Posted on 01/28/2006 7:34:08 PM PST by NormsRevenge
LONDON (AFP) - British security services have admitted they know almost nothing about why the London bomings happened or if Al-Qaeda was involved, according to a leaked intelligence report in The Sunday Times.
The MI5 internal security service has owned up to "significant gaps" in its knowledge about the July 7, 2005 attacks, the secret report for Prime Minister Tony Blair and senior ministers revealed, the British weekly newspaper said.
According to the report, MI5 said: "We know little about what three of the bombers did in Pakistan, when attack planning began, how and when the attackers were recruited, the extent of any external direction or assistance and the extent and role of any wider network."
The eight-page report by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) admits MI5 does not know whether the July 7 blasts were linked to the July 21 alleged failed repeat attempt -- despite the biggest MI5 and police operation ever mounted.
The July 7 attacks, by four suspected Islamist suicide bombers, killed 52 innocent people on three Underground trains and a bus. Three of the suspects hailed from Leeds in Yorkshire, northern England.
"We do not know how, when and with whom the attack planning originated. And we still do not know what degree of external assistance either group had," said the leaked report, entitled "London Attacks: the Emerging Picture".
"Whilst investigations are progressing, there remain significant gaps in our knowledge."
The Sunday Times said the leak of JTAC secret report, delivered in October is unprecedented.
On possible links to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terror network, the report said: "some AQ associations" were "emerging", but "there is no evidence yet of Al-Qaeda involvement," according to the broadsheet.
The report showed that intelligence services found "growing evidence of a wider extremist network in West Yorkshire associated with the 7/7 bombers.
"There are indications that associates of the four may have visited the Leeds property to make the explosives for the 7 July attacks, suggesting that a wider network may have been involved.
The leaked report said the attacks were "likely" to have been supported by Al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan.
In May and June 2005, "there were repeated phone calls from public telephone boxes in Pakistan to mobile telephones recovered at a 'bomb factory' in Leeds."
The gang's contact in Pakistan was "likely to have been providing support, and/or direction."
The JTAC report said: "The last few weeks have seen few significant developments... and we are not that much further on in our assessment."
Sources told The Sunday Times that the situation has changed little since it was delivered.
Blair's Downing Street office declined to comment.
Deliberately leaked...to confuse the enemy?
Who has the most to win if the current British and USA leadership is discredited?
they had better start listening in on some phone calls - fast.
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