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| Britain |
| London bombers received al-Qaeda training |
| 2005-07-15 |
| The British suicide bombers who killed 54 people in London were likely trained by al Qaeda but did not receive direct orders from its top leaders, London's police chief says. Ian Blair made the statements yesterday after Britain came to a standstill for two minutes of silent tribute to the victims of last week's bombings. Hours later, police released a chilling picture captured by closed-circuit cameras of British-born Hasib Hussain, 18, on his way to unleash carnage with a 4.5-kilogram bomb inside a backpack strapped to his shoulders. "Al Qaeda clearly has the ability to provide training, to provide briefing, to provide expertise and that is what I think has occurred here and this is what occurred in Madrid," Blair said, referring to the Spanish attacks that killed 191 people last year. "But if one is suggesting that people from the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan were directly involved in this, the answer's no," he told journalists, referring to the location where Osama bin Laden and his deputies are believed to be hiding. Further evidence of an al Qaeda link to the bombing came from reports yesterday by both The Times newspaper and Newsnight, BBC's flagship current affairs program. Both quoted police sources saying that a man involved with al Qaeda entered the country by ferry a couple of weeks before the attacks and flew out the day before the four suicide bombers — three were British-born — blew up three subway cars and a bus. He's described as the mastermind of the plot by The Times. But the BBC says it's not known whether he met with the bombers, three of whom lived in Leeds, in northern England, and one in Aylsbury, northwest of London. The suspect was on a "watch list" but was not put under surveillance once inside Britain because he wasn't high enough on the list, the BBC reported. If confirmed, the news raises questions about whether police could have foiled the bombings by refusing the suspect entry, or by keeping an eye on him once in the country. There are also reports that police have found a large quantity of acetone peroxide in one of the raided houses in Leeds. Al Qaeda camps trained recruits on how to handle the volatile explosive, which can be made from chemicals bought at pharmacies. Convicted British shoe bomber Richard Reid had an explosive mixture of the chemical in his shoe when he tried to blow up a flight to the United States. The discovery, which has caused hundreds of people to be evacuated in Leeds and a no-fly zone to be imposed over the neighbourhood, raises the possibility that the chemical was used in the attack rather than commercial or military explosives. The bombers have been identified as Shahzad Tanweer, 22, a cricket-loving sports science graduate; Hasib Hussain, 18; and Mohammed Sidique Khan, the 30-year-old father of an eight-month-old baby. All three were born and raised in Britain. The fourth bomber has been identified in media reports as Jamaica-born Briton Lindsey Germaine, who rented a house in Aylsbury with his family four months ago. For the first time, police specifically referred to all four as suicide bombers. "We are certain that the four people were killed and they were the four people carrying the bombs," Blair said. "It's important to recognize that these were not suicide bombers in the shape that we have seen in Sri Lanka and in Palestine and Israel. There were no waistcoats full of explosives. These were people carrying bags and they died there." Said police anti-terrorist chief, Peter Clarke: "We need to establish a number of things ... who supported them, who financed them, who trained them, who encouraged them. This will take many months of intensive detailed investigations." FBI agents in Raleigh, N.C., joined the search for an Egyptian chemist, Magdi el-Nashar, a 33-year-old former North Carolina State University graduate student, Associated Press reported. He had recently taught at Leeds University and is believed to be connected to the bombings. The photo of Hussain released by police shows him carrying his deadly load at 7:20 a.m. last Thursday at the Luton station, north of London, where all four bombers met and took the train to the capital. While three of the bombers blew up subway trains almost simultaneously at 8:50 a.m., Hussain blew up a double-decker bus at 9:47 a.m., killing 13 people. "Did you see this man at King's Cross?" Clarke asked in a televised appeal. "Was he alone or with others? Do you know the route he took ... Did you see him get on to a No. 30 bus? The scope of the plot may be wider than yet imagined: "We don't know if there is a fifth man, or a sixth man, a seventh man, or an eighth man," Blair said. Before Hussain's photo was made public, the city of almost eight million people came to a virtual stop at noon when Big Ben, the House of Commons clock, rang the start of two minutes of silent tribute for the dead. At the normally heaving intersections around King's Cross, the subway station where at least 26 people were killed, black cabs, red double-decker buses and anything on wheels came to a stop. Along the sidewalk, people stood in silence under the searing sun, many with their heads bowed, some clutching flowers and crying. At the station, where bodies are still trapped in the subway, people stood in front of a courtyard that has been transformed into a shrine to the victims. Flowers are piled high in a circle, with messages proclaiming grief and defiance. "From Muslims everywhere," reads one. "Our hearts are heavy with the horror of these attacks." At Buckingham Palace, the Queen stood outside the palace gates. At the British Open, Tiger Woods removed his hat and bowed his head at the 14th hole. Oxford Street emptied its stores, and police chiefs investigating the deadliest attack in London since World War II paid tribute in front of Scotland Yard. "With quiet dignity and respect, we show our deep contempt to those who planted the bombs and those who masterminded them," said George Psaradakis, who was driving the bus that was bombed by Hussain. "Let us send a message to the terrorists: You will not defeat us and you will not break us," he said before the silence began at a bus depot in east London. Later, at a vigil in Trafalgar Square, Mayor Ken Livingstone told thousands that London defeated the bombers by continuing to act like "the most tolerant city in the world." "Those who came here to kill last Thursday had many goals, but one was that we should turn on each other like animals trapped in a cage. And they failed, they failed totally and utterly." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |