Posted on 07/14/2005 3:49:50 PM PDT by WmShirerAdmirer
LONDON - British and FBI officials investigating the London terror attacks focused Thursday on an Egyptian-born chemist who studied in the United States and an 18-year-old Briton of Pakistani descent believed to have set off the bomb aboard a red double-decker bus.
Security forces in camouflage searched the Beeston area of the northern city of Leeds as police tried to crack the network thought to have given the dead suspects planning, logistical and bomb-making support.
"We don't know if there is a fifth man, or a sixth man, a seventh man, or an eighth man," London's Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair told foreign journalists.
British authorities were seeking a Pakistani Briton with possible ties to al-Qaida followers in the United States, news reports said. They said he may have organized the attacks and chosen the targets, leaving Britain the day before the July 7 bombings.
"Al-Qaida is not an organization. Al-Qaida is a way of working ... but this has the hallmarks of that approach," Blair said of the attacks, which killed 53 people, including four bombers. "Al-Qaida clearly has the ability to provide training ... to provide expertise ... and I think that is what has occurred here."
FBI agents in Raleigh, N.C., joined the search for the chemist, Magdy Asi el-Nashar, a 33-year-old former North Carolina State University graduate student. The doors were locked Thursday at the building at Leeds University where he recently taught chemistry.
And in a further international development in the inquiry, Jamaica's government said it was investigating a Jamaican-born Briton as one of the bombers.
Britain paid tribute Thursday to those killed in the attacks with two minutes of silence. Office workers spilled out into the streets, construction crews put down their tools and held hard hats in their hands and London's famous black cabs pulled to the side of the road.
Queen Elizabeth II stood motionless outside Buckingham Palace and a crowd, many wiping away tears and bowing their heads, filled Trafalgar Square.
Trafalgar is about 1 1/2 miles from Tavistock Square, where Hasib Hussain, 18, allegedly set off the bomb that killed 13 people aboard the bus. That blast occurred nearly an hour after three London Underground trains blew up, and investigators don't yet know what Hussain did during that hour or when he boarded the bus.
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 television image showing him wearing a large camping-style backpack as he strode through a train station in Luton, outside London, about 2 1/2 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.
A separate photo of his face showed him with a beard, looking straight ahead.
"Did you see this man at King's Cross?" Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch, asked in a televised appeal. "Was he alone or with others? Do you know the route he took from (King's Cross) station? Did you see him get on to a No. 30 bus?
The young men traveled together from Luton to King's Cross just before the blasts, police said.
Police officially identified two of the suicide bombers Thursday, Hussain and Shahzad Tanweer, 22, whom they say attacked a subway train between Liverpool Street and Aldgate stations.
Both were Britons of Pakistani descent, as was Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, identified by the media as one of the bombers. Reports say the fourth attacker was Jamaican-born Briton Lindsey Germaine.
Jamaican Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Wilton Dyer said officials were waiting for Britain to confirm the identity of the suspect before they could help in identifying his possible origins in Jamaica. "They (British officials) say they are not in a position to identify this man, they need more forensics," Dyer told The Associated Press.
Blair said finding those who planned the attack "is the absolute focus of the current investigation." An outside mastermind may have recruited the four bombers, provided explosives, helped build the bombs or given other logistical support.
The Times of London said investigators believe a Pakistani Briton in his 30s with possible links to al-Qaida may have orchestrated the attacks. They believe he arrived in Britain last month and left just ahead of the bombings, the newspaper said.
It reported that the man, whom it did not identify, was thought to have chosen the targets. There has been speculation that the bombers intended to hit four subway trains, but that Hussain got on the bus instead because one Underground lined had been halted by mechanical problems.
The Times said detectives also want to locate el-Nashar, who was thought to have rented one of the homes police searched in Leeds in a series of raids Tuesday. Neighbors reported el-Nashar recently left Britain, saying he had a visa problem, the newspaper said.
North Carolina State University spokesman Keith Nichols said a person named el-Nashar studied there as a graduate student in chemical engineering for a semester beginning in January 2000.
Peter Kilpatrick, the head of NCSU's chemical engineering department, said he handed over all his files on el-Nashar to FBI agents Thursday.
Members of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in Raleigh were working on the case, said Michael Saylor, who heads the Raleigh FBI office. He referred other questions to FBI headquarters in Washington, which declined comment.
While authorities searched for the chemist and the Pakistani Briton, British police were questioning a 29-year-old man they arrested in the Leeds raids. Britain's Press Association news agency has identified him as a relative of a suspected bomber.
Two of the attackers had brushes with the police before the bombings, and one had been linked loosely to another terror plot, news reports said.
Tanweer was reportedly arrested once for shoplifting, and Hussain had been questioned for disorderly behavior.
The Independent newspaper, citing police sources, said one suspect — it did not say which — had been linked loosely to a plot to build a large bomb near London. It said police described the link as a low-level "association."
That appeared to be a reference to a ring cracked in March 2004, when eight men were arrested across southern England in an operation that led to the seizure of half a ton of ammonium nitrate, a chemical fertilizer used in many bombings.
Counterterrorism officials have looked at whether the bombers in last week's attacks used plastic explosives, said one official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Among those considered, the official said, is a compound called TATP, or triacetone triperoxide.
In 2001, Richard Reid used an improvised shoe bomb rigged with TATP, which is difficult for bomb-sniffing dogs to detect, when he tried to board an airplane and blow it up over the Atlantic.
TATP is a highly unstable explosive made from commercially available chemicals such as acid, acetone and peroxide. Plastics are a broad category of explosives, some with military or commercial uses. TATP, however, is considered too unstable for such purposes.
___
Associated Press writers Stevenson Jacobs in Kingston, Jamaica, Emery P. Dalesio in Raleigh, N.C., Thomas Wagner in Leeds, England and Katherine Shrader in Washington contributed to this report.
Islam isn't a race. Blacks can be every bit as Anglicized as the typical Brit or American. You're just dodging the facts: the UK (and the United States) invited too many Muslims into the country, and the enemy is now inside the gates. It's not about race, it's about culture.
Are you blind or stupid? I just told you that Nick Griffin even stood for Parliament. There are BNP councillors in Burnley. The organisation is not banned at present.
I think you need to examine your assumptions about freedom of speech. You might want to rethink your firearms laws.
I am not interested in being lectured in law by someone who thinks disturbing the peace is acceptable so long as you're forming an anti-Muslim lynch mob.
And yes, I'm serious about deporting people. The current American president isn't willing to deport illegal Hispanic immigrants let alone Islamists. The American continent is clogged with devout Muslim immigrants and converts.
Name one Represenative, Senator, or Governor who agrees with your position. If you can't name one, then there is no reason to mistake your desire for mass Muslim deportation as a serious policy option. Just because you think something doesn't make it relevant or important.
The camps will come, just maybe not this month. They'll come to the UK. You'll be begging for them before this is over. And you'll no doubt be in violation of the same hate speech laws that make you so proud today.
As pointed out, there are "hate speech" laws already in every country. It's called disturbing the peace and incitement to a riot - both are offenses in America and Britain.
But please do feel free to form an anti-Muslim mob in your home town. When the police come and throw you in either prison or the loony bin, we'll have a good laugh about it back here on FR.
Ivan
By the way, I just showed you the BNP doesn't have "strong opinions". They're opportunists and traitors. Nick Griffin is an actual traitor to this country for seeking aid from Libya and supporting Iran. If you really think that they are the answer to the problems facing the UK, you are a totally brain dead moron.
Ivan
But now he's facing charges for what he said, among friends. I've read the stories. I know what he's up against. I could be charged in the UK for what I've said right here, and you know it. "Disturbing the peace" does not apply to someone demanding reprisals against an internal enemy that has proven itself to be deadly again and again. No matter how much you dislike what someone is saying, simple speech is not disturbing the peace. That's some twisted vestige of empire, no doubt.
Name one Represenative, Senator, or Governor who agrees with your position.
Are you kidding? Why don't you ask me about the people? The politicians are afraid of their own shadows. The common citizens are starting to talk internment and deportation, especially after 7/7. The next attacks could kill hundreds of thousands, in case you're not thinking this through carefully.
It's called disturbing the peace and incitement to a riot - both are offenses in America and Britain.
Nonsense, there are no federal laws against speaking one's mind about race and religion in this country. In fact, it's constitutionally protected speech, no matter how unpopular it is. You're living in the dusty afterglow of empire over there in the UK and you actually think that people's throats are the property of the state. It's not true.
When the police come and throw you in either prison or the loony bin, we'll have a good laugh about it back here on FR.
I think you're just not ready to face the deadly facts of this situation. You've swung over from being a trendy "goth" who supported the Iraq war (what was the point, if not to win the world war?) and even got angry about the 7/7 attacks -- to someone who can't see that it's a civilizational war we're fighting.
But "Mad" Ivan, I like you. You're funny, and you're loyal, and you're a Brit of some kind apparently. I even think it's good that you came back after some tiff you had with who knows who on FR. Please, keep speaking your mind. When the nuke goes off in one of the other cities in the UK, please come and let us know how you and your family are doing.
It's interesting you've aligned yourself with the British since 7/7 and yet none of them appears to want you. Hopefully, you'll toddle back to Ohio. You'll be safe there.
I didn't say that I supported the BNP. You keep thinking that free speech is only for those with whom your disagreements aren't serious enough. That's not how free speech works.
Clearly you're not the only "Brit" in England, if you're even a Brit.
If you're inciting a riot, which Nick Griffin has the power to do, it's not like if your Joe Q. Average. Try again.
Are you kidding? Why don't you ask me about the people? The politicians are afraid of their own shadows. The common citizens are starting to talk internment and deportation, especially after 7/7. The next attacks could kill hundreds of thousands, in case you're not thinking this through carefully.
So in other words there are no politicians who agree with your position and thus no one who will execute on it. So the whole mass deportation idea is just a political wet dream on your part. Next.
Nonsense, there are no federal laws against speaking one's mind about race and religion in this country.
Ah ha, no "federal" laws. There are state laws, and secondly, Nick Griffin, again, was not Joe Q. Average - he could actually execute on a riot.
I think you're just not ready to face the deadly facts of this situation. You've swung over from being a trendy "goth" who supported the Iraq war (what was the point, if not to win the world war?) and even got angry about the 7/7 attacks -- to someone who can't see that it's a civilizational war we're fighting.
I haven't changed one bit. You're just some wanker who thinks the BNP is bloody wonderful, in spite of what I've shown you. If I had my way, Winston would have had them killed during World War II - they were traitors then, and traitors now, and traitors deserve the rope - whether they're Nazis or Islamists. From my perspective, you're intellectually fellating people who do not have my country's interests at heart and to no good end.
But "Mad" Ivan, I like you. You're funny, and you're loyal, and you're a Brit of some kind apparently. I even think it's good that you came back after some tiff you had with who knows who on FR. Please, keep speaking your mind. When the nuke goes off in one of the other cities in the UK, please come and let us know how you and your family are doing.
I don't like anyone who supports the BNP, Al Qaeda, the Communist Party, etc. Your support for the BNP puts you in my books with say, George Galloway and Osama. And Nick Griffin.
Ivan
There's only one eye in Ohio.
So Griffy was inciting a riot among friends? And a state-owned media informer just happened to record his private conversation? You're an incredible hypocrite if you think there's nothing wrong with that picture, no matter what you think of Griffy.
And it's revealing how little you regard the people's opinions about internment camps -- something Michelle Malkin supports, and other conservative thinkers in America. You're only interested in what your precious Bush-Blair team would approve. They'll be out of office soon enough, and others will take their place. But you can wait for the nukes in your cities? I'm amazed at your stiff upper lip.
It's funny that you think I'm a BNP supporter. I read the text of your Commons-passed Race and Religious Hate law. That was enough. What hypocrisy. This is seriously going to cost you in the UK. I'd think 7/7 would have woken you up, but from talking with you and the other two "Brits" on this thread, it's really not clear that anything changed at all. You're going to get a serious WMD attack on your own soil, and it could have been stopped. Instead you were chasing unruly Neonazis.
Their leads might take them to any pathological con-man who utters the word "infidel" or "vast right-wing conspiracy"
I apologise for the MTV link, but it looks like they might have arrested the guy and this was one of the more detailed stories: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1505791/20050715/index.jhtml?headlines=true
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=68658 - enzyme immobilization, with reference links (we trust these people to study this stuff in the west, why?)
Khalid Shake Mohammed, the grubby mohammadman in a T shirt, Osama's right hand man, was educated at North Carolina A&T, wasn't he? What's with North Carolina? General Lee never said "Allah" bless North Carolina.
It's an outrage that these enemies of the west are encamped right on that hallowed ground.
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