5 men plead guilty in trans-Atlantic airline plot

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25670910

But defendants maintain they never intended to cause midair carnage

LONDON - Five men accused of plotting to detonate liquid explosives on board trans-Atlantic passenger jets have pleaded guilty to lesser offenses, a jury was told Monday, although they maintain they never intended to cause midair carnage.

Three of the men — Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, Assad Sarwar, 28, and Tanvir Hussain, 27 — admitted they planned to set off bombs, just not aboard planes bound from London's Heathrow to North America.

They and two other defendants — Ibrahim Savant, 27, and Umar Islam, 30 — have also admitted to "conspiring to cause a public nuisance" by publishing videos threatening suicide bomb attacks.

Jurors still need to rule on whether the five men and three other defendants are guilty of conspiring to murder thousands of people by using liquid explosives to blow their aircraft out of the sky. Their trial is drawing to a close.

The eight defendants were arrested in 2006. Airlines quickly imposed tough new limits on the amount of liquids and gels airline passengers could take in their carry-on luggage.
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"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.

Lawyer: British airline plot was just a stunt

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080715/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/britain_airliner_plot

LONDON - The alleged ringleader of a plot to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners in mid-air is guilty only of planning a childish stunt to make a political point, his lawyer said Tuesday.
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Attorney Nadine Radford said Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, has acknowledged planning to release anti-Western videos and detonate explosives at a high-profile location as part of a campaign to change the British government's policy toward the Muslim world.

"It was childish, it was stupid, but it is not murder," Radford said.

Radford was the first defense counsel to sum up at Woolwich Crown Court in the trial of Ali and seven other British Muslims charged with plotting to blow up at least seven planes with liquid explosives concealed in soft-drink bottles.

Three defendants — Ali, Assad Sarwar, 28 and Tanvir Hussain, 27 — have pleaded guilty to conspiring to cause explosions. All eight defendants deny conspiracy to murder.

Ali told the court they planned to set off a small bomb at a site such as the Houses of Parliament or Heathrow Airport to advertise a propaganda documentary protesting the West's actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. He denied intending to kill anyone.

Radford said the plan "is not murder in an aircraft which they could never get on. It is not murder on the ground, with the deliberate taking of other lives."

"The reality is that there was a childish and stupid plan put together by some deep thinkers as far as politics were concerned as to how you change the foreign policy of this government and as to how you can change people's opinions," she said.

The foiling of the alleged plot in August 2006 sparked major disruption at British airports, with the grounding of hundreds of flights. Airports around the world imposed tough new restrictions, still largely in place, on the amount of liquids and gels passengers can take in their carryon luggage.

Ali, Sarwar, Hussain and two others also have acknowledged conspiring to cause a public nuisance by distributing al Qaida-style videos threatening suicide bomb attacks in Britain. The three remaining defendants deny all charges.

Prosecutors say the airline cell was likely inspired by both the Sept. 11 attacks and the July 2005 London transit bombings, although they do not allege the men had direct links to al-Qaida.

Prosecution lawyer Peter Wright told the court that police found a computer memory stick in Ali's pocket with details of flights from London's Heathrow Airport to Chicago, New York, Boston, Denver, Miami and Montreal.

Prosecutors also say the men had stockpiled enough hydrogen peroxide to create 20 liquid bombs, although they did not create any viable explosives, and no date had been chosen for the attacks.

The jury in the trial, which began in April, is expected to begin considering its verdicts within the next two weeks.
_________________
"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.