Man pleads guilty to plotting plane attack with shoe-bomber

LONDON – A British man accused of plotting with “shoe-bomber” Richard Reid pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to blow up a U.S.-bound aircraft in 2001.

Saajid Badat, 25, who prosecutors said dismantled his bomb after having second thoughts, was to be sentenced later. It was the first major conviction for a terrorist plot in Britain since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

Badat was charged with conspiring with Reid, who was convicted in the United States, and with a Tunisian to make the bomb.

Badat received training in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and returned to Britain on Dec. 10, 2001, with his device, Prosecutor Richard Horwell said. But Badat sent an e-mail to his handlers “indicating he might withdraw” from the plot, Horwell said.

In October, a U.S. grand jury charged Badat with attempted murder, trying to destroy an aircraft and other counts related to the alleged conspiracy with Reid.