From the NY Times:
London Bombs Seen as Crude; Death Toll Rises to 49
Investigators have concluded that the bombs that ripped through three subway trains and a bus on Thursday were relatively crude devices containing less than 10 pounds of explosives each. That finding supports a theory gaining momentum among the authorities that the plot was carried out by a sleeper cell of homegrown extremists rather than highly trained terrorists exported to Britain.
Remember, though - nothing is certain yet: "Some of the authorities cautioned [...] that the focus on a homegrown sleeper cell could shift as evidence developed. At this stage [...] there was not enough evidence to make 'even a sensible guess' about who was responsible."
So, with apologies for turning so soon to the political fallout from this tragedy, it strikes me as a possibly very positive development in the unfolding story that this attack might have been carried out by people who might not be foreign-trained (read: Middle Eastern) agents of Al-Qaeda, but rather by the UK equivalent of Timothy McVeigh.
More below...
Postive how? Well, of course, the horror of what happened remains unchanged regardless of the provenance of the murderous scumbags who perpetrated the crime. But it seems to me that if the bad guys here turn out to have been, say, completely unrelated to the ongoing conflict in Iraq, this does a great deal to undermine the right-wing spin about how this whole nightmare somehow equals a reminder of how the Iraq war is the so-called central front in the war on terror.
What do you think? If the terrorists turn out to be homegrown, how does that affect the picture for folks in the UK who are dealing with this? And, what about for our American right-wing friends lurking in the all-spin zone?