LONDON (July 7) - Four explosions rocked the London subway and tore open a packed double-decker bus during the morning rush hour Thursday, sending bloodied victims fleeing in the worst attack on London since World War II. At least 40 people were killed, U.S. officials said, and more than 700 were wounded.
A clearly shaken Prime Minister Tony Blair called the coordinated attacks ''barbaric'' and said they were designed to coincide with the G-8 summit opening in Gleneagles, Scotland. They also came a day after London won the bid to host the 2012 Olympics. A group calling itself the Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe claimed responsibility.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the explosions have the ''hallmarks" of an al-Qaida related attack. He added that neither Britain's police nor the intelligence services had any warning of the attacks.
The four blasts went off within an hour, beginning at 8:51 a.m. (3:51 a.m. EDT), and hit three subway stations and the double-decker bus. Authorities immediately shut down the subway and bus lines that log 8.4 million passenger trips every weekday.
There are a couple obvious conclusions in this attack. The attack was certainly planned to coincide with the G-8 Summit meeting being held in Gleneagles, Scotland. What is a better way to attract attention to your political cause than to initiate a terrorist attack to coincide with a major national or international event. You can bet the G-8 leaders will be talking about this attack. For the attack to come after London's winning of the 2012 Olympics is probably a random chance. This attack was also in the planning stages for a long time--perhaps at least a year. You need time to scout out possible bombing locations, subway time schedules, and security. You need to set up safe houses for the terrorists to coordinate their information and intelligence, recruit members, build the bombs, and plan the attacks. You certainly need money wired to London to finance the operation. And you certainly need to plan for an escape route after the attack.
What I think is more interesting is this group calling itself The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe claiming responsibility for the attack. I'm not sure if they're responsible or not, but it does provide some interesting observations. The first is that al-Qaida has morphed from a centralized terrorist organization--based in Afghanistan--to a decentralized organization where cells operate independently. American or British intelligence had no clue about this terrorist cell or cells' planning and execution of this attack. In a way, this tells us something about the structure of the al-Qaida organization. There may be a centralized command structure among top al-Qaida leaders, who would select possible dates for attacks based on political gain, propaganda and moral support for their fighters, and possibly select team leaders to execute high profile attacks. These team leaders would be responsible for recruiting cells, planning and executing the attacks. The team leaders would also be given funds for their operation. The team leader could be the link between the centralized al-Qaida and the decentralized terrorist cells. Recruitment of members could come from the Middle East--certainly Afghanistan, Pakistan, and especially Iraq, where the member have experienced combat against U.S. and British forces in the war there.
Al-Qaida has now adapted into a far more dangerous organization. This attack clearly shows that they are back. Their fighters are far more experienced--especially at initiating terror attacks against U.S. forces and supply lines in Iraq. Their cells will be far tougher to break into--especially if the cells operate independently of each other. And with world anger mounting against the U.S. for its war in Iraq, recruitment of new members will certainly swell al-Qaida's ranks. We have to start thinking of new and innovative ways on how to fight this terrorist war--going in with military or police forces isn't going to win this war.
We are now losing the war on terrorism.
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