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Politics : The Truth About Islam -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (7170)	4/29/2007 7:06:43 PM
From: lorne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20106

US troops seize gang 'smuggling bombs from Iran' Apr 27 02:52 PM US/Eastern breitbart.com US forces on Friday detained four members of a gang suspected of smuggling armour-piercing bombs from Iran to Iraq and sending back militants for "terrorist training", the military said. A statement from US command in Iraq said the suspects were picked up in an early morning raid on the east Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, a known stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. "The individuals targeted during the raid are suspected members of a secret cell terrorist network known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, from Iran to Iraq," it said. The EFP is a form of roadside bomb in which the detonation of an explosive charge inside a steel tube causes a copper disk to deform into a fist-sized chunk of supersonic molten metal that can scythe through armoured vehicles. American commanders say the design is exclusively Iranian and in January alleged that at least 170 US troops had been killed by EFPs since May 2004. The statement also said that the gang had sent "militants from Iraq to Iran for terrorist training." "Intelligence reports also indicate the secret cell has ties to a kidnapping network that conducts attacks within Iraq," it added. The announcement came one day after the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, accused Iranian Revolutionary Guards of supporting a Mahdi Army splinter group implicated in the kidnap and murder of five GIs. Since January, US forces have been holding five alleged members of the Guards' covert Qods Force after seizing them in a raid on an Iranian government office in the northern Iraqi City of Arbil. Tehran denies that its agents are involved in the Iraqi conflict.

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (7170)	4/30/2007 8:04:27 AM
From: FJB	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20106

Men convicted over UK bomb plot Five men have been convicted of a bomb plot linked to al-Qaeda that could have killed hundreds of people in Britain. Jurors in the year-long Old Bailey trial heard of plans to target a shopping centre, nightclub and the gas network with a giant fertiliser bomb. Police smashed the plot in 2004 after MI5 had watched an Islamist extremist network with links across the world. It has also been revealed some of the plotters met two of the 7 July London suicide bombers. GUILTY OF CONSPIRACY TO CAUSE EXPLOSIONS: FULL PROFILES OF THE MEN Mohammed Sidique Khan was spotted on four occasions in 2004 with at least one of the fertiliser bomb conspirators. At one point MI5 officers followed Khan back to his home in Leeds but no further action was taken. In the wake of the convictions both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have both called for an independent inquiry into the 7 July link. The call for an inquiry was echoed by Graham Foulkes, whose son David died in the 7 July attacks. He said an inquiry was needed so "lessons could be learned". The link with 7 July was deliberately kept from the Old Bailey jury for fear of prejudicing their deliberations on the fertiliser bomb plot. Al-Qaeda link The fertiliser bomb plot investigation linked back to senior al-Qaeda figures in Pakistan and Afghanistan, including one who was detained by US forces in Iraq at the weekend. Omar Khyam, 26, from Crawley, West Sussex, was found guilty of conspiring to cause explosions likely to endanger life between 1 January 2003 and 31 March 2004. Also convicted were Waheed Mahmood, 34, and Jawad Akbar, 23, also of Crawley; Salahuddin Amin, 31, from Luton, Bedfordshire; Anthony Garcia, 24, of Barkingside, east London. The men, all British citizens, face life sentences. Two other men, Nabeel Hussain and Shujah Mahmood, were found not guilty. Home Secretary John Reid said: "Five dangerous terrorists are now behind bars thanks to the hard work of our police and security services...Today's case reminds us all that the terrorist threat we face is real and severe." In one of the largest terrorism trials ever brought before the British courts, the Old Bailey heard the plotters had come together over a number of years. TARGETS DISCUSSED Bluewater shopping centre Utilities network Ministry of Sound nightclub Parliament Football stadium The men had started out sympathetic to Muslim causes around the world - but the key plotters decided that violence was the answer as they came together for secret military training camps in Pakistan. Back in Britain, they discussed various schemes, including targeting the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent on a busy Saturday or the Ministry of Sound nightclub in central London. They also talked of attacking the gas or electricity network and Prime Minister's Questions in Parliament. Tip-off The group had bought 600kg of ammonium nitrate from an agricultural merchants and kept it at a storage unit in Hanwell, west London. This fertiliser was to be the key component in the massive bomb - similar to those used in other terrorism attacks around the world. But unbeknown to the men, some of them were already on MI5's radar while, at the same time, staff at the storage unit tipped off police. They replaced the ammonium nitrate with a harmless substance and kept the group under surveillance before swooping in a series of raids. TRIAL FACTS 3,644 witness statements taken 105 prosecution witnesses Trial lasted for 13 months Jury was out for record 27 days David Waters QC, prosecuting, said the bomb, or bombs, would have been used "at the very least to destroy a strategic plant within the United Kingdom, or more realistically to kill and injure citizens of the UK". The Old Bailey heard the defendants had had at least two fellow conspirators. One of them, an American called Mohammed Junaid Babar, admitted his role in the plot after being arrested by the FBI and became a vital prosecution witness. The other was Mohammed Momin Khawaja, awaiting trial in Canada. The jury deliberated for 27 days, a record in British criminal history. A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said the deal allowing Babar to testify was unprecedented in British courts. Story from BBC NEWS: news.bbc.co.uk Published: 2007/04/30 10:16:32 GMT