Lock & Load

Al-Qaida claims London bombing

I bought a copy of Private Eye to read on the train this evening and was interested to see a letter by a reader criticising The Eye’s review of Adam Curtis’s “The Power of Nightmares” aired by the BBC.

The reader took them to task, lecturing thus:

“[D]ismissal of Adam Curtis’s ‘The Power of Nightmares’ looks increasingly specious. Whereas a month ago the talk was of ‘terror masterminds’ and ‘international networks’ now it seems the bombers were acting on nothing more than their own warped initiative.”

A comforting thought. So where did Al Qaida get the video taped statement of one of the suicide bombers responsible for the London Underground bombings from?

See the video here.

"Words have no impact on you, therefore we will talk to you in a language you understand. .. I and thousands like have forsaken everything for what we believe," said suicide bomber Muhammad Siddique Khan in the video shown by Aljazeera.

According to the report on Aljazeera:

“In the tape, Khan did not claim responsibility for the 7 July 7 attack in the name of al-Qaida but he called bin Ladin, his No 2 Ayman al-Zawahri, and al-Qaida in Iraq leader Musab al-Zarqawi as ‘today's heroes’ and hailed ‘martyrs’ who had given their lives in defence of Islam.”

However, a follow-up story on the channel declared:

“Al-Qaida claims London bombing”

The Aljazeera story also states that:“Al-Qaida's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, also appeared on the video on Thursday, promising similar attacks in the future.”

Zawahiri then promised further attacks, describing the UK as "enemy territory"

Associated Press has more, as does the BBC.

I suspect that further videos from the other suicide bombers will now start surfacing. I found it remarkable that, supposedly, none were left behind. People don’t make grand gestures (like blowing themselves up on crowded trains) without leaving something for posterity. I also suspect that this will be bad for the group that failed. If puts the kibosh on the idea that these were uncoordinated self-starter cells. If I were Scotland Yard, I’d start looking for their tapes.

UPDATE: What's really bothering me is the inclusion of "gassing" on his list of grievances. Now, the only regime I know of which has actually gassed Muslims is Saddam's. In fact, he - as a secular dictator - committed all the other atrocities against Muslims in the region as well. Why no suicide bombs to bring him down? In fact how come the Iraqis are only being suicide bombed now? How come 1000 average religious Muslims in Iraq died in a stampede to escape - not British soldiers, but suicide bombers - just like Muhammad Siddique Khan!

Robert Fisk, writing in The Independent, has a very good commentary on this man-made disaster – which includes a roll call of other outrages inflicted by insurgents too often characterised as “the resistance”.

UPDATE: The Observer has written an in-depth analysis of Khan’s video tape.

posted by Brett Lock @ 11:41 pm