Briton denies plot to bomb plane
From correspondents in London
September 24, 2004
A BRITISH man accused of plotting to bomb an airplane pleaded innocent today.
Sajid Badat, 25, appeared at the Old Bailey court by video link from Woodhill prison. He was ordered to be held without bail until his trial starts next year.
Authorities had earlier accused Badat, of Gloucester, western England, of working with Richard Reid, an al-Qaeda follower who tried to detonate shoe bombs aboard a US airliner.
The formal charge against him did not mention Reid, who was convicted of trying to set off explosives on an American Airlines Paris-to-Miami flight in December 2001.
Prosecutors alleged that "between January 1, 1999, and November 28, 2003, (Badat) conspired with another or others to place or cause to be placed on an aircraft in service a device or substance which was likely to destroy the aircraft, or was likely so to damage it as to render it incapable of flight".
He was also accused of possessing an explosive consisting of two pieces of safety fuse, a length of detonating cord and a quantity of the explosive PETN with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property.
He pleaded innocent to both charges.
Badat was arrested at his home in Gloucester on November 27, 2003, and police who searched the home said they had found explosive materials.
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,10871174%255E1702,00.html
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=23671&archive=true
"2nd BCT soldier's plea to the world: 'Buy us beer'"
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, September 23, 2004
Seth Robson / S&S
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Soldiers in Iraq crave beer, women and high-speed Internet connections, in that order, said Sgt. Dale Rogers. His answer to the No. 1 problem was to create beerforsoldiers.com, a Web site that allows visitors to donate money to a beer fund for the 2nd ID troops in Iraq. Rogers will use the money to buy beer for soldiers on mid-tour leave and for a homecoming bash after the tour ends.
Seth Robson / S&S
Running the beerforsoldiers Web site is a diversion from the serious nature of the mission for Sgt. Dale Rogers, right, seen taking cover in Ramadi during fighting with insurgents there Sept 16.
CAMP HABBANIYAH, Iraq — To Sgt. Dale Rogers of Company C, 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, the near beer that soldiers sometimes get in Kuwait and Iraq tastes like something drained through a wet sock.
But that’s the closest the beer-loving Strike Force (2nd Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team) soldier will get to his favorite drink during the next few months of his deployment in Iraq.
The cyber-savvy soldier, though, has plans to make up for the lost consumption during mid-tour leave to Qatar and when he and his mates return to the States next year. And it won’t cost him a cent.
Rogers is the creative force behind www.beerforsoldiers.com, a Web site which allows true patriots to buy soldiers a beer online. The shaved-headed infantryman set up the Web site in February just before he joined 1-503 in South Korea, where the unit was based before deploying to Iraq last month."