Following the recent conviction of three men who were considered the ring leaders of a homegrown terrorist cell based in Birmingham in England, there is concern that a new generation of terrorists is emerging in Great Britain. The three were convicted on February 21 of planning a terror campaign in England. The Daily Telegraph reported that, “Security and intelligence sources were ‘shocked’ at how quickly the men were able to make contact with the ‘heart of the beast’—the international arm of al-Qaeda in northern Pakistan that has been behind other terror plots.”

The Daily Telegraph quotes Detective Inspector Adam Gough of the West Midlands counter terrorism unit, as saying: “They were the real deal. They were committed, passionate extremists hell bent on pursuing their intention of killing as many people as they could in coordinated suicide bomb attacks.”

The intelligence services nicknamed this new generation of self-motivated fanatics as the “Nike terrorists” because of the sports bran motto “just do it.” Trial judge Mr. Justice Henriques “told the trio that they will all face life in prison when they are due to be sentenced in April or May.” Justice Henriques told Irfan Naseer: “The scale and extent of your ambition was similarly manifest. You were seeking to recruit a team of somewhere between six and eight suicide bombers to carry out a spectacular bombing campaign, one which would create an anniversary along the lines of 7/7 or 9/11.”