* Hussain claims he wasn't carrying enough explosives in his bag to
harm anyone - an empirically verifiable assertion
Aswat's father blames race for UK authorities' failing to assist his
estranged son: "We wonder whether the government's attitude would have been
any different if it was a white, non-Muslim citizen detained in a foreign
country."
* The use of two ethnic groups ensured that when the police focus was
on the Pakistani community after the July 7 attacks, the East African group
could still move freely.
Bomber's trail raises network fears
By DAVID RISING
Associated Press
7/31/2005 <http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050731/1066529.asp>
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050731/1066529.asp
<http://www.buffalonews.com/images/space.gif>
<http://www.buffalonews.com/images/space.gif> LONDON - When the
bomb he tried to detonate aboard a London subway train failed to explode,
police say Osman Hussain jumped out a window, ran along the track, then tore
through back yards before melting into the city's bustle.
After going underground for five days, Hussain boarded a train at Waterloo
station, possibly walking past his picture and those of three other
suspected July 21 attackers on posters that blanketed the city.
Then he slipped away, traveling from London through France to Rome where he
was arrested Friday.
His ability to escape a massive British dragnet, coupled with the arrest of
another suspect in Zambia with al-Qaida ties, raised fears about the global
reach of today's terrorists and the depth of their networks.
"The way people fanned out after the bombings, it's brought it home to
people ... that it is part of a kind of a network, interconnected - all the
fingerprints are there," said Michael Cox of London's Royal Institute of
International Affairs. "They'd have to have a much wider support base than
just those who are active suicide bombers."
Hussain, 27, an Ethiopian-born Briton, was captured at his brother Remzi
Isaac's house in Rome, where police traced him through his use of a
relative's cell phone.
He admitted playing a role in the July 21 attack but said it was only
intended to be an attention-grabbing strike, not a deadly one, a legal
expert familiar with the investigation told the Associated Press in Rome.
Hussain told interrogators he wasn't carrying enough explosives even to
"harm people nearby," the expert said, speaking on condition of anonymity,
citing the ongoing investigation, which under Italian law must remain
secret.
He also told investigators the bombers were motivated by anger over the
U.S.-led war in Iraq, but he said his cell was not linked to either al-Qaida
or the cell that carried out the deadly July 7 suicide bombings on the
London transit system that killed 52 people and the four attackers, Italian
media reported.
Hussain's arrest sparked more than a dozen follow-up raids across Italy as
authorities tried to determine if any attacks were being plotted in their
country.
In addition to Hussain, at least two of the other July 21 suspects were of
East African origin, and Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu said the
country was watching the area closely.
"We are following the evolution of the overall situation in the Horn of
Africa where, in stateless lands, al-Qaida has arrived, has settled, and
from where it tends, in various ways, to dispatch its followers into Europe
and the rest of the world," he said.
Though British officials have not yet found links between the July 7 attacks
and the failed attacks two weeks later, police chief Sir Ian Blair said
there was a "resonance" between the two.
If it turns out both events had a single mastermind and a common bombmaker,
they probably would have fled Britain before the attacks, said Alex
Standish, editor of Jane's Intelligence Digest. A likely hiding place would
be in Western Europe, where they could flee without facing tough border
security checks.
"They'll go to ground in areas that they will not be conspicuous," Standish
said. "Most European Union countries have a significant Muslim population
where these guys can just sit there and fade into the background."
Britain is seeking Hussain's extradition and the return of one of its
citizens detained in Zambia.
Though the Foreign Office has not released the name of the person in Zambia,
it is widely reported to be Haroon Rashid Aswat, who Zambian officials have
said was being questioned about 20 phone calls he allegedly made to some of
the July 7 attackers.
Aswat has been implicated in a 1999 plot to establish a terrorist training
camp in the United States and has told Zambian investigators he once was a
bodyguard for Osama bin Laden.
Aswat's family in a statement issued Saturday said they were "concerned,
distressed and disappointed" by Britain's handling of the case.
"It is very worrying that after more than 10 days the British government is
still unable to verify that the British citizen detained is actually
Haroon," said the relatives, who live in northern England. "Our son, albeit
estranged for many years, is surely entitled to the presumption of innocence
as any other British citizen.
"We wonder whether the government's attitude would have been any different
if it was a white, non-Muslim citizen detained in a foreign country."
Before he was detained in Zambia, Aswat had been hiding in Johannesburg,
South Africa, and was followed after entering the country from Botswana,
Zambian officials said.
"Every single terrorist event we've had, and the failed ones we've had,
there usually are foreign connections, even though the cannon fodder may be
homegrown," said Magnus Ranstorp, director of the Center for the Study of
Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews in
Scotland.
British authorities had closed-circuit television pictures of the July 21
suspects. That could have spooked them, with three failing to immediately
flee the country and Hussain using a cellular phone that could be traced
easily, Ranstorp said.
If the two sets of transit attacks are linked, they show a worrying degree
of preparation by a person or people making use of homegrown radicals from
two distinct ethnic groups, with three of the four July 7 bombers of
Pakistani origin and at least three of the July 21 suspects with East
African roots, Standish said.
The use of two ethnic groups ensured that when the police focus was on the
Pakistani community after the July 7 attacks, the East African group could
still move freely.
"It seems a very sophisticated level of planning went into it," Standish
said. "What will the next one be - from Kashmir? From Nigeria? From
Southeast Asia? From Saudi? We just don't know."
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