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| Britain | ||
| Al Qaeda Briton 'plotted to kill thousands' | ||
| 2006-11-06 | ||
| Al Qaeda terrorists planned to use "dirty bombs" to blow up the Heathrow Express or a Tube train passing under the Thames, a court heard today. Dhiren Barot, 34, also plotted to strike at the West End's leading hotels and mainline railway stations. The catastrophic results would have produced "another black day for the enemies of Islam and victory for the Muslims", he wrote. Barot expected the devastation and loss of life to match 9/11 and the Madrid bombs, the court heard. The attacks would have been coordinated in a series of back-to-back explosions with further strikes on landmark buildings in Washington, New York and Newark, New Jersey. Barot costed every aspect of the terrorist outrages, then travelled to Pakistan to present them to al Qaeda bosses "like a business plan", the court was told. But Barot and other conspirators were stopped by a brilliant police operation and meticulous detective work pieced together exactly what the terrorists planned for London. Barot, from Willesden, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to carry out murder over four years between January 2000 and August 2004. Part of his plea acknowledges his part in each of the London plots and in the conspiracies to attack the International Monetary Fund and World Bank buildings in Washington, the Stock Exchange and Citigroup buildings in New York, and the Prudential skyscraper in Newark. As Edmund Lawson QC, prosecuting, revealed the astonishing details of the planned terrorist outrages, the slight figure of Barot, with goatee beard, sat quietly in the dock at Woolwich Crown Court wearing a dark jacket over a dark T-shirt. Mr Lawson said the two atrocities were suynchronised with an attack in America so that - in Barot's own words - "they would be coordinated back-to-back as they were with 9/11 thus forming another memorable black day for the enemies of Islam and victory for the Muslims." Mr Lawson said: "The principal object [was] to kill hundreds if not thousands of innocent people without warning, but there were other subsidiary and collateral objectives - to cause maximum damage to property, injure and terrorise people and at minimum to cause widespread disruption and subsequent economic loss."
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| Posted by:lotp |
| #4 The catastrophic results would have produced "another black day for the enemies of Islam and victory for the Muslims", he wrote. A few more "victories" like this and Islam will be undone ... probably with nuclear bombs. Muslims had better get a clue as to just how much danger these jihadists are putting them in. As with their Thundering Silence, the overall lack of reaction by Muslims concerning this peril which jihadis place them in obliges me to assume that they really do not care and tacitly support the terrorists. Silence eventually becomes more than just consent, it becomes a lie. I doubt there will be the least peep of condemnation chirped by Muslims over Dhiren Barot's plan to kill untold thousands. More likely, in most Islamic quarters there will be secret disappointment. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-11-06 18:26 |
| #3 Part of his plea acknowledges his part in each of the London plots and in the conspiracies to attack the International Monetary Fund and World Bank buildings in Washington, the Stock Exchange and Citigroup buildings in New York, and the Prudential skyscraper in Newark. In Newark? I really don't see how that would upset the nation in the way attacks on Washington, DC and New York City. Perhaps one of the plotters saw it outside his window every day, and assumed that it must loom over the rest of the country likewise? As for the rest (possibly excepting the IMF and the World Bank -- I don't think they are subject to US rules for such things), starting pre-Y2K and accellerated post-9/11 their transactions are backed up (hourly?) in computers far distant from the work sites, so the tragedies would be that of murder, not at shutting down the nation's/world's economy. More terrorists who aren't as smart as they thought themselves. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-11-06 18:13 |
| #2 Barot, from Willesden, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to carry out murder over four years between January 2000 and August 2004. Note the beginning date. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2006-11-06 18:13 |
| #1 "another black day for the enemies of Islam and victory for the Muslims", he wrote. So if we were to blow up Muslim landmarks and public places so as to kill as many people as possible, that would result in a victory for us? I know we're casting about for a strategy for victory and I'm wondering whether Mr. Barot is offering a suggestion. It's an odd sort of victory that ends with body parts of helpless passerbys strewn about without any bearing on your enemy's military capabilities. Atrocity as victory, with the most ruthless and bloodthirsty cast as the most pious. Brilliant. |
| Posted by: Baba Tutu 2006-11-06 14:51 |