LONDON // The United States was being blamed yesterday for the failure of a jury in Britain to convict a group of Islamist extremists of plotting to blow up at least a half-dozen airliners over the Atlantic.
Although three of the eight al Qa'eda-trained men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder, none of the group was convicted of charges involving plotting to blow up planes with homemade liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks. Security sources believe that at least 2,000 passengers and crew could have been killed had the plot succeeded. The discovery of the conspiracy led to wholesale changes in boarding procedures and strict restrictions on what can be taken aboard airliners at airports across the world.
But, after the jury at Woolwich Crown Court in south London failed to find any of the eight young Muslims guilty of targeting aircraft despite 56 hours of deliberation, British security chiefs were left fuming, blaming precipitous actions by their US counterparts for the failed prosecutions.
The problem started in Aug 2006.
The British had had the eight under surveillance for some time and had already built up an impressive body of evidence after wiretapping their bomb-making headquarters in a flat in east London.
It had also been established that some of the group received bomb-making training from Abu Ubaida al Masri, an al Qa'eda commander, in Pakistan in 2005. Rashid Rauf, a militant originally from Birmingham, England, arranged the training and was considered a key player in organising Muslim extremist plots in the West.
As a matter of routine, British security officials at MI5 informed the CIA two years ago that Rauf had been overheard in a phone tap talking about causing explosions in US cities.
Although Tony Blair, who was prime minister in 2006, asked George W Bush to delay any actions against Rauf until a watertight case against the eight suspects in London had been compiled, Washington went ahead and put pressure on Pakistan to arrest Rauf.
Pakistan complied, leaving the British authorities with no alternative but to go out immediately and arrest and charge the eight plotters in the United Kingdom. The action had to be taken so swiftly that the head of counter-terrorism, who was returning from holiday, could not even be informed beforehand.
Michael Clarke, the director of the Royal United Services Institute - a leading research institute on international affairs in London - said the apparently precipitous action by the US illustrated the very different approaches to counter-terrorism on opposite sides of the Atlantic.
"The United States say they are in a war against terror and all they want to do is smash any conspiracies," he told the BBC. "What we're concerned with is a criminal justice approach. What we want is evidence that would be admissible in court because, for us, this is an issue of criminality.
"For the British, the evidence will never be better than the night before the plot is sprung. For the Americans, when you see a plot, you break it."
Prosecutors in Britain are now having to decide whether or not to seek a retrial of the men, who made martyrdom videos warning the West "not to mess with Muslims".
During the trial, some of the men admitted that they had planned to carry out explosions, but not on airliners. They said they had plotted to cause minor explosions outside US airline offices in London, which would pose no threat to life.
They also claimed that their suicide videos were only made for publicity purposes to scare the British public after their "harmless" bombs had gone off.
However, prosecution lawyers said at the trial that the bombs were ingeniously small and were intended for planes, with the ringleader of the group having already drawn up a list of possible targets on scheduled flights between Europe and the US.
But the bombs were never fully constructed and members of the jury appear to have been swayed by the fact that the group had not purchased tickets or made travel plans - something which the British security forces are convinced that they would have done had not the US action in Pakistan alerted the plotters to the fact that their plans were known.
Nevertheless, three of the group - Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, Assad Sarwar, 24, and Tanvir Hussain, 27 - were convicted on a charge of conspiracy to murder.
The jury was unable to reach verdicts on the charge of plotting to blow up the airliners against those three, however, and were unable to reach any verdicts on the four other men. The eighth was cleared of all charges.
After the arrests in 2006, huge delays built up at airports as an almost total ban on taking liquids on aircraft was introduced at airports. There were other restrictions imposed on hand luggage and more thorough searches introduced, many of which remain in place today.
dsapsted@thenational.ae
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Afghanistan fixtures
- v Australia, today
- v Sri Lanka, Tuesday
- v New Zealand, Saturday,
- v South Africa, June 15
- v England, June 18
- v India, June 22
- v Bangladesh, June 24
- v Pakistan, June 29
- v West Indies, July 4
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
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At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Quick%20facts
%3Cul%3E%0A%3Cli%3EStorstockholms%20Lokaltrafik%20(SL)%20offers%20free%20guided%20tours%20of%20art%20in%20the%20metro%20and%20at%20the%20stations%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EThe%20tours%20are%20free%20of%20charge%3B%20all%20you%20need%20is%20a%20valid%20SL%20ticket%2C%20for%20which%20a%20single%20journey%20(valid%20for%2075%20minutes)%20costs%2039%20Swedish%20krone%20(%243.75)%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3ETravel%20cards%20for%20unlimited%20journeys%20are%20priced%20at%20165%20Swedish%20krone%20for%2024%20hours%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EAvoid%20rush%20hour%20%E2%80%93%20between%209.30%20am%20and%204.30%20pm%20%E2%80%93%20to%20explore%20the%20artwork%20at%20leisure%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3C%2Ful%3E%0A
The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Trailblazer
Price, base / as tested Dh99,000 / Dh132,000
Engine 3.6L V6
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power 275hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 3,700rpm
Fuel economy combined 12.2L / 100km
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
ANDROID%20VERSION%20NAMES%2C%20IN%20ORDER
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Company profile
Name: Infinite8
Based: Dubai
Launch year: 2017
Number of employees: 90
Sector: Online gaming industry
Funding: $1.2m from a UAE angel investor
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Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
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The line up
Friday: Giggs, Sho Madjozi and Masego
Saturday: Nas, Lion Bbae, Roxanne Shante and DaniLeigh
Sole DXB runs from December 6 to 8 at Dubai Design District. Weekend pass is Dh295 while a one day pass is Dh195. Tickets are available from www.soledxb.com
MATCH INFO
Chelsea 4 (Mount 18',Werner 44', Hudson-Odoi 49', Havertz 85')
Morecambe 0
The Cockroach
(Vintage)
Ian McEwan
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia