Trial of Eight terrorist Suspects Begins in the UK
Posted by Damozel | According to the prosecution, the eight men now on trial "planned to detonate bombs aboard flights from London
across the Atlantic to create deaths on an almost unprecedented scale." (BBC News) "Their plan was to smuggle homemade liquid bombs on board several translatlantic passenger flights and to detonate them mid-flight."(BBC News) This is why after August 2006, passengers were banned from taking liquids on board aircraft, says the BBC. Good. Let's keep it that way, I say.
Apparently, the men planned to use a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and other substances disguised as delicious fruit-flavored beverages. (BBC News) "A sugary drink known as Tang would be mixed with the solution to add power to the explosion." (BBC News) Tang! Can you still buy Tang? And who knew that the drink of the astronauts could be subverted to such a dire and evil purpose? The conspirators intended to build detonators that could be concealed in 1.5 volt batteries and ignited by a disposable camera. (BBC News)
They planned to detonate the bombs when the planes were in the air.
In other words, the alleged bombings would take place in sequence - but the authorities would not be able to intervene. The allegedly targeted planes would all be either 777, 767 or 763 jets able to each carry between 241 and 285 people. (BBC News)
Prosecutors say the trial will reveal that the two main conspirators talked of targeting up to 18 flights.
The seven daily flights highlighted from Heathrow's Terminal 3 were:
- 1415 United Airlines Flight 931 to San Francisco
- 1500 Air Canada Flight 849 to Toronto
- 1515 Air Canada Flight 865 to Montreal
- 1540 United Airlines Flight 959 to Chicago
- 1620 United Airlines Flight 925 to Washington
- 1635 American Airlines Flight 131 to New York
- 1650 American Airlines Flight 91 to Chicago. (BBC News)
I should mention that all eight men deny having such an intention. (BBC News)
You can see the prosecution's case here.
Memeorandum has the Daily Mail's version here. Blogger reaction too... Too bad the DM missed the bit about the men actually targeting 18 flights; they report only the seven in the list....
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