UK silence over bombings deafens

By Paul Reynolds
BBC, 5 August 2005

World Affairs correspondent, BBC News website

The details emerging from sources abroad about the London bombings illustrate yet again the restrictive attitude adopted by the British police and legal authorities.

We have learned that they were made of easily available ingredients and even that they might have been set off by timers on mobile phones, raising the intriguing question as to whether these were suicide bombers at all.

For those who have worked as reporters in the United States, it has come as little surprise that the information has come from there.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) has a team detailed to examine al-Qaeda-type bomb attacks all round the world and they were sent at once to London. Their findings were given to a meeting of security experts.

Reporters were at the meeting and the NYPD said they had the go-ahead from the Metropolitan Police in London – although they later admitted that was an error.

For those who have worked as reporters in the UK, it comes as no surprise that little information is coming out from here.

There have been other examples. On 7 July, the day of the first bombings, the police here were extremely cautious in giving even an estimate of the number of dead for some hours after the attacks.

Crime scene material

I flew in from Mexico City that day at about two o’clock and was told that only three people had died. Yet Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who was visiting London, was already giving a much higher and, as it turned out, not inaccurate figure based on what he had been told by the British authorities.

“ The UK’s paternalistic Contempt of Court law is out of step with democratic times ”

Heather Brooke

Your Right To Know

Then there were the photos of the insides of bombed carriages and of the nail bombs left in the bombers’ car at Luton. These first appeared on the American network ABC and were presumably obtained from American sources.

As we know, the British have been telling the US a great deal. Scotland Yard asked the British media not to use them on the grounds that they could impede inquiries and prejudice a prosecution. Eventually, however, the media in this country did use them, arguing that they were by then in the public domain.

The police did not explain why inquiries might be hindered but one can guess at one reason. Police often keep quiet about items found at crime scenes in the hope that a suspect refers to them, thereby indicating his or her presence at that scene.

Often the media are happy to comply with police requests. They kept to a news blackout on the day when the 21 July suspects were arrested in London.

And then there are the reported statements coming from the suspect held in Rome, Osman Hussain, who is also known, we learned from Italian police, as Hamdi Issac.

His Italian lawyer has released far more detailed information than would normally be the case if a suspect were arrested in the UK.

Fair trial

The British caution is governed by two factors. One is a law and the other is an attitude.

The law is the Contempt of Court Act 1981.

This bans the publication of material which creates a substantial risk that the course of public justice will be seriously impeded or prejudiced, in particular legal proceedings that are “active” at the time of the publication, and regardless of any intent to do so.

This basically means that once a suspect has been arrested, most information about him or her or anything beyond the bare details of the crime is simply banned.

The thinking is that only a jury should hear such evidence. Otherwise jury members – or indeed potential witnesses – might be “contaminated” or “prejudiced” by what they have heard or seen before they get to the courtroom.

This law explains why, in British criminal cases, the background is only fully revealed by the media after the verdict has been given.

It does not, of course, apply if a suspect dies, which is why so much has come out about the bombers who did die.

No limits

In the United States and many other countries, there is no such restriction. The media will reveal details immediately, as they did about the Oklahoma bomber, Timothy McVeigh, and the Washington sniper, John Allen Muhammad, for example.

The American press and courts guard the right to report very strongly and it is even written into the first amendment to the constitution: “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”

This does not allow absolute licence because there are often competing rights from other quarters, but it is a powerful incentive.

The US courts deal with the problem of possible prejudice by questioning juries in advance, but mainly by trusting them to take decisions on what they hear in the evidence, not what they hear in the media.

One problem for the future is the internet. It knows no borders and information on the internet often contravenes the British law of contempt. Can the law survive in such an environment, in which case will new ways of protecting the accused have to be found?

‘Blanket of secrecy’

The other issue in the UK is attitude. There is a basic assumption by many British public bodies that the public does not need to know and that therefore the public will not be told.

Information, often of an innocent or harmless sort, is often hidden under a blanket of secrecy.

It is easier to block all information than to work out which bits might “seriously” impede or prejudice a trial.

Heather Brooke, a campaigner for greater openness who has worked in the United States as reporter herself, runs a British group called Your Right to Know.

In an article in The Independent newspaper she said: “That the police and judges want to stifle this lifeline to information shows the extent to which the UK’s paternalistic Contempt of Court law is out of step with democratic times.”

Ms Brooke went on: “No-one doubts the right of a defendant to have a fair trial, but it must be balanced against the law-abiding public’s right to be kept informed and the victim’s right to justice.

“Where empirical studies have been done – in the US for instance, where there are no such contempt of court laws – the evidence is overwhelming and all points in one direction: media exposure has no effect on a juror’s decision.”

Now jurors would say that wouldn’t they?

But it is time, perhaps, for a debate to be held. And the way that information has been coming out following the London bombs could speed up that process.

TMS sends journalists home on biggest news day of year

15 July 2005

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=31204

Journalists at more than 60 weekly newspapers were banned from going out to report on the London bombings last Thursday amid fears for their safety – even though some were as far away as Kent and Buckinghamshire.

Staff at Trinity Mirror Southern titles – including the South London Press, The Wharf, the Croydon Advertiser, the Reading Chronicle and even the Whitstable & Herne Bay Times series – received an order to come back to the office or go straight home on Thursday afternoon.

A member of staff who contacted Press Gazette said the decision “went down like a lead balloon” in newsrooms as even journalists who were on jobs unrelated to the bombing, miles from London, were recalled.

The email, which was sent to all TMS newsdesk staff at 12.22pm by edi- torial director Marc Reeves, said: “Staff safety is the NUMBER ONE priority at this time.

“Please call back into the office anyone out in the field whether on bombrelated stories or not. Alternatively, send them home if they are closer.

“For staff in the office, take a view based on local police advice whether and when to send them home.

“You must account for every member of staff under your care today.”

A reporter at one of the weekly papers, who asked not to be named, said: “Even reporters covering village fetes out in the middle of nowhere had to go home.

“With some of the orders we get, it has long been believed that Trinity Mirror head honchos forget that we actually work hard to produce local newspapers, and this one just about summed it up.

“During the biggest story of the year,London TMS reporters and photographers were recalled to their offices and then sent home as their offices were shut.”

A spokesman for Trinity Mirror Southern said: “Every TMS title is a weekly, and the deadlines for all but three had passed. Those that hadn’t gone to press already had extensive coverage of the morning’s events filed.

“Therefore, after consulting with senior editors from across TMS, the managing director and editorial director took the view that there was no immediate need for employees to be out on the streets.

“They decided the responsible course of action was to recall all field staff to their offices or to send them home.”

He added that papers such as TMS flagship the South London Press – which comes out on a Friday – achieved “superb” coverage despite the early end to the day.

July 7 Tube bomber argued with cashier shortly before blast

By Jason Bennetto, Crime Correspondent, The Independent, 31 October 2005

One of the suicide bombers who attacked London on 7 July was filmed arguing with a cashier about being short-changed hours before he blew himself up.

Another of the terrorists – the teenager who destroyed a double-decker bus – was also captured on surveillance cameras wandering around the streets of London, “bumping into people”, before detonating his rucksack bomb.

New details of the behaviour and last movements of the four suicide bombers, who killed 52 people, were disclosed by a representative of the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch, the magazine Police Review has reported.

The counter terrorist expert also told a seminar that the policing bill for the attacks on 7 July and the failed bombings on 21 July so far stands at £77m.

He warned traffic officers that the four terrorists – Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Germaine Lindsay, 19, and Hasib Hussain, 18, – did not fit the preconceived terrorist profile.

Tanweer hired a Nissan Micra and is believed to have been used to bring the other two Leeds-based terrorists, Hussain and Khan, to Luton railway station, from where they took the train into London for the bombing mission.

As an example the unnamed official told delegates that Tanweer argued with a cashier that he had been short changed, after stopping off at a petrol station on his way to the intended target in London.

The official told the seminar held in Preston, Lancashire two weeks ago: “This is not the behaviour of a terrorist – you’d think this is normal.

“Tanweer also played a game of cricket the night before he travelled down to London – now are these the actions of someone who is going to blow themselves up the next day?

“I’ve seen the CCTV footage of these people. They do not appear to be on their way to commit any crime at all. The Russell Square bomber [Hasib Hussain] is actually seen going into shops and bumping into people [prior to his attack].

“We have been told in the past that the normal age [for a terrorist] is about 30 … that profile is totally wrong.”

Fresh details about the apparent confusion and disorientation of the youngest bomber, Hussain, follows the disclosure that he left the Underground system and wandered around the King’s Cross area – at one point he was filmed going into a McDonald’s take-away – before setting off his bomb on a No 30 bus in Tavistock Square, killing 13, more than an hour after the other terrorists had detonated their devices on the Tube trains.

Tanweer detonated a bomb on a Circle line train between Aldgate and Liverpool Street stations which killed seven people, including himself.

Detectives also discovered that three of the bombers – not including Hussain – had visited London and staged a practice run nine days before the attack.

The representative from the anti-terrorist branch warned officers at the seminar that terrorists may not necessarily act like people who are about to blow themselves up.

He told delegates to watch out for signs of hostile reconnaissance. He added: “They will be looking to obtain a profile of the building, determine the best mode of attack, and determine the optimum time to conduct an operation.”

The official asked officers to look out for groups of two or more people taking significant interest in the location of CCTV cameras, and also vehicles parked outside a building with people staying inside the vehicle longer than usual.

July 7 ‘helper’ played cricket with Aldgate bomber

James Sturcke and agencies, The Guardian, 21 May 2008

A man charged with helping the July 7 bombers to plan their attacks told a court today of the last time he saw his childhood friend Shehzad Tanweer.

Waheed Ali said Tanweer, the Aldgate bomber who killed seven people, played cricket with him on the evening of July 6 2005, the night before the attacks on three London tube trains and a bus.

“On that day, he made a bit more of an effort, looking back,” he said.

The pair, who were once very close, had seen less and less of each other as Tanweer, whom he knew by his nickname, Kaki, spent more time with the July 7 ringleader, Mohammed Siddique Khan, Kingston crown court has heard.

Ali, 25, from Beeston, Leeds, told the jury his friend had given him no clue about what was being planned.

He said Tanweer told him they were “doing something for the brothers” and asked Ali to stay away from them.

Ali said he was happy his friend had come to talk to him on July 6, and thought things were getting back to normal.

“I thought they had finished what they were needed to do and we’d start chilling again,” he said.

“This was the last time I saw my best friend alive, and I wouldn’t change that for all the tea in China. I can still remember it vividly – I think he knew that this was the last time he was going to see me.

“It’s difficult, because he had been my friend since I was little and I had a lot of love for him. But what he did was unbelievable.”

He told the court the world would “always remember” Tanweer for what he had done.

“I can never justify what he did – I’m not going to try to justify what he did, but I’ve got my story about Kaki,” he added. “There are two different stories.”

Ali is charged, along with Mohammed Shakil, 31, and Sadeer Saleem, 27, both also from Beeston, with conspiring with Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Jermaine Lindsay, Hasib Hussain and others unknown to cause explosions between November 17 2004 and July 8 2005.

They all deny the charges. The trial continues.

Evacuation mulled as London prepares for terror drill

Posted Sun Sep 7, 2003 10:27am AEST

British police will stage a mock attack on an underground train in the heart of London on Sunday (local time), to prepare for what Britain’s top policeman has said is an almost inevitable strike on Washington’s closest ally.

Police, firefighters and ambulance staff will rush to the assistance of panic-stricken “passengers” at Bank station beneath the Bank of England while “victims of the chemical strike” will be decontaminated in tents set up in the street above.

British newspaper The Sunday Times said there were secret plans to evacuate parts of the city in the event of a real threat.

Quoting what it said were leaked government documents, the newspaper said the evacuation plan – “Operation Sassoon”, would see Londoners ferried to “rest and reception areas” in the countryside surrounding the city.

The operation could take place after an attack or simply after “high-level intelligence” showing an attack was imminent.

It listed Heathrow airport, the business districts of Canary Wharf and the City of London, and the area around Parliament as possible targets.

Britain’s top police officer Sir John Stevens said last week Britain faced a threat from suicide bombers and his London force was on its “highest level of alert” for any attack.

With the second anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States on Thursday, London as Washington’s top ally in the Iraq war is considered a prime target.

In Sunday’s drill, which will last several hours, fire crews will test new equipment for decontaminating the public and for identifying chemical weapons, although the chemical threat itself will remain strictly theoretical.

There has never been a suicide bombing in Britain, but anti-terror police have arrested more than 300 people since the September 11 attacks, with deadly ricin poison found in a London flat.

Eyewitnesses: Two men shot in London [on 7 July 2005]

Thursday, 7 July 2005, 15:00 by evry for TV 2 News

TV2 News talked with Marianne Joergensen who is an employee with Access Flooring Co. in London. She learned from other employees of her company that two suspected suicide-bombers were shot dead at Canary Wharf.  

“They have phoned one of our supervisors and told him they attended two men who were shot deliberately by the police or by soldiers”, reported Marianne Joergensen to TV2 News. The police denied, however, in a press meeting, to be aware of any information about the shooting of anyone.

Original in Danish:

Øjenvidner: To mænd skudt i London

Torsdag d. 7. jul. 2005; kl. 15:00 af evry for TV 2 Nyhederne (opd. d. 7/7 2005; 15:00)

TV 2/NYHEDERNE har netop talt med Marianne Jørgensen som er ansat i fir­maet Access Flooring Company i London. Hun har via ansatte i sit firma fået at vide, at der ved Canary Wharf er blevet skudt og dræbt to formodede selvmordsterrorister.

“De har ringet til en af vores formænd og fortalt ham, at de har overværet to mænd blive skudt – med fuldt overlæg, af politiet eller soldater,” fortæller Marianne Jørgensen til TV 2/NYHEDERNE. Politiet afviste dog på et pressemøde, at de havde fået information om, at nogen var blevet skudt.

BBC News 27 April 2010

MI5 ‘misled MPs over 7/7 bombers’, court hears

MI5 deceived MPs by claiming London’s 7/7 bombers had not been identified before the attacks, a court has heard.

In May 2006 the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) said security agencies had not identified the men.

But a second ISC report in 2009 said MI5 held records relating to ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan, the court heard.

The claims were made at a hearing to decide the format of inquests into the deaths of those killed in 2005.

Khan and three other suicide bombers killed themselves and 52 innocent people when they detonated their devices on three Tube trains and one bus.

[Note by the webmaster: This fact was never proved]

The coroner, Lady Justice Hallett, is holding a three-day hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London to decide what form the inquests – expected to start in October [2010] – should take.

Lawyers for the families of those who died argue that they should include a broad-ranging investigation of whether the authorities could have prevented the attacks.

‘Incapable of deception’

Patrick O’Connor QC, counsel for four of the bereaved families and 15 survivors, said: “The last time MI5 was accused of deception… the ceiling seemed to fall in, as if MI5 is incapable of deception.

“They aren’t, and they deceived the ISC.”

He went on: “MI5 left the ISC under this misunderstanding – and therefore the British public – for three years, thinking they had not identified Mohammad Sidique Khan before the 7/7 bombings.”

He said the ISC’s findings would be “deeply undermined” if MI5 had deliberately misled the committee.

Mr O’Connor strongly criticised MI5’s involvement in the 7/7 case, saying the agency demonstrated flaws in its assessment policy, record-keeping and co-operation with other agencies.

Neil Garnham QC, counsel for the home secretary and MI5, urged the coroner not to examine how the security service dealt with the limited information it had about the bombers before the attacks.

He said: “The public interest would, we submit, not be served – in fact would be positively damaged – by attempts in these inquests to reinvestigate the matters that were before the ISC.”

Mr Garnham also suggested that national security could be damaged if the inquests attempted to delve deeper into MI5’s activities.

The hearing continues.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/8649577.stm

BBC News, 28 April 2010

7/7 files ‘impossible’ to access

Four suicide bombers detonated their devices on three Tube trains and one bus killing 52 innocent people.

It emerged after the attacks that security agencies came across two of the bombers in 2004 while investigating other terrorist plots.

Developed vetting

But they were not considered to be of sufficient interest to be put under surveillance.

The hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice heard there would be no problem with providing highly sensitive intelligence material to the coroner and counsel to the inquests.

But any jurors could only see the material if they all underwent intrusive “developed vetting” and neither the bereaved families nor their lawyers would be allowed to see it.

Neil Garnham QC, counsel for the home secretary and MI5, said the two official reports about the attacks by the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) – made up of security-cleared MPs – had adequately investigated MI5’s involvement.

He added there was “overwhelming” public interest in not having top secret MI5 documents revealed in the hearings.

The coroner, Lady Justice Hallett, asked whether it would be possible to restrict the intelligence material discussed in the inquests to that related to the 7 July attacks.

She said: “The families want to know why the decisions were taken in the way they were, and to put questions.”

But Mr Garnham suggested a problem would arise because it was necessary to put the decision not to place the 7 July bombers under surveillance in context of all the other investigations MI5 was carrying out at the time.

He said: “It is difficult to see how that can be done without, metaphorically speaking, handing over the keys to Thames House.”

The coroner also revealed she went on the internet to read conspiracy theories about the attacks.

The hearing continues.

On 7/7/2005 Netanyahu Changed Plans Due to Warning on London Bombings

By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jul 7, 7:14 AM ET

JERUSALEM – British police told the Israeli Embassy in London minutes before Thursday’s explosions that they had received warnings of possible terror attacks in the city, a senior Israeli official said.

Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had planned to attend an economic conference in a hotel over the subway stop where one of the blasts occurred, and the warning prompted him to stay in his hotel room instead, government officials said.

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said he wasn’t aware of any Israeli casualties. Just before the blasts, Scotland Yard called the security officer at the Israeli Embassy to say they had received warnings of possible attacks, the official said. He did not say whether British police made any link to the economic conference. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the nature of his position.

The Israeli Embassy was in a state of emergency after the explosions in London, with no one allowed to enter or leave, said the Israeli ambassador to London, Zvi Hefet. All phone lines to the embassy were down, said Danny Biran, an Israeli Foreign Ministry official.

The ministry set up a situation room to deal with hundreds of phone calls from concerned relatives. Thousands of Israelis are living in London or visiting the city at this time, Biran said.

Amir Gilad, a Netanyahu aide, told Israel Radio that Netanyahu’s entourage was receiving updates all morning from British security officials, and "we have also asked to change our plans."

Netanyahu had been scheduled to stay in London until Sunday, but that could change, Gilad said.

Pathos of the bogus doctor who became '53rd victim' of 7/7

By Andrew Alderson and Nina Goswami
Last Updated: 11:50pm BST

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007250889,00.html

Muslims: 'Bombers innocent'

By ANDREW POTTER
June 05, 2007

NEARLY a quarter of British Muslims believe the 7/7 bombers were NOT responsible for the attacks, a shock new poll shows.

And more than two-thirds (68 per cent) think the Muslim community has NO responsibility for the emergence of extremists wanting to target Britain.

Over half believe the security services have made up evidence to convict terror suspects.

The poll, indicating opinions among the estimated three million Muslims in Britain, was conducted for Channel 4 News.

It came on the day the Prime Minister insisted the “overwhelming? majority of UK Muslims wanted to be loyal citizens.

Tony Blair also told a London conference of top Muslims that Government cash would be be used to train imams ? Islamic religious leaders ? at British universities.

He said he hoped the move would mean mosques not relying so much on overseas imams who may not understand British language or culture.

Mr Blair pledged

Anti-terror drill revealed soft targets in London
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1525247,00.html

Mark Townsend and Gaby Hinsliff
Sunday July 10, 2005
The Observer

A massive anti-terror exercise carried out last April to find out how safe London's transport systems were from attack raised concern over the vulnerability of passengers, The Observer can reveal.

Washington sources have revealed that the biggest transatlantic counter-terrorism exercise since 9/11 – which included 'bombs' being placed on buses and explosives left on the London underground – raised fears over the vulnerability of 'soft targets' in the capital.

The anti-terror drill, codenamed Exercise Atlantic Blue, involved 10,000 personnel in the UK and 2,500 in the UK. It was billed as the biggest test of the anti-terror defences of both the UK and the US and was designed to improve security. The exercise featured simulated explosive, biological and chemical attacks and, in the case of London, concentrated on testing security weaknesses in the transport system.

However, a source for Homeland Security, the leading US security department, said that, following the London exercise, the capital's 'defences were broadly positive but there was concern over soft targets'.

It has also emerged that the Japanese interior minister warned last month that the G8 nations should clamp down further on security around underground trains. A dozen commuters died and more than 5,000 were injured in the 1995 attack on the Tokyo underground in which members of the cult Aum Shinrikyo released sarin gas.

Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, confirmed that the need to improve underground security had been discussed at a G8 summit of interior ministers in Sheffield in mid-June, at which MI5 chief Eliza Manningham-Buller delivered an assessment of the threat to G8 nations. 'The Japanese particularly raised it because of the sarin issue. It was a very moving discussion – the Russians were talking about Beslan, the Japanese about the underground. We got more of a common sense of determination,' he said.

Whitehall sources said the tube had long been the focus of concern, both because of the difficulty of rescuing people and because of the way that, in some cases, tunnels amplify the blast. A full-scale mock attack was staged in September 2003 to give emergency services the chance to rehearse: lessons learnt from it, including the need for specially adapted trolleys to use in rescuing passengers from narrow tunnels, were put into place last week. Firefighters have also been trained to drive tube trains, so that if a driver were killed they would be able to move a train to the safety of a platform; the trains hit last week were too badly disabled to be moved.

A subway attack formed a prominent element of Exercise Atlantic Blue. During the exercise, led in the UK by the Metropolitan Police, the role of the intelligence services in intercepting 'chatter' is understood to have been praised.

A source at Homeland Security said that post-exercise debriefings were still ongoing and that a final report into the UK and US exercises would be published later in the year.

Although the rescue effort itself went smoothly last week, Whitehall sources said transport had presented the most problems, with privatised rail and bus companies struggling to co-ordinate decisions to suspend services.

July 7 bombs: three in court as hunt goes on