~ First Published @ European Tribune ~

Pakistani tribesmen dance as they gather for a tribal meeting at Shakai in South Waziristan, some 300 kilometres south west of Islamabad, where Pakistan has deployed more than 70,000 troops to hunt down hundreds of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
The London bombings have thrown the terror spotlight back on Pakistan, where Islamic militants continue to thrive despite a massive crackdown on Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network.
(AFP/Pool/File/Farooq Naeem)
The British Media as well as London’s Metropolitan Police officials have been using rhetoric to speak of “suicide bombers” and the “Al Qaeda” link because of the TATP explosives. A common household mixture, any chemistry student can attempt to make into an explosive compound.
TATP, or triacetone triperoxide, is a highly unstable explosive made from commercially available chemicals.
Andy Oppenheimer, an explosives expert with Jane’s Information Group, said TATP is strong enough to have caused the damage wreaked by last week’s bombs. But he said making such a highly volatile explosive stable enough to carry out closely synchronized attacks would have required advanced knowledge of chemistry. Police say the three subway blasts happened within a minute.
More to follow below the fold »»
See yesterday’s diary –
Al Qaeda & Richard Reid Link ¶ London Explosives type TATP ¶ Updated!
MOHAMMAD SIDIQUE KHAN -30- from Dewsbury
Mohammad Sidique Khan had lived in the Beeston area of Leeds until recently, when he moved to Lees Holm in Dewsbury. Khan is married, newspapers naming his wife as teacher Hasina Khan, and has a very young daughter.
Mohammad Sidique Khan was
respected by pupils and parents
During its last Ofsted inspection in 2002, the school’s learning assistants had been singled out for special praise in dealing with a transient pupil population from a socially deprived area.
Mohammad Sidique Khan spoke about his work to the Times Educational Supplement at the time. “A lot of [the pupils] have said this is the best school they have been to,” he said.
Am I missing the clues? Radical muslims on a suicide mission leave behind their will or final testament, or carry a letter. The living environment and/or friends indicate radicalism. In Europe the experience with terrorists involved in attacks, have a history with the secret service. Once the first arrests or positive IDs are made the cells are quickly located and eradicated. This has been the case in Italy, France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands.
All I read so far, the four persons involved are ordinary British citizens from the Muslim community, participating in or having a job and even parent with a young family. The evidence so far does not support the assumption four persons knowingly went on a bombing mission.
Teenager Hasib Mir Hussain had been known as a tearaway during his early teens. Newspapers reported how he would start fights with fellow pupils at the Matthew Murray Secondary school in Leeds.
He left school in July 2003 without attaining a single GCSE. Around this time, he was sent to Pakistan to visit relatives. He also went on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, grew a beard and began to wear robes. Despite becoming devoutly religious, he was arrested for shoplifting during 2004.
Hasib Hussain had told his family he was going on a trip to London to visit friends. But when he failed to return on Thursday July 7th, his parents reported him as missing to police.
See yesterday’s diary with photo and information on Hasib Mir Hussain.
SHEHZAD TANWEER -22- from Leeds
Shehzad Tanweer was born in Bradford but lived most of his life in the Beeston area of Leeds – little over half a mile from his friend, Hasib Hussain. According to friends, Tanweer was quiet and very religious but did not express an interest in politics.
Shehzad Tanweer was ‘proud
to be British’ his uncle said
Tanweer was a sports science graduate whose interests included cricket and ju-jitsu. Neighbours described the graduate, who studied at Leeds Metropolitan University, as a “good Muslim”. Others said he was a “nice lad” who could “get on with anyone”.
In 2004, he was arrested for disorderly conduct and cautioned. His father, of Pakistani origin, owns a fish and chip shop near their home on Colwyn Road.
EXCLUSIVE: Indoctrination, Indoctrination, Indoctrination report by The Daily Mirror
Inside the Pakistan school where boys are
saved from life of poverty
The Daily Mail reported Tanweer had been to an Islamic study camp in Pakistan at the start of the year.
Watched by guards brandishing AK-47 rifles, yesterday a reporter visited the crowded Jamia Manzoorul Islamia religious school, known as a madrassa, where he fuelled his radical beliefs.
LINDSEY GERMAINE -19- from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
A Jamaican-born British resident who was a Muslim convert, newspapers reported. He has been living at a house in Northern Road, Aylesbury that police raided on Wednesday night.
Confirmation of his identity may depend on DNA analysis.
Germaine changed his surname to Jamal when he converted to Islam. It is also reported that he was married to a white woman named Samantha, also an Islamic convert, and that the couple had a young son.
Conservative MP for Aylesbury David Liddington said Germaine had attended the local mosque. “From my conversations with members of the Muslim community in the town, though he did go to the local mosque, he was not a regular attender.”
“He wasn’t seen as an integrated part of the Muslim community.”
Jamaican in London attacks had US links
ABC television said Germaine has a pregnant wife in Britain and a mother living in the United States. It quoted US officials as saying Germaine had been in the United States within the past two years and that contacts he made in Ohio and New Jersey are under investigation.
To Make Sense of Terror Is Difficult
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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.
Is there evidence found, that the four Britons left their respective homes with the backpack, or is a third party responsible that delivered the four backpacks with bombs at a meeting place en route to London?
IMO these bomb packs would be watched by a third party. Has forensics found the detonators or a timing mechanism? 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 had been set for a 20 minutes delay – for detonation at 08:50am. The fourth bomb pack obviouslydidn’t detonate, third party could even known this fact by monitoring the breaking news stories on radio and TV.
As final detonation, the 4th bomb carrier’s mobile phone was dialed to set off the bus explosion. Highly volatile mixture TATP just needs a spark for detonation.
Teenager Hasib Mir Hussain -18- had heard of the explosions when he was at King’s Cross station, I too would become nervous carrying a backpack of a stranger.
Comment I received in another diary, explosions weren’t simultaneous – but separated within a 50 seconds interval. Also mentioned mobile traffic was jammed. However I understood, jamming was NOT implemented because of unpredictable consequences for 911 calls and the business community. The mobile communication was obvoiusly blocked due to heavy traffic after to bombings. Also to date I haven’t heard from forensic evidence whether a timer has been found, or that the carriers did detonate the bomb manually in the subway.
Egyptian biochemist Magdy Mahmoud el-Nashar
CAIRO, Egypt July 15, 2005 — A key suspect in the London bombings who was arrested in Cairo has no links to al Qaeda, Egypt’s Interior Minister claims. Habib al Adly said Egyptian citizen Magdy el Nashar, has no connection with Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network. The minister said media reports about Nashar, a chemist who studied at Leeds University, were unfounded and were only “hasty deductions”.
The Interior Ministry issued a statement saying Nashar had denied any involvement in the London bombings. It said he had gone to Britain to study and had lived there since 2000 until now to obtain his doctorate, which he did earlier this year.
In an interview with BBC radio, Blair said the inquiry was focusing on the organizers of the attacks and confirmed police were most interested in the Pakistan connection. Two senior Pakistani intelligence officials said that authorities in that country were looking into a possible connection between Tanweer and two al-Qaida-linked militant groups, and specifically a man arrested for a 2002 attack on a church near the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.
Today, intelligence and school officials said Pakistani authorities questioned several students, teachers and administrators at one of two religious schools — or madrassas — believed visited by Tanweer. Asad Farooq, a spokesman for the Jamia Manzoorul Islam seminary in central Lahore, acknowledged in an interview that intelligence agents had been around, but denied Tanweer had ever been at the school.
An Egyptian government official said el-Nashar was arrested in Cairo after British officials informed Egypt of their interest in him. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was giving information not in the official ministry announcement.
The Egyptian Interior Minister said el-Nashar came to Egypt from London on vacation and had intended to go back to Britain. “He pointed out the press that all his belongings remained in his apartment in Britain.”
In Leeds, authorities searched el-Nashar’s town house in a complex of two-story brown brick apartments. The home was surrounded by blue and white police tape and covered in scaffolding draped in white plastic sheeting. Forensic teams in white coveralls carted out material.
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Indicating where the official investigation stands and in which direction it is pointing.
Early evidence was found too easily, the identification of the four Britons with backpack and the contaminated bathtub of Egyptian chemistry student Magdy Elnashar, simply arrested while on vacation visiting family in Cairo – Egypt
Cairo – Egypt Info US Embassy
It’s all too convenient, without the clear evidence in background and historical links to extreme Muslim fundamentalism.
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In a similar manner that George Bush used every opportunity to exploit the 9/11 attacks on NY and DC, so has Tony Bliar exploited with speeches every opportunity to distract from his horrible failures on foreign policy in Iraq and the Mid-East.
LONDON – Prime Minister Tony Blair warned of the “evil ideology” of Islamic extremists bent on inflicting terror as authorities on three continents widened their investigations into the London terrorist bombings.
In a speech today in central London, Blair said authorities were facing an “evil ideology” in their struggle against Islamic terrorism. “The greatest danger is that we fail to face up to the nature of the threat that we’re dealing with,” he said. “And what we are confronting here is an evil ideology. … It is a battle of ideas, of hearts and of minds, both within Islam and outside it.”
The Madrid multiple bombings was a horrible act of terror, ordered by European leadership of an Al Qaeda affiliate with leadership always moving and found in Italy. The murder of Theo van Gogh, by a single radical Muslim in The Netherlands Mohammed Bouyeri, was involved with the Hofstad Group under leadership of a Syrian Radouan al Issar. This person is now in custody and awaits extradition.
The London attacks is more in line with a reprisal for the UK involvement in Iraq, and the unconditional support by Tony Blair of the neocon policies and the Bush/Cheney regime. The pre-emptive invasion of Iraq is seen by a majority of the world’s Muslims as an attack on the Islam religion. The continued occupation by the US and UK of a Muslim country, is seen as unlawful with horrific killings of tens of thousands of civilians. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people fuels their anger.
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How convenient is right! The story seems odd to me, out of joint or something. And every account I see seems to have some revision as to type of explosive and other details. Thanks for pulling this together.
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Then, about 18 months ago, Hasib Hussain went on the hajj to Saudi Arabia, neighbors said, and returned a changed person, less aggressive and keenly interested in religion. He began going to the mosque. Sometimes, he even wore flowing baggy Pakistani pants and shirt. Hussain too, went to Pakistan, the BBC reported. The adults around him, who had been concerned that he was veering out of control, seemed pleased at the change, neighbors said.
He told his family he was going to London with friends for a few days, but on Thursday evening [earlier reports 10am on July 7 – Ed], when he failed to return home, his mother called the police to report that he was missing. The phone call would help police break open the case.
Mr. Hussain’s driver’s license and bank cash cards were found in the wreckage of the double-decker bus.
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The Pakistani man who is being sought has not been identified. But two investigators said he entered Britain at a port on the English Channel two weeks before the July 7 subway and bus bombings and then left the country the day before the attacks.
The man had been on Britain’s terrorism watch list but was still allowed to enter the country. One of the officials said the suspect is one of several foreign citizens whom investigators are seeking but cautioned against speculation that he had engineered the attacks.
Blair confirmed that the suspect was not placed under surveillance when he came to Britain last month because he was not classified as a high risk. “With this man, there is nothing at the moment that links him directly” to the conspiracy, he said. Other officials said investigators were still trying to determine whether the man had contact with the bombers while he was in the country.
Sept. 2004 – Pakistan’s Most Wanted Terrorists

MSNBC – Police Hunt 5th Man Seen at Luton Station
The hunt for the man who spoke with the bombers began after British intelligence reviewed a surveillance video from Luton rail station north of London and saw the four attackers huddled in conversation with another man on the morning of the bombings, British and U.S. intelligence sources said Friday.
British intelligence has interviewed a witness who was at the station at the time, according to the sources, who could discuss intelligence matters only on condition of anonymity. The witness told authorities that when the conversation among the men ended, the four now identified as the bombers walked away together, while the other, still-unidentified man left alone in the opposite direction and boarded a train.
That’s the question that has stumped world experts
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Provocateurs in Iraq by William Bowles – Oct. 28, 2004
Then in April of 2003 following Colin Powell’s ‘revelations’ about al-Zarqawi at the UN, the headquarters of Ansar-al-Islam was pulverised by repeated missile attacks, under the pretext of it being a centre for the production of chemical and biological weapons. An allegation, subsequently shown to be a complete invention of the US. [1]
In fact, the scope and range of Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi’s operations is pretty impressive for one man. Involving alleged ‘dirty bombs’ in the US (Feb 2003), through to Ricin (also Feb 2003), all manner of horrors including radiation, germs and poison, allegedly to be used before March 31, 2003 in the US (Newsweek, 24 February 2003) that also proved to be a fabrication.
Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi
Al Zarqawi has also been accused of planning attacks using Ricin in Europe including an attack on London Underground in January 2003, that ‘coincided’ with Bush’s visit. Then there’s al-Zarqawi’s alleged involvement in the production of explosives and lethal chemicals for attacks in Spain, once again shown to be inventions.
[1] The Observer, 9 February 2003 and ABC News, 29 March 2003.
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Can we once and for all get rid of this canard that the explosions on the tube could have been set off by phoning a mobile cellphone. There are no signals in the tunnels. The line under the Euston Road is a “cut and cover” construction as is much of the northern part of the Circle Line. (The southern section forms part of the Embankment) It is possible to get signals from the ordinary network near stations or where the tunnel is open like at Edgware Road. The other two bombs were set off below the level that signals could reach, in the case of the one at Kings Cross very deep.
All four bombers were pictured entering Luton railway station from where they caught a “Thameslink” train to King’s Cross. That company’s station is separate from the main station where they caught the tube or walked past to go to Euston to catch a bus going east, retracing the route. No other person else was seen with them after Luton. The “Jamaican” bomber left a relative’s car at Luton and a rental car hired by one of the other three was also found. As there is evidence of the bomb making at Leeds, the most likely scenario is that the construction was in that city and the four rendevoused at Luton. Leaving from there has the benefit of being near an airport so people carrying heavy rucksacks would not cause suspicion.
The rucksacks were heavy as they contained an easily made explosive that is heavier than commerically available or military explosives. The often quoted “under 10 pounds” relates to the high explosive equivalent. If you see the pictures, the four are clearly weighed down by the rucksacks but all played sports and were described as “bodybuilders” in one TV report. This also disposes of the “they tought they were carrying money” theory – the weight was wrong and the combination of volume and weight would represent millions in sterling, dollars or euro.
The question is asked whether a timer has been found. The answer strictly is we do not know as the police have not released the information, presumably for operational reasons. A mention was made that a timer had been found embedded in the remains of one of the bombers but this has not been repeated.
Is there any chance at all the explosives could have been military grade?
The explosives mostly consist of 195 metric tons of HMX and 141 metric tons of RDX – key components in plastic explosives, which have been widely used in car bombings in Iraq.
[High explosives ‘missing in Iraq’. BBC news, Oct ’04].
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“Can we once and for all get rid of this canard that the explosions on the tube could have been set off by phoning a mobile cellphone. There are no signals in the tunnels.”
I have suggested the mobile phone as timer – similar to the Madrid bombs.
The report on private radio station Cadena Ser quoted security sources as saying the components may point to the bomb having been set by an extremist Islamic group such as al Qaeda. The bombs, which blew up on four trains, were in backpacks and activated by mobile telephones that had had their alarms set for 7:39am (01:39am EST) Thursday.
The detonator in the unexploded bomb recovered by police contained a copper detonator whereas the detonators commonly used by ETA are made of aluminum, the report said.
The backpack examined by investigators was picked up from one of the mangled trains and put together with other lost luggage after the blasts. It was later found to contain an unexploded bomb, which police defused, according to the report. The backpack contained 10.2 kg (22 pounds) of Spanish-made plastic explosives and about one kg of screws and nails. The detonator was also Spanish-made.
ERROR – Alarm was set for 7:39pm
“Evidence” of chemicals could have been planted, cannot jump to conclusions. TATP is not evidence it must be AQ, as any terrorist group could mix the household compound. A mastermind knows more at this moment than the investigators, must wait and see what evidence the forensics find and the analysis thereafter.
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Detectives reportedly found nine bombs in a car left at a train station parking lot in Luton, the hometown of Lindsay. They have also reportedly uncovered extremist literature in the Leeds homes and another residence in Aylesbury, northwest of London, and are examining computers seized from those houses.
UK Ministers reject Iraq terror link
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Dublin July 14, 2005 (Irish Examiner) — THE BALKANS were last night being named as the possible source of the explosive material used in the London bombings.
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told the emergency meeting of EU justice ministers in Brussels, that there was strong suspicion the explosives used in the bombings came from the Balkans or Eastern Europe, where it is possible to buy the material on the black market after the Balkan wars.
However, British Home Secretary Charles Clarke said he was bewildered by the comments.
Determining the origin of the explosives is vital and investigators believe one man assembled all four devices. Initial forensic investigations suggest each device used in the attack had less than 10 pounds (4.5kg) of explosive, a quantity small enough to have been hidden in a rucksack.
Traces of military plastic explosive, more deadly and efficient than commercial varieties is understood to have been found in the debris of the wrecked Underground carriages and the bus.
Scotland Yard has asked its counterparts around Europe to check stockpiles at military bases and building sites for missing explosives. Military explosive is hard to detect even by trained sniffer dogs, easy to hide, and stable if smuggled across a European border and then into Britain in a container.
Superintendent Christophe Chaboud, head of the French security service’s Anti-terrorist Co-ordination Unit, said: “The use of military explosives is very worrying. We are more used to seeing home-made explosives, made from chemicals. How did they procure them? Either they were supplied by the underground market, for example from the Balkans, or they benefited from accomplices who removed explosives from a military base.”
After intensive efforts, availability of Semtex [1] used extensively by the Provisional IRA, has dried up. However, there are a number of alternatives, notably C4, which comes in sticks and can be moulded into a shape suitable for a bomb. C4 is a high-quality plastic explosive that has been used by al-Qaida-affiliated terrorists in other attacks.
The explosive is manufactured mainly in the US but there is evidence that military explosives have been bought by terrorist groups from sources in Croatia and elsewhere in the Balkans. Islamic militants are reported to have obtained military explosives from Belgrade in recent years.
USS Cole – attack with C4 explosives
[1] Semtex It is generally believed that the IRA still has at least 2.5 tonnes of Semtex with a shelf life of perhaps another 20 years.
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CAIRO July 19, 2005 (Reuters) — British authorities are sure that an Egyptian biochemist being questioned in Egypt had no role in the London bombings, a state-owned Egyptian newspaper said today, quoting a senior security official.
“There is complete security cooperation with the British side, which is convinced from the questioning carried out by Egypt, that Elnashar had no role in these explosions,” al-Ahram newspaper quoted the security source as saying.
Chemist Has ‘No Links’ With Al Qaeda
Egyptian biochemist Magdy Mahmoud el-Nashar
NEW YORK July 18, 2005 (Reuters) – Britain’s top intelligence and law enforcement officials concluded less than a month before the London bombings that there was no group with current intent and the capability to attack the U.K., the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing a confidential intelligence report.
The Times said authorities made their conclusion in the wake of a terror threat assessment by the Joint Terrorist Analysis Center, which includes officials from Britain’s top intelligence agencies, as well as Customs and the Metropolitan Police.
The assessment, according to the newspaper, prompted the British government to lower its formal threat assessment one level, from “severe defined” to “substantial.” Asked to comment on the document, a senior British official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said according to the newspaper, “We do not discuss intelligence assessments.”
LUTON, England July 18, 2005 (AFP) — In a Muslim district of Luton, where the four suspected London bombers met on the morning of July 7, all agreed the attacks were wrong, but were quick to point to the Iraq war as an explanation for them. Muslims, most of them originally from Bangladesh and Pakistan, make up 14.5 percent of Luton’s 180,000 inhabitants.
Although few people in the neighbourhood voiced extreme views, all had harsh words for US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
“Bush and Blair, they are not caring about the people in Iraq, about the innocent people getting killed,” said Abdul Mohammed, 45, a Sunni Muslim from Bangladesh who settled in Britain 29 years ago. He felt his religion to be under attack by Western powers. “Since the last 10 years, they are trying to control everything all over the world … Islam is attacked: in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Palestine,” argued the father of four.
In Parts -2- and -3- I examined the oddity of four men who were fully integrated in British society with a lot to live for giving up their lives for a suicide bombing run.
In this part, I will examine the strange and inconsistent story of the explosives used.
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Al Jazeera July 20, 2005 — A man widely reported to have been the ‘mastermind’ behind the London attacks by slipping into Britain was an innocent Pakistani who happened to have a similar name to that of someone suspected to be an al-Qaida leader.
The man, in his 30s, was the subject of intense media speculation surrounding his visit to Britain culminating in his flying out of London one day before the attacks. His unmonitored presence in the country led to criticism of MI5.
But according to The Independent the suspect had no role in the attacks.
Inquiries made have led to the discovery that the man was an innocent Pakistani traveller who simply happened to have a name similar to that of an alleged al-Qaida member who is on the watch list of several foreign security agencies.
Innocent ’til Proven Quilty
A similar blunder is also said to have occurred following claims by U.S. intelligence that Germaine Lindsay the alleged bomber who carried out the King’s Cross attack, was on a British watch list. This was because the “fourth” bomber was wrongly identified in the United States as Lindsay Jermaine – someone with a similar name to the suspect.
So far, Scotland Yard is concentrating its efforts on determining the movements of the four bombers from Leeds and Aylesbury, and what explosives they used.
Sniffer dogs are being used on the underground to detect explosives and dozens of other dogs will be deployed throughout the London Underground system and the police may also introduce random checks using metal and bomb detectors on the Underground.
● Captured Al-Qaeda kingpin is case of ‘mistaken identity’
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