A white middle-class Islamic convert yesterday admitted plotting a terrorist atrocity on the town where thousands gathered to honour dead British soldiers.
Richard Dart, 30, trained at Al Qaeda camps in Pakistan for an attack on Royal Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire.
The former BBC security guard was part of a three-man gang – which included a former police community support officer – who also planned to wipe out the heads of M15 and MI6.
Plot: Richard Dart has admitted to involvement with terrorism offences along with Imran Mahmood, 21, and Jahangir Alom, 26
Suspicion: British soldiers and Marines killed in Afghanistan pass along the High Street in Wootton Bassett, where the terror group was believed to be targeting
Co-conspirators: Former PCSO Jahangir Alom (left) and Imran Mahmood (right) also pleaded guilty at the Old bailey today
Last night it emerged that teacher’s son Dart was converted to Islam by notorious radical cleric Anjem Choudary in 2011.
He was transformed from a promising carpentry student into a rabble-rouser preaching hatred against the West.
Last year, Dart – who has changed his name to Salahuddin al Britani – featured in a BBC documentary about his conversion to Islam.
Despite his supposedly devout lifestyle, he lived rent-free while claiming thousands of pounds from taxpayers. In the BBC3 film, My Brother the Islamist, he was seen protesting about British soldiers in Afghanistan and calling them ‘murderers’.
Extreme: Dart has made several appearances on YouTube and on BBC TV discussing his faith and his views, as well as attending several anti-British protests in London (right)
Dart admitted plotting the terrorist attack alongside ex-PCSO Jahangir Alom, 26, and Imran Mahmood, 21, during a hearing at the Old Bailey.
The three were arrested in police raids prior to the Olympics.
Admission: Richard Dart had travelled to Pakistan for terror training and was implicated after police seized a computer
Alom was held at his home in Stratford, East London, in the shadow of the Olympic Park, by officers who used flash grenades and Tasers.
Police discovered the men plotted to attack Royal Wootton Bassett, the town where people regularly lined the streets to mark the repatriation of British troops until late 2011.
The trio had travelled to Pakistan’s lawless frontier with Afghanistan where they undertook terrorist training.
Traces of explosives, including nitro-glycerine, were found inside Mahmood’s rucksack when they returned.
The men also passed information to other extremists about travelling to Pakistan and evading detection.
They were arrested after a long surveillance operation which followed two separate trips to Karachi over two years.
The would-be bombers used a bizarre ‘deaf and dumb’ method in a bid to conceal their communications.
Surveillance officers looked on as they stood in the street tapping messages into their mobile phones and laptops before deleting them.
They devised the technique to outfox investigators using sophisticated bugs or lip readers to work out what they were saying.
But it backfired because software on Richard Dart’s laptop automatically saved fragments of their incriminating discussions.
The messages included discussions about travelling to Pakistan to meet Al Qaeda and potential targets, including Royal Wootton Bassett.
The incriminating laptop was seized from Dart as he tried to board a plane to Karachi in November 2011.
A painstaking police investigation discovered fragments of incriminating messages on their phones and laptops. In one, the trio discussed ‘WB’, interpreted by police as Wootton Bassett.
Stand: Dart pictured before his arrest during a Muslims against Crusades protest against the Royal Wedding outside the House Of Commons
Home: Dart had lived in a luxury flat here in Mile End, East London, paid for by benefits
Another message read: ‘If it comes down to this, it is that or even to just deal with a few MI5 or MI6 heads.’
Dart, who has a long bushy beard and wore traditional Muslim robes, spoke only to plead guilty during yesterday’s hearing.
He converted to Islam after mixing in extremist circles, including the group Muslims Against Crusades, which was banned by the Home Office in November 2011.
The leading figure in the group was Choudary, a hate preacher linked to a string of Islamist groups including Islam4UK, who boasted of converting Dart ‘by my hand’.
Choudary gave him the name ‘Salahuddin’ after the medieval leader who drove Richard I from Jerusalem.
Dart’s mother, Deborah Leech, declined to comment yesterday at the £350,000 home she shares with her husband Thomas in the village of Upwey, near Weymouth, Dorset.
Speaking in court yesterday, prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw QC said there is a dispute over the ‘degree of risk to members of the public’ the men posed.
The judge, Mr Justice Simon, said he would sentence the men next month.
British Cleric Goes to Bat for Admitted Terrorist...
No comments:
Post a Comment