British trio convicted in terrorist bomb plot
LONDON (AP) – They were very ordinary would-be terrorists, with big plans but bad luck.
On Thursday, a London jury convicted the three young British men of being ringleaders of an al-Qaeda-inspired plot to explode knapsack bombs in crowded parts of Birmingham, England’s second-largest city. The men had pleaded not guilty, but were recorded discussing plans for attacks that one said would be “another 9/11”.
This undated photo made available by West Midlands Police shows (from left to right) Irfan Khalid, Irfan Naseer and Ashik Ali, all from Birmingham, England, who were found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court of being ‘central figures’ in a terrorist bomb plot, February 21. AP
The trial exposed how the trio – Ashik Ali, 27; Irfan Khalid, also 27; and 31-year-old Irfan “Chubbs” Naseer – were foiled by a mix of police intelligence, personal incompetence, and lousy luck as they tried to spread terror.
They attempted to recruit others to their cause, but four young men they dispatched to Pakistan for training were sent home within days when the family of one man found out. Those four have since pleaded guilty to terrorism-related offenses.
The plotters initially raised cash as street collectors for Muslim charities. But when Rahin Ahmed, an alleged co-conspirator described as the cell’s “chief financier”, tried to boost the group’s budget on the financial markets, he lost the bulk of the funds through his “unwise and incompetent” trading, prosecutor Brian Altman said.
Among the pieces of evidence at the four-month trial was a sports injury cool pack, which prosecutors said Naseer had mistakenly believed would contain ammonium nitrate, a key bomb-making ingredient.
The group considered a variety of outlandish attacks, including tying sharp blades to the front of a truck and driving it into a crowd. Naseer was heard talking about the possibility of mixing poison into creams such as Vaseline or Nivea and smearing them on car handles to cause mass deaths.
Despite the amateurish nature of some of their efforts, officials said the group was serious about sowing chaos.
