3 men plead guilty to lesser charges in airline plot

Three men accused of plotting to blow up transatlantic flights, including two Canada-bound ones, have pleaded guilty to lesser offences, saying they never meant to detonate the bombs in mid-air, a jury was told Monday in London, England.

Those three defendants plus two others have also admitted to "conspiring to cause a public nuisance" by publishing videos threatening suicide bomb attacks.

The five are among eight suspects whose arrests in the summer of 2006 prompted airport officials in Britain, the United States and Canada to clamp down on items brought aboard planes, including restrictions on liquids and gel-like substances in carry-on bags.

All eight have denied the charges.

Prosecutors allege that the men plotted an attack on a scale similar to Sept. 11 by bringing homemade bomb ingredients aboard planes disguised in soft drink containers.

Weapons part of publicity stunt, court told

Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, Assad Sarwar, 28, and Tanvir Hussain, 27 admitted they planned to set off bombs, but not aboard planes bound from London's Heathrow Airport to North America.

Those three plus two other defendants — Ibrahim Savant, 27, and Umar Islam, 30 — also admitted to "conspiring to cause a public nuisance" by publishing videos threatening suicide bomb attacks.

The defendants were allegedly targeting seven flights out of Heathrow to Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., as well as Air Canada flights to Toronto and Montreal. Prosecutors say no specific date had been selected.

Ali told the court he hoped a small, non-fatal bombing at Britain's Houses of Parliament, an oil refinery or an airport would jolt Londoners and bring attention to a movie they were making.

He and Sarwar told the court they were assembling weapons as part of a publicity stunt to promote an anti-Western documentary that would feature the videos.

Jurors still to rule on charges

"We did not want to kill or injure anyone," Ali told Woolwich Crown Court in southeast London last month. He added that he wanted to set off something "that would be considered serious and credible, something to generate that mass media attention."

Jurors still must rule on whether the five men and three other defendants are guilty of conspiring to murder thousands of people by using liquid explosives.

Prosecutors say the men planned to strike at the height of the summer vacation season and they had gathered vast quantities of hydrogen peroxide for use as explosives.

Although they were not yet able to create a viable bomb, prosecutors maintain the attacks were not far off when the men were arrested in raids at their homes in and around London.

It was not immediately clear when the guilty pleas were made, although the jury was informed of them Monday.