AN article rejoicing in the actions of “The Nineteen Lions” who carried out the September 11 attacks was found on the computer of a man accused of helping the July 7 bombers from West Yorkshire.
A court heard the rambling text which hails the suicide attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon as “the single most courageous and momentous act of modern history” were discovered on a PC belonging to Mohammed Shakil.
A jury was told the computer also contained video clips of weapons being fired and Mujahideen fighters in caves – accompanied by the sound of Islamic singing and chanting.
Shakil, 31, from Beeston, Leeds, is standing trial with two other men, Waheed Ali, 24, from Tower Hamlets, east London, and Sadeer Saleem, 27, also from Beeston, accused of conspiring with Mohammed Siddique Khan, of Thornhill Lees, Shezhad Tanweer, former Rawthorpe High student Jermaine Lindsay and Hasib Hussain and others unknown to cause explosions between November 17 2004 and July 8 2005.
The four suicide bombers murdered 52 people when they set off bombs on the capital’s transport network in 2005. The defendants deny the charge.
All three are alleged to have carried out a two-day reconnaissance mission in the capital on December 16 and 17 2004 with bombers Hussain and Lindsay.
They are accused of pinpointing potential targets and the court has heard they visited the Natural History Museum, the London Eye and the London Aquarium.
The jury at Kingston Crown Court was read the full 13-page text of “The Nineteen Lions” article which appeared on a website called Ummah.com.
It was found on Shakil’s computer after it was seized by police from his parents home.
In it, the author Muadh bin Abdullah Al-Madani, who claims to be from Uruzgan, Afghanistan, says that “on a historic sunny September morning in 2001, a few men, armed with little more than their faith, brought the greatest modern military might to her knees.”
The court also heard that among other items found on the computer were an interview with Ayman al-Zawahri, al Qaida’s second in command, on a website which may have been viewed as many as 60 times.
In the interview he talks about topics such as jihad, castigates George Bush and Tony Blair for not accepting Osama Bin Laden’s “truce” and claims the allied forces are “doomed to defeat” in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In one video clip entitled “Lions in the land of Khurasan” – footage shows men with rifles, explosive devices and images, which the court heard maybe previously martyred Mujahideen.
The jury were shown stills from a second clip found on the computer’s hard drive which showed fighters in caves, which they were told looks like Afghanistan, firing weapons and chanting.
