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Three Islamic Brit extremists plotted to blow up thousands of innocent air passengers in a string of suicide attacks aboard packed jets over major US cities.
Hate-filled Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain planned mass murder on a scale bigger than the 9/11 atrocities that killed 2,900 in New York.
Ringleader Ali was so twisted he even considered taking his baby son on his mission of mayhem and warned in vile video rants about how the attacks would "leave body parts scattered in the streets".
The trio were nailed in the largest-ever police and MI5 intelligence operation, that cost £50million. And yesterday they were found guilty of the plot after damning emails intercepted by US spies sent to their al-Qaeda boss in Pakistan had been finally handed over to prosecutors.
Ali and Sarwar, both 28, and Hussain, 29, had planned to blow up at least 18 transatlantic jets - leaving up to 10,000 people dead - using liquid explosives hidden in Lucozade bottles.
Crown Prosecution Service anti-terror chief Sue Hemming said after the trial: "These men wanted to indiscriminately kill hundreds of innocent people, perhaps more if they had succeeded in activating their devices while over cities.
"This was a calculated and sophisticated plot to create a terrorist event of global proportions and the jury concluded that Ali, Sarwar and Hussain knew what the target was."
Home Secretary Alan Johnson added: "This case reaffirms that we face a real and serious threat from terrorism. This was a particularly complex and daring plot which would have led to a terrible attack resulting in major loss of life.
"This was the largest ever counterterrorism operation in the UK and I cannot thank enough those involved for their professionalism and dedication in thwarting this attack and saving thousands of lives."
The British-based terrorists were convicted after a six-month trial at Woolwich crown court in South East London. Jurors deliberated for 54 hours. Bitter Ali, of Walthamstow, East London, was inspired by the July 7 bombers and Osama bin Laden.
He planned to blow up United Airlines, American Airlines and Air Canada jets.
He singled out flights to San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal, Washington, New York and Chicago that departed within two-and-a-half hours of each other.
The explosive devices would have been assembled and detonated in midair by a team of suicide bombers. Police said the plot was drawn up in Pakistan with detailed instructions passed to Ali during frequent trips to its lawless border with Afghanistan.
Surveillance teams watched him on his return to Britain as he assembled his terror cell, gathered materials and identified targets. The unemployed former shop worker used cash to purchase a £138,000 flat in Walthamstow.
He converted it into a bomb factory where he met others to make the deadly devices.
Ali also used it as a base to record video tirades vowing further attacks. When he was arrested in August 2006 police found a blueprint for the plot in his battered diary. Airport security arrangements and details of flights, including the seven targets, were also discovered on a memory stick.
Ali and Sarwar, of High Wycombe, Bucks, and Hussain, of Leyton, East London, were found guilty of conspiracy to causexplosions on aircraft. They had been convicted of planning murder in a trial last year. But jurors failed to reach a verdict on the airline plot after US spy chiefs refused to hand over the email evidence, forcing a £5million retrial.
They had intercepted the Yahoo! messages between Ali and his al-Qaeda commander, known as "Paps".
It is believed Paps was British-born Rashid Rauf who was later killed during a missile attack in Pakistan. The trio are due to be sentenced on Monday.
Three others, Ibrahim Savant, 28, Arafat Khan, 28, and 25-year-old Waheed Zaman, from London, were cleared of the jet plot.
But a jury in the murder conspiracy case failed to reach a verdict and the trio could face a retrial.
Prosecutors have a week to decide whether they should go back in the dock.
Born in Newham, East London, Ali was raised in his family's village in Pakistan until he was seven. One of eight children, his brothers include a probation officer and London Underground worker.
Ali went to school with codefendants Ibrahim Savant and Arafat Khan and used his charisma to heavily influence friends.
He met missionary Islamic sect Tabligi Jamaat and in 2002 travelled to the Pakistan-Afghan border to help refugees. Ali married but in 2004 his baby died from a brain disorder and he returned to Pakistan without his wife.
In 2005, he was in telephone contact with the leader of the 21/7 failed suicide bombers and made a third trip in 2006.
Detectives found books by Muslim extremists in his second baby's cot and notes quoting a 7th century Arab known as the "Sword of Islam". Phrases include: "Many times the Prophet killed women and children in war as it was necessary."
The university drop-out from High Wycombe claimed he had to check the internet on how to dig a hole but was actually a skilled chemist.
Sarwar followed formulas for making hydrogen peroxide explosives and researched the security of every UK power station and oil refinery.
He met Umar Islam at the Muslim Education Centre in Totteridge, North London, and began collecting aid for Afghanistan in 2002.
They went to Pakistan and met Ali at a refugee camp on the border.
Sarwar had jobs as a postman, an Asda shelf-stacker and a BT security guard before returning to Pakistan.
He was trained in making explosives and in court could recite the precise formula and "health and safety" instructions. It was his responsibility to design the bombs using hydrogen peroxide, detonators hidden in AA batteries and mini lightbulbs.
Detectives found 40 litres of hydrogen peroxide near Sarwar's home and a suitcase with chemicals buried in woods.
A girl-chasing cannabis smoker, Hussain was a talented cricketer originally from Blackburn.
He played tennis and football with Ali and Khan and visited Pakistan in 2000 before taking a computing degree at Middlesex University.
Hussain drank and took drugs while working as a postman but by 2003 was a devout Muslim, attending Stop the War anti-Iraq marches.
Colleagues during a temporary job at St Anne's Hospital, North London, remember him making extremist comments after the July 7 bombings.
Zenda Rogers said: "He got quite agitated and said I didn't understand what was going on and they were being persecuted."
He visited Pakistan again between February and April 2006 shortly after Ali returned from his trips.
His lawyer claimed Hussain was a "fun-loving guy" but his suicide script revealed that his ultimate goal was "shahid... the dream of becoming a martyr".
BIGGER THAN 9/11 - mirror.co.uk
Hate-filled Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain planned mass murder on a scale bigger than the 9/11 atrocities that killed 2,900 in New York.
Ringleader Ali was so twisted he even considered taking his baby son on his mission of mayhem and warned in vile video rants about how the attacks would "leave body parts scattered in the streets".
The trio were nailed in the largest-ever police and MI5 intelligence operation, that cost £50million. And yesterday they were found guilty of the plot after damning emails intercepted by US spies sent to their al-Qaeda boss in Pakistan had been finally handed over to prosecutors.
Ali and Sarwar, both 28, and Hussain, 29, had planned to blow up at least 18 transatlantic jets - leaving up to 10,000 people dead - using liquid explosives hidden in Lucozade bottles.
Crown Prosecution Service anti-terror chief Sue Hemming said after the trial: "These men wanted to indiscriminately kill hundreds of innocent people, perhaps more if they had succeeded in activating their devices while over cities.
"This was a calculated and sophisticated plot to create a terrorist event of global proportions and the jury concluded that Ali, Sarwar and Hussain knew what the target was."
Home Secretary Alan Johnson added: "This case reaffirms that we face a real and serious threat from terrorism. This was a particularly complex and daring plot which would have led to a terrible attack resulting in major loss of life.
"This was the largest ever counterterrorism operation in the UK and I cannot thank enough those involved for their professionalism and dedication in thwarting this attack and saving thousands of lives."
The British-based terrorists were convicted after a six-month trial at Woolwich crown court in South East London. Jurors deliberated for 54 hours. Bitter Ali, of Walthamstow, East London, was inspired by the July 7 bombers and Osama bin Laden.
He planned to blow up United Airlines, American Airlines and Air Canada jets.
He singled out flights to San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal, Washington, New York and Chicago that departed within two-and-a-half hours of each other.
The explosive devices would have been assembled and detonated in midair by a team of suicide bombers. Police said the plot was drawn up in Pakistan with detailed instructions passed to Ali during frequent trips to its lawless border with Afghanistan.
Surveillance teams watched him on his return to Britain as he assembled his terror cell, gathered materials and identified targets. The unemployed former shop worker used cash to purchase a £138,000 flat in Walthamstow.
He converted it into a bomb factory where he met others to make the deadly devices.
Ali also used it as a base to record video tirades vowing further attacks. When he was arrested in August 2006 police found a blueprint for the plot in his battered diary. Airport security arrangements and details of flights, including the seven targets, were also discovered on a memory stick.
Ali and Sarwar, of High Wycombe, Bucks, and Hussain, of Leyton, East London, were found guilty of conspiracy to causexplosions on aircraft. They had been convicted of planning murder in a trial last year. But jurors failed to reach a verdict on the airline plot after US spy chiefs refused to hand over the email evidence, forcing a £5million retrial.
They had intercepted the Yahoo! messages between Ali and his al-Qaeda commander, known as "Paps".
It is believed Paps was British-born Rashid Rauf who was later killed during a missile attack in Pakistan. The trio are due to be sentenced on Monday.
Three others, Ibrahim Savant, 28, Arafat Khan, 28, and 25-year-old Waheed Zaman, from London, were cleared of the jet plot.
But a jury in the murder conspiracy case failed to reach a verdict and the trio could face a retrial.
Prosecutors have a week to decide whether they should go back in the dock.
Born in Newham, East London, Ali was raised in his family's village in Pakistan until he was seven. One of eight children, his brothers include a probation officer and London Underground worker.
Ali went to school with codefendants Ibrahim Savant and Arafat Khan and used his charisma to heavily influence friends.
He met missionary Islamic sect Tabligi Jamaat and in 2002 travelled to the Pakistan-Afghan border to help refugees. Ali married but in 2004 his baby died from a brain disorder and he returned to Pakistan without his wife.
In 2005, he was in telephone contact with the leader of the 21/7 failed suicide bombers and made a third trip in 2006.
Detectives found books by Muslim extremists in his second baby's cot and notes quoting a 7th century Arab known as the "Sword of Islam". Phrases include: "Many times the Prophet killed women and children in war as it was necessary."
The university drop-out from High Wycombe claimed he had to check the internet on how to dig a hole but was actually a skilled chemist.
Sarwar followed formulas for making hydrogen peroxide explosives and researched the security of every UK power station and oil refinery.
He met Umar Islam at the Muslim Education Centre in Totteridge, North London, and began collecting aid for Afghanistan in 2002.
They went to Pakistan and met Ali at a refugee camp on the border.
Sarwar had jobs as a postman, an Asda shelf-stacker and a BT security guard before returning to Pakistan.
He was trained in making explosives and in court could recite the precise formula and "health and safety" instructions. It was his responsibility to design the bombs using hydrogen peroxide, detonators hidden in AA batteries and mini lightbulbs.
Detectives found 40 litres of hydrogen peroxide near Sarwar's home and a suitcase with chemicals buried in woods.
A girl-chasing cannabis smoker, Hussain was a talented cricketer originally from Blackburn.
He played tennis and football with Ali and Khan and visited Pakistan in 2000 before taking a computing degree at Middlesex University.
Hussain drank and took drugs while working as a postman but by 2003 was a devout Muslim, attending Stop the War anti-Iraq marches.
Colleagues during a temporary job at St Anne's Hospital, North London, remember him making extremist comments after the July 7 bombings.
Zenda Rogers said: "He got quite agitated and said I didn't understand what was going on and they were being persecuted."
He visited Pakistan again between February and April 2006 shortly after Ali returned from his trips.
His lawyer claimed Hussain was a "fun-loving guy" but his suicide script revealed that his ultimate goal was "shahid... the dream of becoming a martyr".
BIGGER THAN 9/11 - mirror.co.uk
