The Pentagon alleges that Binyam Mohammed plotted to detonate a radioactive “dirty bomb” in America and received instructions from Al-Qaeda’s senior leaders, including the architect of the 9/11 attacks.

The 27-year-old, from Notting Hill, west London, faces a trial before a military court at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He could be jailed for life.

Mohammed’s lawyers, however, say he is the first British resident to become a victim of the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” programme which came under scrutiny last week as Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, toured Europe.

The lawyers claim the allegations against Mohammed are based on a confession extracted through torture in a Moroccan jail — and accuse the British authorities of being complicit in his ordeal.

In a diary written by Mohammed and seen by The Sunday Times, he claims two British officials knew in advance of his transfer to Morocco and says his interrogators told him they were being assisted by MI5.

Mohammed is thought to have been flown in and out of north Africa on two private jets, reportedly operated by the CIA, which have landed at UK airports more than 150 times, according to official records.

The indictment against Mohammed accuses him of attending terrorist training camps in Afghanistan in 2001, including one alongside Richard Reid, the failed airline shoe-bomber.

The Pentagon claims he was introduced to Abu Zubaydah, Al-Qaeda’s chief recruiter, with whom Mohammed discussed making an “improvised dirty bomb”. It is alleged that the Londoner, who claimed asylum in Britain in 1994 after fleeing Ethiopia, later met Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks, in Karachi, Pakistan.

The Al-Qaeda chief allegedly briefed him on a “mission” to blow up New York apartment blocks but he was arrested at Karachi airport in April 2002 as he attempted to fly to London.

Although his claims cannot be verified — and Al-Qaeda terrorists are coached to make false allegations of torture if captured — Mohammed’s diary tells a different story. He admits going to Afghanistan but denies meeting any Al-Qaeda leaders.

While he was held in Pakistan, Mohammed claims he was met by two Britons, who he believes to be MI6 officers.

“They gave me a cup of tea with a lot of sugar in it,” he writes. “I initially took one. ‘No, you need a lot more. Where you’re going you need a lot of sugar.’ . . . One of them did tell me that I was going to get tortured by the Arabs.”

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