Another day, another plot, another “misunderstanding” that is remarkably like the “misunderstandings” that have gone before it, not only in the U.K. but in places far removed from it. More on this story. “Nine jailed over bomb plot and terror camp plan,” from BBC News, February 9:
Nine men who plotted to bomb the London Stock Exchange and build a terrorist training camp have been jailed.
Three of the men – all members of an al-Qaeda inspired terror group – received indeterminate sentences for public protection at London’s Woolwich Crown Court.
The court heard they had planned to raise funds for a terrorist camp in Pakistan and recruit Britons to attend.
The nine come from Stoke-on-Trent, Cardiff and London.
In sentencing, the judge described all the men – who are British nationals of Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin – as Islamic fundamentalists.
The three to receive indeterminate sentences for the terror camp plan included Mohammed Shahjahan 27, of Stoke-on-Trent, who was jailed for a minimum term of eight years and 10 months.
Usman Khan, 20, and Nazam Hussain, 26, also from Stoke-on-Trent, were ordered to serve at least eight years.
Judge Mr Justice Wilkie said these three were “the more serious jihadists” and said they should not be released until they were no longer a threat to the public.
The court heard they planned to establish the terrorist camp on land in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir owned by Khan’s family and encourage a “significant” number of British Muslims to undergo training there.
Khan and Hussain planned to travel to the camp and receive military instruction themselves before “obtaining first-hand terrorist experience in Kashmir”, the hearing was told.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Wilkie said this was a “serious, long-term venture in terrorism” that could also have resulted in atrocities in the UK.
“It was envisaged by them all that ultimately they and the other recruits may return to the UK as trained and experienced terrorists available to perform terrorist attacks in this country, on one possibility contemplated in the context of the return of British troops from Afghanistan.”…