One Year Later, Video Shows Warning by a London Bomber -
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
One Year Later, Video Shows Warning by a London Bomber - ... http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/07/world/europe/07britain.htm... July 7, 2006 One Year Later, Video Shows Warning by a London Bomber By ALAN COWELL LONDON, July 6 — On the day before the first anniversary of the London bombings, Al Jazeera television showed a video on Thursday that appeared to be a last testament recorded in advance by one of the four attackers warning that, "What you have witnessed now is only the beginning." The broadcast included separate scenes of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No. 2 leader of Al Qaeda, suggesting that the group was seeking to take responsibility for or at least to associate itself with the attacks. When that was recorded was unclear. The bomber, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, appeared in a red-and-white checked headdress against a backdrop that seemed strikingly reminiscent of a setting used in a video broadcast last September of a man identified as Mohammad Sidique Khan, who is suspected of being the ringleader of the attacks. On that video, Mr. Khan, 30, declared, "We are at war, and I am a soldier." The four bombers killed themselves and 52 victims in attacks on three subway trains and a bus on July 7, 2005. The attacks stunned Britons in part because they had been planned and carried out largely by British-born Muslims drawn to militant Islam. A report by Parliament in May said that Mr. Khan and Mr. Tanweer had visited Pakistan before the attacks, and, while there, might have contacted Qaeda figures and trained to use explosives. The tape broadcast Thursday also showed what seemed to be a terrorist training site and a map of London with areas circled as potential targets. The parliamentary report said that Mr. Khan and Mr. Tanweer had been observed by British counterterrorism police officers on the "peripheries" of another terrorist operation in Britain. But, it said, counterterrorism agencies had failed to grasp the "development of the homegrown threat and the radicalization of British citizens." Speaking on the video in the accent of his native Yorkshire, Mr. Tanweer said, "What you have witnessed now is only the beginning of a string of attacks that will continue and become stronger until you pull your forces out of Afghanistan and Iraq and until you stop 1 of 3 8.8.2012 15:25 One Year Later, Video Shows Warning by a London Bomber - ... http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/07/world/europe/07britain.htm... your financial and military support to America and Israel." He also said Britons deserved the attacks because they had voted for a government that "continues to oppress our mothers, children, brothers and sisters in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya." The British police did not directly confirm the authenticity of the tape. Andy Hayman, a senior officer, said in a statement: "We are aware of the tape, and this will form part of our investigation. There can be no doubt that the release of the video at this time can only cause maximum hurt and distress to the families and friends of those who died on 7/7 and the hundreds of people who were injured in the terrorist attacks." On Monday, Peter Clarke, chief of London's counterterrorism police, said officers were still trying to discover "who else, apart from the bombers, knew what they were planning." After the Khan video was shown last September, senior police officers said it seemed to have been made overseas. The timing of the broadcast on Thursday seemed intended by Al Qaeda to overshadow preparations for a relatively muted anniversary to be marked with two minutes of silence at noon, church services and the unveiling of commemorative plaques at the bombing sites. John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, said: "Hundreds of people are bereaved today, scores still suffer from injuries, and as a nation we feel scarred by the atrocities of July 7, 2005. They are a harsh reminder of what happens when brutality combines with a false ideology." In the attacks a year ago, Mr. Tanweer detonated explosives in a backpack aboard a subway train. Bombs also exploded on two other trains and aboard a No. 30 double-decker bus. A former student from a relatively well-off family in the rundown Beeston district of Leeds, he had worked for a spell in a family fast-food outlet. His estate was valued at more than $200,000, although the source of his wealth was not clear. Irshad Hussain, a friend of Mr. Tanweer's family, told the Press Association on Thursday that the family was "still devastated." "They have lost a son," he said. "They really, really looked after their son. They looked after him, gave him everything. He was doing well at university. They don't know what happened. They want to find out what happened to their son. Who got him involved, who masterminded it?" The BBC quoted the father of another bomber, Hasib Mir Hussain, 18, as denying that his son was involved. "No one has shown me any evidence that he did it," Mahmood Hussain said. The fourth bomber was Germaine Lindsay, 19, from Aylesbury, north of London. Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, said the video "appears 2 of 3 8.8.2012 15:25 One Year Later, Video Shows Warning by a London Bomber - ... http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/07/world/europe/07britain.htm... to confirm that the four 7/7 bombers were indeed radicalized due to aspects of our country's foreign policy and participation in the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq." But, he said, "it is obscene to suggest that you can somehow secure justice for the people of Iraq by committing an injustice against the people of London." Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company Privacy Policy Search Corrections XML Help Contact Us Work for Us Site Map 3 of 3 8.8.2012 15:25.