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Gabrielle Cusumano on Monday, July 09, 2007 9:15:45 PM
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Britain as yet untouched by Islamic terrorism, workers didn't think twice about the request for a massive stockpile of highly concentrated 18 per cent hydrogen peroxide - a chemical normally used in small quantities to bleach hair."
Tue 10 Jul 2007
Terrorism 'on the cheap' as four plotters bartered for bomb materials
JASON CUMMING
THE sheer scale of the order for the potent chemical raised eyebrows at the cosmetics factory on the nondescript industrial estate in Renfrewshire.
It was two weeks before the 7 July bombings targeting London's transport network. But with Britain as yet untouched by Islamic terrorism, workers didn't think twice about the request for a massive stockpile of highly concentrated 18 per cent hydrogen peroxide - a chemical normally used in small quantities to bleach hair.
They also would not have realised that the new batch of the substance they manufactured was destined to become a key component of the home-made bombs being constructed by a gang determined to launch an attack "bigger and better" than the looming 7 July explosions.
The 52-litre (14 gallon) order placed by a north London shop was too large to be filled immediately by Professional Beauty Systems - based in Inchinnan, near Erskine.
With the benefit of hindsight, Simon McPartland, the firm's general manager, last night recalled the request in June 2005 as "quite a large order for that strength of product".
He told The Scotsman: "It's a very commonly used product in the hairdressing trade and we sell to wholesalers in quite considerable quantities. We supplied it in good faith. We had no idea it would be used to make bombs."
Muktar Said Ibrahim, Yassin Omar, Ramzi Mohammed and Hussain Osman - who were convicted of conspiracy to murder yesterday - began to prepare for the 21 July plot months earlier. It was a journey that would also lead at least two of them to Scotland on a camping trip the jury was told to "get fit for jihad".
They bought the first components of their home-made explosive devices in April 2005, eventually collecting more than 440 litres (97 gallons) of hydrogen peroxide.
The court was told that one puzzled shopkeeper was informed the buyers were carpenters who required the substance to bleach wood.
Another inquisitive salesman was told the chemical would be used for "stripping wallpaper from walls", the jury heard.
The stockpile of four-litre bottles included the batch supplied by the Renfrewshire firm following an order by Pak Cosmetics in Finsbury Park, north London.
At the time, Professional Beauty Systems had only 36 of four-litre bottles in stock and had to make a new batch of another 16 bottles on 24 June, 2005.
The jury heard the gang was offered hydrogen peroxide at the trade price of £5.40 per bottle. Ibrahim later managed to negotiate a 20p per unit discount as he was buying in bulk.
More than 200 empty bottles were recovered at Omar's flat in north London when police raided it four days after the attacks.
It was at this makeshift "bomb factory" where the gang boiled the chemical to a concentration of 70 per cent to increase its explosive potential. This process took several hours, with ringleader Ibrahim overseeing events.
Chapatti flour bought by Mohammed was to act as the accelerant, the fuel mixed with the hydrogen peroxide which would explode when detonated.
To trigger the device, Ibrahim made detonators up to four weeks before the failed attacks using his own version of TATP - triacetone triperoxide which is nicknamed "Mother of Satan" by Islamic extremists - from liquid hydrogen peroxide, nail polish remover and acid.
The detonator, placed next to the main charge in a 6.25-litre plastic container, was a cardboard tube filled with homemade TATP. Inside the tube lay a small screw-in torch bulb connected to long wires and a connector and battery.
The theory was that when a current passed through the bulb, the filament would heat up, igniting the TATP inside the glass and the rest of the detonator. This, in turn, would set off the main charge.
On the night of 20 July and into the early hours of the day of the failed attacks, the four would-be "martyrs" sat in a circle on black bin liners at Mohammed's home and spent several hours assembling their own bombs, instructed by Ibrahim.
The explosives were packed in plastic tubs, with screws, bolts, tacks and other pieces of metal taped to the outside of the containers as shrapnel.
Police said scientific tests on the devices proved they were all viable. They do not know for certain why they did not work.
The court heard they failed at the last moment because of problems with the explosive mixture, hot weather or mere "good fortune".
The hydrogen peroxide which was manufactured in Renfrewshire was not the gang's not the only link to Scotland. The jury was told that two of the men convicted yesterday went on a camping trip to Scotland in 2004 to "get fit for jihad".
Some members of the gang had also been under police surveillance during a camping trip to the Lake District almost 15 months before their alleged attempt to bomb three Tube trains and a bus.
Their photographs were taken as they lined up with others on the trip, on a bank holiday weekend in May 2004, apparently to take part in prayer.
Ibrahim returned to Britain from a trip to Pakistan in March 2005. He was in the country at the same time as two of the 7 July bombers - Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammad Sidique Khan - but officials do not know if they ever met.
When the devices failed to explode on 21 July, the would-be suicide bombers fled, sparking a massive police manhunt. Police seized 28,000 CCTV tapes in the aftermath of the attack. About 7,500 were viewed - the equivalent of 18,000 hours of footage.
In one of the most chilling images shown to the jury, Mohammed attempts to detonate his charge with his backpack facing a mother and young child.
Investigators believe the transit system was not the original target, but was chosen following the successful attacks two weeks earlier. Their original target is unknown.
One police source last night admitted that the use of hydrogen peroxide - which also featured as a raw material bombs made by the 7 July terrorists - was worrying.
He added: "It isn't a case of mass international funding of terrorism. This is one of the main difficulties of the terrorist threat we are facing - it is cheap."
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All Credit for this article to The Scotsman: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1072592007