Update 5 (1:15) Debka: "One bus was blown up by a suicide bomber at Russell Square in central London. At least three blasts at tube stations near the financial district closed London’s Underground." Blair headed to security meeting in London.
Update 4 (1:03): Jane's article on why London is especially vulnerable.
Update 3 (12:26) : The London bombings have revived the issue of sleeper cells, both in Europe and in the U.S. But Canada has the problem too, which has implications for us because of the still-porous Northern border.
(AP) Though many view Canada as an unassuming neutral nation that has skirted terrorist attacks, it has suffered its share of aggression, and intelligence officials believe at least 50 terror groups now have some presence here. They are from Sri Lanka, Kurdistan and points between and include supporters of some of the best-known Mideast groups, including al Qaeda, authorities say. Osama bin Laden named Canada one of five so-called Christian nations that should be targeted for acts of terror. The others, reaffirmed last year by his al Qaeda network, were the United States, Britain, Spain and Australia.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service, counterpart of the CIA, said terrorist representatives are actively raising money, procuring weapons, "manipulating immigrant communities" and facilitating travel to and from the United States and other countries. Besides al Qaeda, those groups include Islamic Jihad; Hezbollah and other Shiite groups; Hamas, the Palestinian Force 17, Egyptian Al Jihad and various other Sunni groups from across the Middle East, CSIS said. CSIS said the Irish Republican Army, Tamil Tigers and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and major Sikh terrorist groups also have supporters in Canada.
And then there's the threat from South America, which also bleeds into the United States:
Al Qaeda Seeks Tie to Local Gangs
By Jerry Seper
September 28, 2004
A top al Qaeda lieutenant has met with leaders of a violent Salvadoran criminal gang with roots in Mexico and the United States — including a stronghold in the Washington area — in an effort by the terrorist network to seek help infiltrating the U.S.-Mexico border, law enforcement authorities said.
Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a key al Qaeda cell leader for whom the U.S. government has offered a $5 million reward, was spotted in July in Honduras meeting with leaders of El Salvador's notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang, which immigration officials said has smuggled hundreds of Central and South Americans — mostly gang members — into the United States. Although they are actively involved in alien, drug and weapons smuggling, Mara Salvatrucha members in America also have been tied to numerous killings, robberies, burglaries, carjackings, extortions, rapes and aggravated assaults — including at least seven killings in Virginia and a machete attack on a 16-year-old in Alexandria that severely mutilated his hands.
Many of the cells originally were formed from alumni of the Afghan-Soviet conflict. Of course, hnow, the jihadists are mainly getting their combat training in, and being inspired by, Iraq. From Jane's Defense Weekly just two weeks after the September 11 attacks: The Afghan alumni While not all saw combat, some 5,000 Saudis, 3,000 Yemenis, 2,800 Algerians, 2,000 Egyptians, 400 Tunisians, 350 Iraqis, 200 Libyans and dozens of Jordanians served alongside the Afghani mujahideen in the war. Between 1,000 and 1,500 of them returned to Algeria and formed the backbone of the Islamic radicals who are continuing to fight against the government in what has been a nine-year civil war that has claimed more than 100,000 lives.
Those who returned to Egypt became valued members of the Gamaa Islamiya and the Gihad group, but their success was severely limited by arrest campaigns and several mass trials in the 1990s under the title of 'the returnees from Afghanistan'. Some Egyptians, who saw that they would be imprisoned if they returned home, remained in Afghanistan or took refuge wherever they could. US authorities have said that as many as 200 Afghan alumni settled in the New York/New Jersey area, some of them congregating around the New Jersey mosque where Omar Abdel Rahman preached.
...not to mention those who spread out through France, Germany, Spain and the U.K.
Update 3 (11:10) : Debka: "According to unofficial estimates, at least 45 died in the terrorist bombings of London trains and buses and 150 were seriously injured out of a total of 1000 wounded. [A] group calling itself the Organization of al Qaeda Jihad in Europe claimed the London bombing in revenge for Britain’s participation in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Italy, Denmark and “all the Crusaders” were threatened with the same punishment unless they withdrew their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan."
Update 2 (9:40 a.m.): The death toll is still migrating in the London terror attacks. AP momentarily droped the death toll to 33, but is again saying "at least" 40 dead, 300 injured, SkyNews is sticking with 45/1,000 with 300 confirmed in hospitals.
There is some confusion also as to the name of the group claiming the bombings. The Dubai news services are saying it was Organisation of Al-Qaeda Jihad in Europe but most British and American news services are going with The Secret Organisation of al-Qaida in Europe. The Guardian and others also have a slightly different clip of the grou's statement: The group's statement appeared on a website popular with Islamic militants, according to Elaph, a secular Arabic-language news website, and Der Spiegel magazine in Berlin, which both published the text on their sites. The statement, which also threatened attacks against Italy and Denmark, said: "Rejoice, Islamic nation. Rejoice, Arab world. The time has come for vengeance against the Zionist crusader government of Britain in response to the massacres Britain committed in Iraq and Afghanistan." Update (9:10 a.m.): A U.S. official is telling the AP that the death toll in London is at least 40, and that hospital records indicate more than 300 injured. That's a far cry from the official death count of just 2, which even Reuters reverted to after initially setting the toll at 12 (10 at Kings Cross and the 2 originally reported). (Wizbangblog has up a good rundown of the various death tolls). SkyNews is putting the death toll at 45 and the number of injured at 1,000 (given the density of the London transit system, the 2 dead story never really sounded realistic, unfortunately...).
Also: al-Qaida in Iraq is claiming that they have killed Egypt's top diplomat in Iraq. And Israel is scrambling to deny it had any advanced warning of the attacks. The AP report said the embassy received a warning of possible attacks, which prompted Israeli Finance Minister (and former P.M.) Bennjamin Netanyahu to change his plans... Here's the story running in Haaretz this morning, attributed to the AP:
Netanyahu stopped on way to London hotel for conference
Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been on his way to a London hotel near the scene of one of the four blasts that ripped through the city Thursday, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said.Netanyahu was the scheduled keynote speaker at an Israeli corporate investment conference at the Great Eastern hotel near the Liverpool Street subway station.
"After the first explosion, our finance minister received a request not to go anywhere," Shalom told Israel Army Radio.
But here is another AP report, worded quite differently:
Netanyahu Changed Plans Due to Warning
JERUSALEM - British police told the Israeli Embassy in London minutes before Thursday's explosions that they had received warnings of possible terror attacks in the city, a senior Israeli official said.
Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had planned to attend an economic conference in a hotel over the subway stop where one of the blasts occurred, and the warning prompted him to stay in his hotel room instead, government officials said.
... Just before the blasts, Scotland Yard called the security officer at the Israeli Embassy to say they had received warnings of possible attacks, the official said. He did not say whether British police made any link to the economic conference. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the nature of his position.
Interesting...
The attacks have stung the European markets, dropped oil prices, and are threatening to do a number on U.S. stocks as well. Of course that's nothing next to the loss of life, but it it is another goal of the terrorist networks -- money as well as mayhem...
Original post (8:40 a.m.): An al-Qaida-linked group is claiming responsibility for the London terror attacks this morning:
DUBAI : A group calling itself the Organisation of Al-Qaeda Jihad in Europe claimed Thursday's attacks in London and threatened similar ones in Italy, Denmark and other countries with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. However there are questions about the group -- an NBC analyst/translator has said the group made a Koranic error on their site, which would be unlike al-Qaida...
It seems the IOC isn't just covering its posterior when it tries to distance the attacks from the decision to award London the Olympic Games in 2012, although its hard to believe the decision, along with the G8 summit in Scotland, weren't contributing factors in the timing:
The group said the attacks were "in response to the massacres carried out by Britain in Iraq and Afghanistan." "We have repeatedly warned the government and people of Britain, and we have now fulfilled our promise and have carried out a sacred military attack in Britain," it said. "We continue to warn the governments of Denmark, Italy and all the Crusaders that they will meet the same punishment if they do not withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan." The bombings seem eerily similar to the Madrid train bombings last year -- mutiple, coordinated attacks on the transit system, designed to cause maximum casualties and fear. Scores of kids were trapped at school and their parents at work because public transportation is basically at a standstill. If you're in London and counting on the bus or train to get you home, at this point you're out of luck. (Called the relatives in London this morning, all are safe thank God, but they've no idea how they're getting home. )
What's so frightening about these kinds of attacks is, how do you guard against them? Public transportation is so difficult to secure -- any teenager can usually beat the fare, and the massive size of the terminals and the trains themselves -- or the remoteness of a bus terminal, make them so easy to target. London is one of the most heavily monitored cities on the planet, and security there is well-practiced from the bad-old days of the IRA. If an attack like this can happen there, it's pretty damned scary... |
