- Irfan Naseer, 31, sent four young men to Pakistan for terrorism training
- Judge describes him as 'skilled bomb maker' and 'driving force' of plan
- Mr Justice Henriques said: 'Your plot had the blessing of Al Qaeda'
- Gang of 11 wanted to kill up to 2,000 Britons with eight rucksack bombs
- Other leaders Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali sentenced to 20 and 23 years
- Rahin Ahmed sentenced to 12 years for his role as chief financier
- Four 'travellers' who went to Pakistan are jailed for 40 months each
'Skilful bomb-maker': Terror ringleader Irfan Naseer (above) has bee jailed for life for planning an attack more devastating than the July 7 bombings
One of the three terrorists who planned an attack to rival the July 7 bombings could be free in as little as eight and a half years.
The trio – all British-born – were jailed yesterday for plotting a wave of suicide bombings aimed at transforming a major city into a ‘little war zone’.
Ringleader Irfan Naseer was heard describing how a series of blasts would go off at the same time ‘boom … boom … boom’.
A judge said their plans had been ‘at the far end of extreme’ and that they had been determined to carry out ‘mass murder’ to ‘further the aims of Al Qaeda’.
But one could walk free in less than nine years despite having volunteered to strap on an explosive rucksack and detonate it in a crowded place.
The sentence contrasts with those of other major plots in which Al Qaeda-inspired terrorists were jailed for a minimum of 40 years.
It means the three men are likely to return to the neighbourhoods they wanted to destroy before they are even middle aged.
The security services said the Birmingham cell was responsible for the most serious terrorist conspiracy since the failed airline liquid bomb plot in 2006.
Naseer, 28, and Irfan Khalid, 31, travelled to Pakistan where they trained alongside Al Qaeda and learned how to make homemade explosives.
During their stay the pair recorded martyrdom videos to be released after their deaths in which they praised hate preacher Abu Qatada.
On their return they recruited Ashik Ali, 28, and transformed his one-bedroom local authority flat in Sparkhill to a bomb factory.
Naseer and Khalid told others they were working for the ‘Al Qaeda number five’ and had been sent back to Europe to spread their deadly new skills.
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Co-conspirators: Together with Naseer, the cell was led by his 'inseparable' friend Irfan Khalid (left), who boasted the attack was 'another 9/11', and Ashik Ali (right)
Sent down: 'Chief financier' Rahin Ahmed (left) and another recruit Bahader Ali were jailed for 12 and six years
Foot soldiers: Mohammed Rizwan (left) and Mujahid Hussain (right) were both sentenced to four years in prison
40 months each: Shaaq Hussain (left) and Khobaib Hussain (right) travelled to Pakistan for terror training
Went to terror camps: Shahid Khan (left) and Naweed Ali (right) were jailed for three years and four months
The trio recruited eight followers, four of whom were sent to a Pakistani terror camp as others posed as bogus charity collectors to raise cash. But the plot was smashed in a series of police raids that followed a multi-million-pound surveillance operation in September 2011.
Police finally struck after listening to the men, via a hidden bugging device, preparing to build a bomb in their kitchen.
They discovered Naseer, an unemployed chemistry graduate, had drawn an intricate blueprint for a new kind of homemade bomb.
It was intended to use chemicals from cold packs designed for treating sports injuries, but the men bought the wrong kind and they turned out to be harmless.
In conversations bugged by MI5, Naseer estimated his nail bombs could weigh up to 5kg (11lb) and that each could kill more than 100 people. The men talked of using up to eight bombs, some on timers, which each could have killed hundreds of people.
The trio funded the plot by pretending to be Muslim Aid charity street collectors
Funding: Irfan Nasser, Rahin Ahmed and Irfan Khalid during a bogus charity collection to help pay for the attack
Plans: West Midlands Police photo of Irfan Nasser, Rahin Ahmed and Irfan Khalid at Birmingham Airport. They are part of a home-grown terror gang facing life in jail for plotting 'another 9/11'
Naseer, who was known as ‘Chubbs’ because of his 23-stone frame, said he wanted to turn Birmingham into a ‘little war zone’. The gang also planned to make ‘The Ultimate Mowing Machine’ by welding knives to a truck and driving it into crowds. Another idea involved cooking up poisonous hand cream and smearing it on to car door handles.
It can now be revealed that MI5 has investigated links between the bombers and Chechen rebels in the wake of the Boston marathon bombings.
Naseer and Khalid were recorded boasting how they met the cousin of an extremist who led militia in Chechnya.
And one of the ringleaders campaigned for the Liberal Democrats before the 2010 local authority elections. Khalid joined bands of volunteers going from door-to-door with newsletters and leaflets for a councillor in the Springfield area.
Sentencing the men at high-security Woolwich Crown Court in London, Mr Justice Henriques said Naseer was a ‘highly skilled bomb-maker’. He told him: ‘The only barrier between you and your team and mass murder was the authorities. No lack of assets, skill or manpower was going to stop you.’
Naseer was sentenced to five life sentences and ordered to serve a minimum of 18 years, although he was told he may never be released.
Ali, who confessed to police that his role was to wear a suicide vest and carry a gun, was jailed for 15 years, but could be released after less than nine. This is because he will be released after two-thirds of his sentence and has already spent 19 months on remand.
It was Naseer's bulky frame that helped him to work on his bomb-making skills while at training camps in Pakistan
Charity funded terror: The men posed as fundraisers for a Muslim charity (left) then used the cash to pay for bomb devices such as this alarm clock (right)
GANG OF 11 JAILED FOR 90 YEARS
Irfan Naseer LIFE (18 YEARS MIN)
Irfan Khalid 18 YEARS
Ashik Ali 15 YEARS
Rahin Ahmed 12 YEARS
Bahader Ali 6 YEARS
Mohammed Rizwan 4 YEARS
Mujahid Hussain 4 YEARS
Shaaq Hussain 3 YEARS 4 MONTHS
Khobaib Hussain 3 YEARS 4 MONTHS
Shahid Khan 3 YEARS 4 MONTHS
Naweed Ali 3 YEARS 4 MONTHS
TOTAL 90 YEARS 4 MONTHS
The partially sighted and blundering ex-charity worker pretended to be the gang’s ‘teaboy’ but the judge said he was a ‘keen’ follower.
Khalid, who boasted the attack was ‘another 9/11’, was jailed for 18 years, but could be out in 12.
The three ringleaders were convicted of preparing terrorist acts after a three month trial that concluded in February.
The other members of the gang were jailed for a total of 74 years after pleading guilty at earlier hearings.
Chief financier Rahin Ahmed, 26, who had a law degree from Coventry University, was jailed for 12 years.
Ali’s brother, Bahadar, 29, and another man, Mohammed Rizwan, 34, were jailed for six and four years respectively after being recorded discussing attacks on Britain.
Mujahid Hussain, 21, helped with the fundraising. He was jailed for four years.
Shahid Khan, 21, Khobaib Hussain, 21, Ishaaq Hussain, 21, and Naweed Ali, 25, all travelled to Pakistan for terrorist training in August 2011. They were each sentenced to 40 months in prison after quickly returning home within days because they were so shocked at the appalling conditions.
Probe: Police raided properties all over Birmingham, including this safe house, which was full of bomb-making equipment and documents detailing how to make them
Safe house: The trio were based at this property in White Street, Birmingham, and used as the headquarters for their terror cell
Explosive: Police uncovered a variety of powders and liquids, including this 'cold pack' in the dingy house
Destroying the evidence: Police found this burnt note that detailed the bomb-making process
Bomb-making equipment: Police discovered a variety of ordinary domestic equipment including granules to keep material cold (left) and a pharmaceutical syringe (right)
Fundraising: Irfan Naseer, Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali held table top sales in Birmingham where the cash raised would be secretly siphoned off to pay for trips to Pakistan
Surveillance: MI5 had been watching the terror group and had planted a bug in their Hinda Civic where they were heard boasting about the atrocity they planned
Boom! Boom! Boom! Chilling words of would-be bombers caught on secret tape
THE endless bragging of the Birmingham terror cell proved their downfall. Agents from MI5 planted bugs in their cars and bomb factory which caught chilling details of their plans. Here are some of the would-be bombers’ sickening remarks:
Ringleader Irfan Naseer
Describing the terror blasts, he said: ‘Seven or eight different places with timers on at the same time... boom... boom...boom.’
Threatening British citizens, he added: ‘Only thing you will achieve is suicide bombers on your streets spilling so much blood that you will remember, you’ll have nightmares for the rest of your miserable lives.
‘This is revenge for everything, what we’re doing is another 9/11 inshallah.’
Shopping: Ashik Ali was watched buying curtains from Argos as part the sophisticated spying operation by the British secret services
Late night: Officers pulled the terrorists over as they drove to a takeaway just before midnight
Prosecution: Ashik Ali was taken from the car and is detained along with the two other men who were all found guilty of terrorism offences at Woolwich Crown Court today
Capture: West Midlands Police arrested the three men in Birmingham after intercepting them in their VW as they drove through the city in September 2011
Recounting the contents of his suicide video: ‘That’s for Osama Bin Laden as well and for burning the Korans and for Afghanistan.’
Naseer also said Westerners deserve to be ‘terrorised’ because ‘they wanna have sex like donkeys on the street’. He added: ‘Why shouldn’t we terrorise them, tell me that?
‘You think about it, if someone came in your house, yeah, and started dancing and throughout the night and started basically having orgies and smoking drugs and stuff...you would terrorise them, innit.’
Henchman Irfan Khalid:
Affecting the voice of Formula One commentator Murray Walker while driving, Khalid said: ‘It’s the four suicide bombers driving around ready to take on England.’ Asked how long the car was taxed until, one plotter said it had an MOT certificate until June. ‘Yeah we’re dead by then,’ replied Khalid.
He added: ‘You think about it, you’re hitting his friends, in their home his friends innit these were Cameron and everyone they’re his friends.
‘We’re doing it in the land of the shaytan [devil] ...This is going to shake them all, all the kaffir that go to the pub and that.’
Putting on a mocking English accent, he added: ‘They’ve hit us in our own country, my god they hit us.’
Scam: CCTV shows Rahin Ahmed depositing charity money they had fraudulently taken at a Barclays Bank in Moseley, Birmingham
Trips: Khobaib Hussain and Naweed Ali are shown here sitting and waiting for a flight from Birmingham Airport
Sketch: The group's members Irfan Naseer, Rahin Ahmed and Ashik Ali are pictured (left to right) in court
