Thursday, March 22, 2007

England: One of the 21 July bombing suspects planned bigger and better attacks than those on July 7, 2005

BBC News:

Mukhtar Ibrahim: planned to booby-trap a flat and set off four bombs on the tube

The lawyer of a fellow defendant said Muktar Ibrahim wanted to explode four bombs on the Tube and destroy a London tower block with a booby-trap device.

Stephen Kamlish QC told Woolwich Crown Court Mr Ibrahim had wanted the flats to go up in "a ball of flames". The defendant denied that was true.

He is one of six men who deny conspiracy to murder in July 2005.

They also deny conspiracy to cause explosions on the transport network on 21 July 2005 - two weeks after the 7 July attacks in which four suicide bombers killed 52 people.

Mr Kamlish, representing Manfo Asiedu, said to Mr Ibrahim: "You wanted to do a copycat of 7/7 - four bombs on 7/7, four bombs two weeks later on 21/7. That was your plan.

"We say your 21/7 bombs were to be bigger and better in your twisted thinking than that of 7/7.

"Four real bombs on the Tube and one block of flats, a tower, destroyed, going up in a ball of flames. That was your plan, wasn't it?"

Mr Ibrahim denied that and said, as a Muslim, he believed those who committed murder would go to hell fire.

He maintains he planned to create a "fake explosive", in a demonstration against the Iraq war, that would cause panic but not hurt anybody.

Mr Kamlish said the plan to blow up the tower block at Curtis House, New Southgate, north London, involved a sideboard with trigger wires intended to spark an explosion when police entered the premises.

Jurors were shown the sideboard, which they were told had been covered in a charge and if detonated would have destroyed the tower block.

Asked why there was a hydrogen peroxide and chappati flour mixture on the furniture - the substances found in the Tube devices - Mr Ibrahim said it could have got there when he was testing the explosives.

He also said he did not know why wires were scattered over the floor.

The court also heard that Mr Ibrahim called himself "emir" which means prince.

"Because you consider yourself the emir, you think people should follow your orders," Mr Kamlish said.

He said his client, Mr Asiedu, had been "ordered" to take part the night before the alleged attacks of 21 July.

But he had dumped his device near Little Wormwood Scrubs, in west London, on 21 July and then returned to Curtis House where he discovered the booby-trap and dismantled it, Mr Kamlish added.

But Mr Ibrahim said Mr Asiedu had agreed to be involved three or four days earlier.

"I do not know why Asiedu is making these accusations," he told the court.

BBC correspondent June Kelly said there were a series of heated exchanges in court as Mr Ibrahim, who had previously remained fairly cool, turned on the lawyer and started asking him questions.

The judge was forced to step in to remind Mr Ibrahim that he was there to answer questions, she said.

Mr Ibrahim is on trial with Yassin Omar, 26, from New Southgate, north London; Mr Asiedu, 33, of no fixed address; Hussein Osman, 28, of no fixed address; Ramzi Mohammed, 25, of North Kensington, west London; and Adel Yahya, 24, of High Road, Tottenham, north London.

'21/7 bomber wanted to blow up 12-storey block of flats'

Accused: 21/7 was 'for Islam'

Tell me again why the mega mosque is good for London?

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