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| Europe |
| Garbuzi's fled to France |
| 2005-07-09 |
| Investigators were picking through torn-up train carriages in tunnels deep below central London today, seeking clues and yet more bodies of victims of the London bombings as the death toll hit 50 amid reports casting suspicion on a Moroccan cleric. Police warned the toll from Thursday's blasts was likely to rise further as rescuers struggled to access the second of three Underground trains targeted, fearing a tunnel might collapse near Russell Square. Although investigators did not pinpoint any suspects sought in connection with the worst attack London has known since World War II, media reports said police had requested European counterparts seek out information on radical Moroccan cleric Mohammed al-Garbuzi, who lived in Britain for 16 years before vanishing from his north London home last year. Al-Garbuzi, leader of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM), is believed to have travelled to France. His group is blamed for attacks that killed 45 people in the Moroccan city of Casablanca in May 2003. London police refused to comment on reports they are hunting al-Garbuzi, but British newspapers the Daily Mail and the Independent said in their Saturday editions that the police had made "a Europe-wide request for information" on the 45-year-old awarded asylum in Britain a decade ago. The Independent said al-Garbuzi is linked to Abu Qatada, a Palestinian cleric based in London who is considered the "spiritual head" of al-Qaeda in Europe. Meanwhile, in a chilling echo of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, hand-written posters started to appear at train stations around the British capital as relatives appealed desperately for information on the missing. Lingering uncertainty over the fate of some 25 missing people prolonged the agonised wait of loved ones who had no indication whatsoever of their fate. Most of the city's transport network ran close to normal services, though two of the Underground lines affected by the blasts remained shut. However, many commuters chose to stay at home after an attack that police and government officials have linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network. A group calling itself the Organisation of al-Qaeda Jihad in Europe has claimed responsibility for Thursday's attacks via an internet statement but the message's authenticity could not be confirmed. British Interior Minister Charles Clarke said there was a "strong possibility" an al-Qaeda linked group committed the attacks, but added they "came out of the blue" and did not represent a failure by intelligence services. An Islamic leader had warned in a Portuguese newspaper interview 15 months ago that a London-based group, al-Qaeda Europe, was on the verge of a major attack. "Here in London there is a very well-organised group, which calls itself al-Qaeda-Europe," Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, the Syrian head of the London-based group Al-Muhajiroun, told the Portuguese newspaper Publico in an interview published on April 18 last year. Police vowed to catch the perpetrators behind the blasts that, in the space of 56 minutes, sliced the roof off the bus - killing 13 alone - and slaughtered dozens in packed London Underground commuter trains. "That is something we will bend every sinew of the Metropolitan Police Service ... to do. The entire weight of the anti-terrorist branch of Scotland Yard is aimed implacably ... at this operation," said the head of London's police force, Commissioner Ian Blair. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #5 with a spork |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-07-09 21:29 |
| #4 Death Valley. Have them mine borax. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-07-09 21:10 |
| #3 SON OF TOLU - Bermuda is too nice a place. Read up on the western plains of Ascension - 110 in the shade, and there's no shade. Strict salt pan for miles in every direction. Baking heat, and the wind is blocked by a mountain. Good place for mooselimbs, either whole or in pieces. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2005-07-09 20:27 |
| #2 al mahajiroun recently disbanded in england because this dickhead knew this was coming--i'd snatch him and put him on a rack till he squeals like a stuck pig--the brits should set up a prison camp for these chaps in bermuda in keeping with the caribbean motif in jihadi accomodations |
| Posted by: SON OF TOLUI 2005-07-09 11:45 |
| #1 ' "Here in London there is a very well-organised group, which calls itself al-Qaeda-Europe," Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, the Syrian head ' Syrian? Oh, Jeez. Let me guess... between the ages of 36-49 and emigrated from Syrian round about say... 1982. Those guys show up in all the wrong places. |
| Posted by: Rory B. Bellows 2005-07-09 03:09 |