• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Islamic jihadist flew over Europe with shoe bomb in 2001

Mar 11, 2014 9:33 pm By Robert Spencer

BadatBut he didn’t detonate it because he was saving it for an attack on the U.S. (Where is it now?) AP identifies Saajid Badat in the headline, as well as in the lead paragraph, as a “British man.” Was he planning to explode this shoe bomb because he was British? Is that really the primary identifying characteristic that we need to know about it? Or was he planning to detonate it because of some other reason, that could have been made clear to the reader immediately by identifying him in a different way? But that identifier you will never see used in an AP story, as useful as it would have been here and in similar stories.

“British Man Says He Flew Over Europe with Shoe Bomb in 2001,” from the Associated Press, March 11 (thanks to Weavo):

A British man testifying in the terror trial of Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law said Tuesday he flew on planes over the Middle East and Europe with explosives in a shoe after the Sept. 11 attacks but didn’t detonate them because he was saving the bomb for an attack over America.

Saajid Badat revealed details of the plot as he testified for a second day at the New York City trial of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, bin Laden’s son-in-law and al-Qaeda’s spokesman after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Badat testified he wore a shoe bomb on at least one flight from Karachi, Pakistan, to Holland and another from Holland to Great Britain in December 2001, choosing not to detonate it because he wanted to use it for an attack against an American aircraft.

He said he was left with only one shoe because he gave his other shoe-bomb in early December 2001 to some Malaysian men who wanted to blow open a plane’s cockpit door and carry out a Sept. 11-style hijacking of their own. Afterward, he flew from Pakistan to Holland and then on to Great Britain.

“I was wearing the shoe,” he said, referring to the shoe bomb.

Prosecutors are using the 34-year-old Badat’s testimony to show Abu Ghaith played a pivotal role with al-Qaeda when he warned Americans “the storm of aircrafts will not stop” on videotapes widely distributed after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Abu Ghaith could face life in prison if he is convicted of conspiring to kill Americans and providing material support to al-Qaeda. He is the highest-ranking al-Qaida figure to face trial on U.S. soil since 9/11.

Badat described enthusiasm among al-Qaeda recruits after the Sept. 11 attacks.

At one point on cross examination, he was asked about a moment after Sept. 11 when he and others laughed as professed mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed crossed the World Trade Center’s twin towers off a list of the world’s tallest buildings.

“Three thousand plus Americans dead was humorous to you?” defense attorney Stanley Cohen asked.

“Unfortunately, yes,” he said with a sheepish expression.

Badat said his eagerness to carry out a suicide mission following more than three years with al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan wilted when he visited his parents in Gloucester, England, in December 2001 and they asked what he’d done in Afghanistan.

“You’d better not be one of those sleepers,” Badat said his father told him.

His mother warned that she “wouldn’t want my son to be one of those sleepers,” he recalled.

“It was then I decided to back out of the mission,” Badat said in testimony from London shown on video screens in a Manhattan courtroom.

Badat was testifying by videotape because he refuses to come to the United States because he was indicted in 2004 in Boston on charges he conspired with shoe-bomber Richard Reid. He faces charges including conspiring to destroy an aircraft and conspiracy to commit homicide.

He described his changing views about jihad as he was cross examined aggressively by Cohen.

The lawyer questioned him about experiments involving poisons conducted in Badat’s presence on rabbits and dogs, asking if he was bothered by animals screaming out in pain as they died.

Badat tried to justify the experiments, saying it was similar to what scientists do on animals. He said his instructor at an al-Qaeda camp called out references to American presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and former Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as the animals were being killed. Earlier, he had testified that faces of the presidents and Sharon were used as targets during al-Qaeda weapons training exercises.

“This is Clinton! This is Bush! This is Sharon!” he recalled the poison instructor shouting.

Badat testified that he believed violent acts were an obligation for him, “just like prayer, fasting or doing charity.”

“Blowing up airplanes was part of your responsibility?” Cohen asked.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Eurabia, Jihad in the West, journalistic bias Tagged With: featured


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Comments

  1. richard Sherman says

    Mar 11, 2014 at 10:00 pm

    A typical Muslim..
    Nothing out of the ordinary…killing infidels is their only purpose in life…very typical

    • Daphdong says

      Mar 11, 2014 at 11:29 pm

      So what happens when they run out on ‘infidels’? Why then they turn on each other until there are so few left that the human race dies out. No doubt the wildlife would love that!

    • Jerry says

      Mar 12, 2014 at 2:38 pm

      That’s not enough. Killing your daughter if she shows a little bit of her face or a leg, that’s true glory to the “Prophet” and “Allah”!

  2. Salah says

    Mar 12, 2014 at 12:05 am

    “Was he planning to explode this shoe bomb because he was British?”

    The AP, as well as most MSM, are the real enemies; they are protecting Islam. Our PC elites and the MSM must be brought to justice for high treason.

  3. Jimbo says

    Mar 12, 2014 at 3:52 am

    Maybe some derelict will find that old shoe, put it on, and kick John Kerry in the head with it. Wouldn’t that be kewl?

  4. Docs357 says

    Mar 12, 2014 at 12:58 pm

    These ppl are nothing but murders using a false religion As an excuse to murder anyone they can accuse of defying Islam. The morons on the left have put one in the White House. Nothing but free loading low life’s out to destroy this country.

  5. southeuropean says

    Mar 12, 2014 at 5:33 pm

    There are soon becoming a quarter of the humanity. They are the worse kind of fascists and the rest of the world is stranguled in greed and geopolitical strategies for making profits on the back of the other. That is our doom.

  6. tpellow says

    Mar 12, 2014 at 6:53 pm

    Supplementary.

    “Was missing flight MH370 jet brought down by a shoe bomber?
    British terrorist convicted of plotting similar attack says he gave explosive to Malaysian terror cell which included a pilot”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2579162/Was-missing-flight-MH370-jet-brought-shoe-bomber.html#ixzz2vn9Jlpkk

  7. gravenimage says

    Mar 12, 2014 at 11:02 pm

    Can you imagine if pious Muslims ever turned their minds to something other than blood and death?

  8. prcs says

    Mar 15, 2014 at 9:06 am

    test

  9. prcs says

    Mar 15, 2014 at 9:07 am

    1234

  10. prcs says

    Mar 15, 2014 at 9:10 am

    abc123
    abc123

  11. prcs says

    Mar 15, 2014 at 9:12 am

    testing again

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • gravenimage on New study reveals that Muslim religiosity strongly linked to hatred towards the West
  • Shaman on Iranian Kurdistan: Muslim brothers behead their sister in honor killing over her romantic relationship
  • gravenimage on New study reveals that Muslim religiosity strongly linked to hatred towards the West
  • gravenimage on Chief Rabbi of UK Says It’s ‘Alarming’ That 44% of Muslims Are Anti-Semitic
  • Boycott Turkey on Iranian Kurdistan: Muslim brothers behead their sister in honor killing over her romantic relationship

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.