India-born pleads guilty to terror plots in US, UK

Dhiren Barot pleads guilty to conspiring to murder people in terrorist attacks by targeting major financial institutions in the US and setting off a "dirty bomb" in the UK.

India-born Dhiren Barot on Thursday pleaded guilty to conspiring to murder people in terrorist attacks by targeting major financial institutions in the US and setting off a "dirty bomb" in the UK.

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The 34-year-old London-based Barot admitted in a court in southeast London to one count of conspiring with other people between January 1, 2000 and August 4, 2004 to commit murder.

Barot alias Abu Musa al-Hindi planned to use a radioactive "dirty bomb" in one of a series of attacks in the UK, the court was told. He intended to cause "injury, fear, terror and chaos", prosecutors said.

Barot also plotted to cause explosions in high-profile targets in the United States, including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington, the New York Stock Exchange and the Citigroup building in Manhattan "designed to kill as many innocent people as possible".

Prosecutor Edmund Lawson said the police found his plans on a computer after Barot was arrested in August 2004. "These being plans... To carry out explosions at those premises with no warning, they were basically designed to kill as many innocent people as possible," said Lawson.

The defendant also plotted to blow up three limousines "packed" with gas cylinders and explosives in underground car parks in the UK but also detonating a radioactive "dirty bomb" intended to cause injury, fear, terror and chaos," the court heard.