Al-Qaeda Linked To Planned Attack on Danish Newspaper

Three men have been jailed for planning to attack the Danish Jyllands-Posten newspaper, the publisher of the original Mohammed cartoons that sparked off riots throughout the Middle East in 2005/6.  Two of the men, Mikael Davud and Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak, were found guilty in the first ever convictions under Norway's anti-terror laws, which require proof of a conspiracy between two or more people.  The third man, David Jakobsen, who assisted police in their investigation, was cleared of terror charges but convicted of helping the others acquire explosives.  The court found that the three plotters were ‘incredibly close’ to manufacturing a 20 kilo bomb in a basement laboratory in Oslo.  Furthermore, investigators claim the plot was linked to the same al-Qaida planners behind thwarted attacks on the New York subway system and a UK shopping centre in 2009.  Davud, the alleged ring-leader of the group, denies taking orders from Al-Qaeda, saying that it was an independent effort.  However, his notebook contained references to Saleh al-Somali, al-Qaeda's chief of external operations, who officials believe helped organize the New York and Manchester plots.