Dhiren Barot (a.k.a. Esa al-Hindi) Pleads Guilty to Plotting Numerous Attacks

By Andrew Cochran

In a major legal victory against a key terrorist operative, Dhiren Barot of London, a.k.a. Esa al-Hindi, pleaded guilty today in London on charges of plotting numerous attacks in the U.K. He was one of eight suspects arrested in the United Kingdom in August 2004 and charged under Britain’s Terrorism Act. Barot planned "the Gas Limos Project" to explode three limousines "packed" with gas cylinders and explosives in underground car parks in the UK as part of a wider bombing campaign there, which would include the use of a radioactive bomb. You can also see the London Times story on this case and the BBC story on the case.

Barot was indicted in April 2005 in the U.S., and Justice Department prosecutors will probably seek his extradition for trial here. Specific buildings targeted in the U.S. included the International Monetary Fund and World Bank buildings in Washington, the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup buildings in New York and the Prudential buildings in Newark.

We reported on the al-Hindi case and its importance from the release of the federal indictment:

Evan Kohlmann, April 12, 2005: "Federal Indictment Unsealed Against Trio Accused of Targeting Citigroup, NYSE for terror attacks" with the U.S. indictment and a link to a one-page summary of al-Hindi's book, The Army of Madinah in Kashmir, on Evan's "Global Terror Alert" site. In his post, Evan discussed Barot's stated intentions, "Barot highlights several desirable "war strategems" in particular, including 'Economical warfare', 'Drug warfare', 'Germ warfare', and 'Chemical warfare.'"

Bill West, April 13, 2005: "Immigration Fraud and Terror? Yet Again." Bill pointed out that "Defendant Barot, by allegedly obtaining a student visa by clear and blatant fraud, and using that visa to enter the U.S. to further his terrorism efforts, is one of the clearest examples yet of abuse of the student visa system by terror suspects since the 9-11 hijackers."

Jeffrey Imm, August 16, 2006: "How The Road To Terror Leads Back To London," in which he references the al-Hindi case, among others, and includes a link to a good Center for Defense Information summary of the case.

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