Where's Osama? Probably Nowhere Near the London Attacks

[cal04]

Where's Osama? Probably Nowhere Near the London Attacks, Experts Say

Simultaneous attacks on public transport. Blasts timed to key political events. Claims of responsibility on Internet sites. The London terror attacks bear the stamp of al-Qaida, but terrorism experts say Osama bin Laden may have played little or no role. They suggest that what's far more likely is that the attackers who planned and carried out the bombings were local operatives who didn't need much money or expertise from overseas to wreak havoc.

"I think it's homegrown definitely," said Loretta Napoleoni, the author of the book "Terror Incorporated: Tracing the Dollars Behind the Terror Networks." "This is a new generation." Experts are looking closer to home because of the relatively small scale of the operation - four bombs each containing less than 10 pounds of explosives, according to police. Such an attack wouldn't require funding from outside the country, allowing the bombers to avoid international bank transfers that might have caused suspicion.

Larger operations, like the Sept. 11 attacks or the bombing of the USS Cole, are complicated and expensive, requiring huge infusions of cash to purchase equipment and move operatives around. Napoleoni estimates the London attacks cost between $10,000 and $15,000. "They do not have unlimited resources," she said. "They adjust the model to how much money they have. If they could have raised more money, they would have had more explosives."

What's more, the bombers understood London. They knew which subway lines to hit and targeted trains while they were between stations to inflict maximum damage. That suggests they had been in Britain for some time or were from here, the experts say. "You cannot imagine somebody coming from Saudi Arabia or Egypt or Morocco yesterday and putting a bomb in a bus," said Saad Fagih, a Saudi dissident and expert on the group. "So they must have stayed here for a while. They must have planned it properly, orchestrated it properly. This does need time."

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB1OSD02BE.html

[bennywhale]

1. Al Qaeda and Bin Laden are not an organisation and leader. They have

become a movement, an ideology and an inspiration to terrorists and would be terrorists worldwide.

There is no point in talking of Al Qaeda anymore, it is a global movement with little or no links which we are fuelling daily.