The London Bombings: An Independent Inquiry

by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed

Book Overview

At first, the police were sure that the bombers used weapons-grade plastic explosives and sophisticated timers. Two weeks later, they changed their minds - the bombs were home-made and were detonated... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585679003
• ISBN13: 9781585679003
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Overlook Press
• Length: 283 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.5" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

If we want to be safe at home, we must stop supporting terrorism overseas

N.M. Ahmed's courageous, independent and painstaking research, reveals a very disturbing overall picture: the collusion of British intelligence with radical Islamist networks in order to protect international regional strategic and economic private interests (energy). Apparently, under a `Covenant of Security', British authorities allowed radical Islamists to use the UK as a base of operations for international terrorist activities, as long as they did not target British interests at home. But, this tacit agreement undermined the ability of British intelligence to guarantee domestic security. The London bombings could be considered as a classic blowback: the freely operating international network linked to al-Qaeda inside Britain turned against its benefactor's home ground. For N.M. Ahmed, the London attacks were `undoubtedly' discoverable and preventable. The mastermind of the bombings could even have been a double agent. The fact that the British intelligence services are operating to a political rather than a security agenda is a case of `criminal negligence', for by protecting private powerful vested interests they neglect the security of the British people at home. More, they are operating without a mandate of the British people, which poses the ultimate question of democracy and the ability of citizens to participate meaningfully in policymaking relevant to their own security. N.M. Ahmed asks for, at least, an independent and thorough inquiry into the London bombings. But also, a complete overhaul of the British national security system, seeing its terrible neglect of national security, its dirty hands in international bloodshed for `sinister interests' and its indirect implication in drug trafficking (400 billion US $ per year, with veteran drug-traffickers put again in power in Afghanistan) . An extremely courageous and eye-opening book. A must read.

Excellent study of the London bombings

This extraordinary book examines the policies that brought about the July 2005 bombings. It has been subject to state censorship, since fourteen pages have been `removed for legal reasons', something that this reviewer has never seen before. The Blair government claims that the attacks could not have been foreseen, were unconnected to any of its policies, and had no links to any known terrorist organisation. Ahmed writes, "the state's version of events systematically suppresses evidence that the bombings are linked to the activities of Islamist groups long tolerated in this country. ... Britain has for many years harboured international terrorists linked to al-Qaeda attacks on Western interests in the United States, France, Spain, Morocco, Egypt, and elsewhere. This policy of cohabitation and collaboration with Islamist terrorists created the context in which the attacks took place." So the government has refused to hold any proper inquiry into the bombings. As former analyst for the Cabinet Office, Crispin Black, said, "it does not want to face the fact that its actions put us into danger in the first place." Ahmed sums up, "for more than a decade, due to the deliberate policies of successive governments, the United Kingdom has been a state harbouring terrorism." For example, the state let Abu Hamza recruit, train and arm al-Qaeda terrorists for years. As Ahmed notes, "the evidence used to successfully prosecute Hamza in February 2006 had almost all been found by the police seven years previously." Ahmed argues that the bombings "were planned and executed by a terrorist network inside Britain that has unambiguous linkages to the international al-Qaeda organisation and leadership." Four of the bombers were members of Al-Muhajiroun, a front for al-Qaeda. Omar Bakri Mohammed, leader of Al-Muhajiroun (officially disbanded in 2004, but still functioning under other names), states, "We don't make a distinction between civilians and non-civilians, innocents and non-innocents. Only between Muslims and unbelievers. And the life of an un-believer has no value." Ahmed shows that the British state used terrorists to further its own interests, even at the risk that they would attack Britain: "Bakri and his al-Muhajiroun organisation have not merely been tolerated by British authorities despite involvement in al-Qaeda recruitment, terrorist training, and incitement to violence, murder and terrorism; they were actively protected by British security services in the late 1990s, operating as recruiting agents for British covert operations in the Balkans, especially in Kosovo." Some joined CIA-funded Kosovo Liberation Army operations; some fought in Chechnya. "Approximately 200 Pakistani Muslims living in the UK went to Pakistan trained in HUA [Harkat-ul-Ansar terrorist group] camps and joined the HUA's contingent in Bosnia. The operation was conducted with the full knowledge and complicity of the British and American intelligence agencies." In January 200