Four Lions

[Gob]

The leader of an Al Qaeda-backed British Muslim gang who plotted the deadliest terror attack on British soil boasted of a nailbomb attack that could kill 2,000 people, shouting: 'Boom, boom, boom everywhere...kill.'



Chilling police recordings capture Irfan Naseer saying Westerners deserve to be 'terrorised' because 'they wanna have sex like donkeys on the street'. He adds: 'Why shouldn't we terrorise them, tell me that? You think about it, if someone came in your house, yeah, and started dancing and throughout the night and started basically having orgies and smoking drugs and stuff...you would terrorise them, innit.' In one sick exchange, another of the terrorists compared the gang to Formula One drivers, saying: 'It's the four suicide bombers driving around ready to take on England.'


Irfan Naseer, 31, Irfan Khalid, 27, and Ashik Ali, 27, all from Birmingham, were convicted of plotting the 'spectacular campaign' designed to claim as many lives as the 2005 London Underground bombs that killed 52 innocent people. Inspired by hate preacher Anwar al-Awlaki's online sermons, the homegrown jihadis planned a huge series of explosions at crowded shopping centres and railway stations across Britain.

Two of them travelled to Pakistan to learn about bomb-making, weapons and poisons - then came back to their council-funded flat in Birmingham to make explosives. The trio, who met at school and called themselves the Four Lions after the black comedy film by Chris Morris, even funded the plot by pretending to be Muslim Aid charity street collectors. Judge Justice Henriques said: 'You were seeking to recruit a team of suicide bombers to carry out a spectacular bombing campaign, one which would create an anniversary along the lines of 7/7 or 9/11'.

Ashik Ali joked that the terrorists were like the cell depicted in the comedy film 'Four Lions''The bomb plotters had the means, the will and the know-how to carry out mass murder in the biggest terror attack on the British mainland 'in a generation', detectives said. It is the most significant terror plot to be uncovered since the 2006 conspiracy to blow up transatlantic airliners using bombs disguised as soft drinks.
Naseer was found guilty of five counts preparing for terrorism, Khalid was convicted of four, and Ali was convicted of three, all between Christmas Day 2010 and September 19 2011.

Six other men have already admitted or been found guilty of being part of the terror cell, it can also be revealed today. The friends from the Midlands had been visiting Pakistan to train how to make bombs and use weapons since March 2009. But by 2011 they were being watched by MI5 and police, who had bugged their car and headquarters. The investigation, known as Operation Examine/Pitsford, grew to be the 450-strong counter-terror unit’s largest ever.

In one chilling warning, Naseer was covertly recorded saying of the UK: 'The only thing you will achieve is suicide bombers on your streets, spilling so much blood you’ll have nightmares for the rest of your life.' Khalid even boasted that the attack was 'another 9/11' as 'revenge for everything'. As well as planning a series of suicide bombing, the cell was also heard talking about the possibility of mixing poison into creams such as Vaseline or Nivea and smearing them on car handles to cause mass deaths.

The trio even pondered welding blades to a truck and driving it into people. Although the gang had not identified targets, the explosive trainings both Nasser and Khalid received at terror training camps in Pakistan meant they were capable of building viable IEDs. If they were unable to make viable bombs, they planned to storm synagogues armed with automatic weapons including AK47s.

Four Lions, a great comedy, well worth a watch.

[Lord Jim]

So these chaps have been sentenced, to what?

Six months suspended, a year's probation, and a stern lecture from the judge about "how close" they came to being imprisoned?

While remaining eligible for government subsidized housing and public support payments?

[rubato]

Per NPR this morning, the judge told them to expect life sentences.

yrs,
rubato

[Guinevere]

An insult to Lions everywhere.

[Sue U]

An insult to Lions everywhere.

And Rotarians, too, also.

[Guinevere]

OK, lions.

[Big RR]

However, they would make good Oddfellows.

[Miles]

Compare them to lions?

Perhaps feeding them to the lions would be a much better idea.

[Big RR]

What, are they christians?

[Miles]

What, are they christians?

Even if the lions are christians they probably won't mind, a meal is a meal to a lion.