http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/26/international/europe/26london.html
Police Name 2 of 4 Men Linked to Bomb Attempts By ALAN COWELL Published: July 26, 2005 LONDON, July 25 - The British police on Monday identified by name two of four men suspected of trying to set off bombs on the London transportation network last week and said the men used a Tupperware- like container - known as a Delta 6250 - to build the devices. Peter Clarke, the head of London's antiterrorism police, also said there were "clear similarities" between the four failed bombs used on three subway trains and a bus last Thursday and a fifth device found in a park in northwest London on Saturday. The discovery raised the possibility that a fifth bomber had been involved in the failed attacks on Thursday but had for some reason abandoned his explosives. Mr. Clarke renewed his appeal to the public for information about the suspects in the Thursday attacks, underscoring the urgency of police efforts to apprehend the four men and forestall any further attempts at violence. The police have said repeatedly that they do not rule out more attacks. Also on Monday, Prime Minister Tony Blair said at a news conference that he "deeply regretted" the police killing of a 27-year-old Brazilian electrician, Jean Charles de Menezes, whom the police mistook for a suicide bomber and shot eight times, not five times as first reported. "We are all desperately sorry for the death of an innocent person, and I understand the feelings of the young man's family," Mr. Blair said. "But we also have to understand that the police are doing their job in very, very difficult circumstances." So far five men have been arrested under British counterterrorism laws in connection with the failed bombings, but Mr. Clarke indicated that the five do not include the four main suspects, whose images have been widely distributed. Speaking at a briefing for reporters, at which no questions were permitted, Mr. Clarke produced an example of a plastic, white-lidded container called a Delta 6250, with a capacity of a bit more than one and a half gallons. It is made in India and sold in about 100 British outlets.. On Monday, the police also raided a home in the New Southgate area of north London that had been visited recently by one of the failed bombers, identified by Mr. Clarke as Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27, who also goes by the name of Muktar Mohammed Said. The man was said to have tried to bomb a No. 26 bus in east London on Thursday and was one of the two men identified by name on Monday. The second of the two suspects identified by name was Yasin Hassan Omar, 24, accused of trying to bomb a Victoria Line subway train between Oxford Circus and Warren Street in central London on Thursday. The police did not provide any details about the four men, although some of them have been reported to be from East Africa. In each case, Mr. Clarke said, the assailants tried to set off explosives carried in sports bags or small backpacks, and then fled on foot when the bombs failed to detonate. "Initial forensic examination of the four partially detonated devices has revealed clear similarities with yet another bomb which was found by a member of the public on Saturday 23rd July," he said. "This had apparently been abandoned in an open area at Little Wormwood Scrubs." "All five of these bombs had been placed inside dark colored rucksacks or sports bags," he said. "All of them were made using the same type of plastic food-storage container." "My appeal is to any shopkeepers and shop workers who may have sold five or more of these identical food containers in recent months, perhaps to the same customer," Mr. Clarke said. "Do you remember selling a number of these white topped containers at the same time?" Grainy images of the four suspects, taken from closed-circuit television cameras, were made public by the police after the Thursday attacks. Mr. Clarke made two more images public on Monday, one showing in a close-up the man who the police said tried a bus bombing, and the other showing an unidentified man riding the subway between Stockwell and Oval. That man is seen at 12:25 p.m. on Thursday, standing in a subway car and wearing a sweatshirt with the words "New York" across the chest. Behind the man, other riders sit reading newspapers. At the time, investigators said detonators failed to set off the explosives, which may have been of a homemade type known as triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, and nicknamed by insurgents the Mother of Satan. Mr. Clarke, the antiterrorism official, said that the man in the "New York" sweatshirt was chased through the Oval subway station by several members of the public, but that he had managed to escape into the surrounding Brixton neighborhood, leaving the sweatshirt behind. The failed bombings were the beginning of a series of events culminating in the fatal shooting of Mr. Menezes, mistaken by the police for a suicide bombing suspect at Stockwell station in south London - the subway station said by Mr. Clarke to have been used by three of those attempting bombings last Thursday. A spokeswoman for the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating the shooting, said on Monday that he was shot eight times - seven times to the head and once to the shoulder. Britain's foreign secretary, Jack Straw, met with the Brazilian foreign minister, Celso Amorim, on Monday, after Brazil demanded an inquiry and the dead man's family threatened to sue the British police. Mr. Straw said the family's claim for compensation would be handled "sympathetically and quickly." But Mr. Amorim, asked if he was satisfied with the British response, said at a joint news conference with Mr. Straw: "I think I can only give that reply in full when all the stages already mentioned have been fulfilled, when the investigation has been completed and if guilty people have been punished, if it was an accident or an error or whether it was something else, when the questions relating to the family have been settled." British officials said Mr. Menezes's visa had expired, possibly explaining why he had run from the police, but his family said his visa was still valid. Mr. Blair, flanked by the visiting French prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, urged Britons to give the police their full support "in doing the job they have to do in order to protect people in this country." Both he and Mr. de Villepin said they had agreed to exchange information on radical clerics and on the protection of high-profile terrorist targets. "I want to express to you, Tony, and to all the British people, the solidarity and friendship of the French people," Mr. de Villepin said - a marked contrast in tone from a rancorous dispute only weeks ago between France and Britain over European Union finances. In the latest, publicized raid in London, the police stormed a one- bedroom apartment on the ninth floor of a housing project called Curtis House in north London, residents said. Shammy Jones, a 33-year-old homemaker living on the fifth floor, said she recognized the man identified by Mr. Clarke as Muktar Said Ibrahim. Two men of Somali background also lived in the apartment - No. 58 - as did another man she knew only as George, she said. "Three or four weeks ago my kids were holding the lift open for George and one or two of the other guys," Ms. Jones said. "They were taking loads of small cardboard boxes to the flat. They told me it was wallpaper stripper. I didn't really think much of it at the time but they all looked really heavy - about 50 of them." Tanya Wright, 32, a hairdresser living on the eighth floor, said the police "knocked quietly on our door" at 1:15 a.m. on Monday and evacuated the building. "They said it was to do with the London bombings," she said. The Stockwell subway station where Mr. Menezes was shot also figured prominently in Mr. Clarke's account of the failed bombings on Thursday. "Three of the men we wish to trace all entered Stockwell Underground station just before 12:25 p.m. last Thursday, 21st July 2005," Mr. Clarke said. "The first man got onto a Northern Line northbound train and shortly afterwards attempted to set off a bomb between Stockwell and Oval stations," he said. "The train stopped at Oval station and he was then chased from the station by extraordinarily brave members of the public who tried to detain him. That man has not been identified by name. "The second man also went into Stockwell Underground station. He was seen walking towards the platforms. We know that at 12:53 he got on a No. 26 bus in the Bank area of the City. He was carrying a gray and black rucksack and sat on a seat towards the back of the bus with the bag next to him. He too tried to set off a bomb." This was a reference to the man identified as Mr. Said Ibrahim. Mr. Clarke continued: "A third man entered Stockwell Underground station at the same time as the others with a small purple rucksack. He tried to set off a bomb on a northbound Victoria line train between Oxford Circus and Warren Street Underground stations." Mr. Clarke identified that man as Mr. Omar. "A fourth man involved in this series of attacks entered Westbourne Park Underground station just after 12:20 pm last Thursday," Mr. Clarke said. "He was wearing a dark blue baseball cap and carrying a small rucksack. He then got on a train traveling towards Shepherd's Bush. A short while later he, too, tried to set off a bomb. He then got off the train, probably by climbing through a window at the end of the carriage." The fourth suspect was not identified by name. Jonathan Allen and Hélène Fouquet contributed reporting for this article. -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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