Five members of a British al-Qaeda cell were jailed for life today for plotting to use fertiliser bombs to blow up the Bluewater shopping centre, the Ministry of Sound nightclub and other targets across the UK including gas and electricity supplies.

The ringleader of a plot that would have claimed hundreds of lives, Omar Khyam, was told that he would have to spend at least 20 years in jail - but all five men were warned that they may never be released.

"You have betrayed this country that has given you every opportunity," said Sir Michael Astill, QC, the judge at the Old Bailey. "All of you may never be released: it is not a foregone conclusion."

With the verdict, however, comes fresh revelations about the full extent of MI5's knowledge about the July 7 suicide bombers. It can now be disclosed that Khyam met Mohammed Siddique Khan, the leader of the 7/7 plotters, at least four times in England while under MI5 surveillance but the link between them was never properly followed up.

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There is little doubt that, despite greater anti-terrorist resources and tougher legislation, another bomber will slip through the net

Sean O'Neill

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MI5 took the unprecedented step this evening of publishing a detailed account of their investigation. In a statement on their website, MI5 confirms that Khan and his July 7 accomplice Shezhad Tanweer visited the fertilizer plotters while they were under surveillance.

The agency denies there was any evidence to suggest Khan’s five meetings with the men could have tipped them off about the attacks. “Even with the benefit of hindsight, it would have been impossible from the available intelligence to conclude that either Khan or Tanweer posed a terrorist threat to the British public,” it said.

The five men were today found guilty of planning to use 600 kg (1,300lb) of ammonium nitrate fertiliser to make bombs for a campaign of revenge for Britain’s support of the United States in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Two other men were found not guilty on the same charge of conspiracy to cause explosions likely to endanger life.

The verdict from an Old Bailey jury came after a record 27 days of deliberations during which the jury of seven men and five women were told they could return a majority verdict.

Those convicted on the conspiracy charge were Khyam, 25, Waheed Mahmood, 35, and Jawad Akbar, 23 - all from Crawley, West Sussex - as well as Salahuddin Amin, 32, of Luton, Bedfordshire and Antony Garcia, 25, of Barkingside, east London.

Nabeel Hussain, 22, of Horley, Surrey, and Shujah Mahmood, 20, from Crawley, were found not guilty of the conspiracy charge

Khyam, who boasted of taking his orders directly from Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, the al-Qaeda No 3, and Garcia were also found guilty of possession of 600kg of ammonium nitrate fertiliser for terrorism, but Mr Hussain was cleared. It emerged last week that Abd al-Hadi, thought to have been the mastermind of the July 21 attacks, is in American custody.

Khyam was also found guilty of possession aluminium powder for terrorism, a charge on which Shujah Mahmood was found not guilty.

On the main charge, Khyam, Mahmood and Garcia - who acted as frontman and bought the fertiliser - were handed life sentences and told they would have to serve at least 20 years in jail. Amin and Akbar were told they would have to serve at least 17-1/2 years in jail.

The main prosecution witness in the case was Mohammed Babar, a Pakistan-born American who has admitted to terrorism-related offences in New York. He said he was the men’s accomplice and had helped get materials to make the bombs.

The prosecution said the men had discussed targets including London’s biggest nightclub - the Ministry of Sound - gas, water and electricity supplies, synagogues, trains, planes, and the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent.

Babar said some of the suspects had also suggested poisoning fast food takeaways and beer at soccer matches.

The men were arrested in March 2004 following a lengthy police surveillance codenamed Operation Crevice, which led to the discovery of the half-tonne of chemical fertiliser in storage in West London.

Officers had initially been alerted to the suspects when the storage firm near Heathrow called the police after becoming suspicious about the substance they had been asked to look after.

The Crevice trial was the longest and most expensive criminal case in Britain, costing £50 million and lasting more than a year and raising questions about the cost of other pending terror trials.

But the connections with the 7/7 plot - in which four suicide bombers killed 52 commuters on three London Tube trains and a bus - had to be kept secret because of reporting restrictions imposed on the fertiliser trial.

With those restrictions lifted, it can now be reported that Mohammed Sidique Khan, the 7/7 ringleader, was a close associate of Khyam at a time when he was one of Britain’s top terror targets.

The two met each other at least four times in England while Khyam was under surveillance by MI5 in the final stages of his plotting. At one point they were even recorded by Security Service agents talking about terrorism.

Khyam also met another of the 7/7 suicide gang - Khan’s right-hand man, Shehzad Tanweer - while under surveillance by MI5.

Yet despite this, neither Khan or Tanweer were classified as priority targets by the Security Service. Graham Foulkes, who lost his 22-year-old son David on July 7, said that when he learned of the truth about 7/7 he was "absolutely overwhelmed with a sense of sheer disbelief".

"The consequences of that level of incompetence were such that my son was killed. That is truly appalling," he said. "Could the bombings have been prevented? As a father who lost a son, I am drawn to that conclusion."

A photograph of Khan was circulated by MI5 to intelligence agencies around the world in early 2005 - yet it was never shown to the one witness who could have identified him. Babar, the supergrass, had been to the same terrorist training camp as Khan and Khyam and after his arrest told authorities that Khan, whom he knew as Ibrahim, was "trouble" and "should be checked out".

For an unknown reason, he was never shown Khan’s picture by the FBI. Babar was later said to have been angry about this failure when he heard that Khan led the 7/7 attacks on London.

In its official report on the 7/7 bombings, the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) described this as a "missed opportunity" to identify the man who would go on to lead the first suicide attack on British soil.

In the wake of the bombings, the Government insisted there had been no warning of the attack, describing the bombers as "clean skins" who had never made any significant impression on the intelligence radar before.

The Opposition reacted to today's verdict by renewing their call for a full independent inquiry into the July 7 attacks. David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said it was clear that the Britishpeople still did not know the truth about the July 2005 attacks.

But their demand was rejected by John Reid, the Home Secretary, who told the Commons that a public inquiry would divert the efforts of the security services already stretched in countering the terrorist threat.

Tony Blair’s official spokesman also urged against jumping to the conclusion that the July 7 attacks could have been prevented in the light of today's disclosures. “We should recognise this for what it is,” he said. “It is a success. It is the prevention of a very serious set of attacks. As a result many lives have been saved.”

Amid calls for an independent inquiry, the spokesman added: “We shouldn’t jump from the fact that new evidence has now been made public to the assumption that in some way 7/7 could have been prevented.”

Crevice by numbers:

- £50 million cost of trial

-18 people arrested

- 50 cars, homes and business premises searched during investigation

- 80 computers seized

-173 interviews taken

- 960 officers involved in the arrests

- 3,500 hours of audio material

- 3,600 witness statements

- 7,600 people involved in the investigation, including police, witnesses and security services

- 24,000 hours of video evidence

- 33,800 man hours of surveillance

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