London bombings part of Muslims radicalization
Regional-UK, Politics, 5/11/2006

The UK's parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee confirmed today that police have not uncovered any evidence of direct links between last year's terrorist bombings in London and the Al-Qaeda network.

The all-party group of MPs, which reports directly to the prime minister, said that the terrorist attacks did not reveal any failure of the intelligence services in preventing the series of bombings but suggested increased resources may have helped.

The coordinated attacks on London's transport system last July, which killed 52 people, have been blamed on four "home grown" suicide bombers.

In a report on related intelligence matters, the ISC suggested that the bombers were inspired by Osama Bin Laden's ideology but not directed by a terrorist network. There was also no evidence of a "'fifth man."

Muslim leaders in the UK said today the publication of two official reports on last year's London bombings as not going far enough to develop a government strategy to defeat terrorism.

The Muslim Council of Britain said that in the light of a report by the Intelligence and Security Committee and the Home office "narrative" of the attacks, it was reiterating its original call for a full judicial inquiry.

"The publication of these two reports today cannot replace the need to hold an independent and robust public inquiry into the terrible events of July 7 2005," MCB Secretary General Sir Iqbal Sacranie said.

The parliament's report, which examined related intelligence, suggested that a lack of resources prevented security services from intercepting four suicide bombers blamed for the coordinated attacks on London's transport system that killed 56 people.

A 40-page narrative of events, set for publishing today by the Home Office, was expected to highlight the "home-grown" nature of the bombers and acknowledge that foreign policy was an element in their radicalization, but not directly blame the Iraq war.

Sacranie said given the enormity of the atrocities together with a desire on the part of many of the families of the victims for a full explanation of what happened, it is "absolutely imperative that an independent public inquiry be held at the earliest."

UK's parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee expressed concern that more was not done sooner to tackle the development of "the home-grown threat" and said that the "radicalization of British citizens" was still not fully understood or properly taken into consideration by the intelligence community."

Many British politicians and among the public have blamed has British foreign policy (in reference to the war launched against Iraq) for the London bombings.

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  BBC: Yemeni anti-terror scheme in doubt   (11/5/2005)
  British judge describes Iraq invasion as foolishness   (10/20/2005)
  Britain bans 15 ( terrorist) organizations   (10/11/2005)
  The Independent: War on Iraq created terror, British journalist   (9/27/2005)
  Clergymen urge government to apologize to Muslims for war on Iraq   (9/20/2005)
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  al-Jazeera TV: Zawahiri warns Brits against the Blair policies, threatens Bush   (8/5/2005)
  Iraq war is behind the attacks on London, Brittish poll   (7/25/2005)
  Guardian: Robin Cook on London explosions: our troops are part of the problem   (7/16/2005)
  Arab leaders denunciation of London's explosions   (7/8/2005)

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