Admits He's A Terrorist... But Says He Didn't Want To Kill Innocents

Bilal Abdulla is a doctor with dual Iraqi and British citizenship who was arrested for attacking Glasgow Airport in a burning Jeep packed with gas canisters in June of 2007. He's in court this week, and Bloomberg reports he's made an odd combination of confession and admission.

The 29-year-old Abdulla says he does consider himself a terrorist, but insisted to jurors in London Monday he had no idea that his driver, Kafeel Ahmed, was going to crash the airport's main entrance.

Abdulla says he was just going to the airport that day to buy a ticket to leave the country, after participating in two failed bombings in England earlier in the week. One was the infamous Picadilly Circus nightclub car bomb made with gasoline, gas canisters and nails, which did not go off.

Abdulla told the court his driver circled Glasgow airport with a "stern, determined" face, then drove into a barrier at the main terminal. He claims he repeatedly shouted, "What are you doing?" as Ahmed gunned their Jeep towards the entrance.

"His foot was on the accelerator and he didn't respond to me at all." Abdulla says Ahmed lit a bottle and handed it to him as they sat amidst gas canisters. "I was engulfed literally in fire," he added.

Abdulla has admitted his failed bombs were intended to give the British public "a taste of fear" to protest the nation's involvement in the war in Iraq, but says the case against him is exaggerated.

"From day one we said we would not kill innocent people. I did not intend to cause an explosion." he testified. "These materials will not cause an explosion, only fire."

Another doctor, 28-year-old Mohammad Asha, is Abdulla's co-defendant in the case. Both men have pleaded not guilty.

Ahmed, the driver of the Jeep in the Glasgow attack, burned to death at the scene.

FMI: www.glasgowairport.com, www.met.police.uk, www.pm.gov.uk