UK Bomb Plotters Guilty

(London, England) This just in. The fertilizer bomb crew arrested in 2004 has been found guilty of plotting terror.

From CNN International:

Five Britons have been found guilty of plotting to carry out al Qaeda-inspired bomb attacks across Britain on targets ranging from a nightclub to a shopping mall.

The gang planned to use 600 kg (1,300 lb) of ammonium nitrate fertilizer to make explosives to be used in bombings in revenge for Britain's support the United States in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, prosecutors said.

Details of the case -- previously kept secret to ensure a fair trial -- reveal previously undisclosed ties between the five men, the suicide bombers who attacked London's transport network in 2005, and other al-Qaeda linked cells. (Full story)

Omar Khyam, Waheed Mahmood, Anthony Garcia, Jawad Akbar and Salahuddin Amin were convicted of conspiring with Canadian Mohammed Momin Khawaja to cause an explosion likely to endanger life.

Garcia and Khyam were found guilty of possessing an article for terrorism -- the fertilizer, and Khyam was also convicted of having aluminum powder -- an ingredient in explosives.

So, since these characters were cozy with the 7/7 bombers, MI5 had all the terrorists under surveillance in 2004, well before the July 2005 attack on London. Consequently, MI5 is being accused of incompetence. For those who don't know, the British MI5 is roughly equivalent to the American FBI.

A jury of seven men and five women deliberated for seven weeks before finding the five men, all British citizens, guilty.

From BBC:

The group had bought 600kg of ammonium nitrate from an agricultural merchants and kept it at a storage unit in Hanwell, west London.

This fertiliser was to be the key component in the massive bomb - similar to those used in other terrorism attacks around the world.

But unbeknown to the men, some of them were already on MI5's radar while, at the same time, staff at the storage unit tipped off police.

They replaced the ammonium nitrate with a harmless substance and kept the group under surveillance before swooping in a series of raids.

David Waters QC, prosecuting, said the bomb, or bombs, would have been used "at the very least to destroy a strategic plant within the United Kingdom, or more realistically to kill and injure citizens of the UK."

The Old Bailey heard the defendants had had at least two fellow conspirators.

One of them, an American called Mohammed Junaid Babar, admitted his role in the plot after being arrested by the FBI and became a vital prosecution witness.

The other was Mohammed Momin Khawaja, awaiting trial in Canada.

All five face life sentences in prison.