Middling Verdict Follows Lengthy Trial

A British jury convicted three of eight alleged conspirators involved in the foiled August 2006 terror plot against trans-Atlantic airliners, that caused mass confusion and delays in the months following... and worldwide restrictions on liquids in carry-on luggage that continue to this day.

The Los Angeles Times reports the jury returned guilty verdicts against Abdullah Ahmed Ali, 27; Assad Sarwar, 28, and Tanvir Hussain, 27 for conspiracy to commit murder. All three are British citizens, of Pakistani descent. The jury failed to return verdicts, however, against four other defendants... and acquitted the alleged ringleader of the group.

While officials welcomed the guilty verdicts that did come down, they expressed shock and anger the jury was not swayed by what appeared to be overwhelming evidence against all eight members of the clandestine terror cell suspected of planning attacks on as many as seven airliners bound for the United States from Britain.

That evidence included copies of "martydom" videos made by all but one of the defendants -- which resembled the farewell messages to family often recorded by Muslim suicide bombers -- and taped discussions of ways to bypass airport security. The alleged terrorists asserted they only planned to set off harmless devices, intended as a protest against so-called mistreatment of Muslims.

That explanation -- and the fact some jurors apparently believed it -- disgusted one counter-terrorism official, who asked to remain anonymous.

"Not to get a conviction on plotting to murder on airplanes is a bit hard to swallow," the official told the Times. "There were timetables, suicide videos, the known preference for Al Qaeda to focus on airplanes. Apparently juries need stronger evidence that they are getting."

Moreover, the jury failed to link the three members convicted to a specific plot to bomb airliners... saying only that they planned to attack unspecified targets, noting the three also scouted refineries, and other high-profile targets. The four defendants who weren't convicted are still in jail, having already pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to cause a public nuisance.

Prosecutors are now weighing whether to retry all seven -- less the alleged mastermind of the attacks, Mohammed Gulzar -- on specific allegations against commercial aircraft.

"[W]hen you are physically watching young Muslims known to be extremists recording suicide videos, there comes a point in a plot when you have to interfere, and run with what evidence you can get," the official added.

The trial lasted five months... and in that time, prosecutors failed to make their case in a number of respects. In one example, government scientists called to testify had difficulty in igniting the hydrogen mixture prosecutors asserted the terrorists planned to use to bring the airliners down.

There were other, suspicious lapses, as well. Jurors heard little about intelligence obtained against Rachid Rauf, accused to arranging travel and training for the group and whose arrest in Pakistan led to the roundup of a number of suspects. Prosecutors were unable to grill Rauf on the stand, however, since he mysteriously 'escaped' from Pakistani police shortly before he was scheduled for extradition last fall.

Gulzar, 27, was acquitted of all charges... partly because he was the only defendant who didn't make a suicide video.

FMI: www.met.police.uk/