In chilling videos shown to a jury, defendants accused of plotting to bring down jetliners over the Atlantic called for revenge for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and praised al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.
Most of the Britons charged in the alleged plot mad videotapes denouncing the West for what they said was its suppression of Muslims, prosecutor Peter Wright said on Friday as he outlined his case to jurors at a London court.
Eight men are accused of plotting to blow up at least seven jetliners bound for the US and Canada in 2006.
Some in the group were heard on secret police audio bugs discussing plans to take their wives and young children on the suicide missions, Wright said.
Wright showed a jury clips of videotapes the men recorded for distribution after their attacks. Each man wore a black and white checkered headscarf and sat alone in front of a black flag inscribed with a message in Arabic.
“I say to the nonbelievers, as you bomb, you will be bombed. As you kill, you will be killed,” said Umar Islam, 29, as he angrily wagged a finger at the camera, denouncing the US and Britain for their military role in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories.
Another defendant, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, predicted waves of new attacks on the US and Britain.
“We will take our revenge and anger, ripping amongst your people and scattering the people ... decorating the streets,” he said in a video.
Islam lambasted the British public, saying that they deserved to suffer because they cared more about sports and television soap operas than they cared about the plight of Muslims.
“Most of them are too busy watching Home And Away and EastEnders, complaining about the World Cup, drinking your alcohol, to care about anything,” he said.
Wright said on Thursday that the group had expressed hopes of recruiting as many as 18 suicide bombers. Seven specific flights from London’s Heathrow airport to Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Washington, Toronto and Montreal had been singled out for attack, but no specific date selected, Wright said.
The cell planned to strike all seven in one afternoon in late 2006.
Soft drinks bottles injected with hydrogen peroxide-based explosives were to be smuggled on board and improvised bombs assembled in jetliner toilets, Wright said.
He said the group had purchased a vacant flat in a London row house and used it as a bomb factory and collected large quantities of hydrogen peroxide for use as explosives.
Wright acknowledged the men had not been able to assemble a viable bomb, but he insisted they were close to achieving success.
He showed a jury a video of an experiment by government scientists using the same ingredients to create working devices.
Thick panels of reinforced glass shattered as the bomb exploded, spraying shrapnel across a laboratory.
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