-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: June 30, 2007 3:58:46 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Another "Terrorist Threat" to Keep the UK "On Board," Now
That Tony's Gone
Car bombs come to London
· 'Iraqi-style' device defused outside club
· Second explosive found nearby
· Massive hunt for culprits
Vikram Dodd Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian (UK), June 30, 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,2115451,00.html
Police were last night hunting a suspected al-Qaida-inspired
terrorist cell after the discovery of two "Iraqi style" car bombs,
which UK officials said were designed to cause mass murder. One was
outside a London nightclub, and a second nearby.
Only luck and probable faults in the bombs' construction meant that
the first device, inside a metallic green Mercedes, could be
disarmed, while the second, in a blue Mercedes 280E, failed to
explode. Police say both were capable of causing severe casualties
and were intended to have been detonated remotely, most likely by a
mobile phone.
Counter-terrorism officials said the first device -- made up of 60
litres of petrol, several propane gas cylinders, nails and a
detonation mechanism -- was similar to those used by al-Qaida in Iraq.
------------
London Police Foil Major <sic> Terror Plot
Saturday June 30, 2007 12:46 AM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6747370,00.html
By PAISLEY DODDS
Associated Press Writer
LONDON (AP) - Police thwarted a devastating terrorist plot on
Friday, discovering two Mercedes loaded with nails packed around
canisters of propane and gasoline set to detonate and kill possibly
hundreds in London's crowded theater and nightclub district.
The plot, coming only two days after Gordon Brown took over as
prime minister, raised the specter of the attacks in July 2005 when
the London Underground and an iconic double-decker bus were
targeted by a group of homegrown terrorists who killed 52 people.
As police searched for car bombs and terrorists in the city of 7.5
million, roads were closed and police sirens echoed. Authorities
stepped up security across Britain, from central London streets to
the Wimbledon tennis tournament.
But Londoners - with long experience in dealing with bombs and
terrorism - were not in hiding and the West End was bustling again
by nightfall Friday.
``I know you can't live your life being scared,'' Natalie Huntley,
28, a tourist from Adelaide, Australia, said outside St. Paul's
Cathedral even as police investigated another suspicious vehicle
parked on nearby Fleet Street. ``You've just got to keep going,
don't you?''
Authorities said the bombs in both cars were similar and that each
Mercedes had been abandoned in the same area near Piccadilly
Circus. Had they exploded, at least hundreds of people would have
been killed.
The discovery of the car bombs before they exploded was a bonus for
police, who checked for fingerprints and DNA clues, as well as
other trace evidence. They also had the benefit of footage from
closed-circuit TV cameras, hoping the surveillance network that
covers much of central London will help them track down the driver
of the Mercedes.
The CCTV footage would be compared with license plate recognition
software, British anti-terror police chief Peter Clarke said. There
are 160 security cameras in the Westminster Council, the district
encompassing Piccadilly Circus and the Haymarket area, alone.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the plot, and government security
officials said late Friday that no suspects have been identified.
But the discovery of the second bomb, about 20 hours after the
first, suggested a coordinated and more sophisticated plot than was
initially thought -- similar to the July 7, 2005 suicide bombings
where four bombs exploded within an hour of one another on London's
busy transit system.
Some analysts said the bombers could be trying to send a message to
Britain's new leader.
``It's a way of testing Gordon Brown,'' said Bob Ayers, a security
expert at the Chatham House think tank. ``It's not too far-fetched
to assume it was designed to expedite the decision on withdrawal
(from Iraq).''
Professor Paul Wilkinson, chairman of the Center for the Study of
Terrorism and political violence at St. Andrews University, said a
number of factors could have come together to prompt the thwarted
attacks.
``With the change in prime minister this could be the work of al-
Qaida,'' he said. ``They have a track record of trying to influence
political change through violent means such as in the Madrid train
attacks.
After the first bomb was announced, a sober Brown said ``we face a
serious and continuous security threat in our country.''
"We are currently facing the most serious threat to our security
from international terrorism," Britain's new home secretary, Jacqui
Smith, said after an emergency meeting of top officials.
-----------
John O'Connor of Scotland Yard, retired, spoke on CNN this
afternoon. He stated that the first car bomb was so clumsily made,
it wouldn't have caused any serious injuries even if it had
exploded as intended, and that any damage (from the car going up in
flames) would have been limited to yards of its location.
--------------
London's Crude Incendiary Device
June 29, 2007 16 28 GMT
http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?
id=291389&selected=Analyses
British security forces deactivated what appeared to be a crude
firebomb in a vehicle that crashed into a trash bin in central
London's Haymarket district early June 29. If the device was
intended to cause casualties as part of a militant plot, however,
its amateur construction and the way it was placed suggest the
plotter or plotters have no connection to a major militant
organization.
The incident began shortly before 2 a.m. local time when an
ambulance crew, responding to a call about an injury at a nearby
nightclub, noticed a Mercedes E-190 with what appeared to be smoke
pouring out of it. Bouncers working the doors of nightclubs in the
area reported that the vehicle was being driven erratically before
it crashed it into the trash bin. Afterward, the driver and several
other people reportedly fled the scene.
Police called to the site cordoned off the area, while explosives
experts examined the vehicle, finding what a police spokesman
described as "a potentially viable" explosive device. Police
manually disabled the device and later were seen removing gas
canisters from the vehicle.
The Mercedes reportedly contained several canisters of propane gas,
a large amount of gasoline, nails -- presumably to act as shrapnel
-- and a means to detonate the device. The amount of gasoline was
so great that the fumes it emitted looked like smoke rising from
the car.
After the device was rendered safe, the vehicle was removed intact
from the scene for a forensic investigation. It is unclear how much
explosive material, if any, was recovered from the device.
Although London Metropolitan Police counterterrorism chief Peter
Clarke said early on in the investigation that the device could
have caused "significant" loss of life had it detonated, several
factors make this improbable.
The device possibly was meant to be an explosive-actuated
incendiary device. Such devices -- more commonly called firebombs
-- work by using a relatively small low-intensity explosive charge
to ignite a more volatile flammable material. This results in an
intense, rapidly spreading fire that can quickly engulf a confined
space such as a building, rail car, subway car or airplane. A
firebomb would not be as dangerous in an open outdoor space like
the one in this case.
Furthermore, powerful explosive-actuated incendiary devices are
extremely difficult to make, and getting the explosive charge to
ignite the fuel is challenging. In many cases, the initial
explosion merely hurls the tanks or otherwise fails to puncture the
containers or ignite the gas -- or it damages the tanks to the
point that the gas leaks out harmlessly. The amount of flammable
gas apparently recovered in this incident would have been
sufficient to create a massive fireball, though in order for the
device to reach its full explosive potential, it would have to have
been carefully designed with a precise mixture of fuel and air.
The bombmaker and the car's driver (assuming they are two people)
erred in deploying the device. By crashing into the trash bin, the
driver brought attention to himself and the vehicle, while the
escaping gas fumes also called attention to the Mercedes. In any
case, with so much forensic evidence remaining intact, British
authorities have a good chance of identifying the culprit or
culprits soon. Furthermore, the heavy closed-circuit TV coverage in
London should allow authorities to obtain video and still photos of
the would-be attackers.
Initial reports of the discovery of a "massive" car bomb indicate
the level of tension in London regarding potential militant plots.
Coming on the heels of several high-profile terrorism convictions
and arrests of suspected militants in the United Kingdom, this
incident will serve to increase tensions -- and vigilance -- in
London. Following the Haymarket incident, British police cordoned
off another area in central London, Park Lane, to investigate
reports of a "suspicious vehicle" believed to be connected to the
Mercedes.
Remarking on the incident, new Prime Minister Gordon Brown
confirmed that the United Kingdom faces a "serious threat" from
terrorism. Vigilance will likely increase in the rest of Europe as
well. Before this, German authorities already were reporting
elevated threats of militant attacks after receiving intelligence
from U.S. authorities.
----------------
London Bomb--What a Crock of Crap!!
by
Larry C Johnson
http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/06/london-bomb--
wh.html#more
So I turn on the telly this morning and find breathless CNN anchors
hyperventilating over the nuclear suicide car weapon of mass
destruction discovered smoldering outside of a London nightclub.
One report from the scene notes that:
London police were contacted when witnesses saw a Mercedes being
driven erratically near London West End night club Tiger Tiger, and
the driver jumped out of the automobile and ran away. The car was
reported to have two gasoline canisters and be full of nails.
CNN adds:
Explosives officers discovered the fuel and nails attached to a
"potential means of detonation," inside the vehicle. Officers
"courageously" disabled the trigger by hand, he said. Security
sources told CNN that the "relatively crude device" in the first
car contained at least 200 liters, or about 50 gallons, of fuel in
canisters.
You know what you call a vehicle with 50 gallons of gas? A
Cadillac Escalade. The media meltdown over this incident is simply
shameful.
For starters, gasoline is not a high explosive. If we were talking
50 pounds of Semtex or the Al Qaeda standby, TATP, I would be
impressed. Those are real high explosives with a detonation rate
in excess of 20,000 feet per second. Gasoline can explode (just
ask former owners of a Ford Pinto) but it is first and foremost an
incendiary. If the initial reports are true, the clown driving the
Mercedes was a rank amateur when it comes to constructing an
Improvised Explosive Device aka IED. Unlike a Hollywood flick the
50 gallons of gas would not have shredded the Mercedes into lethal
chunks of flying shrapnel.
The fact that "officers courageously disabled the trigger by hand"
coupled with the report of the smoke in the car leads me to believe
that the mad London "bomber" tried to construct a Molotov cocktail
of sorts and lit a cloth fuze. Fortunately he left the windows in
the car up and there was not enough oxygen to really get the fire
going. Looks like the brave British police reached in and snuffed
the flame.
Judging from the overreaction to this non-incident I think we can
safely conclude that Osama Bin Laden will remain holed up in
Pakistan and let the fear mongers at CNN, MSNBC, and FOX do the
dirty business of scaring the shit out of people.
UPDATE: Ahh, the panic continues. Yuppie terrorists are on the
loose. Now we're being told there are two cars (both Mercedes I
might add) with a Rube Goldberg contraption consisting of propane
tanks, some petrol, a light bulb (or maybe light bulb filaments),
etc. A propane tank explosion makes a hell of a noise but does not
create widespread shrapnel dispersion. Busted eardrums and broken
glass are more likely. Getting these tanks to explode is
difficult. The ones I have witnessed occurred when a house under
construction caught on fire. But there is nothing in two 25lb
propane tanks inside a Mercedes that will detonate with sufficient
force to shred the automobile and send hundreds to meet their
Allah, God, Buddha, or whatever. Still a crock of hype and over-
reaction. Let the police do their job. Investigate the culprits
and get these nitwits out of circulation before they harm themselves.
---------------
London Car Bomb
By Cernig
http://cernigsnewshog.blogspot.com/2007/06/london-car-bomb.html
So a "potentially viable" explosive device was discovered in a car
in London's Haymarket last night, as I'm sure everyone is aware by
now. The British and American media and every blogger in America
are all over this, but to be honest there's a hell of a lot of re-
treading of a very few facts going on. At this point, it seems to
me, there are three questions to be asked and a clear answer to
only one of them.
1)Was the bomb-plot a serious threat?
Well, the bomb wouldn't have been discovered if the car's driver
hadn't crashed it into a bunch of trash-cans and then ran for it.
That means the plot was off the radar as far as UK intelligence was
concerned. Still, there's any number of possible reasons why the
driver crashed and ran. If his running off was the plan all along,
indicating that the explosion should have followed close on his
departure, then the bomb failed to detonate properly. If he was a
suicide bomber, he didn't have the courage of his convictions or
was confused by petrol fumes. If it was meant to be a remotely
detonated device, his clumsy actions blew the plot instead of the
bomb. None of the possibilities point to experts or even efficient
amateurs.
Likewise, the use of gasoline and propane point to an attempt at a
fuel-air explosion -- but if so, the presence of nails shows the
folks responsible don't really get the dynamics of such explosions.
As expert David Hambling points out, either the fuel-air explosion
works or the nail-bomb element works -- not both. That indicates
they're amateurs with knowledge gleaned second-hand rather than
trained experts who understand the physics of explosives.
And David, not being a Brit insurance underwriter, may have missed
one important fact. UK propane and other gas canisters don't
explode in all directions. They're manufactured with a deliberate
weakness in the base so that any explosion is channelled as the
base gives way. The canister will shoot out like an underpowered
rocket, but the explosive force of the detonation is far smaller
and more directional (backwards) than if the whole canister failed
all at once. That's why the famous "Gas limos" scheme wasn't quite
all it was hyped to be.
There's too much unknowns to be sure, but my assumption is that the
device, while a "viable" one, was an amateur job and the threat
wasn't as serious as it's being painted. I wouldn't want to be
standing next to it if it went off, but the folks in the club were
safe.
2) Who is responsible for the failed attack?
Who the f**k knows? If I were a betting man I'd say the odds are on
some homemade Islamist group of ad hoc terrorists. But there's no
description of the guy seen running away and as yet no news on if
the local cameras caught his face. London's a big and open city and
is home to just about every group with a grudge on the planet.
London gangsters conducting a nightclub feud (yes, Virginia, the
bad boys still do that kind of thing in Britain - I could tell you
stories from my fire insurance days...), some IRA splinter group,
an Islamist group either homegrown or foreign - there's a possible
list as long as your arm. The close-by aniversarry of the 7/7
attacks, Brown's recent accession to power and other circumstantial
evidence for blaming islamists is exactly that - circumstantial. It
could all be a coincidence and we'll just have to wait and see.
3) How will Londoners (and Brits in general) react?
Londoners have survived the Blitz, gangland wars, bloody riots, the
IRA and any number of small-time nutters who wnated to use
nailbombs on gay folks, blow up black folks, or just generally
attack anyone who wasn't in their self-defined list of those who
deserved to live. This one didn't even explode.
The answer is simple - Londoners will, overwhelmingly, shrug and
carry on.
Update The UK's Telegraph is reporting that another car bomb has
been found in the Park Lane area, which also failed to explode even
after being loaded onto a trailer for illegal parking and taken to
the police pound. It also says the original device failed to go off
after four attempts were made to explode it by mobile phone signal.
That speaks to incompetent wannabes.
In the US, ABC's The Blotter has an exclusive report that the local
CCTV system has a "crystal clear" picture of the man seen running
away from the crashed car - and the suspect is indeed a Muslim, who
bears "a close resemblance" to a man police had previously arrested
and released on suspicion of involvement in the "gas limo" case.
These are, however, both anonymously sourced stories and so
shouldn't be taken as gospel until an official spokesman is willing
to put his or her name to them.
Meanwhile, the Telegraph's pet neocon shill in Washinton, Con
Coughlin, is sure we're looking at an Al Qaeda message to Gordon
Brown, despite having no evidence for such an opinion.
If the car bomb, which was placed outside one of London’s most
popular nightclubs, had successfully detonated it would have caused
widespread devastation and loss of life, and would have forced Mr
Brown to demonstrate whether he has the strength of character and
leadership qualities that are required when the country suffers a
major terrorist attack.
The implication being that Brown doesn't have such strength, even
if he does certainly have the strength of character to cock a snook
at Coughlin's neocon pals in the U.S. by appointing Malloch Brown
to a foreign office post.
Update 2 That second car bomb has now been confirmed by the UK's
anti-terror police chief, Peter Clarke, in a statement. His
statement also confirms that someone attempted to trigger the bombs
but they failed to detonate. I think we're looking at ambitious
homegrown amateurs, still.
Update 3 The London Times has found an expert willing to deny logic
and causation to make the bombs seem scarier. He says the explosion
would have " generated a fireball the size of a house and a shock
wave spreading out over a diameter of at least 400 yards". However,
it's clear from his explanation that for this to be true, the cloud
of gas from the propane cylinders would have to expand to its
fullest possible extent before igniting -- something that would be
impossible in the presence of burning petroleum -- and that the
original explosive charge would have to be big enough to fragment,
not just pierce, the gas cylinders. Given the lack of evidence of
such a large conventional explosive charge so far, he's pushing the
boundaries of possibility to their maximum. Professor Hans Michels
was also a prominent expert consulted by both the media and the
prosecution during the "liquid bomb" plot furore and subsequent
trial in 2005.
See what's free at AOL.com.
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