GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: British Airways worker guilty of plane bomb plot

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: The Washington Times

28February2011 6:34pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: LONDON (AP) — A jury on Monday convicted a former British Airways computer specialist of plotting with U.S.-born extremist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki to blow up an airplane.

Rajib Karim, a 31-year-old Bangladeshi man, was convicted of four counts of engaging in preparation for terrorist attacks. He already had pleaded guilty to other, lesser terrorism offenses.

Prosecutors said he used his position at the airline to plot an attack with Mr. al-Awlaki, a notorious radical preacher associated with al Qaeda thought to be hiding in Yemen.

Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw told the court that Karim “sought work in this country of the sort which would be useful to him or a terrorist organization in planning an attack — an attack of the sort which might result in the wholesale loss of life.”

Prosecutors said that in heavily encrypted exchanges, Mr. al-Awlaki quizzed Karim about details of security flaws and urged the aspiring terrorist to train as a flight attendant to assist plans to use suicide bombers or mail bombs to down U.S.-bound flights. (read full report)

"GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE" is an intelligence briefing presented by Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, and provided to the public for informative purposes only. All subject matter is credited to it's source of origin, and is not intended to represent original content authored by GCIS, it's partners or affiliates. All opinions presented are those of the author, and not necessarily those of GCIS or it's partners.

GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: BA airline worker was al-Qaeda sleeper

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: Mirror News

02February2011 12:34pmEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: AN undercover Islamic terrorist got a job with British Airways to gather information and carry out a terrorist atrocity, a court heard yesterday.

Shunning links with extremist groups to avoid attracting attention, IT worker Rajib Karim, 31, allegedly planned to blow up an aircraft heading to the USA.

Woolwich crown court heard that Karim came from Bangladesh in 2006 planning a “spectacular attack” and went deep undercover joining a gym, playing football and hiding his extreme views.

The sleeper joined BA in 2007 working and living in Newcastle. Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw said the post “through a terrorist’s eyes” was “just about as good a job as could be obtained”. After gaining access to computer systems, he and his brother Tehzeeb started passing information to radical al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen. (read full report)