15 years for foiled al-Qaeda terrorist

Petty drugs dealer turned al-Qaeda weapons expert Andrew Rowe, 34, was believed to be on the verge of carrying out a terrorist attack when he was caught, the Old Bailey heard.

Anti-terrorist officers described him as "a very dangerous man indeed". His contacts included known terrorists, and Malaysian security sources believe he was involved in a planned mortar attack on Heathrow airport. He is also thought to have been carrying out recruitment missions for the cause as he travelled between war zones.

Yesterday Rowe was convicted on two counts of possessing an article for the purpose of terrorism. He was found guilty of having a notebook which detailed how to fire a mortar and of possessing a code which would allow him to discuss a terrorist attack while referring only to various types of mobile phones.

The jury of six men and six women was unable to agree on a third charge of having a pair of socks which, as they contained traces of explosives, the authorities believed had been adapted for cleaning a mortar. Rowe maintained the socks, which were rolled in a ball and tied with a chord, were used as a target in martial arts training.

Jailing him for seven-and-a-half years on each count and ordering that the terms should run consecutively, Mr Justice Fulford said he believed Rowe was on the verge of an act of terrorism when he was caught.

"Whatever your terrorist purpose was, its fulfilment was imminent," he said.

He told Rowe: "You were a paid operative over a substantial period of time, travelling the world and furthering the cause of Muslim fundamentalism."

He called for a change in the law to enable a life term to be passed for the offence, in place of the current ten-year maximum.

Rowe was arrested on the French side of the Channel Tunnel as he prepared to travel back to Britain in October 2003. The Islamic fundamentalist was already being monitored by the security services. A search of his former flat in west London in August 2003 had turned up a notebook with 22 pages of hand-written instructions on how to aim and fire a mortar.

After his arrest police searched the Birmingham home of Shaibia Tafla, his estranged wife and mother of his four children. In a video cassette case they found a code which Mark Ellison, the prosecutor, said "made it possible to communicate in an innocent message which only spoke about mobile phones".

Giving examples of the code, Mr Ellison said money was "Nokia 3310", trouble-police was "3410", weapon was "3610", airport was "3310" and army base was "3331". Other codes for explosive materials made it a "shopping list for terrorism", said Mr Ellison.

Other words on the list included "target one", "target two" and "target three", as well as the ingredients of the home-made explosives used in July's London terror attacks. Rowe had also made a list of English counties, used for substition with foreign countries.

A draft letter revealed that Rowe was travelling abroad on "mobile phone business" and that he would soon be meeting a man who needed his help.

Since converting to Islam at the age of 19, Rowe had travelled extensively and had applied and received four passports in the past seven years.

The prosecution has, however, failed to uncover wether or not he was part of an al-Qaeda plot to attack Heathrow Airport. According to reports from Malaysia, he and Lionel Dumont, a French national, were planning to attack the airport using a shoulder-mounted missile.

The head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, said yesterday that Rowe "intended to use some form of violence during a terrorist attack.

"We don't know where, we don't know when and we don't know exactly how. But it was quite clear that he did intend to commit acts of terrorism."