UK bomb plot accused had flight timetables: police

By Mark Trevelyan, Security Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters) - One of eight British men accused of planning to bomb airliners had a notebook listing liquids and a computer memory stick with timetables for flights to the United States and Canada, the men's trial was told on Tuesday.

Abdullah Ahmad Ali told police when arrested in Walthamstow, north London in August 2006 that diagrams found in his notebook were "just garbage" and he could not remember why it contained lists referring to batteries and Lucozade and orange drinks.

Patrick Holt, a Scotland Yard counter-terrorism officer who questioned him at the time, told the trial at Woolwich Crown Court he had found the notebook in Ali's jacket pocket and that it contained diagrams and "lists of items which I thought could be related to terrorist activity".

He described Ali's demeanor as "very calm, very collected".

The prosecution's case is that the defendants planned to simultaneously blow up passenger aircraft in mid-air between London's Heathrow airport and the United States and Canada.

It says they planned to bring down the planes by smuggling liquids, including hydrogen peroxide, on board in soft drink bottles and combining them into an explosive mixture.

The jury was shown entries in Ali's notebook referring to batteries, drink bottles, Lucozade energy drink, orange and red Oasis drink, and blue and red mouthwash.

Instructions in the notebook included "calculate exact drops of Tang (a soft drink) and color" and "check time to fill each bottle" and "check time taken to dilute in HP" -- a possible reference to hydrogen peroxide.

Another entry said: "Select date five days before, all link up, prepare, dirty mag to distract, condoms."

The prosecution says the men planned to carry pornographic magazines so that anyone searching their bags would conclude they could not be radical Islamists.

It says Ali was one of three ringleaders of the plot, whose discovery forced the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights and the imposition of restrictions on carrying liquids aboard planes.

Police witness Holt said Ali told him on arrest that the computer memory stick in his jacket pocket contained "holiday destinations in America".

The court was shown the contents, which included timetables of flights from Heathrow Terminal Three to U.S. and Canadian destinations.

Seven flights had been highlighted in bold typeface - two to Chicago and one each to New York's John F. Kennedy airport, Montreal, San Francisco, Toronto and Washington.

(Editing by)