Just heard someone formerly with the CIA for 20+ years say it's AlQ. He speculated that the blame game would go on by pointing the finger at various other countries/terror groups. It's AlQ and, contrary to what we've been hearing, "Their backs have not been broken". It's either AlQ, he said, or a pretty good imitation.
I don't want to minimize the horror, and the death toll is unfortunately going to go much higher, but this was Great Britain, Al Qaeda's 2nd biggest target, after the US. Yet all they could pull off is a relatively low tech bombing. Sure, it was coordinated with a good bit of effort, but this was the best they could muster and is far, far short of what they've threatened and the danger we feared.
Again, not trying to minimize this horrible attack, but if a Richard Clarke is trying to imply that AQ is back in top form because the WOT/Iraq is misguided and wasting resources, well he is FOS.