al-Qaeda bomb link is confirmed

[whottt]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1694998,00.html


Net widens as al-Qaeda bomb link is confirmed
Daniel McGrory and Michael Evans






THE British-born mastermind of the London attacks had direct links with al-Qaeda, police sources confirmed yesterday.

He is believed to be connected to a senior figure who took part in an al-Qaeda terror summit in Pakistan 16 months ago where a list of future targets was reportedly finalised.

While the police priority is to trace any bombers still at large, intelligence agencies are trying to confirm that al-Qaeda had a hand in the London attack.

Forensic scientists said last night that the explosives used by the London bombers was the same type used by the convicted British shoe-bombers Richard Reid and Saajid Badat. Scientists hope to establish today whether it originated from the same batch.

It was made from ingredients known to be taught to al-Qaeda recruits in Afghanistan training camps and elsewhere, confirming suspicions that the London bombings were the work of al-Qaeda.

It was first suspected that it was the work of a UK radical group that sympathised with Osama bin Laden’s ideas, and the operation had been planned and executed in Europe. That view may now have to refined.

The mastermind, who is of Pakistani origin, is thought to have been trained in an alQaeda camp in Afghanistan and has been linked to previous terror operations.

The authorities were more interested last night in tracking down this alleged mastermind, rather than hold an inquest into how someone on MI5’s watchlist was able to slip in and out of Britain. They also need to know whether he recruited another cell of suicide bombers who are awaiting orders elsewhere in Britain. Whatever his legacy, he followed al-Qaeda’s standard procedure of ensuring that he left Britain before the attacks. He is understood to have flown out of a London airport the night before.

Organisers of the Madrid and Istanbul bombings are believed to be in Iraq, well beyond the reach of Western security services.

As police piece together how this man had spent the past weeks in Britain they are investigating how he first made contact with the men from West Yorkshire. The conjecture is that he could have met at least one of them in Pakistan when they were on religious study in the past year.

Experts say that it is unlikely that the three Leeds men would have known initially that this was a suicide operation.

Investigators are also tracing the mastermind’s alleged links to three major al-Qaeda figures. One of these is said to be in US custody.

Intelligence is being re-examined from the summit held last year in a mountain village in the northwestern province of Waziristan.

A month after he took part in that summit, Mohammed Barbar, a New York computer executive, was arrested near his home in Queens. He admitted to being an “al-Qaeda sleeper”. He had arrived at the summit carrying cash and supplies for jihadis fighting in Afghanistan.

Babar, 29, has betrayed a number of fellow sleepers during his interrogation and the information led to the arrest of 13 people in Britain. The US authorities have charged him with trying to buy materials to make bombs for attacks in the UK. Britain has asked the FBI to question him about the London operation. Another key suspect in US custody, Abu Faraj al-Libbi, was handed over by Pakistan last month. He was described as al-Qaeda’s operational commander, so is expected to know what was discussed at the summit last year. So far he has been unco-operative.

[Nbadan]

London Bombers Tied to Al Qaeda Plot in Pakistan

snip

Connection to Al Qaeda Plot in Pakistan

Officials tell ABC News the London bombers have been connected to an al Qaeda plot planned two years ago in the Pakistani city of Lahore.

The laptop computer of Naeem Noor Khan, a captured al Qaeda leader, contained plans for a coordinated series of attacks on the London subway system, as well as on financial buildings in both New York and Washington.

snip

Security officials tell ABC News they have discovered links between the eldest of the London bombers, Mohammed Sadique Khan, 30, and the original group in Luton. Officials also believe it was not a coincidence the subway bombers all met at the Luton train station last week.

"It is very likely this group was activated last year after the other group was arrested," Debat said.

more...[/URL]

Here's are some snippets of gold:


In the week of July 26, the week of the Democratic National Convention, the Bush administration made a decision to announce a heightened security alert for those buildings in Washington, D.C., and New York City. Tom Ridge made the announcement on Sunday, Aug. 1, and there was then a background briefing for reporters.

The Ridge announcement raised the question of where the information on the surveillance of the buildings had come from. Late Sunday afternoon, Aug. 1, the entire national press corps worked the phones furiously, checking with government officials about where Ridge had gotten his tip. The Boston Globe managed to get through to a CIA analyst, who knew the story of Khan's arrest but refused to give out the specific name.

snip

The point remains that had Ridge not made his announcement, the press would have had no occasion to go searching for the source of his information. The Bush administration decision to go public put a powerful spotlight on the Pakistani arrests of June and July.

snip

The Bush administration at the very least bears indirect responsibility for the outing of Khan. Without the Ridge announcement, reporters would have had no incentive to seek out the name of the source of the information.

more:[URL=http://www.antiwar.com/cole/?articleid=3382]Anti-war (http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/LondonBlasts/story?id=940198&page=1)

[Nbadan]

Here's (http://news.baou.com/main.php?action=recent&rid=20340) another interesting theory...


Does Anyone Really Believe This Horseshit?

British authorities finger patsies within days of bombings, country drinks it up, and it’s like Déjà vu all over again

by Brian Richards

LONDON, ENGLAND -- (OfficialWire) -- 07/14/05 -- Give me a break. Four young men, maybe five though one chap remains a secret at present, simply decided to blow themselves up in support of a cause none of them had ever previously mentioned to their families, friends or anyone who knew them. Does that sound right?

In fact, UK intelligence agencies had never heard of these guys. They, the alleged London bombers, had everything to live for and no motive in becoming suicide bombers. Do you believe that?

Before you sign onto the government's official story, read a recent article by Paul Joseph Watson, How the Government Staged the London Bombings in Ten Easy Steps. The truth will set you free.

Ten Step Method To Staging a Terrorist Attack

1. Hire a Crisis Management firm to set up an exercise that parallels the terrorist attack you are going to carry out. Have them run the exercise at the precise locations and at the very same time as the attack. If at any stage of the attack your Arabs get caught, tell the police it was part of an exercise.

2. Hire four Arabs and tell them they're taking part in an important exercise to help defend London from terrorist attacks. Strap them with rucksacks filled with deadly explosives. Tell the Arabs the rucksacks are dummy explosives and wouldn't harm a fly.

3. Tell four Arabs to meet up at London Underground and disperse, each getting on a different train. Make sure Arabs meet in a location where you can get a good mug shot of them all on CCTV which you can later endlessly repeat to drooling masses on television.

4. While four Arabs are in London, plant explosives in their houses in Leeds. Plant some explosives in one of their cars in Luton for the police to later discover. Remember that Qu'ran and flight manual in the hijackers' car? Ha ha, they fell for that one hook, line and sinker. No need to change tactics on this one.

5. Before the bombings take place, make sure you warn any of your buddies who are scheduled to be anywhere near where the bombs go off. If this gets leaked to the press, just deny it.

6. 4th Arab goes out partying in London night before and ends up getting out of bed late. No worries, the 9/11 'hijackers' did the same thing but that didn't cause us a big problem. 4th Arab catches bus to see if other Arabs are waiting for him. 4th Arab starts hearing about explosions in the London Underground. 4th Arab comes to the realization that this he is being set up and freaks out. 4th Arab starts fiddling in his rucksack. 4th Arab sets bomb off and is blown up.

If you hired any additional Arabs and they also got wind of the set up, make sure there are GPS locators in the rucksacks so you can have police snipers ready to kill them before they can blow the whistle.

7. After the bombs go off, put out a story for over an hour that the explosions are a simple electrical fault. This gives you cover time to make sure the lazy bus Arab is dead and any other hired Arabs who reneged are also dead. Make sure any CCTV footage that doesn't support your official story is either seized or destroyed.

8. A few hours after the bombings, have one of your boys post an 'Al-Qaeda statement' claiming responsibility. Don't worry about the whole 'misreferencing the Qu'ran' thing, these idiots don't have the attention spans to figure it out.

9. After you have made sure that all the Arabs are dead and you are managing the story accordingly, wait for four days until the police piece together the story and find the explosives you planted in Leeds and in the car in Luton. Remember that Qu'ran and flight manual in the hijackers' car? Ha ha, they fell for that one hook, line and sinker. No need to change tactics this time either. The time delay will convince the gullible public that a real investigation is taking place. Create a background of the hired Arabs being militant Muslims. The drooling masses, as was the case with the '9/11 hijackers,' will ignore stories of neighbors saying they were the quiet, educated types who liked children and playing sports.

BBC excerpt: One local resident described him as "a nice lad".

"He liked to play football, he liked to play cricket. I'm shocked."

Another resident said he was just a "normal kid" who played basketball and kicked a ball around.

10. Sit back and enjoy as Blair and his minions grandstand in front of television cameras about staying the course in the war on terror. The pay raise, extra agency funding, and power to strip more freedoms and liberties made the ten easy steps to staging a terrorist attack a worthwhile venture. The dozens of dead people were necessary collateral damage. This is a dirty war, we need to be less moral than the terrorists to defeat them.


And that's how the government staged the bombings in ten easy steps.

Granted, you can interchange different pieces of the puzzle. The bombers could be real terrorists that knew exactly what they were doing. All you would need to do is control the 'mastermind' behind the attack and make sure his boys carried out the job in the way you wanted. Voila.

[whottt]

The first one has a good point(even though that website is a sham)...the second one is ludicrous crap.

But it does tie in with that oft rumored theory that the Brits wanted Hilter to bomb them back in the 40's...to mobilize the population to die proudly.

[Nbadan]

Just some fun, but the profile of the bombing suspects certainly raises some interesting questions...

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2005/07/14/shahzad128.jpg


In his bedroom at the terrace house he shared with his Pakistani parents and three siblings, Shehzad Tanweer proudly displayed the trophies he won at school for athletics. But by his early 20s the British-born Muslim had developed a passion for something else - Islamist extremism.

In the months before he travelled to London to blow himself up on the underground train to Liverpool Street, Tanweer, 22, visited Pakistan to study the Qur'an and Arabic. The rigour of the intensive study seems to have been too tough, however. "He came home after three months because he didn't like the people there," his uncle, Bashir Ahmed, 64, said.

...

Mr Ahmed said the family were devastated by what Shehzad had done. "We are shattered. We are a very close family. We have lived around here for ages. We have lost everything, especially the respect we had in this community.

"He was proud to be British. He had everything to live for. His parents were loving and supportive. They had no financial worries. He was intelligent. He went to university. His plan was to go into sports. The family is shattered. This is a terrible thing. It wasn't him. It must have been forces behind him."

Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/story/0,16132,1528124,00.html)

[Nbadan]

http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,213600,00.jpg

Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, working as a teaching mentor in a classroom at a school in the Beeston area of Leeds

Killer in the classroom

By Daniel McGrory, Michael Evans and Dominic Kennedy


POLICE believe that they have identified the British-born man who masterminded the suicide bomb attacks on London. It also emerged yesterday that one of his recruits was a primary school teaching assistant.

The leader of the terrorist cell is believed to be in his thirties and of Pakistani origin. He arrived at a British port last month and is understood to have left the country the day before four suicide bombers murdered at least 52 people. Security sources believe that he has been involved in previous terrorist operations and has links with al-Qaeda followers in the United States. It is also believed that he visited the bombers in Leeds and identified targets on the Tube.

...

Credit cards were discovered with the bombers’ bodies, and checks on financial dealings over recent months could provide vital information. One security source said: “We are checking if anyone was seen with any of this circle in the weeks up to July 7. The men who orchestrated this attack, obtained the explosive and assembled the devices would have been well away from Leeds and London by the time the bombs exploded.”

...

Khan, the father of a 14-month-old daughter, was a “learning mentor” for children of immigrant families who had just arrived in Britain. Staff described him as gently spoken, endlessly patient, and immensely popular with children who called him their buddy.

More...


She said: "Sidique Khan was a member of staff at Hillside Primary School and he was employed here between March, 2001, and December, 2004, as a learning mentor. He was great with the children and they all loved him. He did so much for them, helping and supporting them and running extra clubs and activities. Sidique was a real asset to the school and always showed 100% commitment. We are extremely shocked and find it hard to understand. He was 100% committed to the school and the children and he worked extremely hard with everyone here."

...

(Khan's) mother-in-law, Farida Patel, lives with her son Arshad in nearby Thornhill Park Avenue, in a house which was also raided by police. She is said to be a highly respected volunteer worker who was once invited to Buckingham Palace. Khan's wife is thought to be involved in education and locals have suggested she was pregnant with their second child. She was last seen on Tuesday morning leaving the house with police. Her husband had not been seen since last week. Neighbour Imran Zaman, described Khan as a "quiet person". He added: "I never knew he had a religious background. I go to the local mosque and have never seen him there."

A neighbour of (Khan's wife), who declined to be named, said Mrs Patel was not very religious. "She's not religious and keeps away from the Muslim community and that's why she chooses to live where she lives. She was the type of woman who if someone said `Women should stay at home', she would get very upset."

Link (http://ichuddersfield.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100localnews/tm_objectid=15735848&method=full&siteid=50060&headline=school-s-shock-at-dewsbury-bomber-name_page.html)

[whottt]

more:
He loved 9/11 at school (http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2004600000-2005320602,00.html)


THIS is bus bomber Hasib Hussain just days before he dropped out of school to devote his life to terror.
The bright lad left without any exams after his mind was turned by extremist preachers.

Classmates got a sinister glimpse of his beliefs when at the age of 14 he CELEBRATED the 9/11 outrage in America.

[JoeChalupa]

That is what makes fighting terrorism so freakin' difficult.
If I remember correctly, ALL the 9/11 terrorists came into the US LEGALLY, not coming across the southern border.
And now the London terrorists seem to all have been Britain citizens?
Makes it so darn hard.

[The Ressurrected One]

Time to lose the mamby pamby political correctness and start profiling and delving into the private lives of ALL Muslims.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Dan,

You're such a dumbass.

When the identities of several of the suicide bombers in Israel were revealed, parents and family members were shocked that it was their "normal acting" loved one, and angered that someone had polluted their minds so bad.

But hey, you've gotta keep pitching your Allah Akhbar bullshit in the name of the demoratic party.