A Malaysian terror group plotted to attack an airplane in the weeks after 9/11 using explosives hidden in their shoes, a former terrorist has revealed.
Saajid Badat, who claimed to have supplied the bomb, told a New York court that he met the group of Malaysians, which included a pilot, in late 2001 and planned to blow open a plane's cockpit door to carry out a 9/11-style hijacking.
According to ABC News, Badat, who is a British national and terrorist-turned-government witness, said he had two shoe bombs for his own terror plot before he gave one to the Malaysians for their 'operation'.
Badat wore the other as he flew from Karachi, Pakistan to Holland and from there to England in December 2001, but did not detonate the device because he wanted to save it for an attack on an American airline, the report said.
Once in the U.K., however, Badat said he backed out of his operation after speaking with his parent.
According to the report, Badat was arrested in England in 2005 and pleaded guilty to a count of 'conspiracy with others to destroy a passenger airliner whilst in flight by igniting a high-explosive device'.