 |
 |
 |
|
|
PM Ariel Sharon says it's a bad idea to compare the terror attacks on London to those that have plagued Israel. (AP)
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
07/08
Ynetnews |
|
|
| By israelinsider staff and partners July 8, 2005 |
|
| |
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Government Secretary Yisrael Maimon to order ministers to refrain from drawing comparisons between Israel and Britain during media interviews, no matter how tempting.
"We are talking about an incident the Brits are experiencing now," Maimon told the ministers. "At this time we don't need to be quick to connect this matter to us. The Brits suffered a difficult, painful blow, and it would be improper of Israel to put itself on the same front."
In the meantime, British investigators -- skilled at anti-terror work from decades of Irish Republican Army bombings -- are at the beginning of the daunting task of finding those behind the bus and subway explosions that killed at least 37 people and injured 700 in London Thursday, going through hours of closed circuit television footage, sifting through tons of wreckage, and analyzing tiny traces of explosives.
Time may not be on their side.
Three weeks after bombs struck four Madrid commuter trains last year, police found some of the plotters in a safe house with more explosives, apparently planning fresh attacks.
"There is real passion now in the police to make arrests quickly before further attacks can be carried out," said Charles Shoebridge, a security analyst and former counterterrorism intelligence officer.
"While (the bombers) are at large now, a second attack is very likely, because there's no reason for them not to, they've broken their cover," he said. "They will now try to exploit whatever freedom they have left" to kill again, because it is likely they will eventually be caught, Shoebridge said.
Police have said they can't confirm the authenticity of a claim of responsibility from a group calling itself "The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe." They are sure to analyze it closely.
Another unanswered question is whether any of the London attacks -- one on a bus and three on the subway -- may have been carried out by suicide bombers, as is often the case in Israeli bus bombings and in Iraq. Police say they don't yet know.
In the attacks on four commuter trains in Madrid, which left 191 dead, the bombers left backpacks aboard the trains and used cell phones to detonate them.
The phones gave investigators a lucky break that led them to some of the attackers. One bomb failed to go off, and the subscriber identity card inside that phone eventually led investigators to the suspects, although they haven't found the plot's masterminds.
After New York's World Trade Center was attacked with a truck bomb in 1993, one of the conspirators gave investigators a hand by trying to retrieve a deposit he'd put down on the vehicle destroyed in the blast.
Police in London may get a break like that too, but they also have a lot of hard slogging ahead of them.
London is crammed with closed circuit television cameras -- 1,800 monitor its train stations, 6,000 watch the Underground network and some buses also have cameras.
Shoebridge said detectives would have to watch thousands of hours of tape -- slowly and carefully. The system is only loosely coordinated, with cameras run by local authorities, traffic agencies and other bodies, making the task even more unwieldy.
Investigators will try to find on tape the point at which bombs were placed and then trace back the movements of the person they identify as the bomber, an arduous task that could involve hundreds of cameras, Shoebridge said. Most of London's Underground cameras are in stations, not cars.
Shoebridge said investigators would also check records of mobile phone calls made in the bombed areas just before the explosions, a job that might be difficult in the case of the Tube attacks unless investigators determine where bombers boarded the trains.
They'll likely look at the ways someone might obtain explosives, or the means to make them, talking to chemical suppliers and others who might provide leads.
Forensic evidence will also be key. If any of the perpetrators were suicide bombers, there will be body parts to examine for clues. If not, detectives will search for DNA or fingerprints.
They'll also have to examine recent intelligence -- including the phone and e-mail intercepts routinely collected as part of anti-terrorism work -- to see if any clues were missed or if any of the communications contain information that looks significant in hindsight, Shoebridge said.
Old interviews with informants will be re-examined and new ones conducted.
Authorities will have to identify "whatever failings exist, if any, in the intelligence system that allowed this attack to take place, because it is an intelligence failure," Shoebridge said.
The AP contributed to this report.
|
|
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
