This undated photo released by the British Metropolitan Police shows Rajib Karim who was found guilty Monday Feb. 28, 2011 at Woolwich Crown Court in London of plotting to blow up a plane while working... (Associated Press) 
 
 Rajib Karim, a 31-year-old Bangladeshi man, was convicted of four counts of engaging in preparation for terrorist attacks. Along with friends who were educated at the same private school, they supported Jammat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) which fought to establish an Islamic state in the country. He returned to the UK in 2006, purportedly to seek medical treatment for his young son, who was wrongly thought to have cancer. Last year, Britain's top law enforcement official cited Karim's case as proof that al-Qaida's offshoot in Yemen, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, was attempting attacks on U.K. and U.S. 
 
 Home Secretary Theresa May told an audience of intelligence chief and security experts that the group had "shown the ability to project a threat far beyond the borders of Yemen." They found he had been in direct contact with Awlaki, who is accused of having links to the attempted bombing of a plane over Detroit during Christmas in 2009 and an attempt last year to explode ink printer bombs on freight planes heading to the US. Roshonara Choudhry, a student from London, was convicted last year of trying to murder the Labour MP Stephen Timms after watching Awlaki's sermons online, including on sites such as YouTube. Al-Awlaki is thought to have orchestrated the unsuccessful October plot to send mail bombs on planes from Yemen to the U.S., hidden in the toner cartridges of computer printers. But police believe Karim had committed himself to violent jihad and sought a job where he could best help the terrorist cause. The cleric told Karim he hoped he would be able to supply "critical and urgent information" related to airline security because of his role at BA. Karim told the preacher that he had access to BA's servers and could erase all the data, causing massive disruption and financial loss. Karim told Al-Awlaki that managers at BA were looking for volunteers to work as cabin crew, covering for any colleagues who went on strike during the airline's 2009 industrial dispute. Though Karim put himself forward, he was rejected because he had not served a required five years with the airline. "Our highest priority is in the U.S.," al-Awlaki told Karim in an encrypted message, thought by police to have been sent in February 2010. Anything there, even on a smaller scale compared to what we may do in the UK, would be our choice. The trial at Woolwich crown court, south-east London, heard Awlaki had written an email to Karim asking: "Is it possible to get a package or person with a package on board a flight heading to the US?" A few days later Karim replied: "I do not know much about US I can work with the bros to find out the possibilities of shipping a package to a US-bound plane." It took detectives nine months to fully decrypt Karim's secret messages to Awlaki and his brother - the most complex code-breaking work ever undertaken by counter-terrorism officers.
– A British Airways IT specialist has been convicted of plotting to blow up a plane, along with three additional counts of terrorist planning—including conspiring with Yemen-based radical Anwar al-Awlaki and passing him useful information. It took police nine months to crack encrypted messages on Rajib Karim’s home computer; investigators called them the most complex yet seen in British terror, the Guardian reports. Born in Bangladesh, Karim and his brother had supported a banned radical group, the BBC notes. Karim, who studied at Manchester University, returned to England in 2006 and took a job at BA in 2007; police believe he was looking for a position where he could contribute to the terrorist cause. A message from Awlaki—whom Karim called "professor"—asked if it was “possible to get a package or person with a package on board a flight heading to the US,” noting that a US attack was “our highest priority.” Click for more on Rajib Karim.