UK/PAKISTAN/US COMPUTERS WERE STOLEN TO GIVE TO AL QAEDA

Supergrass: How I stole computers for al Qaeda

A SUPERGRASS today told the Old Bailey how he stole computers to give to al Qaeda, writes Paul Cheston.

Mohammed Babar, 31, named Waheed Mahmood as the man who told him "the brothers", people he understood to be al Qaeda, needed computers.

Babar, who has pleaded guilty to terrorism offences in the US, picked Waheed out of an identity parade after police raided an alleged terrorist cell suspected of plotting a bombing campaign in Britain, the court heard.

On his second day of evidence Babar said he left the US after 9/ 11 for Pakistan. There he stayed at the Lahore office of Al Muhajiroun and met people from Britain who had arrived as recruits for Jihad. He said there was an group from Crawley.

Babar took a job with a computer company in Lahore and in 2003 stole computers to give to Waheed. "Waheed said the 'brothers' needed computers so I gave them to him," said Babar.

David Waters QC, prosecuting, asked Babar who he understood the brothers to be.
"I understood them to be Arabs or members of al Qaeda," Babar said.

Omar Khayam, 24, his brother Shujah Mahmood, 19, Waheed, 34, and Jawad Akbar, 22, all from Crawley, Anthony Garcia, 23, from Ilford, Nabeel Hussain, 20 from Horley, and Salahuddin Amin, 29, of Luton, all plead not guilty to conspiracy to cause an explosion between January 2003 and March