London Bombers Were Probably British, Says U.K. Ex-Police Chief

[emad]

July 10 (Bloomberg) -- Terrorists behind the London bomb attacks that killed at least 50 people on Thursday are ``almost certainly British-born'' and probably well educated, according to John Stevens, the former head of the city's police force.

``The London bombers will not fit the caricature al-Qaeda fanatic from some backward village in Algeria,'' Stevens wrote in the News of the World. ``They will be apparently ordinary British citizens, young men conservatively and cleanly dressed and probably with some higher education.''

Stevens, who was the U.K.'s most senior policeman until he retired in February, wrote in the London-based newspaper that 3,000 Britons are thought to have passed through al-Qaeda training camps, and that up to 200 are ``willing and able to slaughter.''

Al-Qaeda is recruiting affluent, middle class Muslims from British universities, the Sunday Times reported today, citing a leaked government document from last year. The recruits, who don't have criminal backgrounds, are often loners who are approached through university clubs, the newspaper said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000102&sid=a3kBAhnz0VyI&refer=uk

[emad]

1. Mastermind of Madrid is key figure: Sunday Times on Top Suspect

Mastermind of Madrid is key figure
Nick Fielding and Gareth Walsh
TOP SUSPECT



THE terrorist believed to have organised last year’s Madrid train attacks is emerging as a figure in the hunt for the London bombers.
Spanish security sources are said to have warned four months ago that Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, a 47-year-old Syrian, had identified Britain as a likely target.

Coded commands from the Syrian, thought to have included threats to other European countries including Britain, were found in a flat raided after the Madrid bombings in March 2004.

Spanish investigators said Nasar, now believed to be in Iraq, had set up a “sleeper” cell of terrorists in Britain. But they believed he was planning an attack to coincide with the British general election in May, rather than the G8 summit last week.

One Spanish website yesterday claimed the General Information Commission, a Spanish police intelligence body, issued a report in March warning that Britain and Spain were the primary western targets. The statement was based on Spanish investigations into the Madrid bombings.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1688244,00.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Gee how shocking NOT

for those who think tht AQ is a bunch of unedcuated morons this should be their wake up call, which most likely it won't

[emad]

3. I thought those 'G8' politicians looked awfully smug when the news

broke - like it was music to their ears and plans to sumbit their voters to a police state.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. At this point I trhink we are dealing witn a symbotic

relationship

Al Qaida and our people are seprate entities but they feed from each other

[dweller]

5. sounds like USAMA?

"the caricature al-Qaeda fanatic from some backward village in Algeria" ...


dp

[lebkuchen]

7. The perpetrators are people who read the news

and are "up" on history and current events. Not the average clueless person on the street, such as those most of us work with.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

9. The ones that did it here were not uneducated morons

They had more education than the average Bush or Dem voter

[lebkuchen]

6. Thanks to Bush and Blair, the bombers could be just about anybody

with a British passport. Meanwhile, it's now open season on British Muslims.

[DemBones DemBones]

8. Couldn't they be anybody with any valid passport?

Is there a reason they have to be British?

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. The only reason why it makes sense that they have british passoports

is AQ has been a busy beaver recruiting in target countries, don't worry we have our cells here, what worries me is... when they finally pull something off, just like in the UK the open season is NOT going to be funny

[lebkuchen]

13. The day of the event, everyone was sure the culprit was somebody from the

Middle East. I had said it was probably somebody British.

I still think I'm right, and yes, it could be just about anybody in Britain, though anyone Muslim has extra cause to worry, from vigilante-ism.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. OKC comes to mind

everybody was sure it was a terra attack from the ME, I was sure it was American...

Now what would be truly shocking is if whoever is behind this is a white supremacist.. that woudl be shocking

[lebkuchen]

15. exactly, nadin...

Blair may have to make some statements to protect Muslim citizens after the shock has warn off, though I think the American personna tends to be a lot quicker on the trigger or cricket mallet of revenge. Maybe the UK's equivalent of Toby Keith will write a song: "Courtesy of the Union Jack," as a belated gesture.

[Frederik]

16. Police suspect white mercs?

"Police and intelligence agents are investigating the theory that a gang of white "mercenary terrorists" was hired by al-Qa'ida to carry out last week's devastating attacks on London."

Does this mean they have some indications - whether from video cameras or eyewitnesses or whatever - that the bombers were white causcasians?

Edited to add link: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article298105.ece

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. Or from the Balkans

that was the other thread in the story with no history

My conclusion, they have way too many investigative leads and are looking for one that will pan out

[fedsron2us]

25. Well it is the anniversary of the Srebrenica massacres

which happened ten years ago this week.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/675945.stm

Quite how that would justify killing hospital cleaners, bank clerks etc on the London tube is a bit beyond me.

[Frederik]

26. I didn't make that connection

You're right, that could be significant. This could be Bosnian Islamists "commemorating" the Srebrenica massacre. Question is, why would they strike Britain? Britain bombed Serbia in the end...

[bin.dare]

23. BBC did a dress rehearsal in 2004 ...

... from the Panorama (fake) program:

In the past hour there have been three major explosions on the London underground. The first occurred at 10 past 8 on the Piccadilly line between Knightsbridge and Hyde Park Corner. The second, at 16 minutes past 8, on the Central Line between Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Circus, and the third at 27 minutes past 8 as a train was arriving at Vauxhall Station in Stockwell on the Victoria line.

it gets interesting when later

We can now confirm that a tanker carrying chlorine has exploded at the junction of Shoreditch High Street
and Commercial Street.

and then the comment

PRICE: If there are now bombs going off above ground, in this case a lorry being attacked, it could happen anywhere, so the potential for mass panic across not just the capital but the whole country is very much with us. I think therefore we need to look at more serious measures. We do have reserve powers in effect to take over the BBC if we were to wish to, and to get them to broadcast whatever we wanted them to broadcast. Those powers are there in the Broadcasting Act.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/programmes/panorama/transcripts/londonunderattack.txt

I have an open mind on who those "white mercs" are.

[fedsron2us]

21. Surely, that could never happen. Could it ?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/30/newsid_2499000/2499249.stm

[fedsron2us]

11. Stevens statement is inflammatory and dangerous.

As yet, apart from the claims posted on the internet, there is no evidence to indicate that the attackers were Muslims let alone British. All I can see so far is that the M.O of this attack was very similar to Madrid. It seems that high grade plastic explosives were used to construct the bombs and this substance is certainly not readily available in the UK. The material would have to be obtained outside the country and smuggled across the border. This requires an international organisation.

I am deeply disturbed that the British Muslim community who have already had members of their community killed in the attack are being set up as the perpetrators. This is exactly what happened to people of Irish descent after the Guildford and Birmingham pub bombings of 1974. The fact this garbage is being carried by a lot of the media in the UK makes me think it is a concerted attempt to divert attention from the very real intelligence failings that have led up to these bombings.

On edit - if Al Quaeda is really recruiting its members from British universities then the UK government should have no difficulty penetrating and breaking up its activities. It makes you wonder what MI5 have been spending their time doing recently.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Al Qaida is trruly

recruting in target countries (yes even the UK) for the last two years.

Now there is more, the explosive is from Eastern Europe, though interestingly not Cemtex, and with the Chunnel it is actually easier to get this stuff across (This is from news reports, for some reason they specifically said it was not cemtex)

As to your commnet on the Muslim Community, right but that is not unexpected, wait until American Cells do the same thing here... can you say camps

[fedsron2us]

18. I would expect the UK security services

are actually hoping the bombers are British based because it will make identifying and catching them a great deal easier. Whoever carried out the attack is almost certainly to be captured on CCTV (even the buses in London carry it) so if they live in the UK they are not going to be able to hide for long.

[LivingInTheBubble]

22. says who?

where are you getting this information from. the only people recruiting muslims as terrorists in western countries are the media and leaders who are marking them as the perpetrators even before any information is known. If you were an angry young muslim who had already been found guilty you might actually go out and do something.

[malaise]

17. It's all speculation no matter the source at this stage

Still it would be a turn up for the books since for centuries the Brits and Americans recruited the best and brightest from developing countries to maintain their interests across the globe. Hope the teachers are real happy.

[lockdown]

19. The enemy within

British, well educated, tech literate, outwardly average loners. Very difficult to detect and infiltrate... hmm, what can be done.

And in a completely unrelated story:

Email spying 'could have stopped killers'

Sunday July 10, 2005
The Observer

Millions of personal email and mobile phone records could be stored and shared with police and intelligence officials across Europe to help thwart terrorist attacks.

The Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, will propose new measures at an emergency meeting of European Union interior ministers which will discuss the implications of Thursday's London bombings.

He raised the stakes dramatically by claiming they could 'quite possibly' have helped prevent such attacks, by identifying in advance suspicious patterns of behaviour by potential terrorists.

The move comes as The Observer can also reveal that the National Crime Squad has contacted internet service providers in the UK, appealing for them to preserve email messages in case they prove useful to the manhunt. The messages could include highly personal information.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/story/0,16132,1525382,00.html

[Endangered Specie]

24. I had a bad feeling this might be the case...

lord knows what it will mean... :scared: