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Junk
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Some other considerations providing the source is somewhat accurate.
Fri July 8, 2005 www.torontosun.com
Quote:
Explosive answers
By MARK BONOKOSKI
LONDON -- Despite a posted claim of responsibility by an Islamic terrorist group calling itself The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe, the key to yesterday's rush-hour bombings could lie in the explosive residue reportedly found at one of the four sites.
If the bomb material turns out to be RDX (Royal Demolition Explosives), then it could truly be the work of al-Qaida operatives, since RDX, 150% more powerful than TNT, has long been one of the terrorist organization's preferred explosives. That, along with titadine, a compressed dynamite.
If, however, it turns out to be the Czech-made Semtex plastique, it could mean the resurgence of a major terror campaign by the Irish Republican Army.
And there have been warnings.
As early as this spring, The Observer newspaper reported that British security forces were put on alert after being tipped by the MI5 intelligence service concerning "dissident Irish republican terrorists (who are) currently planning to mount attacks on the U.K. mainland."
According to that report, that warning pointed a finger at a dissident faction of the IRA known as the Real IRA, a group that carried out Northern Ireland's single-worst atrocity -- the 1998 car bombing in Omagh which killed 29 people.
The Real IRA -- which looks upon hunger-striker Bobby Sands as its martyred Che Guevara -- exploded at least three bombs in central London in 2001 on the 20th anniversary of Sands' death in an Ulster prison.
The timing of the bombings could not have been better planned -- regardless of the perpetrator.
With the leaders of the G8 meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland -- complete with rockers Bono and Bob Geldof providing photo ops in their quest to end world poverty -- and with London having been just awarded the 2012 Olympic games, the world's eyes were already watching.
Britain's Home Secretary Charles Clarke confirmed that there were four explosions in central London yesterday -- three on subway trains and the fourth on a bus.
"We do not know who or what organizations are responsible for these terrible criminal acts," he said.
There is speculation, however, that the double-decker bus explosion near Tavistock Square may have been due to a suicide bomber accidentally triggering his device before disembarking and entering his real target, a portion of London's underground subway network.
If that is the case, it virtually mirrors the modus operandi used by an al-Qaida cell in Madrid last year when train bombings there resulted in the deaths of more than 200.
No question yesterday's bombings brought this city to a standstill, and certainly stole the joy the entire country was experiencing with the surprise announcement that London, and not the odds-on favourite, Paris, would host the summer Olympics in seven years time.
Back in March, when The Observer published the warnings by MI5 that it had evidence that the Real IRA was about to remount its terrorist campaign, reaction was muted.
A month earlier, British Prime Minister Tony Blair made a formal pubic apology for what was being called one of the "most notorious miscarriages of justice in British legal history" -- the jailing of 11 innocent people known as the Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven who spent upwards of 14 years in prison for IRA bombings they did not commit. The apology came at a dangerous time. A week earlier, the IRA withdrew its peace offer to destroy its remaining weaponry after London and Dublin were too quick to blame it for the multi-million-pound bank robbery that December in Belfast.
Yesterday, those dangerous times exploded into reality -- no matter who, or what, was behind the bombings.
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http://www.torontosun.com/Columnists/home.html
And in the same paper
Quote:
Eric MargolisFri, July 8, 2005
Grim U.K. reminder
By ERIC MARGOLIS
LONDON -- What a sobering difference a day can make. On Wednesday afternoon and late into the night, jubilant throngs filled Piccadilly Circus to fete this city's victory over Paris in the bitterly contested competition to host the 2012 Olympic Games.
Yesterday morning, just before 9 a.m., crowds began milling around London underground stations. At first, we were told there had been a massive power failure during rush hour.
Soon after, a stream of emergency vehicles began converging on central London. We then learned it was not a power failure at all, but something far more sinister: A series of bombs had gone off in at least three underground (subway) stations, trapping passengers deep below street level. Another bomb blew apart one of the city's iconic red double-decker buses.
The long-feared terrorist attack on London had finally occurred.
It came right after PM Tony Blair assured the International Olympic Committee his nation could assure security for the Games, and just at the opening of the G8 Summit meeting in Scotland.
Britain's MI5 internal security service and police were on maximum alert for the summit. In spite of this, London suffered its worst terrorist attack since the IRA bombed its financial district a decade ago.
As I write -- to the continuing sound of sirens -- London remains largely paralyzed. All public transportation is inoperative and traffic is in chaos as millions fight to get home. Trains are cancelled or delayed. It's impossible to get to London's airports. Cellphones are not working. Parents are unable to get to schools to take their children home to safety.
Some service was expected to be restored by late yesterday. But parts of the underground -- where, one day earlier, I rode both subway lines that were bombed -- will likely be seriously affected for the next few days as emergency crews clear wreckage and look for additional bombs.
Riding the often fire-and failure-plagued London underground is an unsettling experience at the best of times. By yesterday evening, three trains were still trapped underground in smoke-filled tunnels as investigators did their grim work.
Who committed this outrage? It bears all the hallmarks of al-Qaida: Multiple, carefully co-ordinated attacks designed to inflict great physical and psychological damage as well as economic punishment. Suicide bombers may have been involved, likely part of a 15- to 20-man terrorist team. MI5 -- Britain's intelligence service -- and Scotland Yard have been hunting just such a team for the past two years and made hundreds of arrests, but without success. Police fear other bombs are still set to go off, a favourite tactic of terrorists in the Mideast.
The attack shows that despite being at maximum security and having an almost Orwellian network of surveillance cameras that cover almost every major street, London still remains vulnerable. Londoners, however, are taking the attacks coolly.
There was no panic, except at the bombing sites. People seemed dazed, and uncertain what to do. Some had to walk 16 to 24 km to get home yesterday.
PM Tony Blair and London Mayor Ken Livingston both made sombre, restrained and highly effective comments on the attack that were noteworthy for both their determination and their lack of the kind of patriotic flag-waving seen in the U.S. after 9/11. London's emergency services have performed admirably.
Even so, the city and the nation remain in shock. Al-Qaida has shown that in spite of the best efforts of the Western powers, it is able to strike even in one of the most heavily guarded cities on Earth.
The attack is also a reminder that the shadowy organization has not been destroyed or even, apparently, incapacitated. The London bombing starkly contradict U.S. claims that al-Qaida and other like-minded extremist groups have been crushed.
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AlQueda seems to be at the top of list yet Cnn and other outlets are still speculative of the source. Wonder what can be gained and who needs co-operation to keep the lid on this in the event it is more significant than the usual suspects, or not. And how and why if this is bigger than London (possibly other targets) does the worlds media agree to repeating the same cue words. In the event of oppsites, that being,... no one knows anything or,..there is a hell of a lot of stuff we don't know,...I'll go with latter.
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" In Canada, you can tell the most blatant lie in a calm voice, and people will believe you over someone who's a little passionate about the truth." David Warren, Western Standard.
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