Report into London bombings cites Al-Qaeda link

Yahoo News (from AFP) ^ | 5/11/06 | Deborah Haynes

[Enchante]

LONDON (AFP) - Two of the suicide bombers behind last year's deadly London transport attacks likely had contacts with Al-Qaeda, but British security lacked resources to stop the atrocity, an official report has concluded.

The report, by an influential parliamentary committee, cleared intelligence services of any culpable failings in preventing the four bombers carrying out Britain's worst terror attack, which killed them and 52 other people.

In the first full account of the events before and after the July 7 blasts, the document said Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, and Shehzad Tanweer, 22 -- two of the bombers -- had appeared only vaguely on Britain's intelligence radar.

They were considered peripheral figures at the time and were not pursued, with agents pre-occupied with "more pressing priorities", the report found.

Afterwards, it emerged they had been to Pakistan. Khan visited in 2003 and again, this time with Tanweer, between November 2004 and February 2005.

"It has not yet been established who they met in Pakistan, but it is assessed as likely that they had some contact with Al-Qaeda figures," the 44-page report by the Intelligence and Security Committee said.

The two men, whose identities were only established after July 7, probably received "operational training" there, it said.

Nevertheless, the committee's chairman Paul Murphy said the intelligence services were not to blame.

"There was no evidence that these two men were involved in attack planning against this country," he told a press conference.

"There was no culpable evidence of failure on the part of the agencies.

"Our view is that it was understandable that the leads were not taken any further. Things may have been different -- but they may not have been."

He and other committee members denied criticism that the report amounted to a whitewash.

The report emphasised that investigations were underway to establish the precise degree of any Al-Qaeda involvement.

Khan and Tanweer, along with Hasib Hussain, 18, and Germaine Lindsay, 19, blew up three London Underground trains and a double-decker bus during the morning rush hour by detonating bombs packed into rucksacks.

The report identified lack of resources available to the security agencies, mainly Britain's domestic spy service MI5, to tackle the terror threat.

"The story of what was known about the 7 July group prior to July indicates that if more resources had been in place sooner the chances of preventing the July attacks could have increased," the text said.

"Greater coverage in Pakistan, or more resources generally in the UK, might have alerted the agencies to the intentional of the July 7 group."

At the same time, the committee dismissed theories which circulated after the attacks of a fifth bomber or "mastermind" who may have subsequently fled the country.

It also said the intelligence agencies found "no evidence" of direct links between the July 7 attacks and a botched attempt apparently to replicate the bombings two weeks later on July 21.

The British government was due to give its own narrative of the attacks in a separate report later Thursday.

The two reports were launched last year after the government ruled out a public inquiry into the attacks despite the demands from families of those who died as well as the more than 700 who were injured.

"I will do whatever I can to campaign for a public inquiry," insisted Paul Dadge, who was famously pictured leading a woman to safety after one of the Underground train blasts.

Some of the victims rejected the suggestion that a lack of resources was to blame.

Diana Gorodi, whose sister, Michelle Otto, died, said: "If we can afford a war in Iraq, surely we can afford to get protected in England."

The report also looked at the radicalisation of British citizens. Three of the bombers -- Khan, Tanweer and Hussain -- were British-born Muslims, while Lindsay originally came from Jamaica.

[Enchante]

ISLAMOFASCISM ALERT!!! London July 7 bombers DID have Al Qaeda and Pakistan connection, contrary to previously published reports.

[Enchante]

It's well worth keeping in mind now as the mindless attacks on the NSA and the Bush WH continue.... yes, Virginia, there IS a terrorist threat..... there ARE many depraved and deadly terrorists out there, and they do not usually announce their intentions individually so we can round them up before they slaughter people. The very reasonable NSA programs that have been described are exactly what I would expect a prudent government to be doing to try to find out who is involved with terrorists, who is talking to bad people in Pakistan, etc.

[Marine_Uncle]

"The very reasonable NSA programs that have been described are exactly what I would expect a prudent government to be doing to try to find out who is involved with terrorists, who is talking to bad people in Pakistan, etc."
I second that. Damn fools on the hill and elsewhere feel to comfortable. They figure they are safe, so the hell with the rest of the country. A truck laden with explosives would not harm anyone in the capital. So they stay dumb and political.
And there is absolutely no excuse for anyone to not fully understand at this point that NSA was doing stuff no differently during the clintoon years,and prior to that. Doesn't anyone remember alphabet L/MSM documentaries years back that addressed these things, before GWB became POTUS.

[RS]

?

Are we supposed to feel better now, that is was not just a random terorist uprising ...

Or worse because Al-Queda had a role in it ?

[Grampa Dave]

We would have lost WWII. If today's elite limo driven liberal rats had been around during WWII and treated FDR like they have GW, when FDR did what he did to preserve our secrets and to crack the secrets of the enemy.

Or FDR would have rounded up all of the left wing mediots, DemonicRats and other Anti America whiners and put them into camps until WWII was over.

FDR would probably have had many tried for treason and hanged for treason.

[Enchante]

re: better or worse

What I find significant is the international/Pak and Al Qaeda aspect which suggests that home-grown terrorists can easily hook up with outside resources for training, etc. If it were purely 'local' in origin, as was being claimed a few weeks ago, it would still be just as dangerous. However, the international dimension suggests again how crucial it is to be able to break into the loose networks that have taken budding jihadists to Pak, etc. to continue their 'education'......

[Enchante]

Agreed, we are in serious danger of losing the political will to win. I think around 1/2 the US population has a pretty good idea of what needs to be done, then the fanatical 20% on the left dispirits the wavering 30% and makes them think "wow, if all the MSM headlines are saying that Bush is so bad and we should just surrender now, then maybe they are right." I agree that we could never have prevailed in WWII with the weasels who are making the most noise now.....

Interesting display of top 2 story headlines on Google news:

http://media.nationalreview.com/

[RS]

Actually, that makes it better.

Seeing how easy is is to hook up, yet events like this are exceeding rare, shows just how little power Al-Queda has to influence things beyond it's immediate control.

[the Real fifi]

Exactly so==NSA or bombings here..take your choice.

[Canard]

"London July 7 bombers DID have Al Qaeda and Pakistan connection, contrary to previously published reports."

Actually this report is saying pretty much exactly the same as previously published ones. It just depends what headline is chosen for the story.

[backhoe]

Re, the No Such Agency? This just in from the blogosphere:

http://www.powerlineblog.com/

NSA Accused of Protecting U.S. From Terrorists

Liberals are jumping up and down about USA Today's publication of another leak relating to the National Security Agency.  Michelle Malkin has a good roundup of reaction to the story. I'd add just a few comments...it's interesting to juxtapose the NSA stories--this one plus the Agency's international terrorist surveillance program--with this account of a report earlier today by Britain's Intelligence and Security Committee on the subway bombings in London last July:  link: 252 comments

 

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2006/05/nsa_its_the_int.html

NSA: It's the Intel Stupid!

I received the following from a retired spook;

I am SO SICK of hearing about the NSA!!  I worked for the NSA for 20 years as a Naval Cryptologist (1981-2001), and I worked at NSA for over 3 years!  It used to be a super secret agency that no one really knew anything about, and let me tell you - the intell gathered helped keep this country safe FOR DECADES!

  The thing that killed us was what Clinton did! Not being able to share info with the other agencies..

  Now, the f#ckin liberals would rather put us all into GRAVE DANGER because they hate Bush, than keep America's secrets - SECRET. Like an idiot friend said, "why is the govt keeping 9-11 tapes secret?"  I told him - because we don't want the f#ckin terrorists to know what we know!  (about them, their methods, lingo, etc) - but the asshole thinks the gov't is doing it to keep Americans in the dark.  What a d!ck!

For my 20 years, NSA was on the up-and-up and we don't / didn't listen to American's comms!  We collected data against enemy targets!!!!  The enemy is out there and we used to be able to listen to his sh!t, but the libs are ruining it - for political reasons - the A$$HOLES!

Like I said, I'm so mad - the liberals keep giving the enemy our intelligence, that took forever to get, I'm just so mad. SECRET.

Spoken like a true sailor (which I love) and a true America (which I adore and respect.) Thank you soldier.

More bad news for Americans from Stop the ACLU here;

In an attempt to rekindle the scaremongering of the paranoid left, USA today has taken upon itself to "declassify" more classified information about programs aimed at protecting us. Obviously they decided that there wasn't already enough damage done to national security.

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.

"It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA's activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders, this person added.

You must read it all. Jay explains;

It isn't secret anymore, now is it? If you read the entire thing you could easily be left with the impression that the government has gathered all kinds of personal information on you, studied your calling habits, etc. These phone companies went along with the government's request for phone records. These are records that the phone companies keep anyway, that are often called upon in court cases. No one has been listening in on domestic phone calls, they are only collecting a database of what numbers called other numbers.

Since Quest is the only company that refused to work with the government on the matter without a FISA warrant, we should be seeing a mass flocking of the paranoid left over to this company. That might not be such a good idea however. This leak may have just tipped some terrorist to exactly what communications in America are more vulnerable.

 

Posted by Pamela aka "Atlas" on Thursday, May 11, 2006 at 10:26 AM in Democrats, Dhimmicrats, Democraps ........aka The Fifth Column, How the Left Destroys the Nation, LLL Media Bias, World War IV | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (1)

Other london bombing links here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1438409/posts

[CyberAnt]

And your perception of the NSA program is exactly what about 60% of Americans believe it is too.

I believe the WH wants this fight too. It will force the public to learn the real truth about the program instead of the drive-by media's spin.