LONDON, Nov 6: A suspected Al Qaeda operative watched impassively in a British court on Monday as prosecutors played shaky hand-held video of the New York Stock Exchange and other US financial targets he has admitted planning to bomb.
Briton Dhiren Barot, 34, pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy to murder in connection with planned attacks in the United States and Britain — the latter including the use of a ‘dirty bomb’ laced with radiological material.
At Monday’s hearing he jotted on a large notepad as prosecutor Edmund Lawson played video footage he said was shot in April 2001 on a reconnaissance mission by Barot for the attacks in the United States.
Lawson said the bombings were planned in 2000 and 2001 and apparently shelved after 9/11 attacks.
But he said the plans were later revived and were being worked on in 2004 in the run-up to the suspects’ arrest.
“Barot, evidently a member or close associate of the Al Qaeda terrorist organisation, led the conspiracy to cause lethal explosions both here and in the United States of America,” Lawson told the court. “The plot was to carry out massive explosions here and in the United States.”—Reuters
