By Tom Whitehead, and Duncan Gardham
10:00PM GMT 21 Feb 2013
Britain faces a new generation of self-starting “Nike terrorists”, the security services fear, amid alarm over the speed with which a gang of home grown extremists were able to find and gain support for a 9/11-style plot from the “heart of the beast” of al-Qaeda.
The terror cell hoped to kill hundreds of people with eight suicide bombers, armed with guns, in what would have been the worst terrorist outrage on UK soil.
The ringleaders now face life behind bars after being convicted on Thursday of planning a terror campaign.
But the security and intelligence services are concerned how two of them, with no apparent previous links to al-Qaeda, were able to quickly make contact with the terror group’s international arm in northern Pakistan to learn how to make bombs and poisons.
The plot – which The Daily Telegraph can also reveal was personally blessed by al-Qaeda’s number five, Abu Zaid al-Kuwaiti, who was killed in a drone strike last year – was the most serious since plans to blow up transatlantic airliners with liquid bombs in 2006.
But it also marked a sea change in the influence of al-Qaeda and the growing threat of self-motivated fanatics nicknamed in the intelligence world as the “Nike terrorists” because of the sports brand motto “just do it”.
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There are fears a second wave of suicide bombers was already being planned by the Birmingham group.
It raises the prospect of a new generation of British extremists with a desire to kill their fellow citizens using al-Qaeda’s expertise for their own ends.
A senior Whitehall source said: “This was a very significant investigation. It shows in a different direction how terrorism is affecting the UK.
“This was the most significant plot since the liquid bomb pot in 2006 and demonstrates the continued threat from self-organised networks.”
Security and intelligence sources were “shocked” at how quickly the men were able to make contact with the “heart of the beast” – the international arm of al-Qaeda in northern Pakistan that has been behind other terror plots, The Daily Telegraph understands.
Irfan Naseer, 31, Irfan Khalid, 27, and Ashik Ali, 27, were found guilty of planning a terror campaign after a four and a half month trial at Woolwich Crown Court.
They were the ringleaders of a group that planned to cause “mass death” and “carnage in the name of Allah” on the streets of Britain.
Although no target was settled on, the 2012 Olympics and soldiers may have been in their sights. They even criticised the 7/7 London bombers, who killed 52 innocent people, for not doing “enough damage”.
The gang were also guilty of raising money for terrorism, after fraudulently raising at least £20,000 in the name of Muslim Aid, and recruiting others for a terror act.
Six other men pleaded guilty to terror offences at earlier hearings and three others await future trials.
Naseer and Khalid were also convicted of travelling to Pakistan for terror training, where they made martyrdom videos to be released by al-Qaeda after they had blown themselves up.
The case calls into question the government’s Prevent strategy to counter the home grown extremist threat. The Theresa May-backed plan relies on Muslim communities to report suspicious behaviour to the authorities. Yet although family members and other Birmingham residents knew they had travelled abroad for training, no alarm was raised.
The plot was foiled after the cell was secretly recorded by MI5 and police for two months in the summer of 2011. The security services realised they were just months, if not weeks, away from carrying out their atrocity.
They also considered other forms of attack such as putting poison in hand cream to rub on car and door handles or even putting blades on the front of a vehicle and driving it in to a crowd of people.
Detective Inspector Adam Gough, of the West Midlands counter terrorism unit, said: “They were the real deal. They were committed, passionate extremists hell bent on pursuing their intention of killing as many people as they could in coordinated suicide bomb attacks.”
In Naseer's martyrdom video, he vowed: “Suicide bombers on your streets spilling so much blood that you will remember, you will have nightmares for the rest of your lives.”
In a first for the UK, bomb maker Naseer, a pharmacy graduate, planned to extract ammonium nitrate – used as a main explosive – from sports injury cold packs.
The men were heavily influenced by the al-Qaeda preacher Anwar al-Awlaki whose English language lectures encouraging people to launch attacks however they could spawned the “just do it” motto.
Al-Awlaki was killed by a missile from an unmanned drone at his hideout in Yemen, 12 days after the Birmingham cell was arrested.
But in secretly recorded conversations they also boasted the backing of al-Kuwaiti, who was once seen as a possible successor to Ayman al-Zawahiri, the current al-Qaeda leader.
His real name is Khalid Abdurrahman al-Husainan and he was killed, while eating his breakfast, in a drone attack in December.
Khalid was recorded telling others: “Well you know the sheikh we’re on about the Kuwaiti guy, you know about the top five.
“Bro, there is no more proof than him saying it, that, 'do it.’ He’s the one who’s blessed this whole thing and he’s the one who saying people are doing dawah [praying] for you.”
Referred to as “Chubbs” or “Big Irfan,” Naseer was the religious leader of the cell and also its bomb-maker.
But he had reached the age of 30 without leaving home and was, by his own barrister’s admission an “overweight, lazy mummy’s boy” who weighed 21 stones.
Anas Zein Al-Abdeen a school friend of Naseer, said he had been the school joker but “he couldn’t adapt to working life. This, I think, is the start of his downfall”.
Trial judge Mr Justice Henriques told the trio that they will all face life in prison when they are sentenced in April or May.
He told Naseer to expect a “a very long minimum term”, adding: “The scale and extent of your ambition was similarly manifest. You were seeking to recruit a team of somewhere between six and eight suicide bombers to carry out a spectacular bombing campaign, one which would create an anniversary along the lines of 7/7 or 9/11.”
Rahin Ahmed, 28, the cell’s chief fundraiser, has already pleaded guilty to fundraising and helping other travel to Pakistan for terror training.
Four other men, Naweed Ali, 24; Ishaaq Hussain, 20; Khobaib Hussain, 20 and Shahid Khan, 20, have pleaded guilty to travelling to Pakistan in August 2011 for terrorist training.
Mujahid Hussain, 21, who was heavily involved in raising money for terrorism, has pleaded guilty to a charge of fundraising.
Fears of new generation of terrorists who found the 'heart of the beast' of al-Qaeda - Telegraph
