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24. juli 2005
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The police may have found the first direct connection between the first and second group of London bombers.
Links have been uncovered between the two teams of bombers who have brought terror to the streets of London over the past two weeks, say security sources.
Police now believe some of the men they are pursuing for last week's abortive attacks - on Shepherd's Bush, Oval and Warren Street tube stations and on a No 26 bus in Hackney - attended a whitewater rafting trip at the same centre as two of the 7 July bombers, Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer.
This raises the distinct possibility that the two operations were connected as part of a larger plan to bring carnage to the capital.
Evidence discovered in the rucksacks left behind by the failed bombers led police to three addresses in London. When investigators cross-referenced them with the electoral register they discovered names that tallied with those of individuals who attended the outdoor adventure course in Snowdonia last summer.
Scotland Yard has con-firmed the explosive used in the 21 July bomb attempts bore a similarity to that used in the earlier attacks. Initial tests on a package found in bushes in Little Wormwood Scrubs, north-west London, yesterday show it may contain the same explosive.
The Observer understands that investigators are examining the possibility that the trip to Bala in North Wales was used as a bonding experience. One line of inquiry being pursued is whether a cleric was responsible for organising the trip to bring the two cells together.
Social bonding for wanna-be suicide bombers. Salafi-terrorism is an almost bizarre mix of medieval thuggery and modern corporate management practices.
11:21:13 PM 
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The naive image of al-Qaeda as a worldwide spider's web of terrorists, where every atrocity follows direct, detailed orders passed down from Bin Laden's secret cave, has taken a beating lately. Those who want to see themselves as sophistiated analysts of terrorism seem to go to the opposite extreme these days: all-but denying that al-Qaeda exists as anything but a remote inspirational group.
Dan Darling takes issue with this new naive paradigm (oh, how I hate that word) of terrorism.
For sure, the attacks in London and Egypt over the past weeks should give pause to those who want to blame the atrocities on the Angry Arab Street (or British-Muslim street, as it may be). The carefully coordinated attacks require a level of sophistication, technical expertise and organisation well beyond angry, disgruntled young men.
I suspect that one could add more than a few attacks onto that list, but the point is that all of these sophisticated, well-planned terrorist attack do not just emerge via spontaneous generation. Nor are these simply the reactionary by-products of Muslim rage over Iraq as some have sought to paint them out as - like I said, these groups do not just appear out of thin air. The London bombers may well have been pissed over Iraq, but they would never have exploded if not for all the help from the Lashkar-e-Taiba infrastructure and training facilities that exist throughout Pakistan. TATP might well be easy to make, but somebody still taught the Leeds cell how to do it and convinced them that there'd be seventy virgins waiting for them if they killed a few dozen Britons. Most of all, somebody, in this case Haroon Rashid Aswat and his superiors, was giving the Leeds cell guidance and direction as far as what it was they blew up.
It looks like it will be a hot summer.
8:26:11 PM
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Following the tragic death of Jean Charles de Menezes in London, a debate rages in Britain over the police so-called "shoot to kill" policy.
The story of Natan Sandanka tells us that for police officers in the front line against terrorists, there is no possibility for erring on the side of caution. Natan Sandaka, an immigrant from Ethiopia to Israel, was a border policeman. In September 2001 he encountered a man he strongly suspected to be a suicide bomber.
Despite his suspicions, Natan did not fire at the man. He wasn’t absolutely certain he was a bomber, and didn’t want to shoot an innocent accidentally. Natan followed the man for a bit as the suspect seemed to be trying to get away. Then the man stopped, turned around, smiled a faint smile and . . .
Natan took the brunt of the blast. He said he saw himself lying on the street covered in blood, unable to get up. He was conscious for about 20 seconds and thought that he would die. Before he blacked out, he wanted to make sure that his partner was okay.
The doctors didn’t think that Natan would recover. He suffered from burns over half his body in addition to a punctured lung. For two weeks he was in a coma. The people of Israel followed his story as he lay in the hospital for several months until, miraculously, he was able to leave on his own.
The authorities later learned that the bomber whom Natan had intercepted had a partner. When the partner was arrested, he said that the pair were supposed to blow themselves in the nursery of Bikur Cholim Hospital. Israeli authorities then apprehended a ring or terrorists who were to target schools. The actions of Natan and Guy thus prevented a series of cold-blooded assault on babies and children.
The new threat to the country puts British police into the almost impossible situation their colleagues in Israel have known for many years. There are no easy answers, and should be room for no simplistic condemnations.
6:29:59 PM
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The British isles have been invaded by Saxons, Romans, Vikings and Normans, but these invaders have left a surprisingly small footprint on the genetic makeup of the Brits.
In The Tribes of Britain, archaeologist David Miles says around 80 percent of the genetic characteristics of most white Britons have been passed down from a few thousand Ice Age hunters.
Miles, research fellow at the Institute of Archaeology in Oxford, England, says recent genetic and archaeological evidence puts a new perspective on the history of the British people.
"There's been a lot of arguing over the last ten years, but it's now more or less agreed that about 80 percent of Britons' genes come from hunter-gatherers who came in immediately after the Ice Age," Miles said.
And, when you witness Brits binge drinking in Spain, or attending a football game, you realise the behaviour hasn't changed that much either.
Hat tip and apologies for bad joke to A Welsh View, who has a great roundup of amusing news.
5:16:35 AM
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A YouGov poll of British Muslims, reported in the Telegraph, provides some good and some quite bad news about their attitudes to extremism and the society they live in.
The great majority of British Muslims are loyal and law-abiding, but the minority with extremist leanings or sympathies are certainly large enough to give rooms for grave concern (as Kofi Annan would have put it).
YouGov sought to gauge the character of the Muslim community's response to the events of July 7. As the figures in the chart show, 88 per cent of British Muslims clearly have no intention of trying to justify the bus and Tube murders.
However, six per cent insist that the bombings were, on the contrary, fully justified.
Six per cent may seem a small proportion but in absolute numbers it amounts to about 100,000 individuals who, if not prepared to carry out terrorist acts, are ready to support those who do.
Moreover, the proportion of YouGov's respondents who, while not condoning the London attacks, have some sympathy with the feelings and motives of those who carried them out is considerably larger - 24 per cent.
A substantial majority, 56 per cent, say that, whether or not they sympathise with the bombers, they can at least understand why some people might want to behave in this way.
YouGov also asked whether or not its Muslim respondents agreed or disagreed with Tony Blair's description of the ideas and ideology of the London bombers as "perverted and poisonous".
Again, while a large majority, 58 per cent, agree with him, a substantial minority, 26 per cent, are reluctant to be so dismissive.
While 46 percent consider themselves "very loyal" as many as 18 percent has little or no loyalty to the UK. That is over 300,000 British Muslims.
As much as 32 percent believes that "Western society is decadent and immoral and that Muslims should seek to bring it to an end". Only 1 percent, however, would be willing to use violence to end it, but that would be around 16,000 people.
As the figures in the chart show, almost three quarters of British Mulsims [sic], 73 per cent, say they would inform the police if they believed that someone they knew or knew of might be planning a terrorist attack.
Nearly half, 47 per cent, say they would also go to the police if they believed an imam or other religious person was trying to radicalise young Muslims by preaching hatred against the West.
Not only that but 70 per cent of Muslims reckon they have a duty to go to the police if they "see something in the community that makes them feel suspicious".
I don't think these numbers are very different in other European countries. We have a problem.
PS: This is a poll with a quite small sample, only 526 people, giving a margin of error higher than 4 percentage points and even more at the smaller fringes. However, there may be a more significant problem here. Isn't it reasonable to expect that the most extreme Islamists, living in a world of paranoid conspiracy theories, would be very reluctant to be honest about their opinions to a stranger calling them? Wouldn't that mean that the reality could be even worse?
4:26:26 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 30.07.2005; 02:58:47.
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