Plotters hoped to rival 9/11 attack

They hoped their bombings would rival the horrors of the September 11 attacks in New York.

Omar Khyam led the Crawley Mob in a plan to use more than half-a-ton of chemical fertiliser to bring terror to the UK. Fired up by the World Trade Centre attacks, they talked of bringing down a plane and bombing the Houses of Parliament, and even toyed with the idea of using a nuclear bomb.

The al Qaeda-linked group plotted in England and Pakistan before the July 7 underground bombings were even conceived. Khyam said the "UK needed to be hit because 9/11 had happened in America and nothing had happened in the UK".

He wanted a series of bombs to go off at the same time, or one after another on the same day. The plan was foiled by intercepted chatroom conversations, surveillance and the discovery of the fertiliser in a storage depot in west London.

The police investigation, the year-long trial, six months of pre-trial hearings, appeals and security cost an estimated £50m. The trial at the Old Bailey was Britain's longest and costliest terror trial.

The plot involved a group of home-grown Islamic terrorists: the first to attempt to bring bloodshed to Britain. As they tried to come to grips with making explosive devices and finding ways to set them off with remote-controlled detonators, they discussed ways of using them. These included getting a London Underground worker to become a suicide bomber on a train.

The defendants, mostly students of Pakistani descent, grew up in and around the Sussex town of Crawley before becoming caught up in Islamic extremism. Most of their paths started at fringe meetings at universities where they were addressed by preachers of hate, and led to groups making contacts at mosques, fundraising and then attending terror camps in Pakistan.

After volunteering to fight in Afghanistan, they were told they would be more use to al Qaeda in Britain. Then British support for the war in Iraq made the UK a legitimate target in their eyes.

The terrorists were foiled after police, who had been keeping tabs on Khyam, were told that 600kg of ammonium nitrate had been discovered in February 2004.

It was bought three months earlier by Anthony Garcia, 25, and stored at Access Storage, Hanwell.

Officers secretly replaced the potential explosive with an inert substance, planted a policewoman in reception and bugged the suspects. As anti-terrorist detectives and MI5 agents decided the plot was near to completion, they moved in and rounded up the terrorists on March 30 2004.

Two further conspirators, Mohammed Junaid Babar and Mohammed Momin Khawaja, were arrested in the US and Canada.

The prosecution said the cell was planning to blow-up targets which included gas and electricity installations, nightclubs including the Ministry of Sound in London, synagogues and the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent.

Khyam was targeted after a chatroom conversation be-tween him and Salahuddin Amin, who was in Pakistan, was intercepted a month earlier. After giving Khyam a bomb recipe, Amin asked Khyam if he wanted a nuclear radio-isotope bomb.

Amin asked: "Do you want something ready-made, something which will be bigger than 9/11?"

The court was told that attempts were made to buy a bomb from the Russian mafia, but nothing appeared to have come of it.

The cell talked about poisoning football fans with spiked beer and contaminated takeaways sold from vans.

One intercepted conversation was about the possibility of bringing down a plane with around 30 "brothers" willing to commit suicide in a September 11-type attack.

Khyam admitted talking about blowing up Tony Blair during Prime Minister's Question Time, but claimed it was a joke. He told others in Pakistan: "Can you imagine if you dropped a bomb right there and then? You would take out all the MPs."

The trial was meant to have lasted five months but was bitterly fought, had lengthy sessions in camera and there were difficulties dealing with material from other countries.

Babar, 31, was a US citizen born in Pakistan who turned supergrass and gave evidence against the others. He had met the cell in Pakistan and heard them plan to bring jihad to the UK. Four of the accused attended a terror training camp in the mountains bordering Afghanistan in the summer of 2003.

They arrived there with thousands of pounds they defrauded from British banks to buy arms and explosives. Some had gone to fight in Afghanistan or Kashmir but were told they would be more useful bringing terror back home.

Prosecutor David Waters QC said not everyone involved in the plot had been caught.

He said: "Most of the necessary components were in place and all that remained before their plans achieved their ultimate goal was for the target or targets to be finally agreed."

OMAR KHYAM
KHYAM, 25, grew up in Sussex and was captain of his school cricket team. His grandfather fought in the British Army in the Second World War and came to the UK in the 1970s.

He had a promising future before becoming radicalised as a teenager.

He was brought up with his two brothers by his mother after their wealthy father went to live abroad. Although his family was Muslim, Khyam says they were not particularly religious.

But Khyam wanted to take part in jihad, or holy war, after attending meetings of the radical al Muhajiroun group while at college in Surrey.

He ran away from home to Pakistan at the age of 17 and found his way to a training camp for foreigners to receive military training for Kashmir.

Khyam said he was at the camp from January to March 2000, when members of his family, who were in Pakistani military intelligence, traced him and sent him home. But the following year he was back in Pakistan and slipped over the border to meet the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Taking up a foundation course at the Metropolitan University in north London, Khyam began to meet others with similar views.

ANTHONY GARCIA
GARCIA, 25, changed his name from Rahman Adam to help him as an aspiring model, he claimed. He was brought up as part of a large family of Algerians, coming to east London from Africa when he was five.

He told the court he was a rap and basketball fan who was thought of as an Ali G-type figure when he was a teenager. But he later found people began to respect him after he started raising money for Muslims in Kashmir. He became a prolific fundraiser for jihad.

In 2002, while working for Group 4 Security, he wanted to get military training in Pakistan. But after attending a camping trip in Wales, organised to weigh-up volunteers, he said he was turned down because he was too white to blend in.

Garcia said he met Khyam and others from Crawley through his brother. Khyam told him he could get him military training in Pakistan so Garcia said he took out a loan of nearly £8500 and flew to the country.

But as he waited in a village house to be taken to the camp, his diary read in court revealed he was less than impressed, calling the locals "Pakis".

JAWAD AKBAR
AKBAR, 23, was born in Pakistan and then travelled to Italy, where he lived with his family until they travelled to England when he was aged 12.

His father worked as a catering company supervisor and his mother worked for Royal Mail.

They lived in a large house in Crawley with Akbar's two brothers and sister.

Akbar went to Brunel University where he was studying multimedia but spent little time at lectures.

He secretly "married" a non-Muslim and they set up home in a studio flat in Uxbridge. She has since left him.

The flat was bugged by police as members of the group spent more time there.

He was recorded discussing blowing up a nightclub because no-one could say "slags dancing around" were innocent.

Akbar told the court that he was misled by Omar Khyam.

He added that he did not mean the things he said, he had only been trying to impress more radical friends.

WAHEED MAHMOOD
MAHMOOD, 35, a married father of four, was the oldest of the group.

He worked for Transco at its Brighton depot installing gas meters and was able to get plans of gas and electricity systems.

It was at his impressive house in Pakistan that supergrass Mohammed Junaid Babar said he heard the plot being hatched. He encouraged the younger members of the group to bring jihad to Britain, the court was told.

He had been living in Pakistan in recent years and was declared bankrupt on returning to the UK. It is not known where he got the money to build his home in Pakistan.

He liked to present himself as an authority on Islam and wrote a book about the history of the Prophet Mohammad.

He was the only defendant not to go into the witness box to give evidence.

Barely concealing his contempt, he refused to stand when the judge, Sir Michael Astill, entered the court.

His gesture soon became lost on the jury when Sir Michael decided the jury and defendants should leave court before him.

SALAHUDDIN AMIN
AMIN, 31, was brought up in Luton but chose to live in Pakistan after graduating from university and becoming radicalised.

He was arrested there, detained for 10 months and then "tricked" into returning to Britain where he was arrested on board a plane at Heathrow in February 2005.

He claimed he was tortured into admitting involvement in the plot by the Pakistani security forces.

But he went on to repeat his confession as he was treated to fish and chip suppers by anti-terrorist officers at Paddington Green police station in central London.

He said he got involved with terrorists but had no intention of setting off explosives himself. Khyam had wanted to "get explosive training to do something in the UK".

In court, he said he was still suffering the effects of mental torture when he told officers what he thought they wanted to hear.

He denied being the person who passed on bomb recipe information and asked Khyam if he wanted a nuclear bomb during internet conversations.

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