Author: Jonathan Wald
Publication: CNN.com
Date: March 24, 2006
URL: http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/03/24/britain.terror/
The star witness in Britain's biggest terror
trial since the September 11 attacks began giving evidence Thursday, detailing
how he joined the jihadist movement.
Mohammed Babar, a Pakistani-born U.S. citizen,
told a London court he decided to fight against America only days after his
mother narrowly survived the destruction of the World Trade Center.
Babar has pleaded guilty in New York to various
terrorism-related offenses, including taking part in a plot to detonate explosives
in the United Kingdom. He is testifying in the trial of 7 men who deny they
were part of that plot.
Prosecutor, David Waters, told the Old Bailey
Criminal Court how Babar attended a Jihad training camp in Pakistan with most
of the defendants and helped acquire ammonium nitrate fertilizer to launch
bombs attacks against pubs, trains, synagogues, a nightclub or a shopping
center. Waters said they had only to decide on a target before achieving "their
ultimate goal."
Two of the defendants claimed they worked
for a high-ranking al Qaeda member called Abdul Hadi and one suspect said
Britain needed to be attacked because of its support for the United States,
according to Waters.
A police convoy escorted Babar from a high-security
prison in London to the courtroom, where armed police officers were positioned
at each entrance.
Babar, who had a thin beard and wore a gray
sweatshirt and glasses, seemed nervous as he began his testimony and didn't
appear to look at the defendants in the dock at any point.
He said he first developed "Jihad"
ideas during the first Gulf War and set off to fight the Jihad against America
in Afghanistan within seven to 10 days of 9/11, even though his "mother
worked in the World Trade Center when the first World Trade Center was hit."
"Now is the time for me to go,"
Babar said. "I knew that after 9/11 the U.S. would be invading Afghanistan
and I had felt I had held it off for too long."
Babar recounted how he traveled to Pakistan
via London at the beginning of 2003 and met a group of Britons, primarily
from Crawley and London.
"Those brothers who came basically from
England and were in Pakistan at the time after 9/11, 15 or 20 came to Pakistan
for Jihad," he said.
Asked what he meant by the word "brothers",
Babar said it referred to Muslim brothers, Arabs, or "those who were
members of al Qaeda."
Babar listed several names of the jihadists
he met in Pakistan, which the prosecution said were used by some of the defendants
as pseudonyms.
The suspects, Omar Khyam, his brother Shujah
Mahmood, Anthony Garcia, Jawad Akbar, Waheed Mahmood, Nabeel Hussain and Salahuddin
Amin are accused of conspiring with Canadian Mohammed Momin Khawaja to cause
an explosion "likely to endanger life." Khawaja is awaiting trial
in Canada for his alleged role in the plot.
Khyam, Garcia and Hussain are separately charged
with possessing 1,300 pounds (600 kg) of ammonium nitrate fertilizer "for
a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an
act of terrorism."
Khyam and Shujah Mahmood are also accused
of possessing aluminum powder, also for suspected terrorist purposes.
Babar's testimony is expected to last several
weeks and court officials estimate the trial will take about six months.
