Al-Qaida man 'hoped to kill thousands' in U.S., UK

Al-Qaida man 'hoped to kill thousands' in U.S., UK
Plans included arson via hijacked petrol tankers, possible use of airplane

The British al-Qaida terrorist Dhiren Barot plotted to carry out a series of "massive explosions" in the UK and US with the aim of killing thousands of people, a court was told today.

Barot, of Willesden, north-west London, last month pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder at Woolwich crown court.

Today - the first day of a two-day hearing prior to sentencing - the prosecution gave the court fuller details of the 34-year-old's plans to carry out attacks, including setting off a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the UK.

Barot had made reconnaissance trips to the US in 2000 and 2001, before the September 11 attacks, and details of plans to attack financial institutions in New York, Newark and Washington were later found on a computer, the court heard.

Another of his key plots involved detonating three limousines packed with gas cylinders and explosives in underground car parks at unspecified locations in Britain.

Barot wrote that his plans would bring "another black day for the enemies of Islam", the court heard.

Edmund Lawson QC, prosecuting, said: "The plan was to carry out massive explosions here and in the USA, the principal object being to kill hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent people without warning."

Mr Lawson said Barot, originally a Hindu, had converted to Islam in his early 20s and had become increasingly interested in extremist doctrine.

He said he now had all the hallmarks of a senior terrorist and had undergone lengthy training in Pakistan near the disputed region of Kashmir in 1995 and in the Philippines in 1999.

The court heard that Barot had assumed several false identities to "cover his tracks", and he and his alleged co-conspirators had used various anti-surveillance techniques.

On one occasion, two of them travelled from London to Swansea just to use an internet cafe before driving straight back.

Mr Lawson said Barot, who was "a member or close associate of al-Qaida", had travelled to Pakistan in early 2004 in order to present plans for the limousine plot to his "terrorist masters" for approval and funding.

He said documents had been found which referred to the reconnaissance of London hotels and mainline railway stations, although there was nothing in them to say these were to have been the intended targets of attacks.

The documents were discovered following a raid by the Pakistani authorities in Gujarat in July 2004, a month before British police arrested Barot.

Mr Lawson said Barot wanted to emulate the Madrid train bombings of March 2004 and that he had described them as a "respectable project" that deserved to be "emulated more than any other".

The prosecutor said other possibilities for UK attacks included "arson, by means of hijacked petrol tankers, or igniting gas cylinders and even possibly the use of an aeroplane".

He said there were "plans for the detonation of a radiation dispersal device, more commonly known as a dirty bomb", or to attack a tube train while in a tunnel under the Thames.

Quoting Barot's words from one document found during the investigation, he said: "Imagine the chaos that would be caused if a powerful explosion were to rip through here and actually rupture the river itself ... that would cause pandemonium, what with the explosions, flooding, drowning."

Mr Lawson said Barot's plans for bombings in the US had been "shelved ... but not forgotten" in the aftermath of September 11, and recovered computer files showed that they had been accessed or worked on as late as February 2004.

Specific targets in the US had included the IMF and World Bank buildings in Washington and the New York stock exchange, the court heard.

At the end of a video of the movie Die Hard With a Vengeance, police found around 80 minutes of video footage shot in Manhattan, showing various locations including Wall Street.

It focused on entrances, security cameras, barriers and side streets and there was also footage of synagogues.

Notes from his 1995 trip to Pakistan showed that Barot learnt how to use an AK47, grenades, poisons including cyanide and ricin, and other chemicals including sulphuric acid.

Mr Lawson pointed to sections in Barot's notes showing how to make a napalm bomb and a phosphorus bomb.

As part of the anti-surveillance techniques used by Barot and his alleged co-conspirators, they used Yahoo! email accounts and communicated in a code written in the style of teenagers discussing popular culture.

Mr Lawson said the messages employed "sexual references which would not normally be considered appropriate to devout Muslims".

He said that when they were in cars, they circled roundabouts more than once and took "long and illogical" routes to their destination, including going on and off motorways.

Mr Lawson added that the reason Barot had "belatedly" been forced to admit his guilt was a "meticulous and impressive" counter-terror operation involving intelligence agencies in the UK, US and Pakistan.

On July 28, MI5 surveillance teams lost sight of Barot and a decision was made to arrest him and his co-defendants on the next occasion he was spotted because of fears an attack was imminent, Mr Lawson said. Barot was arrested by armed police on August 3.

Mr Lawson said that, after the arrest, police had carried out a number of raids and recovered a "huge amount" of evidence.

A copy of Osama bin Laden's statement glorifying the September 11 attacks was also found.

Mr Lawson told the court that deleted material on a hard drive that was recovered revealed "hundreds of files containing research into topics such as gas explosions, homemade explosives, information relevant to arson attacks and fire protection systems, and research which was plainly relevant to the terrorist plans".

Within these files, there was a document entitled Radioactive Children, which had 93 pages on radioactive materials.

Police also recovered notebooks containing references to books on subjects such as explosives and building structure, including one titled Fire and Buildings.

Seven other men, who deny all charges against them, are due to face trial next year.

Barot's sentencing hearing continues.