More details on the foiled plot in Birmingham, England have been released. The plot was earlier reported as a plot of radical Islamic terrorists in England to take a British Muslim soldier hostage and behead him, filming the murder and distributing it on the Internet. Gruesome to say the least.

Since the arrest of eight suspects in pre-dawn raids, another man was taken into custody as he tried to leave the city. So much for the valient mujahideen, eh? British police though warn there may still be two plotters on the loose.

From the Guardian:

In what would mark a new departure for UK jihadists, members of the group are alleged to have been preparing to film the kidnap victim as he begged for mercy before being murdered, and were then planning to post the footage on the web . . .

Eight men were arrested in raids before dawn at their homes across Birmingham yesterday, while a ninth was seized later in the day as he drove out of the city along the M6 motorway. Those who were identified by relatives and neighbours were mostly in their late 20s and early 30s, and included at least two shopkeepers and one businessman. There were unconfirmed reports yesterday that all those arrested were Britons of Pakistani origin.

The man alleged to have been the intended victim, a lance corporal in his 20s, was taken into police protective custody yesterday along with several members of his family amid reports that two other men had evaded arrest. He had recently arrived home on leave after a tour of duty in Afghanistan, and police and the security service, MI5, believe he was to have been bundled into a van as he walked along a street and driven to a pre-prepared cell where he could be filmed. There, they allege, he was likely to have been tortured and eventually beheaded.

The operation appears to underline recent warnings by senior police and the security service that the UK could be particularly vulnerable to attack by al-Qaida because of its traditional links with Pakistan. Detectives from the newly-formed Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit carried out the raids at 4am at houses in the Sparkhill, Washwood Heath, Kingstanding and Edgbaston areas of Birmingham.

This sounds like a pretty serious operation, being that the suspects had already picked out the victim and were at least in the process of staging the area where the soldier would be murdered for their political jihadist gain. Remember though, radical Islam is not political, or so we’re always told by Islamist groups.

And like we always hear of these suspects, there are those voices who claim he was such a nice man.

One was named locally as Amjad Mahmood, 29, a father of two young sons, who worked at his father’s store. A man who identified himself as Mr Mahmood’s brother, Ziah Khan, said he ran out of his own nearby home when he heard the police raid. “The little boys were shouting ‘please don’t take our father’ over and over again,” he said. “He is a very decent man, all he does is work. He is no terrorist. He doesn’t have time for anything else - he never leaves the country.”

Mahmood is certainly innocent until proven guilty, but what we never see is those same family member, friends or neighbors recant their nice words after they are found guilty. We are led to believe those taken into custody over heinous plots or acts of terrorists were just mixed up individuals, and indeed they are, but someone who plots to behead another man for propoganda purposes to fuel the flames of jihad are not nice people under any definition of the word.

UPDATE: The Times of London offers more, below the fold.

Security sources said last night that a gang of British extremists had allegedly drawn up a hitlist of Muslim soldiers who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan to become the first victims in the UK of an al-Qaeda style “online” kidnap and beheading.

The suspects are believed to have narrowed their choice to a shortlist of three men. Last night one of the soldiers was understood to be in protective custody after a six-month intelligence operation culminated in a series of predawn raids in Birmingham involving 700 police. A number of the would-be kidnappers are believed to be still at large. Senior officers alleged that the plan was to force the soldier, under torture, to denounce his role in the Army and behead him on camera . . .

 The intention was to announce the time of the execution, film it and then post it on a website with a warning that other British Muslim “collaborators” would face a similar fate for taking part in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Army has begun a recruitment drive in the West Midlands for Muslims. One investigator said that Muslims would have been given the clear message: “Don’t go out and kill your brothers.”

The group allegedly spent months compiling a list of Muslims as potential targets, at least one of whom is believed to live close to a number of the raided homes. Police believe that the kidnappers were also planning to abduct Muslim civil servants and others perceived as working for the British military machine.

It would have been the first al-Qaeda kidnap and execution in the West.

Maybe some of our British readers can help fill in the blank here, but I don’t believe the nine suspsects are thought to be connected to Al Qaida in any way other than be inspired by the terrorist group.  That makes them a next-wave Al Qaida network, and we’ve seen many of them, who are normally inspired by what they see on the Internet and through traditional media to carry out Al Qaida style attacks in their native nations.  The Toronto 17 is another example of the next generation AQ.

The Times also notes the primary target of the group was a soldier who just returned from Iraq, whereas the Gardian (noted above) reported the soldier was on leave from Afghanistan.  Regardless, the implied warning towards British Muslims not to kill their ‘brothers’ is an interesting one, and a warning that is worrisome in the respect that British police feel the plotters feel a kinship to radical Islamists.

Judging by a recent poll that found 13 percent of British Muslims admired Al Qaida, this isn’t surprising.  Neither is it surprising after the hidden camera footage in England’s most ‘moderate’ mosques showing sermons which rival those out of some parts of the Middle East.

In another Times article, the Times reports “some of them had apparently followed the well-trodden path of travelling to Pakistan, where they were put in touch with extremist groups that could offer their own brand of terrorist training.”  While still not a conclusive link between the suspects and Al Qaida, that is a pretty direct link to rather nefarious plans.

The Times also notes what I mentioned above, Al Qaida inspired jihadis using the basis of the Internet.

There were plenty of websites instructing new recruits how to stalk then seize their victim. These sites emphasised the need for publicity.

One password-protected al-Qaeda affiliated forum posted in June last year: “It is preferable if you photograph or video the operation so that it can have a bigger set of viewers and can be used by the media.”

It also advises that a large cell is not required and that anyone who could handle a camcorder could produce what experts have come to call “the theatre of terror”.

Will Geddes, who is head of the security firm, ICP Group, said that this alleged plot bore the hallmarks of a training document known as the al-Battar manual, which was intercepted in 2005. “It was then translated and shown to be a guide to how small terror groups should go about recognising targets, seizing hostages, holding them and then executing them. It is now known that these books were distributed to many groups associated with al-Qaeda,” he said.