| Submit your comments on this article |
| Britain |
| UK al-Qaeda member talked of poison plot |
| 2006-03-25 |
| One of the men accused of plotting bomb attacks in the UK discussed poisoning football fans by contaminating beer cans and burgers, a witness has said. Mohammed Babar, 31, told an Old Bailey trial that suspect Waheed Mahmood, 34, of Crawley, West Sussex, talked of getting a job in a stadium as a vendor. He and six other men deny charges including plotting a bombing campaign. Pakistani-born US citizen Babar, who has turned supergrass, claims he trained with the men. He has been given immunity from UK charges. Babar has previously pleaded guilty in the US to terror offences. Four of the men also deny having chemicals suitable for bomb-making. The trial is expected to last five months. On his second day in the witness box, Babar told the jury he met Mr Mahmood at a house in Pakistan in 2003 where they talked of jihad. "He could not understand why all these UK brothers were coming over to Pakistan. They could easily do jihad operation in England," he said. He said Mr Mahmood had said: "You could get a job in a soccer stadium as a beer vendor. "You just put poison in a syringe, injecting it in a can and put a sticker on it which would stop it leaking and give it out. "Or you could get mobile vending carts - all those vans going round selling burgers. He said he had done it. I didn't believe it. "He said you could stand on street corners selling poison burgers and then just leave the area." Babar earlier told the court he had given three computers to Waheed Mahmood after meeting him in Pakistan because he was told they were needed by al-Qaeda. He told the Old Bailey he initially travelled to the UK and then to Pakistan, with the intention of going to Afghanistan. Babar told the court that he had visited the UK in late 2002 and attended a meeting where radical cleric Abu Hamza was speaking. Another of the alleged plotters, Omar Khyam, was also there. He said they were shown the "video wills" of two of the people who carried out the 9/11 attacks in the US. Asked what the attitude of those at the meeting had been toward 9/11, Babar replied: "Everyone at the meeting agreed with it, everyone was in praise of those who carried it out." In Pakistan he met a number of Britons mainly from the London and Crawley areas, he told the court. He said he first became aware of Waheed Mahmood in late 2001, because his flatmate in Pakistan - a man named Asim - had identified him as his "contact". Asked what he meant by contact, Babar said: "If you wanted to go somewhere or wanted something, to go to Afghanistan or to receive some sort of training, you needed to contact someone who will lead you to your goal." He said Asim had come to Pakistan from east London, but he also had strong ties with the "Crawley group". The two had lived together in a flat in Lahore and were joined by others from the "east London group" of which Asim was part. Babar told the court that he first came face to face with Waheed Mahmood in April or May 2002 when he came to Babar's home in Lahore. A man from east London had left a stash of weapons buried near the Punjab University and Mr Waheed had arrived to be shown where they were, he said. "He left some weapons behind. I just wanted to show Waheed Mahmood where they were buried in case he ever needed these weapons. "He knew what he was coming for," he said. Babar listed the weapons as AK47s and their magazines, 2-3,000 rounds of ammunition and grenades. Suspects Salahuddin Amin, 31, from Luton, and Omar Khyam, from Crawley, were alleged by the prosecution to have received training in explosives and use of the poison ricin in Pakistan. Mr Mahmood, 34, Salahuddin Amin, 31, Jawad Akbar, 22, Omar Khyam, 24, and his brother Shujah Mahmood, 19, all of Crawley, West Sussex, Anthony Garcia - also known as Rahman Adam - 23, of Ilford, east London, and Nabeel Hussain, 20, of Horley, Surrey, deny conspiring to cause explosions. Mr Khyam, Mr Garcia and Mr Hussain deny possessing ammonium nitrate fertiliser. Mr Khyam and Shujah Mahmood deny possessing aluminium powder. The trial was adjourned until Monday. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |