Posted on 03/13/2014 2:39:24 PM PDT by Fitzy_888
A British man convicted of plotting an Al-Qaeda plane bombing told a New York court yesterday about a separate 2001 plan for a Malaysian pilot to blast his way into a jet's cockpit.
Saajid Badat, who was sentenced in 2005 to 13 years in jail as a co-conspirator in a notorious December 2001 plot to bomb US airliners, has testified about the Malaysian plan before.
But his description of the apparently abandoned plot has a new resonance as investigators probe the fate of a Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared on Saturday with 239 people on board. There has been no previous suggestion that Badat's 2001 plot is in any way linked to the new mystery of missing flight MH370, and terrorism is just one possible line of inquiry for authorities.
Authorities have not ruled out any possible cause for the plane's disappearance, including mechanical failure, pilot error or sabotage. Both the Boeing 777 and Malaysia Airlines have excellent safety records. Until wreckage or debris is found and examined, it will be very hard to say what happened.
In 2001, Badat and fellow Briton Richard Reid were ordered by Al-Qaeda leaders to blow two US airliners out of the sky with bombs hidden in their shoes.
But, while Reid tried and failed to detonate his bomb on a Paris to Miami flight, Badat changed his mind after returning home. Badat told US prosecutors at the trial of Osama bin Laden's son-in-law on Tuesday that he was given two shoe bombs, one which he took to Britain and the other which he gave to a Malaysian cell.
He believed one bomb was enough to bring down a jet, he told the trial by video link from Britain, but the bomb he gave the Malaysian was intended simply to help him breach a cockpit door.
Badat said he travelled from Afghanistan to Pakistan in December 2001 with Reid, some Malaysians and a Mauritanian family.
He described the Malaysians as 'their own group of four to five individuals including a pilot'.
'I gave one of my shoes to the Malaysians. I think it was to access the cockpit,' he told the court.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-declared 9/11 plotter now held at Guantanamo Bay, helped concoct the shoe-bomb plot and spoke of having plans for the Malaysians, Badat said.
He said Mohammed kept a list of the world's tallest buildings and crossed out New York's Twin Towers after the September 11, 2001 attacks by hijacked airliners as 'a joke to make us laugh'. Badat told the court he believed the Malaysians, including the pilot, were 'ready to perform an act'.
During the meeting, the possibility was raised that the cockpit door might be locked. 'So I said, "How about I give you one of my bombs to open a cockpit door?"' Badat told the court.
(...)
MH370 reignites interest in UK terrorist's claim he gave explosive to M'sian terror cell, which included a PILOT
I would hate to be a family with passengers on that plane, not knowing what happened to them.
Another posibility among many.
So far no group has claimed responsibility for bringing the plane down. If one did, I sure wouldn’t want to be a recognized member. But then too, what would some liberal quaking government do? A tersely written letter from the UN is about as far as it would go.
I can't help wondering who first referred to the handling of the entire event by the Asian participants as a Keystone Kops event...
FYI
“Another posibility among many.”
Yeah,,,,at this point, I’m giving credence to the oil derrick worker’s comments. He sounds like an engineer, and seems credible. At least right now,,,,,,,,,,,,
A lot of Chinese on that flight. I expect they wouldn’t be quite so ‘forgiving’ as our government.
Guess it’ll come down to who and where. So far what have they done about those people who were knifed in the train station? And what did Putin do about those 300 kids who were killed in their school or the 120 who died in the movie theater. So far nothing but crickets.
Sadly, you’re right.
Peeps36
Very interesting!
Somebody’s (Malaysia, china, etc) hiding info!
Megan Kelly on Fox said that Chinese state run media did not cover the release of those satellite pictures purportedly showing debris.
On one hand you would think that that would be good PR for the Chicoms internally. But, they themselves aren’t actively searching there, probably because the Chicoms and the Vietnamese have a bloody history and they don’t want to stir that pot presently or appear impotent (no win situation either way).
China´s massacre in Spratly islands [real footage 1988]
http://youtu.be/Uy2ZrFphSmc
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