Al-Qaeda saw London's Canary Wharf as a terror target after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, a British convict told a federal court in New York today.
Al-Qaeda recruit, Saajid Badat, 35, testified at the trial of British hate preacher Abu Hamza, who faces life behind bars if convicted on 11 kidnapping and terror charges after being extradited to the United States.
Badat expanded on his testimony last month at the trial of Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, in which he had said Al-Qaeda had an almanac of the world's tallest buildings.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-declared 9/11 mastermind, crossed out the two World Trade Centers in New York as he leafed through the book looking for fresh targets, Badat had said.
Today, Badat added that Mohammed also asked about a target in Britain.
"I believe Canary Wharf was mentioned," Badat said, referring to the business district with a high concentration of tall buildings in east London.
Badat was ordered by Al-Qaeda to blow up a US jetliner with bombs hidden in his shoes in late 2001 and met one-on-one with bin Laden before leaving Afghanistan.
The meeting in Kabul ended "with him giving me a hug and wishing me luck in my mission," Badat told the courtroom by video link from Britain because he faces arrest on US soil in connection with the bomb plot.
Badat spent three years from January 1999 to December 2001 based in Afghanistan, training at Al-Qaeda camps and working for the terror organisation.
He initially went to Afghanistan to train for jihad and help other British recruits do the same, and planned to return to university after six months.
He took a laptop equipped with encryption software "to encrypt messages sent back to Karachi and onto London" and an encyclopedia of jihad in CD form to help him.
Once he arrived in Kandahar, a senior Al-Qaeda lieutenant offered to recruit him to carry out attacks on Jews and Americans, but Badat said he refused.
He said he had orders from Babar Ahmad, who headed a group of young Muslims interested in violent jihad in London, to forge a path for other British recruits.
