Alleged bombers in London: To teach the West a lesson it would “never forget”?

Blowing up airplanes. Someone’s idea of a joke?

Apparently, it was.

In London, the trial of eight British Muslims who allegedly cooked up a plot to blow up seven North America-bound United Airlines, American Airlines and Air Canada flights, a liquid-explosives scheme that was discovered in August 2006, is now under way. The discovery of the alleged aircraft-bombing caper by British authorities “grounded flights for days, cost airlines and related businesses hundreds of millions of dollars and led to permanent restrictions on liquids carried through airport security checkpoints.” (Washington Post)

The alleged ringleader of the supposed plot: 27-year-old Abdulla Ahmed Ali.

London Metropolitan Police/Handout, via Reuters

Police photo of Abdulla Ahmed Ali, a British Muslim who is on trial for supposedly masterminding an alleged plot to blow up aircraft leaving the U.K. for North America; British authorities’ discovery of the scheme was made known in August 2006

The BBC reports that the British government’s prosecution team opened the trial yesterday by noting that some of the accused men had “intended to take a home-made explosive on board the flights and detonate it themselves.” The prosecution said “the explosions would have been coordinated, and that the plot was nearing the moment of completion when arrests were made….Prosecutors sa[id] the alleged plotters [had planned to] ensure that all the targeted planes were in the air before putting their plan into operation. In other words, the alleged bombings would [have] take[n] place in sequence – but the authorities would not [have been] able to intervene….Prosecutors say the trial will reveal that the two main conspirators talked of targeting up to 18 flights.”

A separate BBC news report notes that, during the court proceedings, the jury was shown “a 16-minute video in which [Ahmed] Ali threatened to teach the West a ‘lesson they [sic] will never forget’ and to punish and humiliate non-Muslims….He said homemade ‘suicide videos’ made by himself and [his] fellow defendants would have been combined with ‘graphic and shocking’ Internet footage to make a documentary with the aim of swaying public opinion on Britain’s foreign policy.”

In the video that was shown to the jury, Ahmed Ali referred to al-Qaeda head Osama bin Laden and “threaten[ed] to leave ‘body parts decorating the streets’ of Britain,” but in court he dismissed the homemade video production as a “publicity stunt.” However, prosecutors representing the government of the United Kingdom “contend it was a suicide video, intended for release after [Ahmed Ali's] death, and similar to ones made by his seven fellow defendants….” Those alarming statements on video “are a key part of the government’s case that the men intended to carry out the most ambitious and deadly terrorist plot ever uncovered in Britain.” (Washington Post)

Reuters file photo

As a result of the revelation of the alleged plot, airports tightened security measures, and passengers were restricted from carrying liquids on board aircraft

Ahmed Ali told the London court, referring to his and his alleged collaborators’ video productions, in which they gave themselves starring roles: “If we are going to make threats there is no point doing it with a firecracker, you have got to do it with credibility….We did not want to kill or injure anyone. Something small enough to cause a large bang, maybe some smoke. Something that would be considered serious and credible, something to generate that mass media attention….I never had any intention of murdering anyone or injuring anyone. At no stage did I ever even think of going on an airplane or causing an explosion there.” (BBC; also Telegraph)

Ahmed Ali told the court that “he had become politically and religiously active as a teenager” but he insisted that he was not an “extremist.” (BBC)

Posted By: Edward M. Gomez (Email) |
June 03 2008 at 07:16 AM