London, Sep.8 (ANI): New evidence put before a British jury during a retrial of three Brit Muslim convicts suggests that the men used code words to discuss their plans with an al-Qaeda fixer based in Pakistan.
The e-mails and conversations suggest that the plot was in its final stages, possibly days away from execution in 2006.
The seven daily flights highlighted by the three plotters were: 14.15 United Airlines Flight 931 to San Francisco; 15.00 Air Canada Flight 849 to Toronto; 15.15 Air Canada Flight 865 to Montreal; 15.40 United Airlines Flight 959 to Chicago; 16.20 United Airlines Flight 925 to Washington; 16.35 American Airlines Flight 131 to New York; 16.50 American Airlines Flight 91 to Chicago.
According to The Telegraph and the Daily Express, the batteries the gang planned to use as part of their detonators were bought in Pakistan.
An ingredient in the bomb mix was the orange soft drink Tang – sold in Pakistan – which had a high sugar content to aid the explosion.
A British intelligence source said: “The use of drink bottles sold in Pakistan and batteries sold in Pakistan underline the plot’s ties to that country. The foot soldiers were from Britain – but the organisers were in Pakistan.”
A security source said of the conspiracy: “It was very clever and the airport scanners would not have picked up the devices at all.”
Prosecutor Peter Wright told the Woolwich Crown Court in South East London how the would-be bombers were “a cell of home-grown terrorists activated and directed by a designated leader in Pakistan.”
That was confirmed by a government source in Pakistan, who said the plot was believed to have originated “with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.”
Seized e-mails showed the chain of terror stretched from there, across the lawless border to Pakistan, to London and to the woods of High Wycombe where explosives were buried.
The aim was to mirror the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, which killed 259 passengers and 11 in the Scottish town.
Aliases exposed during the trial revealed the terror kingpin in Pakistan was dubbed “Paps” or “Papa”.
Ali called himself Imran and Chacha and also set up email accounts in the bogus names Tippu Khan and Jameel Masood.
His co-conspirators used aliases such as Fatty, Arro and Nigga.
Hydrogen peroxide was known as “aftershave”, police surveillance as “skin problems” and martyrdom videos were referred to as “wedding tapes”.
It is also thought that the bomb makers received training at an al-Qaeda camp in Pakistan.
A mystery Pakistani, thought to be a top al-Qaeda envoy, made contact with the three would-be suicide bombers during a flying visit to Britain in June 2006.
Experts who tested the explosive mix on the aircraft were horrified.
A witness said: “It was absolutely devastating.” (ANI)