THE fugitive bombers who bungled their attacks on Londonâs transport system last week returned to their secret cache of explosives to rearm themselves for another assault, Scotland Yard believes.
Nice
Immediately after the bombings up to three of the men who tried to blow up three Tube trains and a bus were seen by a neighbour at the ninth-floor flat in New Southgate, North London, that they were using as a bomb factory.
It ain't getting any more potent schmoes!
Witnesses claim that some of the suspects made a second trip the next day to the flat where police yesterday found chemicals and bombmaking materials. The men who lived at the flat, Muktar Said-Ibrahim, 27, who tried to bomb a London bus, and Yasin Hassan Omar, 24, the Warren Street attacker, were described by a neighbour who met them as looking âstartled and dishevelledâ. They fled shortly before police established last Friday that the flat had been used as a base. It emerged last night that Ibrahim, 27, was granted a British passport despite a criminal record for violence. It also emerged that his parents identified him to police after CCTV pictures of him were released.
good for them! Moderate Moslems?
He was jailed by Luton Crown Court for five years when he was 17 for being part of a gang that carried out a series of muggings at knifepoint at Hertfordshire railway stations. One former friend said that he turned to radical Islam while in prison.
small jump
He qualified for early release in 1998 and is then alleged to have met Richard Reid, the jailed âshoe bomberâ, at two London mosques. Reid, who was also a petty criminal, tried to blow up an airliner over the Atlantic in 2001.
| There aren't many people in this world willing to say "I wanna be just like Richard Reid"... |
| The companion post to this one sez they might have skipped to Holland... |
Armed police seized a car used by one of the bombers, which was found abandoned a few miles from the council flat that Ibrahim and Omar shared.Streets near the North Circular Road in East Finchley were sealed off as bomb disposal teams searched the white Volkswagen Golf. Police told how Ibrahim was identified by his own parents. His family spoke of their shock at discovering their sonâs involvement in terrorism and condemned his actions. âWe are a peaceful family, having lived in this country since 1990,â a family statement said.
Police are still checking identifications of the other two men who took part in the attacks. Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said that senior officers had come close to allowing officers to fire on terrorist suspects seven times since the July 7 bombings. They had been asked to assess the risk of a terrorist 250 times in the past 20 days. Doctors in London have been asked by police to alert them if they are consulted by any âyoung men of Asian appearanceâ with back injuries.
"They may have undiagnosed head injuries"