Authorities Disarm 2 Rigged Cars Left In Crowded District
By Mary Jordan and Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, June 30, 2007
LONDON, June 29 -- British police thwarted a pair of apparent terrorist attacks in central London's crowded theater district Friday, defusing bombs fashioned from gasoline, gas cylinders and nails and hidden inside two parked Mercedes sedans. Police said that if the explosives had detonated, they could have killed or injured hundreds of people.
Police found the first car -- a pale green Mercedes parked outside the upscale, three-story Tiger Tiger nightclub near Piccadilly Circus -- by accident. An ambulance crew responding to an unrelated call at 1:30 a.m. noticed smoke in the vehicle and alerted authorities.
According to British television reports, a police officer found a cellphone inside the vehicle that was to be the bomb's trigger and turned it off.
The second car, a blue Mercedes, was parked nearby about the same time. But around 2:30 a.m., the car was ticketed by London's ever-efficient parking enforcers and an hour later was towed to an underground garage at Hyde Park, police said. It was only many hours later, after news of the first bomb blanketed the airwaves, that workers notified police that the towed car reeked of gasoline.
No one asserted responsibility for the bombs, and police announced no arrests. But a senior government official said the two explosives appeared to be "al-Qaeda-inspired."
In New York, officials said they tightened security at Times Square and other landmarks in the wake of the news from London. Michael Chertoff, secretary of homeland security, said his department was in touch with British officials and monitoring developments closely.
A U.S. counterterrorism official, speaking before the second bomb was confirmed, said that the first one did not appear to be highly sophisticated but that the intended effect of an operation of this kind goes "beyond physical damage": instilling terror. Early indications were that the explosive was not intended as a suicide weapon, the official said.
Peter Clarke, who heads Scotland Yard's anti-terrorism efforts, said the similarity of the bombs indicated that they were probably the work of the same people. "The threat from terrorism is real," Clarke said. "It is here, enduring. Life must go on, but we must stay alert."
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in office for only two days after taking over from Tony Blair on Wednesday, said the bombing attempts show "the need for us to be vigilant at all times. . . . We face a serious and continuous threat to our country," he said.
Many Londoners shrugged off the news, saying they no longer feel rattled by such threats. For years, the city was subjected to periodic bombings by the Irish Republican Army, including one at the Canary Wharf development in 1996 that killed two people, injured 100 and inflicted hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage.
Since Britain joined the United States in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Muslim extremists have issued constant threats of bombings and sometimes carried them out. Next week is the second anniversary of the July 7 subway and bus attacks that killed 52 people and four suicide bombers.
"We are getting used to hearing this kind of news," said Emmanuel Eshepu, a 39-year-old London resident. "That is the way it is now." He said people had no choice but to keep going about their business and be grateful that this time "the bomb did not go off."
Police cordoned off many of the busiest streets in central London, which are even busier than usual these summer days in the height of the tourist season. Major traffic disruptions and business closures resulted. Several theaters shut their doors on what normally would be a busy Friday night.
Nadeem Saumtally, 21, a university student standing near Piccadilly Circus, said the area usually was "a vibrant entertainment area -- it never sleeps, even at 2 a.m." But, he added, with the heavy police presence, "it's buzzing right now, but for all the wrong reasons."
Shane Howell, 27, a security officer in central London, said: "It's disgusting that someone would pick this area. They're targeting innocent people."
British police increased car checks and security measures Friday at the continuing Wimbledon Championships tennis tournament and were reviewing security measures for Sunday's concert at Wembley Stadium in honor of Princess Diana that is to be broadcast worldwide.
Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, appealed "to all sections of the community, Muslims and non-Muslims, if they have any information to come forward" and tell police.
Radicals have previously targeted London nightclubs. A plot to blow up the Ministry of Sound club here in 2004 was thwarted.
Police said they were studying footage from the many closed-circuit security cameras near Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square in hopes of determining the routes the two cars took and getting images of the drivers. According to early news accounts, the first car was seen traveling erratically. It struck something and was abandoned.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who had taken over the job only a day earlier, chaired a top-level meeting known as COBRA, for Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, which convenes in national and terrorist-related emergencies.
Postings on Internet sites suggested that the bombs could be tied to Queen Elizabeth II's recent decision to award a knighthood to author Salman Rushdie. His novel "The Satanic Verses" had been deemed blasphemous to Islam.
Other analysts speculated that it could be a way to send a message to Brown, in his first days as prime minister, that he should withdraw troops from Iraq or face more bombings.
Al-Qaeda operatives have drawn up plans in the past to attack in London by detonating cars stuffed with gas cylinders and other explosives. In July 2004, counterterrorism officials in Pakistan seized a laptop computer containing directions for a plot to blow up three limousines in an underground parking garage in Britain. The 39-page document outlining the "Gas Limos Project" was written by Dhiren Barot, an al-Qaeda operative and British citizen.
The limousine scheme called for a six-man team to park the vehicles in a garage underneath a large building -- the precise target wasn't specified -- and detonate the bombs by remote control.
According to the memo, Barot envisioned packing each limo with 12 or 13 cylinders of propane, acetylene or liquid oxygen, which would be detonated by a separate main charge of explosives. He also suggested packing the vehicles with nails -- "preferably rusty" -- to act as shrapnel.
A convert to radical Islam, Barot designed the attack to occur at night, using black limos with tinted windows to avoid detection. He is in prison serving a 30-year sentence.
Explosives experts said there were obvious parallels between Friday's bombs and the Gas Limos Project. "This is quite clearly the same kind of bomb that was considered by this chap Barot," said Hans J. Michels, a professor of chemical engineering at Imperial College in London.
Michels said a powerful main explosive charge -- which itself could cause considerable damage-- would be necessary to detonate the gas cylinders. If the metal tanks were successfully broken, the liquids they held would likely transform into a vapor cloud. If kept in a relatively contained area, such as a parking garage, the gas would set off "a fireball the size of a small house," he said.
One advantage of using gas cylinders, Barot wrote, was that they were easily obtainable and unlikely to arouse the suspicion of authorities.
Special correspondent Karla Adam contributed to this report.
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