because we know Allah hates the kufs."
Crown prosecutor David Waters described Khawaja as having played a "vital role" in the plot and accused him of starting to work on detonators for the bombs in November 2003. He allegedly discussed ways of smuggling them into Britain.
Khawaja's lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, told Canadian Press that he doesn't expect yesterday's verdicts to have an impact on his client's trial.
"Given that we're proceeding in front of a judge alone, (the verdicts and evidence) should not have an impact on the judge's reasoning or on his deliberations," Greenspon said.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
Email story
Choose text size
Report typo or correction
Email the author
License this article
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Khawaja alleged to have worked on detonators for U.K. domestic terrorists
May 01, 2007 04:30 AM
Sandro Contenta
FEATURE WRITER
Five British men convicted yesterday in an international plot were the first "homegrown" terrorists inspired by Al Qaeda to murder fellow citizens on British soil, police say.
Sentenced to life in jail, they blazed a terror trail followed by a growing number of cells in Britain, where 1,600 people are actively plotting attacks at home and abroad, according to the MI5 intelligence agency.
The year-long trial heard that the men were radicalized by local imams, motivated by U.S.-led wars on Muslim countries and trained in Al Qaeda-linked guerrilla camps in Pakistan.
Ottawa resident Momin Khawaja is accused of conspiring with the five to blow up sites in Britain – ranging from shopping centres to the House of Commons – with 600 kilograms of ammonium nitrate fertilizer in homemade bombs.
Khawaja, to be tried in Ottawa later this year, insists he is innocent.
British plots involving men who met suspected Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan include the scheme that resulted in yesterday's convictions, the foiled attempt last summer to blow up a dozen airliners en route from London to the U.S., and the July 7, 2005 suicide bomb attacks on London's transit system.
All but one of the men convicted yesterday – British citizens aged 23 to 35 – have family roots in Pakistan. They were arrested in March 2004, months after several of them received training in explosives at a camp near the Afghan border.
"It was the first time since 9/11 that we in the U.K. had seen a group of British men intent on committing mass murder against their fellow citizens," said Scotland Yard's Peter Clarke, Britain's top anti-terrorist police officer.
Praise for the police turned sour when a court-ordered ban on one piece of evidence was lifted at the end of the trial: British security agents, who had the fertilizer bomb plotters under surveillance, witnessed them meeting two of the four suicide bombers who went on to kill 52 people in London in what became known as the 7/7 attacks.
There's no evidence suggesting Khawaja took part in meetings with the London suicide bombers. But prosecutors allege he attended an Al Qaeda-linked training camp in Pakistan in summer 2003 – the same time Sidique Khan, the ringleader in the London attacks, attended a guerrilla camp there.
Khawaja has been charged in Canada with participating in or contributing to the activities of a terrorist group and facilitating terrorist activity. The 26-year-old software developer has pleaded not guilty. He was arrested in Ottawa March 29, 2004, a day before six Britons were detained in London and nearby towns, and a seventh in Pakistan. Omar Khyam, 25, Anthony Garcia, 25, Jawad Akbar, 23, Waheed Mahmood, 35, and Salahuddin Amin, 32, were found guilty of conspiring to cause explosions likely to endanger life. Two other suspects, Shujah Mahmood and Nabeel Hussain, were found not guilty.
The backgrounds of some suggest full integration into British life: Khyam, considered the ringleader, led his school cricket team in Crawley, south of London; Garcia, a rap and basketball fan, changed his Arabic name to improve his modelling career.
Police surveillance tapes caught gang members discussing sites for possible bomb attacks, injecting poison in beer cans sold at a soccer game, and crashing a British Airways plane with 30 suicide attackers.
In one conversation, Akbar suggested bombing the `kufs,' a derogatory term for non-Muslims, in a London nightclub.
"The biggest nightclub in central London, no one can put their hands up and say they are innocent – those slags dancing around," Akbar says. "When we kill the kuf, this is because we know Allah hates the kufs."
Crown prosecutor David Waters described Khawaja as having played a "vital role" in the plot and accused him of starting to work on detonators for the bombs in November 2003. He allegedly discussed ways of smuggling them into Britain.
Khawaja's lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, told Canadian Press that he doesn't expect yesterday's verdicts to have an impact on his client's trial.
"Given that we're proceeding in front of a judge alone, (the verdicts and evidence) should not have an impact on the judge's reasoning or on his deliberations," Greenspon said.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net