On August 16, I wrote about how UK's challenges, with over a thousand Islamist Extremist terror suspects and thousands of sympathesizers in its midst, has led to continuing threats to the USA such as the planned August 16 British Transatlantic Airline Terror Plot, which the FBI has since confirmed was to crash airliners into USA cities (as UK relaxed security restrictions banning liquids on airlines). The UK press has reported of skepticism among many Britons of such British terror plots against US cities, with some who viewed the terror plot as "propaganda" and "make-believe".
The case of British jihadist Dhiren Barot (aka Esa al-Hindi) illustrates the depth of the British jihadist threat yet again. Through the trial of this convicted terrorist sentenced today to life imprisonment, we now know more about the planned terrorist attacks on DC, Newark, and NYC by British jihadist Dhiren Barot, along with other British jihadists who he "recruited" to attack USA sites. Barot has seven co-defendents who will be going to trial in April 2007. An MI5 report has stated that it is believed that there are 8,000 Al-Qaeda sympathesizers in the UK, and there are 1,200 potential Jihadists currently being tracked by the UK authorities. Yet Jihadists in UK, such as Mizanur Rahman and Abubaker Deghayes, continue to feel free to openly call for terror attacks.
Barot and his British jihadists prepared a detailed plan on how to destroy the four proposed U.S. targets: the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup headquarters in Manhattan; the Prudential building in Newark, N.J.; and the International Monetary Fund in Washington. In addition, Barot's jihadists planned attacks on Jewish organizations and synagogues.
Barot made terror attack reconnaisance films of the NY Stock Exchange in April 2001, and also filmed the World Trade Center in April 2001, mimicking the sound of an explosion. The plot on the Citigroup building in NYC was written in July 2001, and the plot on the Prudential building in Newark was written on September 2, 2001; both were then updated in 2003. Barot filmed Jewish targets on April 7/8, 2001. Barot also took two helicopter flights over Manhattan to scout out terror attack opportunities, and was investigating airplanes for possible attacks as well. He updated the terror plots after the 9/11 attacks, and edited his terror plot films to address new US security measures.
The British jihadists' plans for USA attacks included extensive detail on bomb-making, terror attack strategies, guard uniforms, exits, security systems, cameras, structural weakness, traffic flows, as well as details on dirty bombs. Barot worked with British nationals Nadeem Tarmohamed and Qaisar Shaffi in such terror plots. Barot is also wanted in the U.S. and Yemen. The US Department of Justice has previously stated that they plan to ask for the extradition of Barot, Tarmohamed, and Shaffi.
Barot's British jihad terror cell used Yahoo e-mail addresses entitled "kewl n kinki", "nightwithkylie" and "bridget-jonesdiaries" to communicate with each other in code which the authorities have not yet been able to break.
In addition, Barot also planned a series of synchronized strikes in Britain using gasoline cylinders with nails in limousines at major London hotels (Ritz, Savoy) as well as London subway stations (Waterloo, Paddington, King's Cross), including a plan to blow up a subway car as it passed through a tunnel below the River Thames — as part of a plot to unleash a "memorable black day" of terror, as well as plots to explode a dirty bomb.
Previous news reports have indicated that Barot was the head of Al-Qaeda in UK, and his plans were at some point put before his "al-Qaeda overlords". Barot was named 9/11 Commission report as an associate of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Dhiren Barot was the author of "The Army of Madinah in Kashmir" under the alias Esa Al-Hindi - published and sold in UK by Maktabah Al-Ansaar in 1999, promoting germ and chemical terror attacks.
Barot converted from Hinduism to Islam, and in the UK, after attending a lecture by the now-jailed cleric Abu Hamza, where he was told of the Mujahidin and the concept of jihad, Barot began to frequently discuss how to help "oppressed" Islamic people abroad. After jihadist terror training abroad, Barot returned to the UK and established links with Khalid Sheik Mohammed.
Once again, this case demonstrates the security risk with thousands of potential British jihadists continuing to remain in the UK, who are using the UK as a staging platform for Jihadist plots against the USA and the UK. The British people need to recognize that their "home-grown" terrorists are not just a problem of Pakistan or Pakistani immigration, but are a British problem, that they must solve before one of these Jihadist plots of mass destruction terrorism succeed.
Dhiren Barot trial evidence:
-- Barot video clip - shows the New York Stock Exchange and the surrounding areas of Manhattan
-- Barot video clip - World Trade Center and mocking "explosion"
-- Barot video clip - close-ups of CCTV cameras, street signs and maps, security guards
-- Barot video clip - NYPD officer
-- Evidence - plot for dirty bomb
-- Evidence - "final presentation" for dirty bomb
-- Evidence - 'Gas Limos Project'
Dhiren Barot story major sources:
British Terror Plotter Gets Life In Prison; Prosecutor Says Dhiren Barot Was Caught Just In Time, Before Attacks Started
Al-Qaeda plotter sentenced to life
The videos that sent al-Qaeda plotter to jail
Terror plotter Dhiren Barot sought to enlist West's Muslims
Plans to wreak havoc buried deep in deleted computer files
British Muslim 'wanted to blow up Tube train under Thames'
The evidence against Dhiren Barot
The video made five months before 9/11 attacks
How radical Islam turned a schoolboy into a terrorist
United States indicts three British nationals over alleged terrorist plans to attack U.S. financial targets; defendants currently facing charges in the United Kingdom
Barot's guide to terrorism
Lashkar-e-Taiba [LET](Pakistan/Kashmir)
