3 Convicted in Airline Liquid Bomb Plot

Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Tanvir Hussain and Assad Sarwar were convicted of plotting to blow up commercial airplanes using homemade liquid bombs. Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Tanvir Hussain and Assad Sarwar were previously convicted of conspiracy to commit murder with liquid explosives, but that conviction did not pertain to intent to detonate the bombs on planes.

These guys are the reason why we can't bring liquids onto planes. Please note that the convictions are based on intent to kill, and not on any facility with science: the liquid bombs the three intended to use would not have functioned in the way they had thought.

So, while the terror plot turned out to be real, the methodology has been debunked more than once, and the liquid ban is often pointed out as an example of fear-based security. In this sense, Abdulla Ahmed Ali, Tanvir Hussain and Assad Sarwar were actually successful in their plot: they indeed caused terror to the extent that we completely changed our day-to-day travel routines.