Terror Supergrass Reveals Bin Laden Plots

A British terrorist supergrass has told a court that Osama bin Laden told him shortly after the 9/11 attacks that a follow-up strike could doom the US economy.

Saajid Badat, 33, was convicted in 2005 of plotting to blow up an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in his shoes.

His video testimony was shown in the federal trial of Adis Madunjanin, who is accused of plotting to attack New York's subways with suicide bombs in 2009.

Recalling his meeting with bin Laden, Badat told the court: "So he said the American economy is like a chain.

"If you break one - one link of the chain, the whole economy will be brought down. So after the September 11 attacks, this operation will ruin the aviation industry and in turn the whole economy will come down."

Badat said he was supposed to carry out a simultaneous bombing with failed shoe-bomber Richard Reid.

In testimony recorded last month, Badat said he refused a request to appear in person, fearing he would be arrested if he set foot in the US.

Badat is free after serving six years of an 11-year prison sentence.

He testified that he began co-operating in part because he hoped to testify at some point against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks.

He said Mohammed gave final orders to himself and Reid, who is serving a life sentence.

"He just gave us advice on how to interact with each other, how to contact each other," Badat said.

Badat said he believed Mohammed and others like him took advantage of vulnerable youths to get them to carry out terror attacks.

On cross-examination, he said he believed some of the September 11 hijackers were victims, like the others who died that day.