~ First Published @ European Tribune ~
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ARREST IN EGYPT OF MISSING CHEMISTRY STUDENT
LONDON (Reuters) – An Egyptian chemistry student wanted by police in connection with last week’s London bombings is understood to have been arrested in Cairo.
“I can confirm that a man has been arrested in Cairo,” a police source told Reuters, saying it was understood to be Magdy Elnashar, 33, a bio-chemistry student at Leeds University who officers have been looking for as part of their inquiry. Elnashar has also studied bio-chemistry in the United States.
British media reports said he had rented one of the houses in Leeds, West Yorkshire, raided by police on Tuesday where large amounts of substances suspected to be explosives were seized.
BBC reported the forensics have indicated the explosives used were NOT of military or commercial origin. The first analysis assumed a high-power explosive was used due to ratio power and weight carried in backpack.


1. London bombing suspect Hasib Mir Hussain at Luton train station in central England.
2. Hasib Hussain -19- from Leeds, who was named as the suicide bomber who died along with passengers on the number 30 bus near Tavistock Square.
More below the fold »»
Chances are he missed a subway connection he was scheduled to keep and didn’t know how to solve this matter. He may have been undecided whether to leave the backpack behind or carry it with him on the bus.
Graphic with map and timeline of the last known actions of the British suicide bombers in the hours that preceded last week’s bomb attacks.
Trying to map out Hussain’s movements, police appealed for information from anyone who may have seen him in or around King’s Cross station, where the four suspects parted ways. They released a closed-circuit TV image showing him wearing a large camping-style backpack as he strode through a train station in Luton, outside London, about 21/2 hours before he allegedly blew up the No. 30 bus. He had a mustache and wore jeans, a white shirt and a dark zip-up top or jacket.
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Trafalgar vigil: Crowds gather for a vigil at Trafalgar Square
in remembrance of the victims of the London bombing.
When further investigation does lead to Al Qaeda connection, this makes sense why London is searching for a Brit from Pakistan descent who could have met the four bomb carriers before July 7th, and had left the UK one day before the London attack. Also search is on for an Egyptian, familiar with chemistry who went missing after July 7th. This indicates the terror was fully home grown with international support, similar to the Madrid bombing, an European network.
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Ehud Keinan, a chemistry professor at Haifa’s Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, faced airport security at its most vigilant when he flew into Baltimore/ Washington International just three weeks after the 9/11 tragedy. Yet a vial holding two grams of triacetone triperoxide (TATP), an improvised plastic explosive, went completely undetected.
If the mild-mannered scientist had been a terrorist, and if he had whipped up a larger batch of TATP, he could have downed his connecting flight to Los Angeles, killing hundreds of passengers.
The explosive, the same type used by the so-called “shoe bomber,” Richard Reid, went undetected because it is made with acetone and hydrogen peroxide and not nitrogen, which all conventional airport detectors are designed to spot.
TATP is made by mixing into a compound hydrogen peroxide, bought in disinfectant form at the neighborhood pharmacy, acetone commonly found in paint thinners and the addition of an acid catalyst.
Tal Hanan, security expert and CEO of Demoman International Ltd., notes that TATP is hardly military grade. An unlucky tap or nearby cigarette can set it off, leading to fatal “work accidents” among terrorists and explosive ordinance disposal officers alike. Outside of Israel and the territories, the peroxide-based explosive is used — if at all — only as a detonator, and not the main charge, like in the hollowed out heel of “shoe bomber” Richard Reid.
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Related Diaries/Comments @BooMan and European Tribune by Oui
{Updated}
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~ Comment originally posted Monday July 11th ~
Madrid bombing will be model for this attack on London IMHO. Home grown terror organization with International – European leadership. Link to Al-Qaeda Ayman al-Zawahiri – see diary.
Crucial to find out forensic evidence on explosives, detonators and timing device. This is what was uncovered very quickly in Spain, and is an indication whether investigation in London is open or another Blair white-wash.
Which foreign forensic units are supporting Scotland Yard and who leads the investigation?
Of course, UK parliament should take initiative and start an inquiry to the role of Tony Blair and the Iraq war blowback asap. Needs to put pressure on the Blair failures.
No indication of any RIRA link in explosives.
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Oui – doesn’t make much sense that they didn’t know, or that bombs were triggered by third party. If remotely detonated (and 3 bombs were more or less simultaneously detonated) – the remote person would have no knowledge of where the 4 bombers were. The bus bomber would have blown at the same time – wherever he was. It didn’t happen.
The bus bomber was not able to join his presumed Northern Line target because service on that line had been temporarily suspended. He didn’t know what to do.
It is just possible that the bombers had no knowledge of what they were activating in their rucksacks, or the power of it – but it does strain credulity.
The explosive-type question is more interesting and presumably why UK police are persuing an Egyptian chemistry graduate with known connections who disappeared from his flat a week before the bombings.
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In Madrid, breakthrough in forensics came when a backpack was found where timer was erroneously set for detonation – AM/PM switched as I recall.
Therefore these bomb packs would be watched by third parties. There are different timing methods for detonation. I will assume when the four met in front of King’s Cross station, let’s say at 08:30am, their mobile phone timers were triggered for a 20 minutes delay – to the detonation at 08:50am.
The fourth bomb pack obviously didn’t detonate, could even have been known by the terror cell following the breaking news stories. As final detonation, the 4th bomb carrier’s mobile phone was dialed to set off the bus explosion.
Hearing of the other explosions, I too would become nervous carrying a backpack of a stranger.
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Sure, except the police have specifically said no timing devices found – so far. And I assume that they have been rigorous in examining every crime scene except for the one in the tunnel which has proved physically demanding and dangerous. Evidence is unlikely to have left what are in effect closed scenes. Personal ID for two of the bombers has been located at the scenes, so I doubt that timing/or receiver devices, or parts thereof, would elude the investigators.
But the actions of Hasib Hussain on the bus may support your theory. He was identified by a passenger who left the bus just before the explosion. The passenger stood next to Hussain and described him as ‘nervously’ bending over several times to put his hand in his rucksack, ‘in the same manner as if taking grapes from a bunch one by one’
But a more obvious explanation would be that, having been ‘programmed’ to a target that was not available (train cancellation), he had to think for himself what to do next. The essence of the way in which young suicide bombers are ‘trained’ is that they should NOT think for themselves – just obey, not question.
Hussain was 18 yrs old. He must have been in great turmoil on that bus. ‘Would I destroy the plan?’ ‘Would I still get to paradise?’ ‘Is a bus an apt target?’ etc etc ‘Shall I do it or not?’
Think how you were when you were 18.
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but wasn’t looking for a short-cut to paradise!
On the contrary … cogito ergo sum
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Sorry, my preference was engineering calculus and physics. First confrontation with chemistry was at college level, I still don’t understand how my classmates survived my lab experiments!
I got a passing grade though, more likely to prevent me from spending any additional time in the lab.
Thanks Page for elaboration on the chemical formula. Apparently well known by terror groups and the anti-terror units in Israel, UK and western world. Who mixed the ingredients? From general available knowledge of Triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, the investigation could NOT point a finger towards Al Qaida!
“Although made with easily obtainable ingredients, the explosive is also very unstable and will explode from contact with a cigarette or an electrical discharge. Keinan noted that Palestinian terrorists have been known to make the explosive in their own apartment buildings.”
BREAKING NEWS –
ARREST IN EGYPT OF MISSING CHEMISTRY TEACHER
PS I was in Amsterdam yesterday at my friend’s place: Brasserie De Joffers.
Best American hamburger in town – code word for conversation: City of Creve Coeur Missouri.
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If that’s the owner with the big droopy moustache, then I know him too. Say hello from the Bonk Business people!
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As long as big droopy moustache belongs to Hans, I surely will bring him your greetings.
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Can’t be sure of his name – but a big bear of a man with a ready sense of laidback humour. We met when I was working on an art project in Amsterdam and visited the brasserie several times.
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Hans is single person that fits description with moustache, owner, long gray hairdos.
Recognizable, definitely similar to my humour!
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I always imagined Hans as a gourmet bloodhound
Brunch there next time I’m in Amsterdam?
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~ Conference ~
Must be tax deductable!
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Conference it is.
I’ll let you know. Before end of September according to present schedules.
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Mohammad Sidique Khan:
Aged 30, from Beeston, Leeds, recently moved to Dewsbury, married with baby. ID found at Edgware Road blast site.
Hasib Mir Hussain (confirmed):
Aged 18, lived Holbeck, Leeds. Reported missing on day of bombings. Said to have turned very religious two years ago. ID found in No 30 bus.
Shehzad Tanweer (confirmed): Aged 22, born Bradford, lived Beeston, Leeds. Studied religion in Pakistan. Forensic evidence linking him to Aldgate blast.
Lindsey Germaine: Jamaican-born man who lived in Buckinghamshire.
BBC News – Bomb suspects: Key facts
Interesting to read some articles – especially in Pakistan-Afghanistan relationship pre-9/11 attacks, and Pakistan’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Mohammad Siddique Khan Kanju.
PS YES – foreign to us but very common name in Pakistan. Mohammad – Khan – separated by a single name: Siddique.
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Posted @ Daily Kos by jmmcgowanjm
Peter Powers-BBC5
Netanyahu above it.
Giuliani yards away. What was G doing “yards away”
15th World Conference on Disaster Management.
Rudy’s partner is with Peter Powers here, but not in the recently altered site.
Organizers of the Madrid and Istanbul bombings are believed to be in Iraq, well beyond the reach of Western security services. Now isn’t that convenient. I wonder if the police informants responsible for setting up the Madrid bombings are also in Iraq.
Experts say that it is unlikely that the three Leeds men would have known initially that this was a suicide operation.
No kidding, especially since one of the supposed suicide bombers, Mohammed Sidique Khan, was a father of an 8-month-old girl and worked with disabled children–not exactly the profile of a suicide bomber. If Khan was a fanatical Muslim, he sure didn’t act like one. “Imran Zaman [a neighbor], said he had never seen Khan at the local mosque,” the Associated Press explains
by jmmcgowanjm on Fri Jul 15th, 2005 at 02:27:52 PDT
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that the bombers didn’t know about their mission. Why? After hearing about their lives…it just didn’t add up.
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“The Pakistan security agencies have picked up four people … but we were not involved in this operation,” a Faisalabad police official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
One of the groups being checked is Jaish-e-Mohammad (Army of Mohammad), linked to al Qaeda and banned by Pakistan in 2002. The other group is Lashkar-e-Taiba, which like Jaish has a record of fighting in Indian Kashmir, but unlike Jaish has a reputation for tight discipline and is not known to have any operational ties with al Qaeda.
One Pakistani intelligence source said Tanweer visited Pakistan in 2003 and 2004.
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