Posted on 11/07/2006 6:03:50 AM PST by Mrs Ivan
A British al-Qa'eda fanatic who planned to cause "indiscriminate carnage, bloodshed and butchery" on both sides of the Atlantic has been jailed for life.
Dhiren Barot, from London, plotted explosions Muslim convert Dhiren Barot was told by a judge at Woolwich Crown Court this afternoon that he must serve at least 40 years before being considered for release.
Mr Justice Butterfield told Barot: "This was no noble cause. Your plans were to bring indiscriminate carnage, bloodshed and butchery first in Washington, New York and Newark, and thereafter the UK on a colossal and unprecedented scale."
He added: "Your intention was not simply to cause damage, panic or fear. Your intention was to murder, but it went further. It was designed to strike at the very heart of democracy and the security of the state."
Yesterday the court was told shocking details of the 34-year-olds detailed terrorist plans, which included attempts to strike at major buildings and railway stations with gas bombs in cars, detonating a radioactive dirty bomb and blowing up a train under the Thames in London. Barot pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder at an earlier hearing.
In an encrypted document called Radioactive Children inside a file called Brad Pitt, the Londoner outlined plans for a dirty bomb in the capital.
Barot wrote that a radioactive device would "produce general panic, health consequences including immediate fatalities and long-term increases in cancer incidence, long-term denial of property use, disruption of services and property and facility decontamination needs".
Among the targets considered were the New York Stock Exchange, IMF and World Bank in Washington and the headquarters of Citigroup and Prudential.
Edmund Lawson, QC, for the Crown, told the two-day sentencing hearing that Barot switched his attention to Britain after the al-Qa'eda attacks on September 11 2001.
He drew up a list of central London hotels including the Savoy, Ritz, Dorchester, Metropole, Lanesborough, Berkeley, Hyatt Carlton Tower, InterContinental and Marriott Marble Arch.
Next to the Savoy he wrote: "Rear easy and enclosed but deserted except for laundry room etc."
Another list appeared to be of railway stations Waterloo, Paddington and King's Cross.
In a computer document found on a laptop in Pakistan, Barot had also suggested attacking Tube trains as they passed under the Thames.
"Imagine the chaos that would be caused if a powerful explosion were to rip through here and actually rupture the river itself," he wrote. "That would cause pandemonium, what with the explosions, flooding, drowning etc that would occur."
Mr Lawson said Barot was a member or close associate of al-Qa'eda and "the organiser of a major terrorist activity designed to strike at the very heart of both America and the United Kingdom and to cause loss of human life on a massive scale".
"The plan was to carry out massive explosions here and in the USA, the principal object being to kill hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent people without warning." Writing after the Madrid attacks in March 2004, Barot said it was a "respectable project that deserves to be emulated".
Barot said he had a "friend who is a train driver" who would take people with him in his cab who were not railway staff. The same document told of plans to fill limousines with gas canisters and drive them into car parks beneath important buildings where they would be blown up. He called the document the Final Presentation for Gas Limos Project.
In it, Barot said his aim was "projects planned to be co-ordinated back to back, as they were with 9/11, thus forming another black day for the enemies of Islam and a victory for the Muslims".
Mr Lawson said the proposals were almost business plans for approval and funding which were "for presentation to al-Qa'eda bosses".
As part of the US proposals, Barot made a video of his targets in April 2001, which was later found sandwiched in a video of Die Hard with a Vengeance, a film about terrorist attacks on New York.
Although he did not focus on the World Trade Centre, Barot did film it and is heard on the soundtrack making the sound of an explosion.
Mr Lawson said he could not prove foreknowledge of September 11 but added: "As a minimum it does demonstrate a more than unhealthy and violent interest in attacks on iconic buildings such as the World Trade Centre."
The court heard that Barot had travelled to Kashmir with a friend in 1995 where he had joined Islamic fighters.
He made extensive notes in a Punchline A4 notepad which included details of how to build "a good lab", diagrams of basic homemade bombs involving TNT, dynamite or nitro glycerine, and poisons including gases and ricin.
Later, as he planned his attacks in Britain, Barot bought a copy of the Hazardous Chemical Handbook and used a forged pass to do research at Brunel University in west London.
His presentation on US targets ran to well over 100 pages and included a history of the buildings, details of the uniforms of security guards and where to get copies and escape routes for the bombers. "I have left no stone unturned in my investigations and have spent countless weeks, days, hours and months poring over the literature," he added.
He signed off with his al-Qa'eda pseudonym, EaB, for Esa al-Britani, and added: "Mistakes: none that come to mind."
But MI5 identified Barot in June 2004 and began a huge surveillance operation, only to lose him five weeks later.
He resurfaced on Aug 5 and was arrested as he waited for a haircut at a barber shop in Willesden, north London.
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Sorry to hear this. Should have been shot 'while trying to escape'...
What's wrong with good ol' hanging?
Long, over water airplane ride.
Open door.
Handcuffs.
No parachute.
Let's hope his cellmate is named Bubba, and is extremely lonely.
OK, I accept your arguments.
But the root of the evil - the far left control a nation's judiciary - must be dealt with eventually or we're doomed.
I pray for a GOP win today. Hopefully that'll mean a conservative majority in the Supreme Court before 2009.
He needs to be executed slowly. Keeping terrorists in for life gives them the opportunity to convert others to radical Islam.
Yes, but executing this POS just wouldn't be a part of "EU moral values" or whatever the hell those are.
Instead now, this POS will get three meals a day and a nice warm cot to sleep in at night for the rest of his days.
Thank you. :)
thanks for the ping.
Hanging would be more appropriate IMO.
He should be extradited to Atlantis from oh, about 60,000 feet.
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