Officials Looking Into Claim That Little-Known Al-Qaida Group Did UK Bombs

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBZVBZ0WAE.html

Officials Looking Into Claim That Little-Known Al-Qaida Group Pulled off London Bombings

WASHINGTON (AP) - Counterterrorism officials are taking seriously a claim by a little-known group calling itself "The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe" that it staged the deadly attacks on the London transit system.

Among theories investigators are pursuing is whether the group may be linked to Iraq's terror chief, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Current and former government officials agree Thursday morning's attacks were trademark al-Qaida: near-simultaneous explosions, using improvised devices, aimed at Westerners.

By Thursday evening, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official acknowledged that the Internet posting by al-Qaida in Europe was considered a "potentially very credible" claim, in part because the message appeared soon after the attacks and didn't appeared rushed.

But no one was certain, and one defense official said it was too early to say. snip

"Anyone can say, 'We are al-Qaida in Montana or Canada,'" said Rollins, now with the Congressional Research Service. "Al-Qaida is no longer your daddy's Ford. It is a new animal."

[lebkuchen]

1. Bush and Blair have unwittingly established a network of terror groups--

vigilantes taking on the name of Al Qaida and performing terror operations on Al Qaida's behalf.

If Bush and Blair are allowed to remain in office much longer, their presence will result in the dismantling of the US/UK govt. institutions brick by brick.

[The Magistrate]

3. That Is It In A Nutshell, Sir

Like-minded men moved to propagandas of the deed....

[anitar1]

6. My first thought. n/t

[bemildred]

10. Indeed. Are there lots of "well known" al Qaeda groups?

The "little known" meme is intended to imply that the "intelligence" services - a misnomer if I ever saw one - are on top of things most of the time, when in fact they have their heads collectively up their asses, and spend most of their time chasing after political protestors,
confiscating cooking oil, and the like.

[truthisfreedom]

2. if it is an Iraqi group, we know who to blame for its development, huh?

powermad neocon freakazoids.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[stepnw1f]

43. Funny How The Truth Calls The Freeps Out

Must really suck to have their hypocrisy pointed out to them. They just can't handle reality.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

5. What was that Japanese Terrorist Group that gased the subways?

[seriousstan]

7. Aum Shin Rikyo cult

[mom cat]

8. It is still too early to know who is really behind this.

[uncle ray]

15. c,mon, after 9/11

they had the names of a dozen of the hijackers by this time. maybe the US needs to send our crack intelligence squads over there.



do i really need the sarcasm smilie?

[mom cat]

25. You are so right uncle ray! Can we send them some terrorists passports

with charred edges too like the ones that floated down from the Twin Towers? That was a nifty piece of magic. Pravda bought it so it must be true! Yes, the 9-11 parallels are obvious. We need the 9-11 Truth investigators over there quick!

[Minstrel Boy]

9. They misspelled Koranic passages!

MSNBC TV translator Jacob Keryakes: "This is not something Al Qaeda would do"

From researcher Lisa Pease:

As I watched the CNN coverage of the London bombings today, I heard multiple experts, including Octavia Nasser (also spelled Nasr), say the group claiming responsibility didn't use known signatures of Al Qaeda. They even quoted the Koran incorrectly! I wish I had taped what she said, as I knew this was likely truth. Sure enough, a few hours later, all anyone would say was that this was definitely an act of Al Qaeda. Sigh. Like so many other covert operations, the truth disappears quickly in the quicksand of the "official story."

...

Although I can find no transcript of Nasser's CNN comments, Al Jazeera captured similar comments, in an article titled "Phony reports link Al Qaeda to London attacks":

A group calling itself "The Secret Organization of Al Qaeda in Europe" posted a statement on an internet site, claiming responsibility for the deadly attacks that hit London on Thursday.

But MSNBC TV translator Jacob Keryakes said that the statement in which the group claimed responsibility for the attacks contained an error in one of the Qura’nic verses it cited. That suggests that the claim is phony, he said. "This is not something Al Qaeda would do," he said.

...

http://realhistoryarchives.blogspot.com/2005/07/first-day-reports-re-london-bombings.html

[zanne]

11. The reason I think Al Qaeda did NOT do this.

I think they're murderers, all right. But I heard on CNN this morning that they've determined there were NO suicide bombers. How many times in the past has Al Qaeda struck without the use of suicide bombers?

[allemand]

12. Madrid.

It could be an Islamist group that is loosely affiliated with al-Qaeda or just shares the same ideology.

[alcibiades_mystery]

17. all of al qaeda is loosely affiliated

that's the nature of the network.

[Jose Diablo]

21. Yes, but who really is Al Qaeda

There has been much speculation as to IF Al Qaeda actually exists, or is it a 'front' for elements of 'blackbag' boys in the CIA, Pakistan's ISI and the House of Saud.

Is Al Qaeda real or is it a name fed to the western media to implicate Islam as the source of 'terrorism', when the 'terrorism' is actually a tool of elements of the corporatist/globalists intelligence organizations undermining governments around the world, for their own profit.

Edit: Remember Daniel Perle, right after 9-11 and who/how he was snuffed. Mr. Perle found something out in Pakistan/Afghanistan that was worth killing him over.

[allemand]

26. Sorry, but Islamist terrorism is a well-documented fact.

You have to ignore a lot of information in order to be able to believe in such conspiracy theories.

[zanne]

27. Then I guess we can always blame it on them...

Whether they did it or not. Come on now, guys, you have to admit that the press is going pretty crazy with this Al Queda thing, considering we don't have any FACTS yet! Do you remember how the Spanish government had to eat their words when they accused a Spanish Separatist group of committing the terror in Madrid? They just had to swallow their words when the rest of the world found out it wasn't true. In that, case, it WAS Al Queda. But is it too much to ask to get the facts first?

[allemand]

28. When there is a high probability that Islamist terrorists were involved,

why should it be wrong to state that there is a high probability that some Islamist group (not necessarily al-Qaeda) was behind the bombing in London?

Who else? The style of attack is certainly typical of Islamist terrorism.

Also, when the atrocities in Madrid happened, I remember how we, here at DU, didn't accept the lies of the conservative Spanish government that blamed ETA, while there were many indications that the bombing was another act of Islamist terrorism. And we were right!

[Name removed]

34. Deleted message

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[allemand]

40. So you are suggesting that the IRA deliberately targeted civilians

in order to cause the maximum number of casualties?

I'm glad to hear that you had so much trust in the conservative government of Spain. I certainly hadn't. Also, I'm not "declaring Al Qaeda" the "culprit", I'm saying that there is a high probability that some Islamist group was behind the bombings.

I'm not dismissing the fact that most of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis: it's clearly a society in a deep crisis. But that doesn't mean that the Saudi government was involved in the attack. Certain princes certainly were, but not the government as a whole.

BTW, using your style of reasoning, do we have to conclude that the US government is behind every bank robbing as long as it is committed by American citizens?

And are you really suggesting that bin Laden is on the payroll of the CIA? This is beyond ridiculous. :D

[Name removed]

47. Deleted message

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[StrafingMoose]

37. Style of attack?

"Who else? The style of attack is certainly typical of Islamist terrorism."

What style? It's not very well documented yet (for London bombing). Facts are bombs, placed in crowded place. Period. That's what the official line is as of now. They are "looking in" an islamic (AQ) lead.


It doesn't bare any, IMO, hallmarks of islamic terrorism, it bares the hallmarks of....bombs placed in a crowded place.

[allemand]

41. Please enlighten me, which other group is deliberately targeting civilians

at the moment?

It's the style of Madrid, Bali, Istanbul, Djerba, Mombasa, Casablanca, Taba, etc...

In this sense, the blasts in London bore all the hallmarks of an Islamist attack.

[StrafingMoose]

44. Once again style....

Yes, civilians. That's called terrorism.

Religious, Political, Nationalistic. Pick your poison.

You can't say the attacks were "pure islamic style" since you don't know the perps' background yet. They don't have them!. As I can't say it SURE isn't islamic terrorism, as I don't know it either.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

48. The IRA has always targeted British civilians. How come you don't....

...know that?

[allemand]

51. At least in the last decades they used telephone warnings.

In contrast, the terrorists behind the London bombing clearly wanted to cause the maximum number of casualties.

[Andrushka]

53. Ah

Yes, just like the bombing in that park in Atlanta in '96.

[NNN0LHI]

55. I said the same thing after the Murrah federal building was blown up

Who did you think blew that building up immediately afterwords? Did you think it was done by a tall, blond, blue eyed, decorated US army veteran from New York?

Don

[allemand]

56. Of course, one should always be open-minded and look into all the

possibilities. I'm talking about probabilities, not about certainties.

[beltanefauve]

52. Another example

The Oaklahoma City bombing was also blamed on foreign terrorism, when in fact it was home-grown.

[StrafingMoose]

57. it wasn't "blamed" on foreign ...

As far as I know. They got McVeigh and Nicolls for their story, but the FBI _DID_ acknowledge there was an middle eastern connection, that they chose not to investigate.

Some people blame it on foreign terrorism, but the official word wasn't blaming external action.

[Jose Diablo]

29. Maybe, but the "Power of Nightmares" brings a different view of al qaeda

The Power of Nightmares

VO: In the past, politicians promised to create a better world. They had different ways of achieving this. But their power and authority came from the optimistic visions they offered to their people. Those dreams failed. And today, people have lost faith in ideologies. Increasingly, politicians are seen simply as managers of public life. But now, they have discovered a new role that restores their power and authority. Instead of delivering dreams, politicians now promise to protect us from nightmares. They say that they will rescue us from dreadful dangers that we cannot see and do not understand. And the greatest danger of all is international terrorism. A powerful and sinister network, with sleeper cells in countries across the world. A threat that needs to be fought by a war on terror. But much of this threat is a fantasy, which has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It’s a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services, and the international media.

VO: This is a series of films about how and why that fantasy was created, and who it benefits. At the heart of the story are two groups: the American neoconservatives, and the radical Islamists. Both were idealists who were born out of the failure of the liberal dream to build a better world. And both had a very similar explanation for what caused that failure. These two groups have changed the world, but not in the way that either intended. Together, they created today’s nightmare vision of a secret, organized evil that threatens the world. A fantasy that politicians then found restored their power and authority in a disillusioned age. And those with the darkest fears became the most powerful.

Who ya gonna believe, the politicians?

[allemand]

30. "The Power of Nightmares" has its merits, but is also deeply flawed.

What I don't like about Adam Curtis' film is the way he took Jason Burke's quotes completely out of context. Burke is the one who says "There is no Al Qaeda organization" in the film, but here is what he really wanted to say:

"What we have currently is a broad and diverse movement of radical Islamic militancy. (...) It involves tens of thousands of people, some merely individuals, some who have formed groups. (...) This movement is growing. Osama bin Laden did not create it nor will his death or incarceration end it. For all but five (or arguably three) years of his life, bin Laden was a peripheral player in modern Islamic militancy. He may have been the most charismatic and the best known, but there were, and are, and will be, many others who have the will and the capacity to foment violence, murder innocents and sow chaos around the world. (...)
The threat is grave. Thirty years ago a new Islamic political ideology began to resonate among millions of young men and women across the Muslim world. This ideology was a sophisticated and genuine intellectual effort to find an Islamic answer to the challenges posed by the West's cultural, economic and political dominance. Over the decades that ideology has changed and mutated into something different. Once, Islamic activists thought primarily in terms of achieving power or reforming their own nation. There was room in their programme for gradualism and compromise. There was room in their movement for a huge multiplicity of different strands of political thought. There was room for the parochial, radical and conservative movements of rural areas and for the clever, educated and aware ideologues of the cities. There was even room for those extremists who were committed to violence and who saw the world as a battlefield between the forces of good and evil, of belief and unbelief.
But increasingly, and this is a trend that is accelerating, the extremists are no longer perceived as the 'lunatic fringe'. Instead they are seen as the standard-bearers. And their language is now the dominant discourse in modern Islamic political activism. Their debased, violent, nihilistic, anti-rational millenarianism has become the standard ideology aspired to by angry young Muslim men. This is a tragedy."
Jason Burke, Al-Qaeda, The true story of radical Islam, Introduction, p.25-26

This idea of "the failure of political Islam" as described by Burke was first developed by Olivier Roy and Gilles Kepel.

[Jose Diablo]

31. Ah, now we get to the core of International terrorism

Your quote of Burke:

"But increasingly, and this is a trend that is accelerating, the extremists are no longer perceived as the 'lunatic fringe'. Instead they are seen as the standard-bearers. And their language is now the dominant discourse in modern Islamic political activism. Their debased, violent, nihilistic, anti-rational millenarianism has become the standard ideology aspired to by angry young Muslim men. This is a tragedy."

Is very telling.

In a sense, what we are seeing is a mirror image of the neoconservative ideologues currently in power in the west. Each of the 2 groups feed on the existence of the other. Without the bogeyman, al qaeda, the neocons do not have an enemy. Without the neocons, the 'lunatic fringe' has nobody to recruit new members and form a cause to fight.

But in the background, who is behind both? That is the billion dollar question. Who is profiting from this 'war on terror'?

To have a war, there needs to be 2 sides. I would submit the single group behind both sides is the Corporatist/Globalists that see government, all governments, as something they need to control so they can profit. Any government that is democratic (for the people) is an enemy of the Corporatist/Globalists and the neocons (religious right) and the fundamentalist Islamic 'lunatic fringe'.

The money is playing both sides against each other, and manipulating democratic governments to control them, for their own profit.

All the 'war on terrorism' has accomplished is create more terrorists.

If we can see beyond to the real source of terrorism, as the Corporatist/Globalists agendas, then we can also see the solution for international terrorism. And that would be to reign in the Corporatist/Globalist and stop them from supporting both sides of the war and also strengthen the democratic institutions the globalists are trying to subvert.

[aion]

46. The American Taliban

When one looks at the statements from Mussolini as to the definition of fascism, you quickly see the disdain that he had for the democratic process. These religious zealots that we're supposedly fighting seem to have that same disdain for democracy. Could it be that they're both the same phenomena -- simply manifested in different geographic locations? I think the evidence is quite clear on that. Could it be that they're in collaboration? Perhaps Ollie North would care to comment?

[StrafingMoose]

36. Both exists...

The Mujahidin wanted Islamic rule in THEIR country (or help their brother country achieving it), by freeing them first of the Soviet Union's grasp.

And then you have "al-Qaeda" that doesn't really seem interested in establishing islamic rule anywhere but where the USA invades...

Hmm.

edited

[allemand]

42. I was not aware that the US wanted to invade Indonesia...

Yet Jemaah Islamiyah, the local branch of al-Qaeda, certainly wants to "establish Islamic rule" there.

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

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[Behind the Aegis]

39. So does the CIA. Your point?

[drm604]

19. On NPR this morning

I heard a "terrorism expert" say that the website used poor Arabic and misquoted and used incomplete passages from the Koran.

[allemand]

45. Juan Cole doesn't find any misspelling:

An MSNBC television translator maintained that there was "an error" in the quotation of one of the Quran verses in the statement posted to the Qal3ah website claiming credit for the bombing for a secret cell of Qaeda al-Jihad in Europe. I can't figure out what Mr. Keryakes is talking about, and wish the report had been more specific.

The only obvious quotation from the Quran is at the end, where the statement says,
"God, may He be exalted, said, “If you aid God, God will aid you, and will plant your feet firmly.” (...)

The last part of the verse is quoted in the text, and correctly quoted as far as I can see.

Anyway, I do not agree with Keryakes' point to begin with. Muslims often misquote the Quran, as Kenneth Cragg once pointed out, just as Christians often do not quite get biblical verses right. Moreover, al-Qaeda types are often not clerics, indeed are engineers without a good liberal arts education.

More:
http://www.juancole.com/2005/07/death-toll-in-london-climbing-toward.html

[4MoreYearsOfHell]

13. Al-Qaida franchises

GeeDubya bringing corporate globalism to a new level...

[Jose Diablo]

14. I would say, without having too much proof

that the ones that did London are probably a similar group to P2, the group that was behind the bombings in Italy back during the 'cold war'.

Those groups back then were actually leftover axis personnel from WWII that were reorganized to fight the communists. In Italy, the leftist government was fought by the CIA using these proxies.

At the center of P2, was a cabal consisting of various western intelligence people and the Church. Sound familiar?

This was the pattern during the cold war. The fighting was actually between people represented governments and false flag organizations pretending to be communists, that were actually corporate/globalist based intelligence organizations trying to keep 'the people' from exercising their will on government.

This is the 'real' war, it is between 'the people' and the corporatist/globalists.

This is my conjecture on who did London.

[alcibiades_mystery]

16. LOL

"...that the Internet posting by al-Qaida in Europe was considered a "potentially very credible" claim, in part because the message appeared soon after the attacks and didn't appeared rushed."

Unlike this AP report...:eyes:

[johnfunk]

18. Georgie and Osama invite you to open YOUR McTerror franchise today!

Hey -- it's a growth industry thanks to the Bush-al-Saud family and Osama!

[Geo55]

20. Guess these assholes didn't get the message ,

we're supposed to be fighting them ALL in Iraq !

[lockdown]

22. It's a friggin' message board!

I heard it stated 2 or 3 times on the BBC yesterday that this claim came from a "website that anybody can post to anonymously". Utterly fucking ridiculous, as these "al-Qaida website" stories always are. About as ridiculous as the fiction maintained for months after Madrid that Zarqawi was behind that bombing.

Wonder what their trolls and flame-fests are like... maybe they have jihad emoticons... maybe the media should do their job better and check posting histories first, make sure the claims don't come from known trolls. :crazy:

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

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[GoBlue]

24. I hope they're also looking into 'Who Benefits'

All too convenient if you ask me.

Has anyone seen the URL for this Secret group?
The first report was from ANSA (Italy) which cited Italian intelligence claiming the website was in Egypt.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

35. Exactly! Who benefits from attacks of this nature?

[StrafingMoose]

38. Ah Egypt...

Another good ally in the War on Terra that will host ISP that host terrorist's website and do the dirty torturing job for the USA :P

[fedsron2us]

32. Terror is a currency that anyone can use for any purpose.

Any cop will tell you that when a murder occurs there are more than enough lunatics ready to claim they did it. The only way to determine who is responsible is to start at the crime scene and work backwards. All the column inches in the press devoted to attributing blame is either idle speculation by lazy journalists who do not have the balls to do their job properly or stories planted by those with a particular political line that they want to sell. The media make me sick.

[CJCRANE]

49. True

Let's wait and see what the official version is first.

I just had an argument with a friend of mine, he's a Blairite and reads the (London) Times (Rupert Murdoch's paper). I mostly read DU.

His opinion was that the London Attacks were carried out by jihadists who want to take over the world and destroy the west (because that's what an article in the Times said). My opinion was that the attacks were in retaliation for the invasion of Iraq.

After a lot of argument, I told him that neither of us knows who the hell did it, so why don't we just wait to see what the police say.

[lockdown]

50. Claim made on bulletin board - link

It was posted on an Arabic website, al-qal3ah.com, which is registered by Qalaah Qalaah in Abu Dhabi and hosted by a server in Houston, Texas.

(snip)

He had seen the message on Thursday morning and doubted its authenticity. "It was only there for a few minutes, and they misquoted the Qur'an." He also said the website - or more accurately a bulletin board - could be used by anyone.

The server in Houston has intriguing connections. Everyone's Internet was founded by brothers Robert and Roy Marsh in 1998 and by 2002 had an income of more than $30m (now about £17m).

Renowned for his charitable work, Roy Marsh counts among his friends President George Bush's former sister-in-law, Sharon Bush, and the president's navy secretary.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1524779,00.html

lol

[allemand]

54. Alleged backer of al-Qaida is linked to bomb website

A WEBSITE used to claim responsibility for the London bombings has been linked to a British-based Saudi dissident suspected by both US and UK officials of being a supporter of al-Qaida.

Saad al-Faqih, who is based in Willesden, north-west London, has been connected to a statement claiming responsibility for the London terrorist attacks by two Israeli groups. But al-Faqih has denied any link to the message and said he doubted whether it was authentic anyway.

The statement published on the al-qal3ah.com site after the bombings on Thursday read: "The heroic mujahideen have carried out a blessed raid on London. Britain is now burning with fear, terror and panic in its northern, southern, eastern and western quarters."

Al-Faqih, who runs the Movement for Islamic Reform, has rigorously denied being linked to the message.

More:
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=764132005