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NHS doctor tried to bomb London club
Justin Davenport and Paul Cheston16 Dec 2008
AN NHS doctor was today found guilty of conspiring to murder hundreds of Londoners with Baghdad-style car bombs in the West End and at Glasgow airport.
Bilal Abdulla, 29, copied tactics used against the US military by insurgents in Iraq in an attempt to cause carnage in Britain in revenge for the war in Iraq.
He was part of a gang that left two car bombs packed with gas canisters, nails and petrol outside the crowded Tiger Tiger nightclub in Haymarket and at a bus stop in Cockspur Street last year. Police believe there would have been a fireball of shrapnel on the busy streets - but the bombs did not go off because the mobile phone detonator devices failed to work. The tight air seals on the boots of the two Mercedes also meant there was not enough oxygen to cause an explosion.
Abdulla, a British-born Iraqi national, was arrested after the attack in Glasgow in which fellow extremist Kafeel Ahmed, 28, suffered more than 90 per cent burns and died. A second NHS doctor, neurologist Mohammed Asha, 28, who had been accused of being Abdulla's accomplice, was cleared by the jury at Woolwich crown court today after the two-month trial.
Abdulla admitted being a terrorist but claimed the car bombs were simple "fire devices" which were not intended to kill. In fact, tests showed they were viable devices.
Abdulla and Ahmed had equipment and cars for at least two more bombs and they had scouted other possible targets - including in the City of London, Downing Street, Buckingham Palace and the Old Bailey.
On 29 June last year Abdulla parked a Mercedes outside Tiger Tiger. A few hundred yards away Ahmed left a second Mercedes.
Inside both cars was a combination of gas canisters, a thousand nails and 32 gallons of petrol. They were set to be activated by calls to mobile phones attached to detonators.
The two bombers hailed rickshaws to leave the scene and then made 15 calls to the detonators in an effort to explode the devices.
The Tiger Tiger bomb was spotted by nightclub staff who saw vapour streaming from the car. A fireman first tried to pull one of the canisters out of the car before realising it was a bomb. The devices were defused by the bomb squad.
The next day the pair drove to Scotland and loaded gas canisters and petrol into a Jeep Cherokee which they drove into the Glasgow airport's terminal building. The aim was to explode the Jeep in the departure hall on the airport's busiest day of the year but the car became trapped in the doors.
The bomb did not explode but in the fire Ahmed suffered severe burns and died weeks later in hospital. Abdulla survived after being wrestled to the ground by members of the public and the police.
Today it can be revealed that anti-terror police and the security services were just a road away. After working through the night after the discovery of the bombs in the West End, police teams had narrowed down the search to the village of Houston near Paisley. The pair had rented a three-bedroom house there and used the garage and the living room as a bomb factory.
Abdulla and Ahmed were described by Jonathan Laidlaw, QC, prosecuting, as part of a small cell determined to carry out "murder on an indiscriminate and widespread scale".
Abdulla, a junior house doctor at the Royal Alexandra hospital in Paisley, pleaded not guilty and told the jury the bombs had only been created to look professional and scare people without exploding. He claimed he had no idea Ahmed, who was driving the Jeep, intended to use it to attack the airport passengers. "I am a healer, a doctor, not a killer," he told the court.
Mr Laidlaw said Abdulla had been sent to the UK to continue the "holy war" and "strike at the enemy in its own country, adding: "You had an enormous advantage as a terrorist here. Who would have suspected a doctor?"
Abdulla's co-defendant Asha was accused during the trial of being the mastermind who co-ordinated the attacks in a series of meetings and phone calls. Analysis of his mobile phone records revealed the men had a close relationship.
But the jury found he was an innocent dupe who knew nothing of his friend's murderous plans. Before he was led from the dock ahead of his friend, Asha shook Abdulla's hand and the men embraced. It is understood Asha will be taken from Belmarsh prison to an immigration detention centre. Abdulla will be sentenced tomorrow.
Reader views (10)
I'm quite shocked at the bigoted nature of these comments. Should Dr. Asha be convicted by association? It is apparent that there are still those in Britain that do not practice their own ideals and morals. Additionally, this is coming from an American, so you should be more shamed in the matter.
- Juan, New Brunswick, USA, 17/12/2008 18:59
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How the jury could find Asha innocent is beyond belief. How was that jury made up?
- Frederick, London UK, 17/12/2008 09:16
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Islam the religion of peace and love.
- Frank, Home Counties, England, 17/12/2008 09:05
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Wait for the sound bite: "Islam is a peaceful and tolerant religion". Yeh right.
- Adam, Harrow, UK, 17/12/2008 08:15
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"what can terrorists achieve by killing innocent people?"
The answer is fear and confusion. The answer is turning people against themselves and polarizing differences, real and imagined. Its about making society disintegrate.
They couldn't care less about the people they harm, only the psychological effect on people, the creation of vulnerability.
- Rogan, Irving, 17/12/2008 03:08
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It is a sad and frightening reflection of a religion that can only see one point of view and is capable of motivating even its most sophisticated and educated followers to become mass murderers!
- Bill Buckley, Hemel Hempstead, England., 16/12/2008 23:49
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...I know, let's TELL EVERYONE about the tight boot seals, and how it deprived the bombs of enough oxygen to function properly. I couldn't IMAGINE this information would be of any use to prospective terrorists. For pete's sake, does the press not have ANY common sense? Stop providing critical intelligence to terrorists.
- Andrew, London, UK, 16/12/2008 22:57
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As a regular at Tiger Tiger, I found this story chilling when it was first shown on the news. To ordinary preople they seem crazy; what can terrorists achieve by killing innocent people? I hope this deters others with similar intent.
- Richard, Peckham, 16/12/2008 16:15
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I wonder if that 'doctor' swore the Hippocratic Oath -
'I will care for people according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.' Maybe Bilal Abdulla should have got a job in an abattoir - more to his taste than a hospital I would have thought.
- Derek, London, 16/12/2008 15:49
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Lock him up and throw away the key.
- P I Staker, London, 16/12/2008 13:36
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