An Ottawa man was making remote controlled detonators for British terrorism suspects, one of whom discussed obtaining a radioactive bomb, a court has heard.A police search of Momin Khawaja's Ontario home found "home-made radio transmitter and receiver boards" — devices that allow bombs "to be detonated from a safe distance," Crown prosecutor David Waters alleged yesterday.
Khawaja, who is to stand trial in Canada in January on terrorism-related charges, has been described by Waters as "the Canadian end of the conspiracy" to kill British citizens. Khawaja played a "vital role" in the plot, Waters has said, but he's not among the seven men charged with terrorism in London, including one who allegedly said he was working for a top Al Qaeda member.
Potential bomb targets identified by the accused included synagogues, pubs, trains, shopping centres and Britain's high voltage electricity and high pressure gas pipeline systems, Waters said.
When Canadian police raided Khawaja's home on March 29, 2004, they also found a commercial "jamming device" which, once modified, "could be carried by the bomber," Waters said. It's used to prevent "an inadvertent activation of the bomb," he added.
Khawaja, 25, wrote several emails to one of the accused describing the progress of his detonators, Waters said. In November 2003, Khawaja explained that a signal could be sent to the receiver from up to two kilometres away, "and then we get fireworks. We pray to the most high we can do this in December," said the email read by Waters.
By then, some of the accused had bought 600 kilograms of ammonium nitrate fertilizer — enough to fertilize five soccer fields — and stored it at a West London depot, Waters said. Months earlier, they had used ammonium nitrate as an ingredient to make bombs at a terrorist training camp in Pakistan, the jury heard.
Police listening devices placed in two homes in southeast England later caught one of the accused, Jawad Akbar, discussing possible bomb targets, including a nightclub, Waters said.
"The biggest nightclub in central London, no one can put their hands up and say they are innocent — those slags dancing around," Waters quoted Akbar as saying.
Akbar, 22, referred to non-believers as "Kufs," Waters added. "When we kill the Kuf this is because we know Allah hates the Kufs," Waters quoted Akbar as saying.
While training in Pakistan, another of the accused, Salahuddin Amin, was asked to contact a man named Abu Annis with regards to a "radio-isotope bomb," Waters said. "Amin did so via the Internet and Abu Annis said they had made contact with the Russian mafia in Belgium and from the mafia they were trying to buy this bomb," Waters told the jury.
Nothing apparently came of this attempt to buy what is commonly known as a "dirty bomb," made up of radioactive materials.
Amin later told British police he didn't think it was likely that, in his words, "you can go and pick an atomic bomb up and use it," Waters said.