UK plot similar to failed 1995 effort

The first was designed to blow a dozen American airliners out of the sky with liquid bombs smuggled aboard in innocent-looking containers. The failed plot was developed in late 1994 and early 1995 by the man who masterminded the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing Ramzi Yousef.

The second one that British authorities on Thursday said they thwarted was similar to Yousef's recipe for terror: the simultaneous explosions of 10 aircraft heading to the United States using liquid bombs hidden in ordinary containers and smuggled aboard in hand luggage.

Yousef, serving life without parole at the federal supermax prison at Florence, Colo., for the 1993 bombing, is isolated now from the world of terrorists that still copy his plans including Project Bojinka, his blueprint for such acts as the plane plot of 11 years ago.

"The parallels with Bojinka are amazing, the number of targets, explosive solution," said Roger Cressy, former director of counterterrorism on the National Security Council under President Clinton and President Bush. "It is something right out of the playbook.

"It has to be something either inspired by or directed by al-Qaeda," he said.

Cressy said it was no surprise that terrorists were still trying to carry out Yousef's ideas. He was an egotistical man known in that world for his creativity. "He has a proven track record. They admire his brilliance and his bomb-making skills," Cressy said.

Yousef, who once boasted that he wanted to write a book of his exploits, said as he was sent to prison for life: "I am a terrorist and am proud of it."

Pat D'Amuro, a former FBI assistant director, said the London plot showed that terrorists "like to come back to areas, like they did the World Trade Centre."