India-born Dhiren Barot on Thursday pleaded guilty to conspiring to murder people in terrorist attacks by targeting major financial institutions in the United States and setting off a 'dirty bomb' in the United Kingdom.
The 34-year-old London-based Barot admitted in Woolwich Crown Court in southeast London to one count of conspiring with other people between January 1, 2000 and August 4, 2004 to commit mass murder.
Barot alias Abu Musa al-Hindi planned to use a radioactive 'dirty bomb' in one of the series of attacks in the UK, the court was told.
He intended to cause 'injury, fear, terror and chaos,' prosecutors said.
Barot also plotted to cause explosions in high-profile targets in the United States, including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington, the New York Stock Exchange and the Citigroup building in Manhattan 'designed to kill as many innocent people as possible,' Prosecuting QC Edmund Lawson said, adding that plans had been found by police on a computer after Barot was arrested in August 2004.
"These being plans... to carry out explosions at those premises with no warning, they were basically designed to kill as many innocent people as possible," said Lawson.
"The defendant also plotted to blow up three limousines 'packed' with gas cylinders and explosives in underground car parks in the UK but also detonating a radioactive 'dirty bomb' intended to cause injury, fear, terror and chaos," the court heard.
Lawson said the plot -- known as the Gas Limos Project -- was to form the "main cornerstone" of a series of synchronized attacks in the United Kingdom. He said this plot was designed to achieve 'a number of further and collateral objectives such as to cause injury, fear, terror and chaos.'
He said according to expert evidence, if the radiation project had been carried out, it will have been unlikely to cause deaths, but was designed to affect about 500 people.
The Crown could not dispute claims from the defence that no funding had been received for the projects, nor any vehicles or bomb-making materials acquired, he said.
Barot, wearing a gray zip-up sweater, dark trousers jumper and closely trimmed beard, stared intently ahead but betrayed no emotion as he entered his guilty plea. He had faced 12 other charges, one of conspiracy to commit public nuisance, seven of making a record of information for terrorist purposes and four of possessing a record of information for terrorist purposes.
The judge ordered the charges to lie on file following his guilty plea. Seven other people face charges relating to the same alleged conspiracy. They will stand trial next year and are expected to deny the charges.
Barot will be sentenced at a later date.
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