Airline Plotters Meant to Strike U.S. Cities

The suspected plotters of the foiled plan to detonate liquid explosives in passenger airliners meant to bring the planes down over U.S. cities in order to increase the loss of life and economic damage, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Aug. 25).

It had earlier been believed that up to 10 airplanes were to be blown up over the Atlantic Ocean while flying between the United Kingdom and the United States.

“The plan was to bring them down over U.S. cities, not over the ocean,” FBI New York field office chief Mark Mershon said Oct. 24 at a security conference, according to Government Security News.

The alleged plot originated in the United Kingdom, where authorities arrested 25 people in a series of raids in August.  Conspiracy to murder and preparing acts of terrorism charges have been filed against 11 suspects.

A British court yesterday ruled there was insufficient evidence to bring two of the suspects to trial.  The judge ordered that brothers Umair and Mehran Hussain be released (Dan Eggen, Washington Post, Nov. 2).

The two were suspected of failing to provide information to authorities regarding another brother’s suspected involvement in the plot, the New York Times reported.  Nabeel Hussain faces the conspiracy and terrorism charges.

Judge Quentin Purdy warned the two brothers that they could again be charged if prosecutors produced additional evidence of wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, a 29-year-old London man was charged yesterday with trying to bring “The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook” and other suspect materials on a flight from Heathrow Airport to Pakistan, the Times reported.

Antiterror officers at the airport on Oct. 18 found Sohail Anjum Qureshi carrying the book, $17,000 in cash, two metal batons, a night-vision scope and a combat-training manual contained on a computer hard drive.  Authorities filed three counts of violating British antiterrorism laws against Qureshi, who is suspected of involvement in terrorist plans overseas (Sarah Lyall, New York Times, Nov. 2).

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