3 guilty in London plot that caused airline chaos

Three men were convicted Monday of conspiracy to murder in a terrorist bombing campaign, but the jury could not reach a verdict on allegations that they plotted to use liquid explosives to down trans-Atlantic airliners.

The jury failed to reach any verdict at all for four defendants, and one man was acquitted in a case that caused travel chaos in 2006 at the height of the summer vacation season. Prosecutors said they were considering a retrial.

Prosecutors said a group of British Muslims led by Abdulla Ahmed Ali planned to use explosive hydrogen peroxide disguised as a soft drink and considered national infrastructure targets including gas terminals, oil refineries and Heathrow Airport.

Prosecutors said during the trial that the men, all Britons with ties to Pakistan, planned to attack United Airlines, American Airlines and Air Canada flights.

But the jury could not reach a verdict on prosecutors’ claims that Ali intended to target passenger jets flying from London to major North American cities with suicide attacks.
A jury in London found that Abdulla Ahmed Ali and co-conspirators Assad Sarwarcjland and Tanvir Hussain were guilty of conspiracy to murder by the use of hydrogen peroxide to make a bomb.

The jury failed to reach verdicts on charges against four other defendants — Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Waheed Khan, Waheed Zaman and Umar Islam. An eighth man, Mohammed Gulzar, was acquitted.

The men’s plans were stopped by British and U.S. intelligence officers in an investigation that led to a bomb factory in eastern London, British woodlands where chemicals had been dumped and to Japan, Mauritius, South Africa and Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas where conversations were intercepted.

Police swooped down and arrested two dozen suspects in dawn raids across Britain on Aug. 10, 2006.

-From Associated Press reports