Britain: A suspected al-Qaeda operative watched impassively in a British court yesterday as prosecutors played shaky hand-held video of the New York Stock Exchange and other US financial targets he has admitted planning to bomb.
Briton Dhiren Barot (34) pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy to murder in connection with planned attacks in the US and Britain - the latter including the use of a "dirty bomb" laced with radiological material.
At yesterday's sentencing, prosecutor Edmund Lawson played video footage he said was shot in April 2001 on a reconnaissance mission by Barot for the attacks in the US. Mr Lawson said the bombings were planned in 2000 and 2001 and apparently shelved after the al-Qaeda attacks on the US on 9/11. But he said the plans were later revived and were being worked on in 2004 in the run-up to the suspect's arrest.
"Barot, evidently a member or close associate of the al-Qaeda terrorist organisation, led the conspiracy to cause lethal explosions both here and in the United States of America," Mr Lawson told the court. "The plot was to carry out massive explosions here and in the United States." The 80 minutes of video were at the end of a tape of the Hollywood film Die Hard with a Vengeance, found after Barot and seven co-defendants were arrested in August 2004. Barot's co-defendants, who deny involvement, are due to go on trial next April.
Also found were encrypted files containing the plans for the US attacks, which police cracked with the help of a code word discovered during investigations in Pakistan.
The judge is expected to deliver his sentence today.
- (Reuters)