Al Qaeda controlled 7-21 UK bombers

Guardian:

The four men who tried to carry out mass murder in a suicide bomb attack in London on July 21 two years ago were clearly controlled and directed by al-Qaida, the judge who sentenced them to life imprisonment said yesterday.

Telling the men that they would not be considered for parole for at least 40 years, Mr Justice Fulford dismissed as cynical their claims to have been motivated by the war in Iraq.

Muktar Said Ibrahim, the ringleader of the plot to attack the capital's transport system, and his fellow plotters Yassin Omar, Ramzi Mohammed and Hussein Osman were all convicted on Monday of conspiring to murder and cause explosions.

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Speaking to a packed court, Mr Justice Fulford said: "It is clear that at least 50 people would have died, hundreds of people would have been wounded, thousands would have had their lives permanently damaged, disfigured or otherwise.

"The family and friends of the dead and the injured, the hundreds, indeed thousands, captured underground in terrifying circumstances - the smoke, the screams of the wounded and the dying - this each defendant knew.

"They planned this, they prepared for it. They had spent many hours making viable bombs. After 7/7, each defendant knew exactly what the result would be."

The judge called for a review of the law governing trials in the light of two defendants who attempted to "cynically manipulate" the court process and extended the length of the trial by months.

Also singled out for criticism by the judge was the law firm Arani and Co, which represented Ibrahim and Omar. Mudassar Arani, the lawyer who started the firm, was also criticised during the trial by one of the defence barristers. Mr Justice Fulford said that the firm had launched "a relentless and blistering attack" on the staff at Belmarsh prison, claiming that they had been to blame for the late service of defence statements.

"I consider these complaints to be wholly unjustified," said the judge.

Ms Arani, who has represented a number of other defendants in terror cases, including the cleric Abu Hamza, was in court to hear the judge's words. She declined to comment on any of the criticisms as she left court.

The judge dismissed the men's claims that they had not meant their bombs to explode but had intended them to be a protest as "a tissue of lies". Their actions had been in complete contradiction of the teachings of "one of the world's leading religions" despite what the men claimed.

Ibrahim's counsel, George Carter-Stephenson QC, told the court that his client's motivation was "due to the war in Iraq and the presence of British troops there". The judge dismissed the Iraq link, saying that Ibrahim had been engaged in weapons training in 2003 before the war had started, and references to the war had been nothing more than a "cynical" attempt to gain purchase with the jury.

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Good for the judge. It is too bad he can't do anything about the media's attempt to make a cynical connection with the war in Iraq, rather than the obvious planning of religious bigots in Pakistan and the UK.