London's Most Wanted

Who did it?

A number of groups and individuals have emerged as suspects in the London bombings. All of them are Islamic fundmentalists. Most are connected to al Qaeda.

From the Sunday Herald:

One organisation claiming responsibility is the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade, which takes its name from an alias for Osama bin Laden’s key deputy Muhammed Atef, killed in Afghanistan in 2001. This group has claimed responsibility for bombings in Jakarta and Istanbul and for the March 11, 2004, train attacks in Madrid.

Its statement said: “ Thanks to God, a group of mujahideen from the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades launched strike after strike in the capital of the infidels. Blessed in this conquest, the coming days will show a greater expression of jihad against those who declared war against Islam and Muslims. We will not keep quiet or stay idle until Islam is safe in the lands of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.”

Another group, calling itself the Secret Organisation of al-Qaeda in Europe, has also claimed responsibility. Theories surrounding a Madrid connection are becoming more concrete. One suspected al-Qaeda operative, 47-year-old Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, is being sought by police investigating Thursday’s bombings in London. Nasar has been accused of being one of the masterminds behind the Madrid atrocity.

Although his whereabouts are unknown, he did live in London until at least 1998. He was reportedly seen in London after the Madrid attacks, but some rumours now place him in hiding in Iraq. Nasar trained in Afghan terror camps and had a bounty of £3 million placed on his head by the US. Spanish police say he set up sleeper cells in Britain, France and Italy.

Another suspect sought by British police is Mohammed al-Guerbouzi, from Morocco. He has also been linked to the Madrid train bombings, and lived in the UK for nearly 16 years.

Al-Guerbouzi has also been connected to the May 2003 Casablanca bombing that killed 44 people, and was sentenced in his absence to 20 years in prison. The French and German authorities believe he is close to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the brutal insurgent leader who represents al-Qaeda in Iraq. Al-Gerbouzi was an associate of Abu Qatada, known as bin Laden’s “ambassador in Europe” who is now detained in Belmarsh prison. Morocco says al-Gerbouzi is the head of the Group of Islamic Combatants. Britain has previously refused to send him back to Morocco because there is no extradition treaty.

Spanish police say one of the suspects in the Madrid bombings, a Moroccan called Jamal Zougham, made calls to a landline and mobile belonging to al-Gerbouzi in Kilburn, London. Al-Gerbouzi later disappeared after being questioned by MI5 and denying any links to terrorism.

The website that posted the claim of responsibility for the London bombs by the Secret Organisation of al-Qaeda in Europe was run by an Iraqi doctor living in London called Saad al-Fagih. Al-Fagih, who heads the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, has been classified a “specially designated global terrorist” by the US. America says he provided a satellite phone for bin Laden which was used in the planning of the US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Fagih’s assets were frozen by the Bank of England after the US accused his website of being used to send secret messages to al-Qaeda supporters.


A TOP SUSPECT is the mastermind of the Madrid bombings, Mustafa Setmariam Nasar.

Spanish security sources are said to have warned four months ago that Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, a 47-year-old Syrian, had identified Britain as a likely target.
Coded commands from the Syrian, thought to have included threats to other European countries including Britain, were found in a flat raided after the Madrid bombings in March 2004.

Spanish investigators said Nasar, now believed to be in Iraq, had set up a “sleeper” cell of terrorists in Britain. But they believed he was planning an attack to coincide with the British general election in May, rather than the G8 summit last week.

...Nasar, from Aleppo, Syria, also known as Abu Musab al-Asuri, who has a $5m (£2.9m) American bounty on his head, is believed to have fled either to Iraq or to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

He has connections with London going back more than 10 years, has mixed with many prominent terror suspects and has reportedly been arrested in Britain in connection with bombings on the Paris Metro.

When Nasar moved to London in June 1995 he was already under surveillance by Spanish police, who made a video recording of his departure with his wife Elena. They were accompanied by Abu Dahdah, a Syrian later arrested in Spain, accused of recruiting bombers and now on trial for providing support to the 9/11 conspiracy.

Once in London, Nasar moved his family into a house in Paddock Road, Neasden. From there, he edited the Al Ansar magazine, a newsletter of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group. He became an associate of the cleric Abu Qatada, one of the detainees released from Belmarsh prison last year and accused of being Al-Qaeda’s ambassador to Europe.

In January 1997 he also set up a company called Islamic Conflict Studies Bureau. In documentation filed at Companies House, Nasar describes his nationality as British.

His co-director in the company is named as Mohamed Bahaiah. Bahaiah is known to have been an Al-Qaeda courier in Afghanistan, where he is believed to have been responsible for delivering videotapes to foreign news media. Tayssir Alouni, a correspondent for the Arabic television news channel Al-Jazeera, claims to have met both men in Kabul in the late 1990s.

Nasar was reported to have been arrested by British police following the 1995 bomb attacks on the Paris Metro, but later released. The American Department of Justice said this weekend that Nasar had “served as a European intermediary for Al-Qaeda” before leaving for Afghanistan in 1998.

He is now believed to be an associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda chief in Iraq. Some reports claim he has been spotted in London since the Madrid bombings.

Nasar is at the centre of a network of connections uncovered by British and Spanish police between Britain and the Madrid atrocities.

In reading about Nasar, something jumps out at me.

Notice that he was actively engaged with terrorists and under surveillance dating back to the 1990s.

What does that mean?

It means that during those supposedly wonderful, safe, prosperous years of the Clinton administration, terrorists were plotting against the U.S. and its allies.

We suffered several attacks during the 90s, on our soil and on our interests abroad.

The 9/11 plot was a long time in the making. It was not hatched in less than eight months, the brief period that Bush was in office before the attacks of September 2001.

The Islamic fundamentalists responsible for the attacks on London were battling us years before we decided to fight back. The Taliban and Saddam Hussein were firmly entrenched in Afghanistan and Iraq when they declared war on us over a decade ago.

In short, our presence in Afghanistan and Iraq didn't cause the London bombings.

As President Bush said in his radio address, "The free world did not seek this conflict."

Dems will say Bush made the Arab world hate us; and the war in Iraq is one massive al Qaeda recruitment program, a mess the Bush administration created.

That makes no sense.

How can they blame Bush for the hate that founded a movement that was thriving back when he was just a managing general partner of the Texas Rangers?