The 7/7 London Underground Bombing, Not So Homegrown: A Selection from: The Evolution of the Global Terrorist
()
About this ebook
It was among the most important operations directed by core al Qaeda leaders in years following the events of September 11, 2001. Initially, the incident was dismissed by the authorities, pundits, and the media as the work of amateur terrorists—untrained, self-selected and self-radicalized, “bunches of guys” acting on their own with no links to any terrorist organization.
Evidence presented here, however, reveals a clear link between the bombers and the highest levels of the al Qaeda senior command, then based in the lawless border area separating Afghanistan and Pakistan. Written by the author of Inside Terrorism, this chapter is part of the Columbia Studies series that examines major terrorist acts and campaigns undertaken in the decade following 9/11.
Read more from Bruce Hoffman
Terrorism in Cyberspace: The Next Generation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnd My Mother Danced with Chesty Puller: Adventures of a Marine in the Rear, to Combat in Vietnam Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The 7/7 London Underground Bombing, Not So Homegrown
Related ebooks
Inside 9-11: What Really Happened Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Putin's Assassin: The Truth Behind The Salisbury Poison Attack Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerica Betrayed – Why 9/11 Occurred: Plus, a Wake-Up Call for the Future Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnemies Within: Communists, the Cambridge Spies and the Making of Modern Britain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mind of the Terrorist: The Psychology of Terrorism from the IRA to al-Qaeda Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Axis of Evil: The War on Terror Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBefore 9/11: A Biography of World Trade Center Mastermind Ramzi Yousef Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhere the West Ends Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Faces of Terrorism and The Ultimate Solution. By: Prit Paul Singh Bambah Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn the Wake of the Surge Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAs I Saw It: A Reporter's intrepid journey Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Hitler I Knew: The Memoirs of the Third Reich's Press Chief Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Dismantle the NHS in 10 Easy Steps: The Blueprint That The Government Does Not Want You To See Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSoviet Defectors: The KGB Wanted List Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Trial of Saddam Hussein Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mengele's Friend? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNo. 10: The Geography of Power at Downing Street Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Life for a Life: A Memoir: My Career in Espionage Working for the Central Intelligence Agency Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen Presidents Turn On America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Great Game Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNasser: My Husband Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Amaryllis Fox's Life Undercover Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWake Up: Why the world has gone nuts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Violent Entrepreneurs: The Use of Force in the Making of Russian Capitalism Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of Jennifer Saginor's Playground Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerica's Last President: What the World Lost When It Lost John F. Kennedy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sydney Under Siege: As It Happened 15 December 2014 Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Diplomat, Dissident, Spook Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Political Ideologies For You
The Psychology of Totalitarianism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Communist Manifesto: Original Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mein Kampf: English Translation of Mein Kamphf - Mein Kampt - Mein Kamphf Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Anarchist Cookbook Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Unwoke: How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why We're Polarized Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The U.S. Constitution with The Declaration of Independence and The Articles of Confederation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The January 6th Report Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/525 Lies: Exposing Democrats’ Most Dangerous, Seductive, Damnable, Destructive Lies and How to Refute Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago: The Authorized Abridgement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Capitalism and Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The 7/7 London Underground Bombing, Not So Homegrown
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The 7/7 London Underground Bombing, Not So Homegrown - Bruce Hoffman
The 7/7 London Underground Bombing: Not So Homegrown
Bruce Hoffman
A selection from The Evolution of the Global Terrorist Threat: From 9/11 to Osama bin Laden's Death, edited by Bruce Hoffman and Fernando Reinares
crown logoColumbia University Press
New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York—Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2014 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
E-ISBN 978-0-231-53886-2
A Columbia University Press E-book.
CUP would be pleased to hear about your reading experience with this e-book at cup-ebook@columbia.edu.
Scholarly research for this volume was made possible with a generous grant from the Real Instituto Elcano, Madrid, and the Center for Security Studies and Security Studies Program, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
El Caino logoGeorgetown logoCover design by Noah Arlow after an original design by Elliot Strunk / Fifth Letter
Cover image © Getty Images
References to websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
Contents
The 7 July 2005 London Bombings
Notes
The 7 July 2005 London Bombings
Both at the time of the July 7, 2005, London bombing attacks and since then, a misconception has often been perpetuated that this was entirely an organic or homegrown phenomenon of self-radicalized, self-selected terrorists.¹ Indeed, British authorities initially believed that the attacks were the work of disaffected British Muslims: self-radicalized and self-selected, operating only within the United Kingdom and entirely on their own.² Newspaper accounts repeatedly quoted unnamed security sources using the term clean skins
to describe the bombers: a shorthand of sorts meaning that they had no prior convictions or known terrorist involvement.³ In the Cabinet Office on the day of the bombing, a senior intelligence officer’s suggestion that al-Qaeda was behind the attacks was reportedly laughed at
and dismissed as absurd.
⁴ That morning, Scotland Yard’s deputy assistant commissioner, Brian Paddick, told a press conference, As far as I am concerned, Islam and terrorists are two words that do not go together.
⁵ And in an interview on BBC Radio 4 on the morning after the bombings, Home Secretary Charles Clarke stated that the attacks had come out of the blue,
suggesting that the bombings were some spontaneous outburst of rage and anger manifested in an act of extreme violence that could not have been anticipated or prevented.⁶
Such arguments were widely cited in support of the then-fashionable contention that entirely homegrown threats had superseded those posed by al-Qaeda and that al-Qaeda was no longer a consequential, active terrorist force. Accordingly, many analysts and government officials concluded that the threat from al-Qaeda had in fact receded and that the main security challenge emanated completely from unaffiliated, self-selected, and self-radicalized individuals. The evidence that has come to light since the 2005 London attacks, however, points to precisely the opposite conclusion: that al-Qaeda was and is alive and kicking and that it has been actively planning, supporting, and directing terrorist attacks on a global canvas since at least 2004 and was certainly behind the 2005 London bombings.⁷ Hence, rather than an organic, entirely homegrown plot perpetrated by clean skins
acting entirely on their own, al-Qaeda’s involvement—and that of other terrorist organizations—is crystal clear.
The Bombings
At 8:50 a.m. on Thursday morning, July 7, 2005, three bombs exploded within fifty seconds of one another on three different London Underground (subway) trains.⁸ One explosion occurred on an eastbound Circle line train traveling from Liverpool Street