LONDON, 31 July 2005 — Yasin Hassan Omar, Mukhtar Said Ibrahim, Ramzi Mohammad and his brother Wahbi Muhammad, and Osman Hussain — these are the names of the five failed suicide bombers who tried to create murder and mayhem on the London transport system on July 21.
Fortunately, they are all in custody, four of them at the top security Paddington Green police station in Edgware Road, and Osman Hussain in Rome, awaiting extradition to Britain. Police sources now confirm that the fifth would-be bomber was Wahbi Mohammad, the brother of Ramzi Mohammad, who disposed of an explosive device similar to the other four in bushes in Workwood Scrubs, not far from the housing estate where he was arrested Friday.
The immediate manhunt is over, but according to Scotland Yard, there are many more months of hard work ahead. Police are in the process of meticulously building up the prosecution case against the suspected five would-be suicide bombers, and they are careful not to do anything that might jeopardize a fair trial. They are recording every interview with the suspects, keen to find out how deep the terrorist network is; if there are any other active cells in the UK; if so, how many; and the identities of the key individuals behind the plot.
One source stressed that there are over 1,000 more leads still to be followed up, but London’s police are already overstretched and simply do not have the time nor the resources to do this at this moment. Police are quick to defend the half million pounds of extra funding a day spent on policing London after the first wave of suicide bombings on July 7.
This funding, stressed John O’Conner, a former Scotland Yard commander, “is not sustainable indefinitely. It has been good value and money well spent.” However, he disagreed with Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police chief, and London Mayor Ken Livingstone, that the terrorist threat and situation can go on for the next 20 years.
Security officials believe there were many more involved in plotting the bombings and who are still at large. “We must not be complacent. The threat remains and is very real,” warned Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard’s Anti-Terrorist Branch, yesterday. Of the 28 people arrested in the aftermath of the 7/21 attempted suicide bombings, 12, including the five would-be suicide bombers, are still detained.
What is both a cause for concern and revealing about these five young men is that according to their neighbors and football mates they were all normal in their dress and behavior, going about their daily business and life. They were always polite and helpful.
However, in the last six months, this behavior changed and they started becoming very religious and started wearing “traditional dress”. They became inward-looking and kept to themselves. There wives and womenfolk similarly took to wearing the head-to-toe hijab.
What police are now trying to piece together is what and who precipitated this sudden slide into extremism and suicide bombing.
At another level, the failed suicide bombers were all from the war-torn and lawless region of East Africa — Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia, who came to this country as asylum seekers or dependents of such people, and who grew up in London and were subsequently granted British citizenship. Once again the Blair government’s lax and controversial asylum policy is on the political agenda and under scrutiny.
Police are particularly pleased with the amount of quality information they have been getting from those arrested, and are confident that once the pieces of this terrorist jigsaw puzzle starts falling into place, more arrests would be made both in the UK and elsewhere.
Osman Hussain, which Italian police say is really a pseudonym of Mahdi Ishaq, a 22-year-old Ethiopian who has a British passport, is reportedly “singing like a bird.” This has already led to 15 raids in Italy with tens of people arrested or detained for questioning. Hussain’s brother who has an Internet café called Phone Center Internet Point in Rome, has also been detained. Italian police are keen to find out whether a terrorist cell exists in Italy and are concerned of a possible strike against various targets.
A lawyer for Osman suggested after an initial hearing yesterday in a Rome prison that her client would fight a British extradition request. Osman “probably would prefer to stay in Italy,” court-appointed lawyer Antonietta Sonnessa said.
Opposing extradition could delay a process, she said, that could last two months.
Sonnessa said no formal charges had been lodged yet but “certain things are being said, certain accusations are being raised” in connection with the July 21 attacks.
Earlier, she had said only prosecutors were present at the initial extradition hearing, but she later clarified that a Rome appeals court judge was at the proceedings. The lawyer also Osman “was calm enough” and spoke good Italian so no interpreter was needed. She refused to discuss specifics about the hearing.
“From the investigations, it has been possible to identify a dense network of individuals belonging to the Eritrean and Ethiopian communities in Italy which is believed to have helped him (Osman) cover his tracks,” Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said.
Police say he traveled by train from London to Paris, Milan and on to Rome.
