Make New York Post a Preferred Source WASHINGTON — An Iran-backed operative orchestrated a foiled terror plot targeting US military aircraft in England from an American prison cell — using “coded messages” in phone calls to relatives in Iraq, according to a federal indictment secured Tuesday.
Mohammad al-Saadi, a dual Iranian-Iraqi citizen, was arrested and brought to the US in May to face charges in connection with almost 20 other terrorist attacks targeting Europe, but used his time behind bars to plot against US forces at Royal Air Force Base Fairford, alleges the superseding indictment in the Southern District of New York.
British police arrested, and then released on bail, seven men following the RAF Fairford security scare and the case has until now remained mired in mystery.
The new indictment says that al-Saadi, working with two codefendants based in Iran, used phone calls with his mother and sister to pass messages to the other suspects, Mohsen Mohajeri and Mohammad al-Hassani. All three men are believed to be part of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard-linked terror network.
In August, al-Hassani allegedly “directed and paid associates in the United Kingdom to conduct preparatory steps and arrange logistics” including surveillance of the air base, according to the Justice Department.
The same alleged co-conspirator paid other accomplices to acquire vans, barrels of fuel and chemical accelerants, including potassium chloride, and metal for use as bomb shrapnel — with the vans decorated to resemble fuel and swimming pool business vans.
Three vehicles were allegedly driven to RAF Fairford on Sept. 26. Two were stopped at a roadblock and all three were eventually seized by British authorities the following day.
