Post by Hickman on Nov 25, 2005 8:38:03 GMT -5
[shadow=red,left,300]Algerian guilty of downloading bomb data [/shadow]
Owen Bowcott
Friday November 25, 2005
The Guardian
A 27-year-old Algerian asylum seeker was yesterday found guilty of downloading information on bomb making from the internet in the first trial of an al-Qaida suspect in Northern Ireland's no-jury Diplock courts.
Abbas Boutrab had gathered instructions on how to construct explosives and smuggle them on an aircraft. He also learned how to make a silencer for an M16 or AK assault rifle from metal tubing and rubber door stops.
During the seven-week hearing in Belfast an FBI agent, Donald Schtleben, demonstrated that 25 computer disks found in Boutrab's possession could be used to build a bomb capable of bringing down an aircraft. He suggested the devices could have been disguised inside canisters of baby talcum powder.
The disks showed how the device could be assembled in an aircraft toilet by a suicide bomber "using average mechanical skills and manual dexterity", he said. The instructions suggested the bomber should work alone, citing the case of the British shoe bomber Richard Reid.
Boutrab, who was arrested at Whiteabbey, near Belfast in April 2003, was found guilty of possessing a false passport, as well as possessing and collecting information "for a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism". He was acquitted of handling a stolen telephone.
Defence lawyers said that no explosives were found in his flat and no evidence was offered suggesting he was in contact with anyone who would provide the material.
Boutrab will be sentenced on December 19.
;D 
www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,2763,1650514,00.html
Owen Bowcott
Friday November 25, 2005
The Guardian
A 27-year-old Algerian asylum seeker was yesterday found guilty of downloading information on bomb making from the internet in the first trial of an al-Qaida suspect in Northern Ireland's no-jury Diplock courts.
Abbas Boutrab had gathered instructions on how to construct explosives and smuggle them on an aircraft. He also learned how to make a silencer for an M16 or AK assault rifle from metal tubing and rubber door stops.
During the seven-week hearing in Belfast an FBI agent, Donald Schtleben, demonstrated that 25 computer disks found in Boutrab's possession could be used to build a bomb capable of bringing down an aircraft. He suggested the devices could have been disguised inside canisters of baby talcum powder.
The disks showed how the device could be assembled in an aircraft toilet by a suicide bomber "using average mechanical skills and manual dexterity", he said. The instructions suggested the bomber should work alone, citing the case of the British shoe bomber Richard Reid.
Boutrab, who was arrested at Whiteabbey, near Belfast in April 2003, was found guilty of possessing a false passport, as well as possessing and collecting information "for a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism". He was acquitted of handling a stolen telephone.
Defence lawyers said that no explosives were found in his flat and no evidence was offered suggesting he was in contact with anyone who would provide the material.
Boutrab will be sentenced on December 19.
;D 
www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,2763,1650514,00.html