LONDON, 14 August 2005 — Terrorist attacks in London last month were homegrown and had no guidance from Al-Qaeda, a British press report said yesterday.
The Independent newspaper reported that the initial findings of an investigation into the July 7 and 21 bomb attacks had found no evidence of any Al-Qaeda “mastermind” or senior organizer.
Citing unnamed sources, the paper also said that the two attacks were not connected, and that the July 7 cell did not conform to previous Al-Qaeda units.
The investigation, which the newspaper said involved domestic and external security services, the police and the listening center at Government Communications Headquarters, reportedly found that the July 7 team worked in isolation and was radicalized by Mohammad Sidique Khan, the oldest of the four bombers.
The Independent said police and domestic security service MI5 feared the findings suggested more “self-sufficient” units similar to the July 7 cell were hiding in Britain.
A counter-terrorist source told the newspaper: “The key point is the events are not connected. It appears they were self-contained, rather than being organized by some kind of mastermind.” “It is concerning that none were on the intelligence radar,” the source added. “There are quite probably others we do not know about out there.”
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said that police would not comment on the report or any other speculation about the attacks.
The newspaper said intelligence agencies and police had trawled through telephone and computer records, emails, forensic evidence, and investigated friends and associates to build up a picture of the suicide bombers.
The investigation reportedly concluded that the alleged plotters behind the July 21 incidents were probably “copycats,” targeting Tube trains and a bus.
Meanwhile, politicians in Britain are stressing that the whole country is backing Home Secretary Charles Clarke’s decision to ban radical Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed from the UK.
Clarke yesterday used existing exclusion powers to revoke Bakri’s refugee status, and stressed that Bakri’s presence in the UK is “not conducive to the public good”. Both the Opposition Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have expressed support to the Government and had urged ministers to deport or exclude extremists.
Shahid Malik, Labour MP for Dewsbury, home town of three of the 7/7 suicide bombers, welcomed the ban on a man who had long “tarnished the reputation” of British Muslims, and said that they would be reassured by the exclusion decision.
“He has glorified 9/11 and has really been a menace to community relations in this country,” he added.
An Islamic scholar said yesterday that radical preachers such as Omar Bakri Mohammed “should have been deported from England many years ago” for encouraging suicide attacks which were never part of Islam-sanctioned warfare.
“The issue of killing yourself has never been part of Jihad in 1,400 years of Islamic history,” Salafi scholar Abu Khadeejah told the Press Association news agency.
“Killing yourself as a means of warfare is a 20th century phenomenon,” he said.
Speaking on the sidelines of a two-day conference titled “Orthodox Islam’s War on Terror” at the As-Salafi mosque in Birmingham, central England, Abu Khadeejah said it was vital to educate Muslim youths that suicide bombing was not a glorious death but a theological perversion.
Extremists, he said, are “shrouding” the killing of innocents with Qur’anic verses and had been free to preach hate “for at least 15 years” prior to July 7.
Describing Bakri, other radical preachers such as Abu Qatada and those behind websites which glorify Al-Qaeda attacks as completely irresponsible, Abu Khadeejah added: “They really should have been deported from England many years ago and there’s a doubt as to whether they should have been allowed into the UK in the first place,” he said.
A recent BBC poll showed that some 65 percent of British Muslims want Muslim clerics to preach in the English language. More than half of the Muslims polled were born in the UK and younger generations, backed by progressive leaders, have long advocated more English in mosques. This they say would help break down cultural and generational divides between Muslims themselves and Islam and mainstream society.
— With additional input from agencies
