Three guilty of transatlantic bomb plot
Crown alleged British cell planned to use liquid bombs to blow up at least seven airliners with 1,500 people on board
Vikram Dodd | September 7, 2009
Three people were convicted today of plotting to blow up planes heading across the Atlantic from London in what would have been the biggest terrorist outrage since the September 11 attacks on America in 2001.
The crown had alleged that the British cell planned to smuggle liquid bombs on to planes and blow up at least seven airliners heading to North America with at least 1,500 people on board. The bombs were so ingenious that they would have evaded airport security.
The plot was disrupted in August 2006 when the men were arrested. The discovery of the cell, which was based in London and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire and intent on launching what counterterrorism officials say was an al-Qaida-inspired suicide mission, led to weeks of chaos at airports in Britain and the US.
The restrictions imposed afterwards on the liquids travellers can take in hand luggage remain in force. Additional security measures brought in since the arrests continue to cause disruption and delays at the UK's busiest airports.
Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain were found guilty of conspiring to murder crew and passengers on transatlantic flights.
The crown said the men planned to smuggle on board components of a liquid bomb disguised as soft drinks to bypass airport security. The devices would have been assembled during the flight.
Video footage of tests conducted by government scientists, which were played to the jury, showed the devices producing an explosion powerful enough to blow a hole in an aircraft fuselage.
MI5 had captured incriminating statements using covert listening and video devices planted in the east London flat that the cell used as a bomb factory.
US and UK intelligence officials believe the cell was directed by al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan. The final days of the plot, before the arrests were made, saw the US president at the time, George Bush, being briefed by Tony Blair on developments.
Washington pressed Britain to arrest the men earlier than police had planned, but Scotland Yard wanted to let the cell – which was under the tightest surveillance – continue so more evidence could be gathered to put before a jury.
The arrest in Pakistan, also at the urging of the US, of the plot's alleged mastermind, Birmingham-born Rashid Rauf, led UK police to bring their own arrests forward. Scotland Yard and MI5 feared if the UK cell learned of Rauf's arrest they would either try to escape or rush forward their attack, fearing imminent capture.
Ali, 28, of Walthamstow, east London; Sarwar, 29, of High Wycombe; and Hussain, 28, of Leyton, east London, were among eight defendants at the six-month trial at Woolwich crown court.
Four others were found not guilty of the same charge. They were Ibrahim Savant, 28, of Stoke Newington, north London; Arafat Waheed Khan, 28, of Walthamstow; Waheed Zaman, 25, of Walthamstow; and Donald Stewart-Whyte, 23, of High Wycombe.
The jury was unable to reach a verdict about the role of Umar Islam, 31, of Plaistow, east London. However, he was found guilty of an alternative charge of conspiracy to murder.
The jury was hung on this alternative charge in relation to Savant, Khan and Zaman, and the Crown Prosecution Service will have to decide whether to proceed with a third trial. Stewart-Whyte was cleared of both charges.
The convicted men will be sentenced on Monday 14 September.
Police believe the evidence they had assembled was the strongest ever presented before a jury in a terrorism case.
Suicide videos showed cell members bragging about the attack and covert operations in east London showed the liquid bombs being prepared. Key cell members were caught redhanded.
Top counterterrorism and police officials were aghast when the jury in the first trial, which ended last September, failed to convict any of the defendants of conspiring to blow up aircraft.
The first jury convicted three men of conspiracy to commit murder by majority verdicts. They were the cell's ringleader, Abdulla Ahmed Ali; the bombmaker, Assad Sarwar; and Tanvir Hussain. Two jurors refused to convict despite the men having earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause explosions. The jury in the first trial did not convict them of the airlines conspiracy.
The crown played the jury video of Ali found after his arrest. In it he warned of "body parts ... decorating the streets" if Muslims were not left alone, and said he had yearned to take part in violent jihad since he was a teenager.
