Great Britain’s Mirror has a fascinating piece raising the question: were London’s suicide bombers TRICKED by their Al Qaeda bosses into thinking they could escape?
If so, it would not be beyond the realm of possibility. Remember that (in)famous tape of Osama bin Laden gleefully recounting how some of the 911 hijackers didn’t know they were going to die but thought they were on board to provide the passenger-control muscle? Consider this (read the whole post…this is only part of it):
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.
Similar terror attacks against public transport in Madrid last year were carried out by recruits who had time to escape and planned to strike again.
Bomber Hasib Hussain detonated his device at the rear of the top deck of a No 30 bus, not in the middle of the bottom deck where most damage would be caused.
Additionally, two of the bombers had strong personal reasons for staying alive.
Of course, we’ll never know the truth. But if you read various books on terrorism it’s clear that the Al Qaeda bigwigs consider the young lives of their followers used to murder others as ammunition, like bullets. The London operation? It didn’t cost much, had a high yeild (body count) and only cost four militant’s lives. Our view? This theory is VERY plausible… If it’s true these would be true “homicide bombers” who were themselves duped into thinking they could kill and get away with it.
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.