This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/794
July 13, 2005
MIM: The revelation of the British Home Secretary that he was "surprised,yes, shocked as well" that the suicide bombers were British paradoxically explains how the 4 bombers could have been born and bred in the UK. The British have continually failed to take action against radical Islamists who have been threatening attacks and heeded the Jihadist rhetoric being spewed by leaders of groups which have been proliferating unhindered for more then a decade .
What is really shocking is that any government minister in the UK could be shocked by the attacks in London, since clerics like Omar Bakri Mohammed were publicly telling their followers that the 'convenant of security' with the UK had ended. Months before his arrest Abu Hamza Al Masri had urged Muslims to bring suicide bombings to their doorstep. About a week prior to the attacks Al Muhajiroun leader Omar Bakri Mohammed ominously told the media that 'attacks were inevitable' and even named the group which had claimed responsibility. What is truly shocking is that the UK government did nothing to shut down groups like Al Muhajiroun which recently announced they had 'disbanded' and that the members were going 'freelance' .Two members of the group had perpetrated a suicide bombing in Israel in 2004. One of the bombers had a wife and child. The main question regarding the 4 suicide bombers up know is as to their motive. Neither demands nor declarations were left and the police noted that the bombers left behind identification papers 'as a sign of defiance'. Terrorism analyst Richard Clarke speculated that the identification could have been left behind either as a sign of the inexperience of the bombers, or to give the impression that they were acting alone by leading investigators directly to them.
The classic signs of Islamic radicalism which should become part of the law enforcement terror lexicon were also present in the case of the "normal guys" who blew themselves up . Sudden interest in religion and lengthy visits abroad to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Which begs the question as to how much information the family and friends of these terrorists is hiding from the police, since it stands to reason that a 6 month trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan by a 22 year old boy could not have gone unnoticed.
Shezhad Tanweer 22 UK born student and cricket fanatic :
No-one can believe Shehzad could have got mixed up in something like this. He was just a normal boy who didn't show any interest in extremism. He read the Koran and went to the mosque but his main interest was cricket, and I believe he wanted to make sport his career."
"...Tanweer went to the local Wortley High School and was believed to have been studying at Leeds Metropolitan University. He has a brother, Rizwan, 17, and two younger sisters.
One of Tanweer's neighbours told ITV news that the teenager had spent several months in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Afghanistan is known to have Al Qaeda training camps and members of the Taliban have taken refuge in Pakistan..."
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Hasib was one of four children born to factory worker Mahmood and his wife Maniza. Both parents were both born in Pakistan.
Leeds-born Hasib attended the Matthew Murray High School, a few hundred yards from the £75,000 four-bedroom terraced family home in a rundown suburb of the city. According to one neighbour, Hussain "went off the rails" as a young teenager but became a reformed character when he "suddenly became devoutly religious" two years ago.
A friend of the family said: "His older brother was worried because Hasib seemed to be getting into some kind of gang and started wearing white robes but he decided there was no harm in him becoming religious. He didn't realise that there might have been something more sinister to it."
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Mohammed Sadique Khan 30 married with a baby girl
"...He does not believe in having a beard or wearing a hat.
"But he has always seemed a really nice guy and has never been in any trouble that I know of. He has been to Pakistan a few times but not for long periods...."
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Note that the UK suicide bomber who went to Israel and blew himself up in a Tel Aviv Cafe was married with children. His wife was put on trial as well and was also accused of translating the suicide bombing sermons of Omar Bakri Mohammed).
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13/07/05 - News section
Young and British - the London suicide bombers
By DAVID WILLIAMS, Daily Mail
The face of terrorism in Britain has changed for ever as police established that the London bomb blitz was carried out by four suicide bombers.
At least three were British-born, from outwardly respectable families of Pakistani origin.
They lived quietly in the Leeds area and none had criminal records.
Their identities emerged after police raided a number of addresses in West Yorkshire, including the dead men's homes.
In one, they found an apparent bomb factory, but the man who made the devices is thought to have fled the country days ago.
Police are trying desperately to discover if other devices have been distributed to would-be attackers.
A car in which the bombers drove south was discovered at Luton railway station.
From there they took a train to King's Cross, where they have been spotted on CCTV film "looking happy and carefree, as if they were going on holiday" said a security source. Shehzad Tanweer, 22, carried his bomb on to the train which was blasted at Aldgate. A keen local cricketer and sports science student, he lived with his parents, who run a fish and chip shop in the Beeston area of Leeds.
A second Leeds man, 30-year-old Mohammed Sadique Khan, who was married, boarded the train which blew up at Edgware Road.
A third man, about whom no details have yet emerged, was on the train which was devastated near Russell Square station.
At 8.50am, the time they had pre-arranged, they detonated their explosives.
The fourth suicide bomber was 19-year-old Hasib Mir Hussain, who lived with his Pakistani-born factory worker parents in a rundown Leeds suburb.
He died almost an hour later, when he triggered his bomb on a number 30 bus in Tavistock Square.
First suicide bombers in Europe
It is the first time suicide bombers have struck in Europe.
A senior anti-terrorist investigator said last night: "This was the most worrying scenario of all.
"The nature of what we are up against has changed completely. We are dealing with people who are prepared to die, who want to become martyrs and we don't know how many more are out there, how many copycats there could be.
"They didn't have to die, they could have carried out the bombing without killing themselves, but they chose to do so. It is a real statement."
Police are trying to discover whether other attacks have been planned and what has happened to the bombmaker, a suspected Al Qaeda expert. They say "considerable expertise" would have been needed to build them.
In previous operations Al Qaeda has been known to 'bring in, bring out' a bombmaker, who will make several devices but be beyond the reach of security forces before any go off.
Police are also seeking to establish whether any of the bombers had been to Pakistan or trained in Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.
Confirmation that the bombers were British is vindication for former Scotland Yard chief Lord Stevens, who said at the weekend he believed they would be British-born and bred.
He warned that up to 3,000 British-based men had trained at terror camps and said Al Qaeda recruiters were targeting a new breed of educated, computer-literate terrorists.
As the massive investigation - codenamed Operation Thesis - developed rapidly yesterday, Tony Blair vowed that terrorists would fail in their attempts to shatter the fabric of British society.
"We are determined to bring all those responsible to justice and to ensure our values and way of life remain undiminished," he said.
The extraordinary breakthrough in Britain's biggest ever manhunt followed minute examination of the scenes of the blasts.
Working in horrific conditions amid the carnage deep below ground, forensic experts were able to establish that all the Tube bombers died by recovering distinctive body parts and clothing.
Forensic experts sifting through the bus where 13 people were killed also found parts of the clothes and body of the bomber.
Property and papers relating to the men were also found.
Anti-terrorist officers had always suspected that the terror group had been at Kings Cross as all the bombings were close to the station.
At 8pm on Monday painstaking examination of CCTV from the station paid off.
'Like infantry going off to war
It showed the four men, wearing casual clothes and carrying military-style rucksacks, shortly before 8.30am on Thursday. They were "like infantry going off to war," said a senior security source.
As the pace of the inquiry quickened, Scotland Yard officers and West Yorkshire police launched raids in Leeds and nearby Dewsbury.
Some 500 Leeds residents were evacuated as bomb disposal officers moved in to the suspected bomb factory, removing dozens of packages. A relative of one of the dead men was being held under the Terrorism Act last night.
In Luton, police sealed off the car park and carried out four controlled explosions.
Bomb squad officers later removed what they believed were explosives from the car.
The three Leeds men had left the city on Wednesday in the car, which had been hired by Tanweer. They drove down the M1 to Luton and teamed up with the fourth man.
They spent the night in the Luton area before boarding the 7.40am Thameslink commuter train to London - bizarrely forking out for a pay and display ticket at Luton station.
A woman has told police she saw the men board the train, which made stops at Harpenden and St Albans, arriving at Kings Cross at 8.20am.
The identification of Hussain was helped by his worried mother Maniza, who called police some hours after the blasts to say he had travelled to London "with his mates" but was not answering his mobile.
She gave his name, address and contact details as well as a description of his appearance and clothes.
Detective Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of Scotland's Yard anti-terrorist branch, confirmed yesterday: "We have found personal documents bearing the names of three of those four men close to the seats of three of the explosions."
While some suicide bombers destroy all evidence of who they are, the fact that the four made a point of carrying identification documents was seen by investigators as a final act of defiance - and intent.
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13/07/05 - News section
Suicide bomber profile: The family man
In the West Yorkshire town of Dewsbury, a house in the Lees Holm area was surrounded by police investigating the background of MOHAMMED SADIQUE KHAN.
The 30-year-old married man, a father-of-one, is believed to be responsible for the Edgware Road explosion.
The house was raided along with that of his wife's mother, about a quarter of a mile away in the Lees Holm area.
Khan and his wife met when they were both studying at a university in Leeds and they married a couple of years ago. He grew up in the Beeston area of Leeds and when his family moved to Nottingham, he stayed in Leeds to study.
An in-law said: "The family were unaware they were dating. It was only when her father died that she broke the news. He is less traditional than our family so he was disapproved of.
"He does not believe in having a beard or wearing a hat.
"But he has always seemed a really nice guy and has never been in any trouble that I know of. He has been to Pakistan a few times but not for long periods."
He said Khan's wife had been working as an area support assistant for the council until she gave birth to the couple's baby about nine months ago.
Scaffolders arrived in the afternoon and began erecting a platform at the rear of Khan's house. Police officers guarded the front of the terrace property and a marked police van blocked off the road, preventing people from visiting the scene. Forensic investigators could be seen entering the house wearing masks and protective suits.
Neighbour Sara Aziz, 28, said: "About 7.30 this morning I noticed police outside and saw the lady who lived there come out with a baby."
She added: "They seemed a right quiet couple. He goes to the gym. The reason I say that is because I've seen him carrying a bag over his shoulders some mornings. I last saw him last week."
13/07/05 - News section
Suicide bomber profile: The Teenager
The anxious mother of the youngest suicide bomber, 19-year-old HASIB HUSSAIN, rang the Scotland Yard helpline to report him missing after hearing about the London explosions.
Knowing that her son was on a trip to London "with his mates", his mother Maniza had no idea that he might have actually caused one of the blasts.
When she did not hear from her son all day, mother-of-four Mrs Hussain reported him missing to the central casualty bureau at around 10pm.
A police family liaison officer was despatched to the family home in Leeds to record details of his description and likely clothing. At that stage, he was being treated as a victim and officers were also given the names of his two friends from Leeds who were travelling south with him by car.
But subsequently some of Hussain's property including his driving licence was found on the top deck of the bus which exploded in Tavistock Square, and on Monday night he was spotted on CCTV walking across the concourse of King's Cross station with his three fellow bombers, each carrying heavy holdalls.
Hasib was one of four children born to factory worker Mahmood and his wife Maniza. Both parents were both born in Pakistan.
Leeds-born Hasib attended the Matthew Murray High School, a few hundred yards from the £75,000 four-bedroom terraced family home in a rundown suburb of the city. According to one neighbour, Hussain "went off the rails" as a young teenager but became a reformed character when he "suddenly became devoutly religious" two years ago.
A friend of the family said: "His older brother was worried because Hasib seemed to be getting into some kind of gang and started wearing white robes but he decided there was no harm in him becoming religious. He didn't realise that there might have been something more sinister to it."
Suicide bomber profile: The cricketer
To his friends, the only thing SHEHZAD TANWEER was fanatical about was cricket.
But last night, his family were having to come to terms with the increasing likelihood that the 22-year-old sports science student was the London bomber killed near Aldgate station.
Tanweer's family home in Leeds was one of five addresses in West Yorkshire raided by police, and friends said he had not been seen since last Thursday, when the explosions caused England's worst ever terrorist atrocity.
Bradford-born Tanweer lived in a detached house consisting of two semis knocked into one in the Asian area of Beeston, just a few hundred yards from Leeds United FC's ground.
His father Mohammed, 56, who arrived in the UK from Pakistan 30 years ago, is a the owner of a chip shop, South Leeds Fisheries, just a short walk from the family home. Tanweer worked there part time.
Family friend Mohammed Afzal said: "Mohammed Tanweer told me Shehzad had been missing since last Thursday. He was out playing cricket in a local park until it got dark on Wednesday night, and I believe the last time they saw him was when he got home afterwards.
"No-one can believe Shehzad could have got mixed up in something like this. He was just a normal boy who didn't show any interest in extremism. He read the Koran and went to the mosque but his main interest was cricket, and I believe he wanted to make sport his career."
Mr Afzal said Tanweer went to the local Wortley High School and was believed to have been studying at Leeds Metropolitan University. He has a brother, Rizwan, 17, and two younger sisters.
One of Tanweer's neighbours told ITV news that the teenager had spent several months in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Afghanistan is known to have Al Qaeda training camps and members of the Taliban have taken refuge in Pakistan.
Police are starting to release details of the MYSTERY BOMBER believed to be responsible for the Russell Square atrocity.
Detectives hunting the suicide team believe he was a friend of the other three suicide attackers and, like them, lived an outwardly ordinary life in the Leeds area.
Police and the security services fear the bombers could have been acting on the orders of an al-Qaida mastermind and there may be another bomb team waiting to strike.
Asked whether he believed they were part of a larger cell Home Secretary Charles Clarke said: "A central hypothesis which has to be tested and investigated is that the individuals we know about were working within a wider community."
Detectives were working furiously today piecing together the lives of the bombers as neighbours in West Yorkshire told of their shock that suicide attackers had been living in their midst.
The bombers had seemed liked normal young men who had lived in Britain all their lives.
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/794