The relationship between Al Qaeda and the recent bombings in London is being put under the microscope by investigators in Great Britain and in Saudi Arabia — and it seems to underscore once more the apparent role of Al Qaeda as a kind of corporate office where franchises throughout the world operate with guidance from the home crew:
LONDON, July 31 — British and Saudi investigators are examining a series of phone calls, text messages and e-mails between leaders of the al Qaeda network in Saudi Arabia and unknown people in Britain from February to May for possible links to the recent bomb attacks in London or a still unidentified group of extremists operating in Britain, according to a Saudi official….
The possible Saudi connection is one of several lines of inquiry investigators are following as they seek to make progress in their hunt for those responsible for two sets of recent attacks in London — the July 7 bombings of three subway trains and a double-decker bus, and an abortive attack two weeks later in which assailants failed to detonate explosives on an identical combination of three subway trains and a bus.
Despite their success last week in rounding up all of the suspects in the failed July 21 attacks, investigators concede they have not answered several key questions: Were the two sets of attacks linked? How were they planned and financed? Was there a larger network of extremists, domestic or foreign, behind the bombings? And, most crucially, are there more attacks in the pipeline?
“We’re very pleased with what we managed to achieve last week,” said a British official who spoke on condition of anonymity, in keeping with government custom. “But there’s so much more we need to find out.”
Another tidbit is that the bombs that caused so much carnage, ripped bodies of innocents of all ages apart, maimed people and changed lives by murdering families’ loved ones were comprised mostly of triacetone triperoxide, a volatile household material — and made by the two sets of bombers in bathtubs.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.