A British citizen facing extradition to the United States on terrorism charges was found in possession of three-year-old plans to attack US Navy ships in the Gulf, a US lawyer said on Friday.
"The documents went on to describe the battle group's vulnerability to a terrorist attack and provided specific examples of how the ships might be attacked," US lawyer Rosemary Fernandes told a central London court.
Police uncovered the documents in a December 2003 raid on 30-year-old Babar Ahmad's house in Tooting, south London, Fernandes said, outlining the charges at a preliminary extradition hearing.
His court appearance came as 12 other terrorism suspects, collared on Tuesday in one of the biggest anti-terrorist operations in Britain since the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, were being kept in police custody for questioning.
One of the 12 was identified to AFP by Pakistani intelligence officials as Abu Eisa Al-Hindi, accused by both Islamabad and Washington of being a senior Al-Qaeda figure.
Ahmad was arrested in a separate operation on Thursday after a US request to extradite him for allegedly using US-based websites and email to raise money to support terrorist acts in Chechnya and Afghanistan.
Ahmad allegedly had email links to one of the men suspected of planning the Moscow theatre siege in October 2002, which led to the deaths of more than 120 hostages.
He was also accused of operating a series of pro-Jihad websites. Fernandes said Ahmad had been found with documentation on the formation of US ships operating the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Gulf, specifically on their movements on April, 29, 2001.
After details of the warrant were read to him, Ahmad was asked if he understood.
"Not really. It's all a bit confusing to me," he replied, before being remanded in custody to appear again at Bow Street Magistrates Court in a week's time. No application for bail was made. |
