Alleged London blast bomb-builder arrested in Egypt: ABC

[maddezmom]

6 minutes ago


WASHINGTON (AFP) - The alleged bomb-builder in the July 7 London terror attacks has been arrested in Cairo where he is being interrogated, ABC news reported, citing sources including the FBI.

"ABC News has exclusive information, as we said, that the worldwide manhunt for the man that police think has built those bombs has ... been caught in Cairo and (is) being interrogated right now," ABC television said on Friday.

"The FBI in North Carolina joined the search," it added.

"Authorities in Egypt tell ABC News he was tracked down and and the into custody overnight in suburban Cairo. British authorities had initiated a worldwide manhunt for 33-year-old Magdy Nashar who left England two weeks before the bombings. Police say it was he who helped the bombers set up their bomb factory," the network reported.

As the confirmed death toll from the July 7 bombings rose to 54, with some 700 injured, investigators were hoping that fuzzy security camera images of one of the bombers, aged just 18, would encourage more witnesses to come forward.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050715/wl_uk_afp/usbritainattacksbombbuilder_050715114648

ABC's link:
Alleged Mastermind of London Bombings Captured

Jul. 15, 2005 - The U.S.-trained chemist who police believe is the mastermind behind last week's London transit attacks has been captured, Egyptian and Western intelligence sources tell ABC News.

Magdy Elnashar, 33, who authorities believe helped build the bombs, was taken into custody in suburban Cairo, Egypt. Elnashar had left England two weeks before the bombings, and British authorities had initiated a worldwide manhunt for him.

~snip~

British authorities also identified a fourth bomber as a Jamaica-born man with a pregnant wife in England and a mother living in the United States.

U.S. authorities tell ABC News that Lindsey Germaine had been in the United States within the past two years, and the FBI is now investigating contacts he made in Ohio and New Jersey.

more:http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/print?id=941406

[Roland99]

1. ABC's Good Morning America reported he was caught in Cairo

[maddezmom]

2. Brian Ross up now to discuss arrest on ABC

[maddezmom]

3. Egypt confirms arrest....it occurred a several days ago

CAIRO (AFP) - The alleged bomb-maker in the July 7 London terror attacks has been arrested in Cairo, where he is being interrogated, Egyptian officials said.


They named the man on Friday as 33-year-old Magdy Nashar and said he had been arrested "several days ago."

The did not give any further details.

British police said Friday they were "aware" of an arrest in Egypt in connection with the investigation into last week's London bombings.

"We are aware of an arrest made in Cairo but are not prepared to discuss if we may or may not wish to interview (the person) in connection with this investigation," a spokeswoman for London's Metropolitan Police told AFP.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050715/wl_uk_afp/britainattacksegyptarrest_050715133307

[allemand]

4. UK bomber met Islamabad church bomber in 2003-source

Source: Reuters
By Zeeshan Haider

ISLAMABAD, July 15 (Reuters) - One of the London suicide bombers met in 2003 with a man later arrested for a church bombing in Pakistan, an intelligence official said on Friday.

Pakistani security agencies are investigating possible links between militant groups based in Pakistan and Shehzad Tanweer, a Briton of ethnic-Pakistani origin who was one of four bombers in the July 7 attack that killed at least 54 people.

One of the groups being checked is Jaish-e-Mohammad (Army of Mohammad), linked to al Qaeda and banned by Pakistan in 2002.

The other group is Lashkar-e-Taiba, which like Jaish has a record of fighting in Indian Kashmir, but unlike Jaish has a reputation for tight discipline and is not known to have any operational ties with al Qaeda.

More:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP25492.htm

After The Scotsman revealed that authorities in Pakistan suspect that at least one of the London bombers, Shehzad Tanweer, may have been recruited during studies at a school run by the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Mr Straw said the British and Pakistani governments were working together to tackle the problem.
http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1385452005

[allemand]

5. According to a friend, Khan had attended military training camps

in Pakistan and Afghanistan:

A friend of Khan told the BBC that he had travelled regularly to Pakistan and Afghanistan to attend military training camps. "He used it as a recruitment centre," he said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/story/0,16132,1529021,00.html

'Father figure' inspired young bombers:

Behind the respectable front of a government-funded community centre, the two youngest suicide bombers are believed to have been radicalised by mentors whom they saw as father figures. (...)

On the surface the project, an offshoot of the main Hamara community building, was doing outreach work with young men and women in the deprived area. But an official working elsewhere in the community, who did not want to be named, told the Guardian that he had reported the goings on at the youth centre to police after he became suspicious that it was a front for radicalising young men.

Shehzad Tanweer, 22, the Aldgate bomber, and Hasib Hussain, 18, the bus bomber, both regularly attended the centre on Lodge Lane where the Edgware Road bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, did youth work. Tanweer and Hussain looked up to Khan as a "father figure" according to one friend, and regularly played football with him as part of the youth project.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/story/0,16132,1529021,00.html

[allemand]

6. London bombs home-made from pharmacy ingredients

EXPLOSIVES found by detectives investigating the London bombings were home-made using ingredients that can be found in high street chemists.

The highly volatile explosive - acetone peroxide - has been discovered in a house in Leeds thought to have been used as a bomb-making factory.

The discovery has raised fears of other British fanatics making their own explosives and following the example of the London suicide bombers. (...)

The home-made explosives found in Leeds are similar to those used in other al-Qaida-linked attacks. They were also used by shoe-bomber Richard Reid.

More:
http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1610072005

Larry C. Johnson was right:

Perhaps the reporter meant to say it was a commercial explosive. But, high explosives can be made in the privacy of one's home. A favorite explosive of Al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists is TATP, which stands for Triacetone Triperoxide. This is a high explosive. It can be manufactured at home using acetone, hydrogen peroxide, and sulfuric acid. The product is a white crystalline precipitate that can explode violently on heating, impact, or friction. According to the Encyclopedia of Exploisves and Related Items, Picatinny Arsenal, it is one of the most senstive explosives known. It has a detonation velocity of approximately 5290 meters per second when detonated in a clumn 6.3 millimeters in diameter (TNT has a detonantion velocity of 6940 meters per second by comparison).

TATP was found in the bombing of Philippines Airlines flight #434 in December 1994, which was carried out by Ramzi Yousef. Richard Reid had TATP in his shoes when he tried and failed to ignite a paper fuze attached to them. TATP is a high explosive. Friends who are explosive ordnance disposal guys get real nervous around TATP because it is so volatile. Folks who try to make this stuff at home are likely to have a short life. Nonetheless, it can be made without having to import rare chemicals.

THE LONDON BOMBING AND IGNORANT REPORTERS
http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/07/the_london_bomb.html

[fedsron2us]

17. The Mother of Satan

Acetone Peroxide based explosives give plenty of destructive power per pound but they are very unstable. It frequently blows up the terrorists long before they get anywhere near their target. The substance is said to have accounted for up to forty Palestinian bomb makers due to premature detonation. Because of its unreliabilty most professional European terror groups such as the IRA and ETA do not use it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetone_peroxide

The claim that it is Al Qaedas explosive of choice seem to be overblown as most of the major attacks attributed to that group did not use it as their main ingredient.

The Madrid bombings in 2004 were carried out using the commercial explosive Goma-2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goma-2

The bombs used in the embassy attacks in Africa in 1998, in the Bali attack in 2003 and the Istanbul attacks in 2004 were made using ammonium nitrate

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/14/world/main611898.shtml
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/africa/9808/14/embassy.fbi.01/

The only 'Al Qaeda' attributed attack that used it in recent years was the failed shoe bombing by Richard Reid.

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Richard-Reid

One thing is for certain you would not want to be living near where they are making this stuff.

On edit - The impartiality of the Wikipedia entry on acetone peroxide has recently been challenged with respect to the linking of this substance to the London bombings. The original news story on this subject was posted by the BBC on its web site at about 0630 this morning. When I posted on the topic on the DU's UK board at about 0830 today the link between this substance and the London bombings had already been placed in the Wikipedia. The speed with which it was updated with this news did surprise me.

[gratuitous]

7. They get bombed, and all the Brits want to do is arrest people?

Why aren't they invading an Axis of Evil country? Wusses.

[Roland99]

8. Darn appeasers. Treating this like a law enforcement case.

Nevermind they caught one of the masterminds.

[gratuitous]

14. Just a bunch of show-offs

I mean, anyone can get results if they follow a coherent plan! Just like you can use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true.

[emad]

9. Hunted chemistry expert arrested

An Egyptian chemistry expert sought by police over the London bombings has been arrested in Cairo, Egypt.

Magdi Mahmoud al-Nashar, 33, had not been seen by colleagues in Leeds since early July.

British police are searching a house in Leeds linked to Mr al-Nashar, but have not formally named him as a suspect in their investigation.

Egypt's Interior Ministry said Mr al-Nashar denied having any role in the bombings, and was in Egypt on holiday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4686089.stm

[oldtime dfl_er]

10. Man am I impressed with Scotland Yard

They've handled this whole thing perfectly.

http://www.cafepress.com/scarebaby/702950

[emad]

11. Much help from Spanish cops reported on BBC News.

Also from CIA files on shoe bomber Richard reid.

[Algorem]

13. heard the old horse molester Paul Harvey yesterday saying that Scot-

land Yard 'moves fast' because they have 'less constraints' on them.We'll hear this a lot-'we must remove the constraints on our law enforcement authorities so they can move fast like Scotland Yard'.

[Algorem]

12. Bomb suspect may have Cleveland tie

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1121427092237690.xml&coll=2

Friday, July 15, 2005
From staff and wire reports

One of the suspects in the London bombings may have had a Cleveland connection.

Lindsey Germaine, a Jamaican-born Briton believed to have been involved in one of the subway blasts last week, visited the Cleveland area several times when his mother lived here, NBC News reported Thursday, citing law enforcement sources.

The NBC report said an active FBI investigation is under way in Cleveland. Contacted Thursday, Cleveland FBI spokesman Robert Hawk and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Craig Morford and Thomas Getz would not comment on any investigation or on reports of a local connection.

Germaine had lived in Aylesbury, northwest of London, for seven weeks. Neighbors described him as stocky, medium height, and with short, curly hair, the Guardian newspaper of London said...

[canadianboi]

15. :puke: Disguting racial events!

Hello,
I'm new to these forums, and I would like to let everyone know what I witnessed on the news last night at 11:00. The president of the Islam university in London was denied access into the United States a couple days ago! What kind of an explination do they have to not allow this very powerful citizen into the country? Is it his race, or religion that the government will not allow it? This man was knighted by the Queen of England and is part of an Aristocratic family in London, now this sounds to framiliar. Becuase of his ethnic origin and his religious beliefs, mind you religion should not be a factor, due to its very close realtions to the bible and the torah, he was denied access. Does anyone else care that this man who would assist the American economy and bring light to more shunned Islamic people or people from a middle eastern country, was denied entrance? Comments!

[meganmonkey]

16. It's a disgrace, and things like this are happening daily

to people trying to visit the US. Race, religion, and a good old-fashioned power trip.

Our founding fathers must be rolling over in their graves:

"He who would trade liberty for some temporary security, deserves neither liberty nor security" - Ben Franklin

And btw, Welcome to DU!

:toast:

[northzax]

18. but the war on terror

isn't a police matter, it's war! right? Which is why the Spanish have the people who did Madrid, the Brits have the people who did London, and we have...Afghanistan and Iraq

[daleo]

19. Yikes - U.S. trained bomb maker, one bomber with mother in U.S.

Will Bush declare war on the U.S. now?

[Sterling]

20. Hmm...

"British authorities also identified a fourth bomber as a Jamaica-born man with a pregnant wife in England and a mother living in the United States."

Why would a guy with a kid on the way blow himself up?

[fedsron2us]

21. Earlier the fourth bomber was indentified as Ejaz Fiaz

a 'Schizophrenic Elvis Presley fan'

http://www.leedstoday.net/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=39&ArticleID=1085108
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1213972005

Now he seems to have disappeared off the radar. Confusing is n't it.

[bassman79]

22. Suicide bombing only used out of neccesity

There is a huge flaw in the official theory that suicide bombers staged the multiple blasts which rocked London. A flaw which casts grave doubt over the conclusions being presented by British authorities.

It's a flaw easily missed, because we are all dulled by the habitual media use of the term: "suicide bomber." But it is a flaw immediately obvious to any competent terrorism analyst.

Here's a trick question:

How many suicide bombers died in the 3/11/'04, Madrid train attacks?
Choose: Only one; Three died, or Five.

Correct answer: None.

Here's another: How many suicide bombers died in the decades-long IRA bombing campaign in Britain?
Choose: Twelve; Nineteen, or Thirty-Five.

Correct answer: None.

Why, in both cases?
Because they didn't need to!

That's why.

If you are an Iraqi determined to kill lots of fellow Iraqis at an enlistment center for the U.S-led Iraqi forces, you are probably going to have to give your life. The people in the center are not going to let you walk in, drop a big parcel and walk out again. Suicide is the only option.

If you are a Palestinian determined to kill Israeli security forces, then wearing the explosives on your own body may be the only way to get close enough. Suicide is the only option.

But, suicide is also the last option.

Suicide missions are only ever used where there is no other military alternative. Perpetrators are dedicated, fanatical and ruthless.

But they are not stupid.

http://wagnews.blogspot.com/2005/07/glaring-flaw-in-london-suicide-bombs.html


So why commit suicide when you could have left the bombs on the trains and exited? The bombs were on timers, according to the police. Why stay with the bomb when you militarily do not have to? Put that together with the profile of these bombers, young teens, a father of one and a teacher of disabled children?

[fedsron2us]

24. It is unusual

Suicide bombing is normally employed as a weapon of penetration against a well defended target. Russian anarchists used the technique to assassinate Tsar Alexander II. More recently the Tamil Tigers deployed the tactic to kill former Indian prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, and a president of Sri Lanka, Ranasinghe Premadasa.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4677533.stm

Although London transport authorities are on the look out for unattended bags the Tube is still a 'soft' target. There would have been no need for the bombers to kill themselves unless this act was intended to be part of the 'propaganda of the deed' as the anarchists used to say.

The three tube bombs went off within 50 seconds of each other which is very tight timing coordination for a suicide attack.

[1932]

23. Would Egypt help US the way they helped UK with this arrest?

Does UK govt's committment to solving I-P conflict and reducing poverty outside of Europe, and especially in Africa, make a difference to Egypt?