Three British Muslims were sentenced Monday to life in jail for plotting a "terrorist outrage" to blow up transatlantic airliners with liquid bombs in suicide attacks expected to be on the same scale as the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Judge Richard Henriques said the plot was "the most grave and wicked conspiracy ever proven within this jurisdiction," as he passed sentence at the top-security Woolwich Crown Court in southeast London.
"The intention was to perpetrate a terrorist outrage that would stand alongside the events of Sept. 11, 2001 in history," he said.
The plot, foiled in August 2006, triggered the wide-ranging rules now in place on carrying liquids aboard commercial aircraft.
Ringleader Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum 40-year term.
The plot’s "chemist and quartermaster" Assad Sarwar, 29, must spend a minimum of 36 years behind bars, while fellow plotter Tanvir Hussain, 28, Ali’s right-hand man, must serve at least 32 years.
Million dollar operation
The counter-terrorism operation to foil the London-based plot was the biggest ever in Britain, costing £35 million ($58 million, €40 million).
Henriques said: "There is every likelihood that this plot would have succeeded but for the intervention of the police and the security service."
"A massive loss of life would almost certainly have resulted — and if the detonation was over land, the number of victims would have been even greater still."
The plotters targeted seven flights from London’s Heathrow airport to New York, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto and Montreal.
The flights, operated by United Airlines, American Airlines and Air Canada, would have been mid-air simultaneously, prosecutors said.
Some of the men recorded so-called martyrdom videos featuring threats to the West of waves of terrorist attacks.
"This was a viable and meticulously planned conspiracy and I conclude it was imminent," Henriques said.
The plot was "an act of revenge inspired by extremist Islamic thinking", aimed at the "governments of several allied forces in Iraq and Afghanistan," he added.
The tighter security measures and restrictions on liquids now seen on flights worldwide are "entirely attributable to this conspiracy", he said.
Control in Pakistan
The judge said emails showed "the ultimate control of this conspiracy lay in Pakistan," saying the plot was run, monitored and funded from there.
The six-month trial was peppered with evidence that the gang was frequently in communication with al-Qaeda-linked figures in Pakistan.
On Sept. 7, a jury found Ali, Sarwar and Hussain guilty of conspiracy to murder by blowing up transatlantic airliners.
Prosecutors said they plotted to drill holes in the bottom of plastic drinks bottles, drain the contents and inject liquid explosive with a syringe before sealing the holes with glue. That way the bottle tops would remain unopened.
Holes in bottles
The home-made liquid explosive was to be concocted from hydrogen peroxide and Tang, a soft drink available in powdered form.
When mixed with such an organic material at an appropriate strength, hydrogen peroxide has explosive qualities.
The bottles would be detonated using the substance HTMD, concealed in regular AA 1.5-volt batteries.
The detonator would have been ignited using a metal wire or a small light bulb, the court heard.
Henriques said the gang had other targets in their sights, including power installations.
"You had within your contemplation a campaign of bombing which would have a devastating effect upon this country," he said.
A fourth man, 31-year-old Umar Islam, who was convicted of the more general charge of conspiracy to murder, was sentenced to life in jail with a minimum term of 22 years.
Prosecutors are seeking a third trial for three men found not guilty of plotting to blow up airliners, following a hung jury on the wider charge of conspiracy to murder.
The cases of Ibrahim Savant, 28, Arafat Waheed Khan, 28, and Waheed Zaman, 25, were adjourned until Oct. 5.
Henriques told ringleader Ali: "You are a driven and determined extremist with boundless energy and an ambition to lead a terrorist outrage of boundless proportion.