3 Britons convicted in terror plot

LONDON -- They were very ordinary would-be terrorists, with big plans but bad luck.

Yesterday, a London jury convicted the three young Britons of being ringleaders of an al-Qaida-inspired plot to explode knapsack bombs in crowded parts of Birmingham. The men, who pleaded not guilty, had been recorded discussing plans for attacks that one said would be "another 9/11."

The trial exposed how the trio -- Ashik Ali, 27; Irfan Khalid, 27; and Irfan "Chubbs" Naseer, 31 -- were foiled by a mix of police intelligence, personal incompetence, and lousy luck as they tried to spread terror.

They attempted to recruit others to their cause, but four young men they sent to Pakistan for training were sent home within days when the family of one man found out. Those four have pleaded guilty to terrorism-related offenses.

The plotters initially raised cash as street collectors for Muslim charities. But when Rahin Ahmed, an alleged co-conspirator described as the cell's "chief financier," tried to boost the group's budget on the financial markets, he lost the bulk of the funds through "unwise and incompetent" trading, prosecutor Brian Altman said.

They considered a variety of outlandish attacks, including tying sharp blades to the front of a truck and driving it into a crowd. Naseer was heard talking about mixing poison into Vaseline or Nivea cream and smearing it on car handles to cause mass deaths.

Despite the amateurish nature of some of their efforts, officials said the group was serious about sowing chaos.

Prosecutors described a homegrown terror cell inspired by U.S.-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed by a drone in Yemen.