Posted on 12/03/2003 10:00:31 AM PST by areafiftyone
A terror suspect arrested last week has been charged with plotting a bomb attack with al Qaeda "shoe bomber" Richard Reid.
Sajid Badat, 24, of Gloucester, was also charged with possessing explosives with the intent to endanger life under the Terrorism Act 2000.
Badat, who was arrested on Thursday by Gloucest
More follows...
LONDON - Briton Sajid Badat, arrested last week in southwest England, was charged Wednesday with conspiring with Richard Reid in an explosives plot, police said.
Briton Richard Reid, known as the shoe bomber, was sentenced to life in prison for a Dec. 22, 2001, bombing attempt aboard a Paris-to-Miami American Airlines flight.
London's Metropolitan Police said Badat was charged with three offenses, including that between Sept. 1, 2001 and Nov. 28, 2003 he "unlawfully and maliciously conspired with Richard Reid and others unknown" to cause an explosion "likely to endanger life or cause serious injury" in the United Kingdom or elsewhere.
Badat was one of more than a dozen people arrested and questioned under anti-terrorism laws in the past week.
Shortly after his arrest, Home Secretary David Blunkett said the security services and police believed the suspect had "connections with the network of al-Qaida groups."
When he pleaded guilty in October 2002, Reid said he was a member of the al-Qaida terrorist group, pledged his support to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) and declared himself an enemy of the United States.
Explosive material was found at Badat's home in Gloucester, western England, where he was arrested Thursday.
Ibrahim Master, chairman of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, said last week that the suspect had been a student at the College of Islamic Knowledge and Guidance in Blackburn, northern England. Master said religious leaders were assisting police in a search of the college and adjoining mosque.
Badat is also charged with having had in his possession or under his control an explosive substance with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property or to enable someone else to do so, between the same dates.
A third charge alleges he possessed or controlled on Nov. 27 an explosive substance.
It's a two part strategy:
1) When suspects (mostly non-citizens) are detained, complain about violation of their "civil rights".
2) When suspects are released due to point #1, complain that nothing is being done about terrorism.
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