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              Four guilty of plotting July 21 suicide attacks on London transport system
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 By Cahal Milmo and Kim Sengupta Four members of an Islamist terrorist cell have been found guilty of plotting the 21 July suicide bombings of London’s transport system using devices made from hair bleach and Chapatti flour. The attempt, two weeks after the devastating 7 July attacks that killed 52 people in 2005, failed due to a mixture of technical faults and what was described as “sheer good luck”. Yesterday’s verdict, which came just over a week after the bomb attempts in London and Glasgow, once again brought into focus the threat faced from the radicalised and alienated members of the country’s Muslim community. Muktar Said Ibrahim , 29, Yassin Omar, 26, Ramzi Mohammed, 25, and Hussein Osman, 28, were found guilty of conspiracy to murder at London’s Woolwich Crown Court after a trial lasting almost six months. The four men all came to Britain from war-torn countries in the Horn of Africa, leading lives on the margins of British society. Questions were immediately raised over whether the plot could have been averted and what possible links the 21/7 group had with the 7/7 bombers. The Independent understands that Ibrahim, the self-proclaimed “emir” of the group, visited the same terrorist training camp in Pakistan as Shehzad Tanweer, one of the 7/7 suicide bombers. They are said to have been present at the camp in Manserah, near the Kashmir border, in December and January 2005. Both the 21/7 and 7/7 attacks were carried out using bombs made from hydrogen peroxide, used in hair bleach, and a detonator using a highly unstable explosive known as Mother of Satan. It was the first time that hydrogen peroxide bombs had been used in Britain. It emerged that the 21/7 cell had also been secretly photographed by the police and MI5 when they attended a training camp in the Lake District along with other suspected Muslim extremists. Ibrahim had also been arrested and charged under the Public Order Act with threatening behaviour while distributing Islamist material in Oxford Street, London, in October 2004. But while on bail he was stopped at Heathrow Airport, along with three companions, attempting to board a flight to Pakistan in December 2005. Security officials recognised Ibrahim and discovered that the three men were carrying $2,000 in cash, combat-style clothing, and a medical manual with the treatment of bullet wounds underlined. But Ibrahim was allowed to continue with his journey. Last night, the shadow Home Secretary, David Davies, said: “This trial has revealed that the ringleader of the 21/7 plot was allowed to leave the country to train at a camp in Pakistan and return to plan and attempt the attack on 21/7. This was despite the fact that he was facing criminal charges for extremism.” Scotland Yard said Ibrahim was not a “wanted” person because he was already on bail. Ibrahim, as well as visiting Pakistan at the same time as Tanweer and Mohammed Sidique Khan, had been to Sudan, which has a strongly Muslim government and had once hosted Osama Bin Laden. At the same time, he and at least two other cell members - Yassin Omar and Ramzi Mohammed - became regular attendants at the Finsbury Park mosque in north London, where the radical cleric Abu Hamza was a preacher. Although seen as a “copycat” version of the 7/7 attacks, the planning for 21/7 had, in fact, begun a year previously. Home Office sources insisted last night that the four men, who entered Britain in the early 1990s as refugees from the Horn of Africa and who were fast-tracked for leave to remain in the UK, would now no longer be granted to leave to stay in the country. Ibrahim, who was convicted of two robbery offences and jailed for five years in 1995, would have been deported out of Britain once his sentence had been served. Omar’s flat, 58 Curtis House, became the factory used by Ibrahim to mix his deadly explosives. Hundreds of empty bottles of liquid hydrogen peroxide were found. But it is believed Ibrahim made a crucial error in his calculations over the proportions of the chemicals to be used in the devices. The jury will continue their deliberations today over charges against two more defendants, Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, the alleged “fifth bomber” who abandoned his device, and Adel Yaha, an alleged co-conspirator who left the UK a month before the attacks. Have Your Say: Four guilty of plotting July 21 suicide attacks on London transport system Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. Related News
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