Inside al Qaeda's plot to bomb Newark, Defendant tells British court he planned attacks in U.S.

Star Ledger ^ | 10.13.06 | JOHN P. MARTIN

[Coleus]

For New Jerseyans, it was perhaps the most chilling image evoked since the Twin Towers fell:

An al Qaeda operative sitting patiently in a Newark coffee shop, eyeing the exits and entrances at the nearby Prudential tower, studying security shifts and employee traffic, and sketching out a plan to bomb the city's skyline jewel and kill thousands of people.

Yesterday, a British national said it was all true.

Dhiran Barot, 32, pleaded guilty in London to conspiracy to murder, admitting that he plotted with others in 2000 and 2001 to attack high-profile targets in Great Britain, New York, Washington, D.C., and Newark. The plea marked the first terrorism conviction in the case since Barot and seven others were arrested in London two years ago. And it represented yet more unnerving proof that terrorists had quietly and carefully schemed for years, moving almost invisibly among the same people they hoped to destroy.

The attacks here never took root, but the country was shaken when news broke in August 2004 that investigators had found Barot's surveillance reports of the targets on a computer they seized in Pakistan. The U.S. government raised the terror alert level for the financial industry. Within hours, the heart of Newark resembled a war zone. Barricades sprouted around the Prudential building. Armed guards milled about Broad Street. Some people took extended vacations.

At the hearing yesterday in Woolwich Crown Court in South London, prosecutors outlined the general details of Barot's confession. Besides the Newark site, they said he conspired to bomb the New York Stock Exchange, Citigroup Headquarters in New York, the World Bank in Washington, D.C., and to detonate explosive-packed limousines in underground parking lots in Great Britain. He also confessed plans to release a radiological "dirty bomb" in London. "I plead guilty," Barot, a Muslim convert

[soupcon]

Maybe they already bombed Newark but nobody has noticed yet...

[Sister_T]

Scary.

Of course the moonbats will holler about convenient it is to have learned this, so close to the election.

[rocksblues]

While I applaud his stated guilty plea, I doubt his sincerity.

[txhurl]

Maybe THIS is where that plastisheet stolen from the airport that we've always wondered about went.

[SHOOT THE MOON bat]

Isn't this the incident where Howard Dean accused the Republicans of making it all up so that they could fear monger before the election.

[GrandEagle]

"I plead guilty," Barot, a Muslim convert
Ahhh yes, the Religion of Peace.
I would hate to hear what he had planned BEFORE the "religion of peace" tendered his heart.

[ExTexasRedhead]

Any comments out of the mouths of Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Barbara Boxer, John Kerry, and the rest of the Liberal idiots that don't believe we have enemies that want to kill us.

[reagan_fanatic]

There should be an automatic death sentence for anyone who admits or is found guilty of a terrorist act or plot.

These sub-human animals think that martyrdom is such a great honor - let's grant their wishes.

[sappy]

proceed with the sentencing, if not execution.

[in hoc signo vinces]

you are thinking of Detroit...

[AmericaUnited]

Maybe they already bombed Newark but nobody has noticed yet...

No, the smell from all of the rotting rodent carcasses would be noticeable...

[Coleus]

you are thinking of Detroit... >>>

Newark is just as bad. To date, there are still areas on Clinton Ave. that still have grass lots where once thriving communities and businesses were located. The city still gets about $1 billion every year in state aid and has nothing to show for it.