Title: NORTH KOREA MAY BE ABLE TO HIT U

July 21 (Bloomberg) -- Three London subway trains and a bus were targets of attempted bombings today, leaving parts of the Underground network paralyzed, two weeks after the worst attack on the capital since World War II. One person was injured in the incidents, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair said in an interview aired by Sky News. One device may have exploded while three others failed to go off properly, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported. ``We've just got to react calmly and continue with our business,'' Prime Minister Tony Blair said at a press conference at his Downing Street office. ``We know why these things are done. They're done to frighten people.''

The incidents occurred at about 1 p.m. and at the four points of the compass, in a pattern resembling the July 7 terrorist attacks that killed 56 people. Today, Warren Street, Oval and Shepherds Bush Underground stations and a bus in east London were evacuated. Eyewitnesses told Sky that smoke appeared from a rucksack carried by a passenger in one subway carriage. ``There is nothing to indicate any kind of attack that involves chemicals or anything else,'' said Ian Blair of the police. ``It's broadly conventional. The situation is absolutely at the moment under control.'' The driver of the number 26 bus in Hackney, east London, heard a bang from the upper deck of the vehicle and said the windows were blown out, according to Steve Stewart, a spokesman for Stagecoach Plc, which operates public transport services. The bus is intact and there are no injuries, he said. The BBC said a split backpack was left on the floor of a bus.

Blair Informed

``There was a nasty burning rubber smell but no smoke,'' Caroline Russell, who was traveling on the subway at Warren Street, told the BBC in an interview today. Police also cordoned off University College Hospital in central London today and sent an ``armed response'' unit there, police spokesman Steve Sherwood said in an interview. A memo was distributed to hospital employees indicating a suspect in the Warren Street incident had been spotted nearby, Sky News reported. He was described as being black or Asian wearing a blue shirt with wires protruding from the top, Sky said. Two arrests were made near Downing Street and Scotland Yard, police said, without elaborating. ``The emergency services are getting control over a very confused scene. It's unclear as to what happened,'' Ian Blair said. ``We don't know the implications of all this yet and we'll have to examine the situation very carefully.''

Warren Street, Oval and Shepherds Bush stations were evacuated and five Underground lines were suspended. By 5 p.m., reduced services resumed on all lines except the Hammersmith and City and Circle lines.

London Hospital

U.K. stocks and the pound pared gains after the subway stations were evacuated today. Blair and Australian Prime Minister John Howard were informed as they dined at Blair's office, an Australian official told journalists standing in front of Blair's office. Blair delayed a press conference with Howard due at 2:15 p.m. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw entered Blair's office shortly after 2 p.m. Defense Secretary John Reid, entering Blair's office at about 2:30 p.m., told reporters he was going to a meeting of the Cabinet's crisis management committee. Reid later left the meeting, as did Home Secretary Charles Clarke and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

July 7 Investigation

Blair today was due to meet senior police offices and representatives of security services to discuss powers to combat terrorism, amid indications terrorists in Pakistan are becoming a focus of the investigation into the July 7 bombings. Police have identified four men they say were bombers in the July 7 incidents, three on underground trains and one on a bus. All of them died in the explosions. ``It was almost guaranteed that there would be other attacks,'' said Bob Ayers, an associate fellow of the International Security Program at Chatham House in London today. ``It's quite easy to acquire more madmen willing to blow themselves up. Whatever these devices were, they weren't as powerful as the devices used on July 7. Whether this is a result of the way they were designed, or not, we don't know.''

The emergency services were called at 12:38 p.m. to Oval station and at 12:45 p.m. to Warren Street station, a spokeswoman for the Ambulance Service said.

``Londoners should now go about their business and use the transport system to get home,'' London Mayor Ken Livingstone said in a statement.''

"Plot to scar London with 'burning cross' ", - July 14, 2005

SMH.com.au, - "London's four suspected suicide bombers had wanted to scar the city with a ``burning cross'' of blasts in its north, south, east and west, in the hope of being declared Islamic martyrs ... The four suspects were caught on security cameras at London's Kings Cross station, heading off in different directions shortly before the three bombs went off near Aldgate, Edgware Road and Russell Square Underground stations early last Thursday. A fourth bomb exploded on a bus nearly an hour later.""Police suspect three of the young men carried bombs east, west and south, while a fourth had planned to take the north-bound Northern Line, but, as this was disrupted, he changed plans and boarded a bus, London's Evening Standard said."

One Cutting Edge researcher had noted some interesting facts about the bombings as she plotted the actual bombing locations. Please now look at this map carefully, above. The circles drawn on the map represent the four locations at which the bombs went off, while the asterisks ( * ) depicts locations of interest.

1) Note that two of the bombs went off just south of the King's Cross subway station. This Australian news article, above, further states that the four bombers met King's Crossing subway station with the plans to head off in opposite directions. The bombers did get their explosions off to the east and west, but not to the north and the south, as this article states was their original plan.

Obviously, explosions would have had to be set off directly north and directly south of King's Cross for a "burning cross" to be etched on the ground. In this regard, I find it interesting that initial reports indicated that as many as six, and possibly seven, bombs had exploded. For a "burning cross" to have been created on the ground by these explosions, three more would have been ideal. Was that the plan, and were the other three bombers inhibited by chance circumstance from exploding their devices? We shall never know.

2) Notice the British Medical Association headquarter building lies just across the street from the King's Cross explosion. As we explain in NEWS2054, this building was originally built by the Black Magick secret society, the House of Theosophy, as their headquarters. Because one of the bombs exploded very close to the location of such an occult location, fellow occultists throughout the world would have instantly recognized this location as highly symbolic.

3) Notice that just to the right (East) of the first bomb the Old Sessions House is located. This building is a major Masonic Lodge.

4) Just East of Old Sessions House lies the Tavistock Institute, home of the infamous Mind Control experiments since World War I. We explain this very important connection also in NEWS2054.

5) Notice that directly south of Bomb #1, and directly south of King's Cross station, lies the Freemason's Hall, the Grand Lodge of England. Had a bomb exploded close to this location, a southern point would have been established to create a "burning cross" on the ground. Only one more explosion would have been needed, northward of King's Cross station.

Britain failed to protect London even after Israel warned Britain of coming Al-Queda terror – inefficiency or conspiracy? - July 7, 2005
Indian Daily News - Israel knew and warned United Kingdom of possible terror plots to disrupt life in London. But British authorities failed to respond accordingly to deter the attacks, according to an unconfirmed rumor circulating in intelligence circles. Israel is keeping quiet for the time being with a lot of pressure on them.

Fact of the matter is that British Authorities knew it is coming, warned the Israelis before the first bomb. The Associated Press reported July 7 that an anonymous source in the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Scotland Yard had warned the Israeli Embassy in London of possible terrorist attacks in the U.K. capital. The information reportedly was passed to the embassy minutes before the first bomb struck at 0851 London time. The Israeli Embassy promptly ordered Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to remain in his hotel on the morning of July 7. Netanyahu was scheduled to participate in an Israeli Investment Forum Conference at the Grand Eastern Hotel, located next to the Liverpool Street Tube station -- the first target in the series of bombings that hit London on July 7.

The biggest question of the day is British Authorities knew and protected Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then why not common British citizens in London? Several hours later, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom officially denied reports that Scotland Yard passed any information to Israel regarding the bombings, and British police denied they had any advanced warning of the attacks. The British authorities similarly denied that any information exchange had occurred.

But the fact is Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stayed in his hotel knowing very well what was coming. Why British Authorities did not tell the common people of Britain about what was coming if they knew that Al-Queda was about to strike? According to international rumor circle, Britain just failed to act even after being warned by the Israelis days before the attack.

What Will it Take for Europe to "Wake Up"? – July 10, 2005

Lekerev Report - Israeli diplomats have blasted British Prime Minister Tony Blair, accusing him of hypocrisy and out of touch with reality for blaming the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for instigating terrorism, in the wake of last week's attack in London. "It is a widespread approach in Europe," said one diplomat in Jerusalem. "They really believe that we are responsible for all their problems."

Other diplomats said Blair's outburst is yet one more sign Europeans has not yet come to grips with the dangers of radical Islam. They also point to comments made by European Parliament President Josep Borell Fontells during last month's visit to Israel to show Europeans refuse to recognize the "dormant terror cells" amongst Europe's large Muslim population. "You think we are here as some sort of 'rich uncles,'" said Fontells. "But we are here because 'your' conflict is starting to work it's way over to us."

"Blair's comments are an attempt to calm things down," said one source, "to tell British Muslims, 'it's not you, it's the mid-east conflict.' He's apparently hoping for quiet in England but that mentality will only pave the way for appeasing terrorism, the very thing he said England would not do.

For those of you who may not have seen or read his remarks, Blair said over the weekend that the terrorism is the result of poverty and the mid-east conflict. Rubbish!!!!!! Nonsense!!!!! First of all, if he wants to deal with poverty, how about calling the Palestinian Authority to task for the billions in aid it has received over recent years with NO visible benefit reaching the population. How about an inquiry into corruption? How about looking into the elaborate mansions that have been built for Palestinian leaders while many Palestinians struggle? And how about also taking a tour of the so- called 'refugee camps' which are in actual fact, full blown cities with high rise apartment houses and single family dwellings in many locations???

No, Mr. Blair, terrorism will not be cured by "throwing money at it". After all, how rich is Osama Bin Laden? Multi-millionaire??? Is that the 'poverty' that moved him to plan and carry out the September 11 attacks and the attacks in London last Thursday?

Israel Grieves With London – July 10, 2005

Lekerev Report - In a scene all too familiar to Israelis, British newspapers report this morning that 55 people lost their lives and more than 700 were injured, many of them critically, in the wake of a series of terrorist bombings in London yesterday. Prime Minister Sharon phoned British Ambassador to Israel Simon McDonald and asked him to pass on to British Prime Minister Tony Blair the condolences of all of Israel to the bereaved families and the British people at large and said that at these moments, Israel expresses solidarity with them. The world must unite in the war against terror, Sharon said and added that Israel was ready and willing to provide any assistance, medical or otherwise, that Britain may require.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the attack bore the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda strike, and an unknown al-Qaeda-affiliate in Europe said it carried out the attack on the "crusading Zionist nation of Britain" in revenge for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The group also warned Denmark, Italy "and all the Crusader governments" to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan or face similar attacks.

It has now been confirmed that the explosion on the double decker bus was certainly the work of a suicide bomber. DebkaFile experts project that the entire operation was a suicide bombing mission, carefully orchestrated and carried out by 6-8 bombers. We will wait to see if Scotland Yard confirms their projection. Bleary-eyed but resolute Londoners reluctantly ventured back to subways and buses early today after yesterday's mass shutdown in response to the terrorist bombings. Tube stations opened between 5:20 and 5:30 a.m. on Friday, their normal time, although delays were expected due to partially or fully closed underground routes. Buses in London were to resume their usual routes with no foreseen closures. Many of London's 8 million residents rely heavily on the network.

The bombing attacks on London’s Underground railway and a double-decker bus Thursday, July 7, were the work of a team of 6-8 terrorists wearing explosive vests. – July 8, 2005

Debka - This is the first conclusion drawn by DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s terror experts from the type and strength of the explosives used and they way the bombers, in three out of the four attacks, were able to deliberately spread the damage to secondary vehicles outside their primary targets. The explosion on the trains at Kings Cross and Edgware Road stations- and the bomb that wrecked the bus at Tavistock Square - were also aimed at hitting passing trains and cars to maximize the casualty toll. To accomplish this, the bomber needed to watch out for moving vehicles and judge the exact moment for detonating the explosive with zero chances of surviving the blast. The bombs were not large, smaller than the ones that were planted on the Madrid trains in March 2004, because they had to be worn on the terrorists’ bodies without arousing suspicion. In Madrid they were left in bags.

At the big Kings Cross station, two trains were caught in the blast; at Edgware Road station, three trains were hit. As for the bus, two suicide bombers sat at the back of the bus well separated, ready to detonate their vests as soon as they saw a second bus came close through the rear window. They then both tripped the cords on their bombs. The bus’s upper deck was ripped off and hurled in the air. Had there been one bomber, only one side of the bus would have been wrecked. These details are vital leads for the investigation. Scotland Yard and British anti-terrorist agencies must determine how a large team of suicide killers reached central London without prior warning from the British and foreign intelligence agencies engaged in the war on al Qaeda.

There could be three explanations:

1. A home-grown covert Muslim cell that escaped the notice of the anti-terrorist intelligence network that was spread across Britain after the 9/11 al Qaeda attacks in America.

2. It was the work of an al Qaeda suicide team which had never been to the UK before and had no previous ties with local terrorist cells. They simply mingled with the stream of summer tourists entering the country. This team would have been made up of three groups, one to collect intelligence, select targets and transport the killers to the scenes of attack; one to smuggle in the bomb-vests and finally, the actual suicide bombers.

3. The terrorists arrived in London singly without attracting attention and found an intelligence infrastructure and explosives already set up by a local cell unknown to the British security authorities.

More than a few British Muslims have spent time in Arab countries studying at religious institutions whose curriculum includes military training and bomb-making instruction. Two such British Muslim suicide killers, Asif Mohammed Hanif and Omar Khan Sherif, were dispatched to Tel Aviv to blow up the American embassy on April 30, 2003, When they saw the building was a fortress, they switched to an attack on the neighboring Mike’s Bar. A joint British-Israeli probe traced the two bombers’ movements from London to Damascus where they studied and were recruited at a medressa run by al Qaeda’s adherents. The pair picked up their bomb vests from Hizballah agents in the Gaza Strip which they entered as British tourists supporting the Palestinian cause. The London bombers’ modus operandi recalls that of Hanif and Sherif two years ago. It could take weeks if not months before forensic lab. tests come up with a lead to the identifies of the suicide killers – unless of course video cameras were placed strategically enough to pick them out. Even then, the quality may not be good enough. But with luck, the British police have been able to name the wanted men, just as the Boston police were helped by a convenient video camera in September 2001.

Gaza Mosque: London Attacks were "Blessed Acts” – July 12, 2005

Lekerev Report - In a reaction similar to the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in New York, the blood spilt in the London terror attacks has been celebrated within the Palestinian territories. The Gaza based Sut Al Quds radio station, which identifies itself with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, has praised the London terrorist atrocities.

The broadcast was carried live on Saturday evening, two days after the attack.

Is Paris Next? – July 10, 2005

Lekerev Report - The Islamic and Arab nations are overjoyed because the time has come to exact revenge on the British "Jewish crusader" government - these are the words that open al-Qaeda's claim of responsibility for the July 7 attacks in London.

However, despite the terrorist organization's explicit announcement, and despite the slaughter caused by the bombs detonated by the group in the name of and for the sake of Islam, the so-called "progressive" public opinion in Britain has invested in the past 24 hours immense efforts to repress, blur, and cover up the connection between the terror attacks and radical Islam. A senior London police official has been quoted at length after baselessly claiming that the words "Islam" and "terrorism" do not go together. The attempt to bury reality as it is under heaps of empty words is futile. The following truths are obvious to any intelligent person examining the 21st century's terror waves.

Firstly, this is Muslim terrorism. Not anarchist, not Zionist, and not neoconservative. This terror comes from Islam's zealots, who believe in the need to initiate a global jihad at this time against the infidels, the Jews, the "Christian crusaders," and moderate Muslims. Secondly, this terror comes from wealthy, educated Muslims, not poor, mindless ones. Islamic countries are flooded with hundreds of billions of dollars they received from selling high-priced oil. The terrorists who planned and perpetrated the terror attacks in New York and Madrid were established individuals who spoke foreign languages and were familiar with technology. This is also the socioeconomic profile of Hamas and Hizbullah leaders.

There is no connection, even not a slight one, between the war on poverty and the war on terror.

Thirdly, the jihadists initiated a terror war against the West because it is the West, and not in order to "advance" the Israeli-Palestinian conflict's resolution or push the United States to pull its forces out of Iraq. Their one and only motive was, and still is, to undermine the basis of the despised Western culture and expose it as weak. Sowing destruction for the purpose of sowing destruction. Terror experts and even Pope Benedict are already saying that Paris will be the next target. Will anybody in Europe come to grips with reality before that happens?

Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda

Zarqawi redeploying fighters to Europe in preparation for August attack – ‘Al-Qaeda Chief has well-stocked teams in place’ - July 24, 2005

The Rantburg - BRITISH intelligence and security services are on high alert in preparation for terror attacks in major UK cities following the double assault on London. Emergency planners are keyed up for terror strikes in cities such as Glasgow and Birmingham. The net has also widened across the world in the hunt for those who planned and helped prepare the July 7 and July 21 attacks in London.

Intelligence and security analysts believe that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an al-Qaeda chief in Iraq, has built up such a well-stocked team of fighters that he has been able to send a number of trained terrorists back to their countries of origin in recent months.The fact that Islamic terrorists have been able to sustain daily suicide attacks in Iraq while still drafting seasoned veterans out of the country for operations in Europe and the Middle East underscores the strength of the insurgency in Iraq.

Prior to the London bombings, Zarqawi threatened Britain, Italy, France, Denmark and Russia. The UK and Italy were top of the hit list. Also under threat were the nations of Egypt – which was hit early yesterday morning with devastating car bombs – Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Zarqawi also warned Israel that the state was “in his sights – and very soon”. There are major fears that the next al-Qaeda-inspired terror strike could employ some sort of dirty bomb in order to ramp up global panic.

Some intelligence analysts estimate up to 1000 foreign fighters in Iraq may have been ordered back to their homelands in countries as disparate as Egypt and Britain to prepare for assaults in their own states. Zarqawi’s base is in Iraq’s western province of Anbar – an area in which he appears to operate with relative impunity. Terror cells affiliated in some way to al-Qaeda are now operating in Europe, the Middle East, north and west Africa and southeast Asia. Terrorists are believed to have established links with criminal organisations in Europe and Africa to help them move men, money, weapons and explosives. The latest warnings have given European countries still engaged in Iraq until August 15 to pull out or face “a bloody war in the service of God”.

A statement from the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade, which claimed responsibility for the London atrocities, said: “There will be no more messages, just actions that will be engraved on the heart of Europe … these are our last words. The mujahidin, who are on the look-out, will have other words to say to your capitals.” Globally, intelligence agencies, including MI6 and the CIA, are beginning to look more and more at west Africa as the possible hide-out of some of the most wanted Islamic terrorists in the world – including those suspected of having connections to the London bombings.

Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade - “There will be no more messages, just actions that will be engraved on the heart of Europe …

these are our last words. The mujahidin, who are on the look-out, will have other words to say to your capitals.”

US and British intelligence representatives met recently with intelligence officers from Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott on July 13, shortly after the first London bombings. One theory is that the London bomb team may have received their final orders – and perhaps even their funding and explosives – from terror leaders operating the west African “franchise” of al-Qaeda.

Last month, Mauritania’s authorities seized documents they say were used by Islamic militants to “justify terrorism” and which gave practical tips on staging attacks. Al-Qaeda can no longer be considered the same organisation that it was prior to the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Instead it now operates more as an exportable ideology with local terror groups affiliating themselves to Osama bin Laden. These groups act independently of bin Laden and it is unlikely he would have known much, if anything, of any planning for atrocities such as the July 7 bombings in London. West Africa is a perfect hide-out for international terrorist, given its remoteness and the fact that there are so many tribes among whom operatives can hide. The main countries in which the al-Qaeda affiliates are based include Algeria, Mali, Burkino Faso, Benin, Niger, Nigeria and Mauritania.

Bin Laden 'in good health' – July 15, 2005

BBC News - An influential Arabic newspaper editor has been told that Osama Bin Laden is still alive - the second such report in a week. Abdel-Bari Atwan says the leader of the al-Qaeda network is in good health, but had been wounded in an attack on his base in Afghanistan last December.

Bin Laden "still the figurehead" of his al-Qaeda network

Mr Atwan, editor of the London-based Al-Quds newspaper, said Bin Laden's followers had told him that he would not make more video statements until his group launches another attack on the United States.

Bin Laden is alleged by the US to be behind the 11 September attacks in New York and Washington, which killed about 3,000 people.

Shrapnel

Mr Atwan is one of few journalists to have interviewed Osama Bin Laden before the US attacks. He said he had started his hunt for news of Bin Laden's whereabouts after the latest video footage showing the al-Qaeda leader - who is left-handed - barely moving his left arm. "His [Osama Bin Laden's] people said he was wounded in the shoulder by shrapnel. He is in good health now," Mr Atwan said on Monday. He said the injury was sustained during a US-led assault on his headquarters in the Tora Bora mountains in eastern Afghanistan in December. "They [Bin Laden's followers] also said Bin Laden would not appear in a video and just speak words. He will make another appearance only after his people attack the Americans again," Mr Atwan said.

US officials have made several warnings about a possible attack against American targets, by members of al-Qaeda. US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told American troops in Afghanistan on Monday that the organisation remained active despite the successes of the US-led campaign. "We have taken out maybe half of the top al-Qaeda and almost half of the Taleban leadership," Mr Wolfowitz said. " Twin Towers on 11 September It's going to be a long struggle," he added.

German evidence

Last week, the head of Germany's foreign intelligence agency also said Osama Bin Laden was alive and believed to be hiding in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Bin Laden's group has threatened more attacks

August Hanning told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag that the wanted Saudi dissident was still very much a key figure within the al-Qaeda terror network. "Given the information we have we are convinced that Bin Laden is still alive," he said. "He is still the figurehead of al-Qaeda, but doesn't appear to move around very much." Mr Hanning said that an estimated 5,000 al-Qaeda operatives still remained in Afghanistan and Pakistan, while others had returned to their countries of origin to plan new attacks.

"They are preparing new attacks from their new locations," he said.

Bin Laden Said To Be Healthy – June 15, 2005
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CBS) - Osama bin Laden is alive and in good health, as is fugitive Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar, a purported senior commander of the ousted Afghan religious militia said in a TV interview broadcast Wednesday. Pakistan's Geo television broadcast the interview with a man it identified as Taliban military commander Mullah Akhtar Usmani, a former Afghan aviation minister who said he still receives instructions from Omar.

Osama bin Laden and fugitive Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar (Photo: AP / CBS)

Asked whether bin Laden is hiding in areas of Afghanistan that are under Taliban control, the man said he would not specify where the terrorist mastermind was hiding. "Thanks be to God, he is absolutely fine," the man said. The man wore a black turban to shield his face, making it impossible to recognize him or verify his identity. He wore a gray jacket, and an AK-47 rifle was propped next to him as he spoke in front of a red-patterned, Afghan-style rug.

Geo said the interview was recorded last week, but declined to say where. A senior journalist at the independent station said on condition of anonymity that the interview was done near the Afghan town of Spinboldak, which is close to the Pakistani border. The interview was conducted in broken Urdu, Pakistan's main language and the language in which Geo broadcasts most of its programs. Most senior Taliban speak Pashtu. The man said the Taliban are still organized and senior Taliban leaders hold regular consultations. "Our discipline is strong. We have regular meetings. We make programs," the man said.

He said Omar does not attend the meetings but "decisions come from his side." He did not say where those meetings take place. In speaking about Omar, the man referred to the Taliban chief by his self-proclaimed title of "ameerul momineen" — "leader of the faithful." "Ameerul momineen is our chief and leader. No one is against him. Our ameerul momineen is alive. He is all right. There is no problem. He is not sick. He is my commander. He gives me instructions," the man said. Asked whether he has direct contact with Omar, the man said: "I will not say whether I meet with him or not. But he is giving instructions."

A U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban in late 2001. The offensive was launched after the Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden and dismantle al Qaeda bases in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Osama bin Laden and “The Terror Network” – a CBS Interactive

US, Britain, Egypt and Israel Are Lost for Answers to Mounting al Qaeda Offensive – July 23, 2005

DEBKAfile Special Analysis - Al Qaeda’s first coordinated bomb attacks on London’s public transport which shocked Britain on July 7 were mounted at the same time as the G8 summit in Scotland. The death toll rose to 56 with 700 wounded and an unknown number of victims still missing. The Islamists not only directed their destructive urge against London, but addressed a graphic threat to the 20 leaders of the world’s industrialized nations headed by US president George W. Bush who were meeting at Gleneagles. Since the failed September 11 2001 attempt to bomb the White House, this was the closest al Qaeda terrorists had come to key Western leaders gathered in one place.

Yet, strangely enough, all those leaders lined up to consign the attack to the British arena, as though it came from problems in British-Muslim relations rather than being an assault on the West. The string of bombings at Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm al Sheikh July 23, two days after the second round of London bombings, also coincided with the Middle East trip of the US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to Jerusalem and Ramallah. (She popped over to Beirut in between.)

Here too there was method in al Qaeda’s timing.

The distance between London and Gleneagles is comparable to the distance between Rice’s Jerusalem hotel and the Egyptian Red Sea resort. Al Qaeda chose its moment to devastate the Sharm paradise when the US, Britain, Egypt and Israel were immersed in an intense effort to clear away obstacles to Ariel Sharon’s evacuation of Israelis from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank, and make sure it will be free of Palestinian terrorist violence. By hitting Sharm al Sheikh, Osama bin Laden hammered home to Egyptian, British, American and Israeli leaders: We are now sitting on your doorstep. Get Sharon’s plan off the ground and you will find us entrenched on the map of Sinai next door to the Gaza Strip. In October 2004, we landed in northern Sinai, blowing up the Taba Hilton on the Egyptian-Israeli border and other resorts and killing 34 people including 13 Israelis. Now we have arrived at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, Sharm al-Sheikh. The Gaza Strip is our next destination. Just as our fighting men reached Iraq from all over the Middle East and the Muslim world, nothing will stop us pouring into the Gaza Strip from Egypt the moment Israel hands the border crossing over to the Egyptians and the Palestinians. We will then be in forward bases for fighting Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority just as we fight the Americans in Iraq.

Al Qaeda makes no secret of its plans. It is looking forward to the free ride to its first Mediterranean base afforded by the Israeli prime minister’s much-praised evacuation-disengagement plan, which goes into effect from mid-August. The terrorist group will also win a springboard to Israel and Europe across the water.

Yet the only controversy in Israel over the pros and cons of the pull-back operation is confined to the domestic, political plane, the dispute between so-called “right” and “left”. Even the arguments put forward by its most avid opponents lack strategic depth. Washington and London, aside from certain anti-terror experts, are blind to the fact that by exiting from Gaza, Israel will open the Mediterranean basin to al Qaeda’s spreading campaign of terror. They are pushing Israel and the Palestinians as hard as they can to make sure that Gaza’s handover takes place. Rice arrived post-haste to make sure the revival of Hamas suicide attacks would not delay the operation and that the Israeli government stays squarely on course for the home run.

American and British spokesman keep on reiterating that Israel’s first evacuation of complete communities will, as day follows night, cool the flames of Middle East terrorism – Palestinian and Iraqi alike. They insist that the more land Israeli cedes - on the West Bank too - the faster terrorist violence will disappear. The facts on the ground in London, Baghdad and Egypt in a single week fly in the face of this theory. As the date of the pull-back draws near, the flames of Islamic violence climb higher. This should be no surprise to any Western or Israeli decision-makers following al Qaeda’s broadcast messages. The group claiming the Sharm el-Sheikh bombings, for instance calls itself the Abdullah Azzam Brigades of Egypt and the Levant (Syria and Lebanon). It is named for the Palestinian terror ideologue who was Osama bin Laden’s early mentor in 1986-1987. The name is a pointer to the Palestinian link and the countries targeted. The timing of the attack rounds off the picture of al Qaeda’s motivation. Al Qaeda has never concealed its long term operational strategy. But its operational plans have been hidden well enough to miss being thwarted by the counter-terror agencies.

In the article in the opposite column, DEBKA-Net-Weekly and DEBKAfile’s terrorism experts offer new information on how al Qaeda is getting organized for action in the Middle East. The world Islamist organization is now active not only in Sinai south of Israel, but also in Jordan across from the Jewish state’s heartland, in the north in the Levant and among the Palestinians who live cheek to jowl with Israelis. Israeli officials are so busy second-guessing Hamas and trying to decide whether the radical Muslim group will shoot or hold its fire during the pull-backs that no one thinks of asking what will happen after it is over, when Al Qaeda’s bombers move over from Iraq – and from Sinai - to join forces with the Hamas and likeminded Palestinian terror groups sworn to destroy Israel - the Jihad Islami, and the radical Palestinian fronts. The blueprints drawn up in Washington, Jerusalem, Cairo and London, for securing the evacuations and their aftermath provide American, British and Egyptian assistance for setting up Palestinian intelligence and security bodies untainted by terrorism. This plan looks impressive – until it is examined in the light of the latest events in London and Egypt.

It may be recalled that five years ago, DEBKAfile’s analysts predicted in its first editions that a Palestinian-Israel war would erupt by the end of that year, 2001.

Four and a half years ago, the first issues of DEBKA-Net-Weekly warned that Osama bin Laden was preparing an attack in America and named New York’s Twin Towers. Two years ago, just before the US-led invasion of Iraq, we reported that Saddam Hussein, his sons and the Baath leadership were preparing a vicious guerrilla campaign against American forces. Now, in July 2005, DEBKAfile’s counter-terror analysts believe that, as soon as the last Israeli leaves the Gaza Strip towards the end of the year, and the northern West Bank in early 2006, al Qaeda’s networks will move in.

Zarqawi Dilutes Iraq Network, Leads New Al Qaeda Offensive in Europe and Middle East - July 23, 2005

DEBKAfile’s terrorism sources note Al Qaeda struck in Sharm al Sheikh Friday night, July 22, just 24 hours after US secretary of state Rice landed in the Middle East. At least 59 people were killed, 200 wounded in a series of al Qaeda car bomb attacks minutes apart. Britons, Dutch, Spaniards, Qataris, Kuwaitis and Egyptians were among the casualties. One Israeli was initially reported with minor injuries. Egyptian police say there were 4 to 7 car bombs – starting at the Old Market area and following in Naama Bay near the Ghazala Gardens and Moevenpick hotels. The bars and market were packed. People fleeing from one explosion were trapped in another.

Last October, al Qaeda struck resorts in northern Sinai resorts including Taba Hilton killing 34, among them 13 Israelis.

On July 15, DEBKA-Net-Weekly 214 reported that al Qaeda was diluting its Iraq force for a major terror offensive in Europe and Middle East engineered by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and on its recommendation.

The countries targeted were named as Britain, Italy, France, Denmark, Russia – with the UK and Italy at the top of the list; and, In the Middle East, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Israel. Zarqawi in one recent release: Israel is in our sights – and very soon.

Al Qaeda’s ability to carry out tightly coordinated strings of attacks very close together in different parts of the world has shocked many terrorism experts. According to our sources, the organization’s networks are now operating across the Middle East, Europe and West Africa from a headquarters established by Zarqawi in Iraq’s western province of Anbar. This large area bordering Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia has passed under his control. To relay operatives, instructions, explosives and funds to the bomber teams on the ground, the Jordanian terrorist is working with Middle East criminal smuggling rings linked to European and African mafias.

The car bombs blown up at Sharm el Sheikh bore Egyptian customs marks, indicating they were imported from outside Egypt. One fairly easy route would be the sea car ferry connecting Sharm el Sheikh to the Jordanian port of Aqaba.

Exerpts from DEBKA-Net-Weekly July 15.

While the Bush administrations prepares a troop buildup in Iraq, al Qaeda is engaged in the elaborate logistic process of shifting 1,000-1,200 terror combatants out of Iraq and getting them ready to fight on new warfronts. Everything is done in total secrecy. The terrorists are first repatriated to their countries of origin and provided with new passports and identities, before going on to join networks in Europe and the Middle East. Reporting exclusively on these surreptitious movements, DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s Al Qaeda and counter-terror experts estimate that the terror group has already kicked off its new offensive. The coordinated bomb blasts on three London Tube trains and a bus on July 7 was one of its initial strikes – although not the only one - and there are more are to come.

At least two major attacks already carried out in London and Damascus herald the new terror offensive:

The Syrian authorities have never released any figures or details of this attack. Scores are believed to have died and hundreds injured, including holidaymakers from Gulf Arab states, when a busload of armed men opened fire on the teeming cafes and restaurants of the Mount Qassioun resort overlooking the Syrian capital. DEBKA-Net-Weekly reveals here for the first time that it was the work of a Jordanian crime mob known as the Semadi Gang. They were aided by several al Qaeda adherents who were resting in Syria from their terrorist activity in Iraq.

Our counter-terror experts describe the Mount Qassioun attack as a landmark in al Qaeda methods as well as marking the onset of its Middle East offensive.

The gangster Muhammed Sharif Semadi who planned the operation has a lurid past. He spent time in a Jordanian prison where he got together with inmates associated with al Qaeda. After his release, he took his mob to Iraq and joined up with a fellow Jordanian, al-Zarqawi and persuaded him to press Jordanian criminal elements into service for the first time as terrorists. This influx would boost the terrorist network’s ranks while making use of the gang’s far-flung connections with crooks across the Middle East and Europe.

This experiment work so well, that DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s counter-terror experts report that Zarqawi has hooked up with another three large Jordanian crime outfits. One is the Jerabiya Gang, which based in the south Jordanian town of Maan, a notorious stronghold of Muslim extremists. Another is the Mustafa Abu Roman Gang from Salt and a third is a mixed Palestinian-Jordanian group called the Kuwait Returnees, which engages in criminal activities to support adherents, but whose basic philosophy is religious and extremist. Most of its members are Palestinians deported from Kuwait in 1992 after the Gulf War for collaborating with Saddam Hussein. One sub-faction calls itself “Disappointed with the Palestinian Revolution” and is dedicated to overthrowing Mahmoud Abbas.

Zarqawi designed an ambitious multiple attack for Jordan as his crowning venture. It did not come off. The scheme had four parts: One, to blow up the Iraqi-Jordanian oil pipeline from Kirkuk to Zarqa; two, to torch the hundreds of American and Jordan tanker trucks waiting outside Jordanian pumping stations including H4. The Jordanian-Iraqi border terminals were to have been attacked at the same time and the villages around the terminals and oil pipeline set on fire.

Four would have emanated from the first three: the cutoff of the main energy lifeline from Jordan to the US army in Iraq and Baghdad. Jordanian intelligence got wind of the danger in time and aborted the plot.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s anti-terror sources reports that Zarqawi placed one of his lieutenants, Abu Abd al Raham al-Afghani in charge of this operation. His real name is believed to be Ismail Abu Awda. The man on the ground in Jordan was to have been Fahd Faiqi, a Saudi Arabian aged 26, who lives in Jordan and acts as Zarqawi’s main contact with Jordanian crime gangs. It was not the only success chalked up by Jordan’s intelligence services. However, the information elicited from the dozens of detained members of Zarqawi’s networks and the frequency of the major attacks thwarted – an average of one every three or four weeks - sheds a sinister light on the Jordanian master terrorist’s immediate plans. He and al Qaeda are edging the focus of their operations out of Iraq into new arenas.

The extensive operational network al Qaeda and its top-flight operations chief have laid down in Jordan is matched in Syria. This organization, according to our sources, goes under the name of The Organization of Syrian Fighters” (Tanzim Jund al Shem). Many of its Syrian members fought in Afghanistan in the late 1980s and early 1990s and have joined the terror war against US forces in Iraq.

Al Qaeda-Syria has two commanders: Abu Rida al Shemi, a Syrian extremist close to Zarqawi. He was falsely reported killed in battle in the west Iraqi Anbar Province; and Abu Huzeifa, about whom nothing is known. All Qaeda’s Syrian logistical infrastructure depends largely on pacts its Iraq commander struck with elements of the two Iraqi tribes, the Rawi and the Dulaim, which straddle the two countries and whose sub-groups are scattered around the Middle East.

According to intelligence estimates, Zarqawi holds on to Anbar – a territory roughly the size of Texas - with a little more than 5,000 men, of whom roughly 1,000 are Saudi and Yemeni zealots, 300 Jordanian and an unknown number of Syrians, Moroccans and Palestinians. His firm grip on Anbar persuaded the al Qaeda hierarchy in Pakistan and Afghanistan that 1,000 men could be expended from other parts of Iraq and diverted to the new terror offensive outside Iraq.

In a message to his superiors, revealed here for the first time, Zarqawi offered his estimate that after three years of joint combat, Iraqi insurgents ought to be capable of running the guerrilla war against the Americans on their own. He therefore recommended reducing the terror organization’s involvement in Iraq to the minimum needed to retain its control and focus on preserving al Qaeda-Iraq’s grip on Anbar Province for use as a territorial base and springboard for attacks in other parts of the Middle East and Europe. These attacks will aim at engulfing additional territories in the region and toppling regimes. The onset of the new al Qaeda offensive in London, Syria, Jordan and now Egyptian Sinai, indicates that Zarqawi’s superiors gave him the go-ahead.

Gunmen kill fourth Afghan cleric – July 13, 2005

BBC News - Suspected Taleban militants have shot dead a pro-government cleric in southern Afghanistan, the fourth such killing in the past two months.

Maulvi Saleh Mohammad was shot by gunmen on a motorcycle in Lashkargar, the capital of Helmand province. A leading cleric in Paktika province and two in Kandahar have also been killed in recent weeks.

Separately, the US military said it had killed 17 suspected militants in two days of clashes in the south. Maulvi Saleh Mohammad was the head of the powerful clerics' council, or ulema, in Helmand. No one has yet said they carried out the attack, but Haji Mohammed Wali, spokesman for the provincial governor, blamed Taleban fighters. "He was on his way home from the mosque after prayers and he was shot and martyred by two gunmen on motorcycles," Mr Wali said. "The attackers fled the area."

Zabul fighting

The killing follows the murder of leading cleric Agha Jan and his wife in south-eastern Paktika province last Friday.

On 3 July, Maulvi Mohammad Musbah was shot dead in Kandahar and in late May gunmen there killed another supporter of President Hamid Karzai, Maulvi Abdullah Fayaz.

Taleban spokesman Mullah Abdul Latif Hakimi said its fighters carried out the three attacks. On Wednesday, the US military said it had killed 17 suspected insurgents in two days of fighting in southern Zabul province. Six more suspected militants were captured and 23 other people were being questioned, a US military statement said. The fighting took place in mountainous terrain close to where the US said it killed more than 70 suspected militants in fighting last month. Violence linked to the Taleban has risen this year ahead of parliamentary elections in September. More than 500 people, most of them suspected militants, are estimated to have lost their lives in bloodshed in the south and east in the past four months.

Al-Qaida's U.S. nuclear targets - Captured documents, terrorists reveal bin Laden's preferred dates, places for 'American Hiroshima' – July 18, 2005

Al-Qaida's prime targets for launching nuclear terrorist attacks are the nine U.S. cities with the highest Jewish populations, according to captured leaders and documents. As first revealed last week in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence newsletter published by the founder of WND, Osama bin Laden is planning what he calls an "American Hiroshima," the ultimate terrorist attack on U.S. cities, using nuclear weapons already smuggled into the country across the Mexican border along with thousands of sleeper agents.

The series of attacks is designed to kill 4 million, destroy the economy and fundamentally alter the course of history.

At least two fully assembled and operational nuclear weapons are believed to be hidden in the United States already, according to G2 Bulletin intelligence sources and an upcoming book, "The al-Qaida Connection: International Terrorism, Organized Crime and the Coming Apocalypse," by former FBI consultant Paul L. Williams. The cities chosen as optimal targets are New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Boston and Washington, D.C. New York and Washington top the preferred target list for al-Qaida leadership.

Bin Laden's goal, according to G2 Bulletin sources, is to launch one initial attack, followed by a second on another city to simulate the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The optimal dates for the attacks are Aug. 6, the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, Sept. 11 and May 14, the anniversary of the re-creation of the state of Israel in 1948. No specific year has been suggested, however, this Aug. 6 represents the 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima attack.

The cities chosen as optimal targets are New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago,

San Francisco, Las Vegas, Boston and Washington, D.C.

The captured terrorists and documents also suggest smaller attacks may take place on American soil before the nuclear incidents. They may include some involving automatic weapons at schools and shopping malls, but will not include any airplane hijackings. Why? Because bin Laden does not want any failed efforts to overshadow "the success of Sept. 11." There will also not be any attacks on U.S. nuclear power plants. The rationale? The nuclear power plants can act as force multipliers when the weapons of mass destruction are detonated.

Another requirement dictated from the top at al-Qaida is that the attacks take place in daylight, so that the whole world will be able to see the images of a mushroom cloud over an American city. One of the sources for the information is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the chief planner of the Sept. 11 attacks, who is now in U.S. custody. As previously reported by G2 Bulletin, al-Qaida has obtained at least 40 nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union – including suitcase nukes, nuclear mines, artillery shells and even some missile warheads. In addition, documents captured in Afghanistan show al-Qaida had plans to assemble its own nuclear weapons with fissile material it purchased on the black market.

The optimal dates for the attacks are Aug. 6, the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, Sept. 11 and May 14,

the anniversary of the re-creation of the state of Israel in 1948. No specific year has been suggested, however,

this Aug. 6 represents the 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima attack.

U.S. military sources also say there is evidence to suggest al-Qaida is paying former Russian special forces "Spetznaz" troops to assist the terrorist group in locating nuclear weapons planted in the U.S. during the Cold War. Osama bin Laden's group is also paying nuclear scientists from Russia and Pakistan to maintain its existing nuclear arsenal and assemble additional weapons with the materials it has invested hundreds of millions in procuring over a period of 10 years. Al-Qaida sources indicate they would prefer to use Russian-made weapons for symbolic reasons. The plans for the devastating nuclear attack on the U.S. have been under development for more than a decade. It is designed as a final deadly blow to the U.S., which is seen by al-Qaida and its allies as "the Great Satan."

At least half the nuclear weapons in the al-Qaida arsenal were obtained for cash from the Chechen terrorist allies.

But the most disturbing news is that high level U.S. officials now believe at least some of those weapons have been smuggled into the U.S. for use in the near future in major cities as part of this "American Hiroshima" plan. According to Williams, former CIA Director George Tenet informed President Bush one month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that at least two suitcase nukes had reached al-Qaida operatives in the U.S. "Each suitcase weighed between 50 and 80 kilograms (approximately 110 to 176 pounds) and contained enough fissionable plutonium and uranium to produce an explosive yield in excess of two kilotons," wrote Williams. "One suitcase bore the serial number 9999 and the Russian manufacturing date of 1988. The design of the weapons, Tenet told the president, is simple. The plutonium and uranium are kept in separate compartments that are linked to a triggering mechanism that can be activated by a clock or a call from the cell phone."

According to the author, the news sent Bush "through the roof," prompting him to order his national security team to give nuclear terrorism priority over every other threat to America.

However, it is worth noting that Bush failed to translate this policy into securing the U.S.-Mexico border through which the nuclear weapons and al-Qaida operatives are believed to have passed with the help of the MS-13 smugglers. He did, however, order the building of underground bunkers away from major metropolitan areas for use by federal government managers following an attack. Bin Laden, according to Williams, has nearly unlimited funds to spend on his nuclear terrorism plan because he has remained in control of the Afghanistan-produced heroin industry. Poppy production has greatly increased even while U.S. troops are occupying the country, he writes. Al-Qaida has developed close relations with the Albanian Mafia, which assists in the smuggling and sale of heroin throughout Europe and the U.S.

Some of that money is used to pay off the notorious MS-13 street gang between $30,000 and $50,000 for each sleeper agent smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico. The sleepers are also provided with phony identification, most often bogus matricula consular ID cards indistinguishable from Mexico's official ID, now accepted in the U.S. to open bank accounts and obtain driver's licenses. According to Williams' sources, thousands of al-Qaida sleeper agents have now been forward deployed into the U.S. to carry out their individual roles in the coming "American Hiroshima" plan.

Al-Qaeda leadership still in control – July 24, 2005

The Washington Post - The back-to-back nature of the deadly attacks in Egypt and London, as well as similarities in the methods used, suggests that the al Qaeda leadership may have given the orders for both operations and is a clear sign that Osama bin Laden and his deputies remain in control of the network, according to interviews with counterterrorism analysts and government officials in Europe and the Middle East. Investigators on Saturday said that they believed the details of the bombing plots in Egypt and Britain -- the deadliest terrorist strikes in each country's history -- were organized locally by groups working independently of each other. In Sharm el-Sheikh, where the death toll rose to 88 people, attention centered on an al Qaeda affiliate blamed for a similar attack last October at Taba, another Red Sea resort. In London, where 52 bystanders were killed in the subway and on a bus, police have identified three of the four presumed suicide bombers as British natives with suspected connections to Pakistani radicals.

But intelligence officials and terrorist experts said they suspect that bin Laden or his lieutenants may have sponsored both operations from afar, as well as other explosions that have killed hundreds of people in Spain, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Morocco since 2002. The hallmarks in each case: multiple bombings aimed at unguarded, civilian targets that are designed to scare Westerners and rattle the economy. The officials and analysts also said the recent attacks indicate that the nerve center of the original al Qaeda network remains alive and well, despite the fact that many leaders have been killed or captured since the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings in the United States. Bin Laden may be in hiding, the officials and analysts said, and much is still unknown about the network. But they added that his organization remains fully capable of orchestrating attacks worldwide by recruiting local groups to do its bidding. "What the London and Sharm el-Sheikh attacks may have in common are the people giving directions: This is what needs to be done, and this is how you do it," said Magnus Ranstorp, director of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Prince Turki al Faisal, the former director of foreign intelligence for Saudi Arabia who was named this past week as the kingdom's new ambassador to the United States, said in an interview, "All of these groups maintain a link of sort with bin Laden, either through Internet Web sites, or through messengers, or by going to the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan and maybe not necessarily meeting with bin Laden himself, but with his people. "Since September 11, these people have continued to operate," he said, speaking at his residence here, where he has been serving as ambassador to Britain. "They are on the run, but they still act with impunity. They can produce their material and get it to the media, it seems, anytime they like. Along with that, of course, are the orders they give to their operatives, wherever they may be." Overthrowing the Saudi monarchy has been a longtime goal for bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi native who was once close to the kingdom's rulers but was stripped of his citizenship in 1994.

Some senior U.S. officials have argued that bin Laden has been effectively bottled up since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and question whether al Qaeda still has the ability to plan major operations such as the Sept. 11 attacks. In April, for example, the State Department concluded in its annual report on terrorist activity around the world that al Qaeda had been supplanted as the most worrisome threat by unaffiliated local groups of Islamic radicals acting on their own, without help from bin Laden or his aides. The pattern of attacks in 2004, the report stated, illustrates "what many analysts believe is a new phase of the global war on terrorism, one in which local groups inspired by al Qaeda organize and carry out attacks with little or no support or direction from al Qaeda itself."

Some regional Islamic radical groups function independently of al Qaeda but enter into mutual alliances for specific operations or campaigns, experts say. In Iraq, for instance, one of the primary networks of insurgents fighting the U.S. military is led by Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian who has pledged his loyalty to bin Laden and acts publicly on behalf of al Qaeda but has developed his own organization. But intelligence officials and analysts from European and Arab countries say there is increasing evidence that several of the deadliest bombings against civilian targets in recent years can be traced back to suspected mid-level al Qaeda operatives acting on behalf of bin Laden and the network's leadership. In some cases, counterterrorism investigators have concluded that bin Laden or his emissaries set plans in motion to launch attacks and then left it up to local networks or cells to take care of the details. "The rather well-formed structure that they had prior to 9/11 does seem to be degraded," said a senior British counterterrorism official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "But there is still a fairly potent, if diffuse network out there that still aspires to make decisions. We should be very wary about writing them off." Saudi officials said the interrogation of terrorism suspects in that country, as well as intercepted electronic communications, show that bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, dispatched cell organizers to Saudi Arabia in 2002 and weighed in on basic strategic decisions made by the local al Qaeda affiliate. The al Qaeda leadership also gave direct orders to attack specific targets in the kingdom, Saudi officials said.

The local al Qaeda network carried out its first attack on May 12, 2003, driving explosive-laden cars into the gates of Western residential compounds in Riyadh, killing 35 people, including nine Americans. The explosion stunned Saudi government leaders, who only a few months before had said publicly that there were no terrorist groups operating inside the kingdom. Less than one week after the Riyadh bombing, explosions hit Morocco, which has a long history of close relations with the United States and little history of terrorism. On May 16, 2003, suicide bombers launched multiple attacks on hotels, restaurants and other civilian targets in Casablanca, killing 45 people. At first, counterterrorism officials in Saudi Arabia and Morocco saw no connection between the two attacks other than the fact that they occurred four days apart. They assumed that the timing was coincidental, or that the Moroccan bombings were prompted in part by the publicity generated by what happened in Riyadh. Today, however, counterterrorism officials in both countries say there were connections between the two groups that carried out the attacks. Two Moroccan al Qaeda operatives suspected of helping to organize the Casablanca bombings, Karim Mejjati and Hussein Mohammed Haski, surfaced as leaders of the local al Qaeda network in Saudi Arabia and were named to the kingdom's list of most wanted terrorist suspects. Mejjati was killed in a shootout with anti-terrorism police in a small Saudi town in April. Haski was arrested in July 2004 in Belgium, where he faces charges of helping to organize another sleeper cell with al Qaeda connections, according to Belgian officials and court documents. Both Haski and Mejjati were veterans of al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, documents show. A similar connection has emerged between the Casablanca bombings and the March 11, 2004, train explosions that killed 191 people in Madrid. Spanish investigators have identified a suspected ringleader of the Madrid attacks as a Moroccan al Qaeda operative named Amer Azizi, who is also wanted by authorities in Morocco on charges of involvement in the network that organized the Casablanca attacks.

Like Mejjati and Haski, Azizi spent time at al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan before 2001 and is believed to be a conduit to the al Qaeda leadership, intelligence officials said.Counterterrorism investigators and analysts said it was highly unlikely that the people who organized the July 7 London bombings were directly involved in the Sharm el-Sheikh attacks. But they predicted that both plots would eventually be traced directly to al Qaeda.

Ranstorp, the terrorism expert in Scotland, predicted that Egyptian investigators would pursue possible links to Zawahiri, an Egyptian-born physician who has served as bin Laden's top deputy and al Qaeda's leading ideologue since the early 1990s. "I doubt very much that this was done by the same group of Pakistanis who were apparently responsible for what happened in London," Ranstorp said. "But this very well could have been directed by Zawahiri, in terms of activating the Egyptian front." U.S. and European intelligence officials said they believe bin Laden and Zawahiri remain in hiding along the rugged border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where access and communications with the outside world remain difficult. But many other al Qaeda leaders have found refuge in Pakistan's urban areas, where they are freer to move around and make contact with operatives visiting from other countries.

Pakistani officials have confirmed that three of the four suicide bombers involved in the London attacks this month visited Pakistan for extended periods over the past two years, spending time in Karachi and Lahore, Pakistan's largest cities. Investigators suspect they may have met with al Qaeda operatives who gave them instructions for carrying out the bombings. British officials and counterterrorism analysts said the trail of the investigation was clearly leading to Pakistan, which has faced renewed criticism for giving haven to al Qaeda sympathizers and other Islamic radical groups. Several highly wanted al Qaeda leaders who have been captured in recent years by the FBI and CIA were caught not in the remote terrain along the Pakistani border, but in major cities such as Karachi, Rawalpindi and Lahore. "Why is it that all the roads keep going back to Pakistan?" said M. J. Gohel, a terrorism analyst and chief executive of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, a London-based think tank. "Is it a coincidence, or is there something more? The linkages there are just too strong and consistent. The whole backbone of the jihadi infrastructure is not being dismantled. It is still functioning."

The Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, pledged this week to renew his crackdown on "extremists" and Islamic radicals in the country and said officials were doing everything they could to cooperate with the investigation into the London bombings. But he bristled at the idea that Pakistan has remained a haven for al Qaeda.

Egypt and the “King of the South”

Sharm el-Sheikh body count hits 90 - Jun 24, 2005

The death toll from three bombs at this Red Sea resort rose sharply on Saturday. The Egyptian authorities said at least 90 people had been killed in an attack strikingly similar to one that tore apart resorts farther up the coast of the Sinai Peninsula nine months ago.

The latest attack, the worst in Egypt, ripped through an upscale hotel, a local market and a parking lot beginning shortly after 1 a.m., a synchronized series of blasts that witnesses and the authorities said had occurred about five minutes apart.Citing police officials, Reuters reported that 35 people had been arrested here Saturday, though it was not clear if they were suspected of close ties to the bombers or whether it was part of a general roundup.

Several hours after the bombings an extremist group claimed responsibility on an Islamic Web site. The group, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades of Al Qaeda in Syria and Egypt, also claimed to have carried out a similar series of bombings that killed 34 people last October at and near the resort town of Taba. Within hours, a second group, which identified itself as the Holy Warriors of Egypt, claimed responsibility in a fax to newspapers and gave the names of five people it identified as the bombers. Neither claim could be verified.

After the Taba attacks, the government made sweeping arrests throughout the area, saying local Bedouins were involved. Three men have been charged in the attacks and are facing trial, though there are widespread suspicions that the attacks were organized by a sizable, well-organized network. Egypt's interior minister, Habib el-Adly, who visited the latest blast sites on Saturday, said those behind the Taba explosions "could be linked" to the ones here. President Hosni Mubarak visited the wounded and later addressed the nation on television, vowing to track down those responsible. World leaders quickly condemned the bombings. "This cowardly, criminal act is aimed at undermining Egypt's security and stability and harming its people and its guests," Mr. Mubarak said. "This will only increase our determination in chasing terrorism."

The dead and injured included significant numbers of European tourists and Egyptians, with at least 240 people wounded, said Essam Sharif, director of emergency medicine in Sharm el Sheik. The foreign casualties included Spaniards, British, French and Italians, as well as Qataris and Kuwaitis. The bombings were all the more devastating as they provided a blunt coda to a month in which suicide bombers have also struck in Iraq, Israel and Britain, lending to the impression of a rising tide of terrorism.

Iraqi cities have seen a surge in bombings in recent weeks, including one by a suicide bomber who blew up an oil tanker last weekend in a small town south of Baghdad, killing at least 71 people. Londoners had barely been relieved of the shock of the first suicide bombings in Europe on July 7, when four more suspects apparently failed in trying to set off a new series of bombs on the city's transportation system on Thursday. Even as the London police released videotaped images of those suspects, the attacks in Egypt, two of which were carried out by suicide bombers, added fresh scenes of carnage to the already grisly tableau.

The first of the three explosions on Saturday was apparently set off by a suicide bomber in a car between the town's Old Market and a new shopping center, killing several people.

The second and worst of the bombings took place along the main strip of beachfront hotels when a bomber drove a small truck through a plate glass window and into the lobby of the Ghazala Gardens hotel. The entire entrance of the two-story building was reduced to rubble.

Ghazala Gardens Hotel – Sharm el Sheik at the Red Sea

The third and least damaging of the bombs exploded in a bag in a parking lot where there were relatively few people. Sharm el Sheik hosts many tourists this time of year, but the bombing sites were less than packed because of the late hour.

The bombings came about nine months after attacks in Taba and Nuweiba, north of Sharm, and south of Israel's border, which also included three closely timed explosions. Those bombs were aimed at popular sites for vacationing Israelis - among the only places in the Arab world where Israeli tourists traveled in large numbers. Egypt allowed Israeli ambulances and military units to cross the border at Taba to help with the rescue and forensic efforts.

While Saturday's bombings were similar in style, the target was somewhat different. The bombers attacked the largest resort city in a country heavily dependent on tourists from Europe and other Arab nations. The attacks could scare away visitors as happened in the 1990's with a previous round of terrorism. There have been recent indications of the possibility of pending attacks. In June, Mr. Mubarak told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot that his security forces had broken a cell that was planning to attack Israeli vacationers in the Sinai.

Sharm el Sheik has more than 100 hotels with more than 20,000 rooms - some for backpackers, some for Persian Gulf royalty. Most of the big hotel chains are represented there. The attacks came as Egypt was preparing for its first multicandidate presidential elections, to be held in September. Mr. Mubarak, who has served for 24 years, is expected to seek his fifth six-year term. The president says he has kept Egypt stable in a turbulent region; critics say he has undermined opposition.

The White House issued a statement saying that "the United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the barbaric terrorist attacks in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, that killed and injured scores of innocent civilians from many nations and religious faiths." The statement said that President Bush spoke with President Mubarak on Saturday and offered his condolences and the support of the American people.

Egypt and Mr. Mubarak have been fiercely criticized by Al Qaeda and its adherents for supporting American policy, as well as for its peace treaty with Israel. Egypt has also tried to crush or severely restrict Islamic political movements. The No. 2 man in Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is an Egyptian who was chief of Al Jihad, which helped produce a wave of violence in Egypt from 1991 to 1997. The bombings last fall ended a long period without large-scale attacks. The last major attack had been in 1997, when militants killed 58 foreign tourists and 4 Egyptians outside Luxor. An Israeli government spokesman, Avi Pazner, said Israel was closely monitoring the situation in Egypt but saw no reason now to call on the 10,000 or so Israelis vacationing in the Sinai to return home.

Yuval Steinitz, a Likud legislator and a sharp critic of Egypt, called the bombings a major failure by Egyptian intelligence. As the chairman of the Israeli Parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee, he has access to intelligence."At first sight, it looks like a failure on the intelligence and security front of the first degree," Mr. Steinitz told Israel radio. "There was a terrible attack less than a year ago in similar circumstances and all the red lights should have been flashing. The population of the entire southern Sinai is only in the thousands. In such a small population, in contrast to London, you should be able to control the intelligence situation."

On Saturday, a video posted on the Internet showed Egypt's envoy to Iraq, who was kidnapped in Baghdad on July 3 and is believed to have been killed, discussing the Israeli presence in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. A statement with it said, "In the land of Egypt the Jews have taken possession of its Sinai and dominated its Muslims through the services of the Egyptian tyrants," according to a translation by the Site Institute, which translates statements made by terrorist organizations. One of the Europeans killed in the attack was Sebastiano Conti, a 34-year-old Italian. He was in the last days of a vacation with his wife, his brother, and his brother's girlfriend, an Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera reported. The others were injured. Mr. Conti worked at a shopping center in Riposto; his wife is a cashier there. The Italian newspaper quoted a friend of the Contis as saying that they usually vacationed in Spain, "but this year they chose Egypt because it cost less." Mr. Conti leaves behind two children, who had remained in Italy with their grandparents.

Bombings in Egypt's Tourist Resort: 88 Dead – July 24, 2005
Zaman - As the shockwaves from the London blasts continue, terror this time turned Egypt's renowned tourist resort of Sharm al Sheikh into a blood bath on Saturday July 23.

Three simultaneous blasts in the Egyptian Red Sea resort killed at least 88 and injured 200. An al-Qaeda linked terrorist organization calling themselves the Abdullah Azzam Brigades have claimed responsibility for the attacks. Three blasts that are believed to have been two suicide car bombs and a bomb in a suitcase damaged neighboring buildings and buried several under the debris. It was announced that eight out of 88 dead were foreigners. A 26 year-old Turkish citizen whose name was reported as Cagla has been seriously injured but there is no information on the other four Turkish nationals yet. World leaders sent their condolences and offered aid to Cairo. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the fight against terrorism was international and added, "Their fight is ours, our fight is theirs."

Movenpick Hotel at Sharm al Sheikh

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, "I condemn the attacks and repeat our call to the entire world for a common fight against terror."

Reportedly, seven bombs were used in the attacks. The first explosion was set off by a suicide bomber in front of a cafe between the Old Market and a new shopping center. Twenty people, most of whom were Egyptians, were killed in the explosion and their bodies were unrecognizably burned. Fifteen minutes after the first explosion at 01:15 local Egypt time, two more explosions were heard at Naama Bay where Western tourists stay at luxurious hotels. The two explosions one in front of the entrance of Ghazala Hotel and the other in the autopark of Movenpick Hotel caused many causalities. The Ghazala Hotel was ruined after the explosion and front wall of Movenpick Hotel, where a heavy duty bomb exploded, was completely destroyed. The hospitals in the city were not sufficient to care for the injured so they were sent to Cairo.

It was interesting that the attacks in the town took place prior to the first multi-candidate presidential elections in the country and especially on the National Day of Egypt. Tourism, which is the most important income sector of Egypt, rapidly developed in Egypt after the tsunami in southeastern Asia. A lot of tourists, among whom there are also Turks, began to return to their countries after the explosions. Egyptian Security sources noted that there are 2 English, 2 Italians, 1 Ukrainian, 1 Russian, 1 Dutch and 1 Israeli Arab among the victims. The attack, that shocked Egypt, has also exceeded the Luksor carnage in 1997 which caused killed 58 tourists and 4 Egyptians. President Mubarek ended his vacation immediately and visited the region after the explosions. He said: "This wretched attack, which aims to destabilize Egypt, will empower our determination to struggle against terror."

The blasts damaged the surrounding buildings and created panic among the public. Witnesses asserted that the blasts "rocked buildings within a 10-kilometer distance." A witness describing the blast in front of the cafe said, "the blast turned the cars into metal skeletons, demolished the walls of the buildings nearby, and flung glass fragments hundreds of meters away." Other bloody terror incidents that took place in Egypt, besides those of Luxor and Sharm Al Sheikh were: the killing of 18 Greek Tourists mistaken for Israelis by radical militants near the pyramids on April 18, 1996, the killing of 9 German tourists and an Egyptian driver in Cairo by armed men on September 18, 1997, the bomb attacks targeting the Taba Hilton Hotel near the Israel border and two beaches in the south that killed 34 people including 10 Israelis.

Tourists Run Away

Following the attacks that hit the famous tourist resort, tourists begun to leave Sharm al Sheikh. European tour operators canceled tours to the region. The bomb loaded car that exploded in the Gardens Hotel's entrance ruined the hotel building. Movenpick Hotel's facade where valises of explosives were detonated was completely destroyed. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who interrupting his vacation to visit the site of the incident said the attacks that "targeted Egypt's stability" would not affect the fight against terror. Mubarek was vacationing in a Villa ten kilometers away from the Ghazala Gardens Hotel.