'Gas Limos' terrorist faces sentencing

PA
Nov. 06, 2006

Flashback: Media Hypes Nutcase Scribblings as "Terror Plot Admission"A British Muslim plotted to cause "massive explosions" in Britain and the United States designed to kill thousands of people, a court heard today. Dhiren Barot, a 34-year-old from north London, led a conspiracy to commit mass murder and was intent on causing, in his own words, "another black day for the enemies of Islam".

Opening the sentencing against him at Woolwich Crown Court today, Edmund Lawson QC, for the Crown, said that Barot was a member or close associate of al-Qa'eda.

advertisementBarot pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder at a hearing last month.

Mr Lawson added that Barot wanted to "emulate" the Madrid train bombings, which he had described as a "respectable project".

Central to the plans was a plot to blow up cars packed with gas cylinders, dubbed the "gas limos project."

Barot wrote that his plans would form "another black day for the enemies of Islam and a victory for the Muslims".

Mr Lawson said the Madrid bombings took place on March 11 2004, and that therefore the document was not completed before that date. When completed, Barot was in Pakistan presenting his proposals to his "terrorist masters."

Barot had described the Madrid bombings as "the definitive accident" which "deserves to be emulated more than any other".

Mr Lawson said there were other subsidiary and collateral objectives to Barot's plot - to destroy and damage property and to "injure and terrorise people". His methods included the use or threat of a radiation or "dirty bomb" designed to cause widespread disruption and substantial economic loss.