Terror chief told me to bomb London

A London man tells today how he was at an extraordinary al Qaeda "brainstorming" summit.

Abu Omar reveals that one of the masterminds of the 9/11 attacks - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - asked him if he would carry out "martyrdom" operations in the capital.

Other ideas for attacks in Britain and elsewhere were written on a white board as plotters came up with suggestions ranging from attacks on a VIP convoy to the assassination of the Saudi king.

Omar, a former petty criminal who converted to Islam, met Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh, another al Qaeda chief, in Afghanistan. Both men were later captured and are to go on trial in America after being held in Guantanamo Bay.

Omar, speaking exclusively to the Standard at a London hotel after renouncing violence, tells how:

Mohammed personally asked him to attack Britain in a suicide mission.

He became such close friends with Binalshibh, one of Osama bin Laden's henchmen, that he spent a month with him in a Pakistani safe house.

He met two other Londoners who discussed terror plans - one of whom planned attacks on civilians in Britain. The other, Abdul Makim Khalisadar, is a convicted rapist whose al Qaeda links are revealed for the first time today.

Omar's real name is being kept secret because of the risk of reprisals over his revelations.

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