7/7 and 21/7 London Bombings: Warnings Missed, Evidence Suppressed - Additions as of August 3, 2008

The vast majority of new entries in the 9/11 Timeline this week are related to the 7/7 and 21/7 London bombings. Lead bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan was already radicalized and linked to two future suicide bombers in 2001, when, four years before the attacks, a computer expert warned British police about two of the bombers. Hasib Hussain, another of the bombers, visited Pakistan in the years before the bombings, as did Shehzad Tanweer, who met militant leaders linked to Jaish-e-Mohammed there. Khan visited Israel, shortly before British Islamist bombers performed a bombing there. Following the bombing, Britain failed to ban the organisation to which they belonged.

Radical imam Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, who had a "covenant of security" with the British authorities, said that militants were planning attacks in London in April 2004. A group he led, Al-Muhajiroun, was disbanded a few months later, but continued operating under a new name. By this time, FBI agents in London were so worried about attacks that they traveled around the city by taxi, shunning the underground.

The "copycat" London bombers were monitored by the British authorities when they attended training camps in 2004, and the head bomber was allowed to travel to Pakistan in December 2004, where he reportedly met the bombers responsible for the 7/7 attacks. By early 2005, Bakri Mohammad warned that the "covenant of security" had been broken, meaning there would be attacks in Britian, and British intelligence found that Khan had traveled to Afghanistan, but apparently did not learn his full name.

A London police official predicted that Britons would blow themselves up in the underground using backpack bombs four months before the attacks, British intelligence found that the Iraq war had increased the threat of terrorism in Britain, and French intelligence was concerned about a possible attack in Britian. Despite this, the threat level was lowered before the attacks, and intelligence officials told politicians there was no imminent threat one day before the bombings.

There are reports that Israel received advance warning of the 7/7 bombings, which were denounced by Bakri Mohammed in public--although he praised them in private. British officials falsely claimed the attacks were unstoppable, and an informer warned the police about the copycat bombings. Despite mooted treason charges, Bakri Mohammed was allowed to leave Britain. Saeed Sheikh was alleged to have played a role in the attacks, and Mossad is said to have found a link between the bombings and a key South Asian militant.

The British government refused to allow a public inquiry and claimed that al-Qaeda provided no direct help to the bombers. Government reports absolved the government of blame, although key evidence was withheld from investigators, leading the Independent to question the official account. Al-Muhajiroun's splinter groups were banned again in 2006, but just changed their names again, and Prime Minister Blair rejected calls for a new investigation again in 2007.

Elsewhere in Londonistan, Britain and Pakistan worked together to send radicals to fight in Bosnia in the 1990s, and British intelligence informer Abu Hamza ran a newsletter for Algerian terrorists. Bakri Mohammed admitted he helped finance and train Islamist radicals in 2000, shortly before a bombing in held Kashmir killed ten.

On the day of 9/11, flight 175 passenger Ace Bailey tried to call his wife shortly before the plane crashed, and United Airlines learned of the hijacking around 9:00 a.m. Jets at an Atlantic City airbase were recalled from the runway to be armed after this, but did not launch until the Pentagon was hit, and Richard Clarke took charge of the White House video conference around 9:15.

Finally, an alleged informer commanded an al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen for about a year in 1999.

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