If you have flipped through Fox News or most of the other US cable news channels, NPR or even CSPAN in the last few days to hear the latest news and analysis on the
London terrorist bombings, you will have heard a pretty much uniform message coming from a procession of Islamic and middle east terrorism experts, consultants and pundits, like William Krystol,
Stephen Schwartz ,
Steve Emerson,
Daniel Gour'e, as well as several other authoritative terrorism book writers and think tankers. The message is that the London bombings are the latest strike by the world-wide Al-Qaeda Conspiracy and are in character with past Al Qaeda/spin-off attacks. They are, with little doubt, fanatical suicide bombing carried out by young, religion steeped Islamic extremists, say our cable TV experts and consultants.
But many jarringly normal aspects (seemingly well adjusted, wives, young children, close families, good jobs, good school/work histories, non- or only weakly-religious background, etc) of the alleged suicide bombers' and bombmaker/mastermind's
backgrounds are now emerging.
These elements of the bombers' lives refuse to mesh easily with the grainy-photo'ed, bug-eyed malcontent Islamic extremist/fanatic suicider profiles we are all used to seeing and hearing the "experts" jabber on about on US cable TV news.
In spite of what the US media has been saying, British investigators have never themselves used the term "suicide" to decribe the bombings, and today they explicitly reminded the media of that fact in a Reuters story.
LONDON (Reuters) - Police have not yet definitively established that four men who carried bombs on to London's transport network intended to die in last week's blasts, a Scotland Yard spokesman said on Saturday.
He was commenting on a report in the Daily Mirror newspaper suggesting the bombers, who all died in the July 7 explosions, may have thought they had time to get away after planting the devices.
Police have carefully refrained throughout the investigation from publicly using the term "suicide bomber," describing the four men only as bombing suspects.
"We've never used the phrase 'suicide bombers'. We've always been aware that among the things we need to clarify is the notion these people intended to die as well as letting off a bomb," the spokesman said.
Now even more curious things about the behavior of the bombers on the day of the event are starting to reveal a pattern inconsistent with suicidal behavior:
16 July 2005
EXCLUSIVE: WAS IT SUICIDE?
Why did they buy return train tickets to Luton? Why did they buy pay & display tickets for cars? Why were there no usual shouts of 'Allah Akhbar'? Why were bombs in bags and not on their bodies?
THE London bombers may have been duped into killing themselves so their secrets stayed hidden.
Police and MI5 are probing if the four men were told by their al-Qaeda controller they had time to escape after setting off timers. Instead, the devices exploded immediately.
A security source said: "If the bombers lived and were caught they'd probably have cracked. Would their masters have allowed that to happen? We think not."
The evidence is compelling: The terrorists bought return rail tickets, and pay and display car park tickets, before boarding _ a train at Luton for London. None of the men was heard to cry "Allah Akhbar!" - "God is great" - usually screamed by suicide bombers as they detonate their bomb.
Their devices were in large rucksacks which could be easily dumped instead of being strapped to their bodies. They carried wallets containing their driving licences, bank cards and other personal items. Suicide bombers normally strip themselves of identifying material.
There are many curious aspects to this London terrorist bombing. The British investigators seem to be doing a careful and deliberate investigation. We should wait for their official evidence and pronouncements in the coming days and weeks, and not be too quick to accept the pat "suicide bomber" conclusions that Fox News and the corporate media pundits and experts seem to be pushing hard right now.
