Police hunting for first clue to begin joining up the dots
July 09, 2005 Forensic science officers work beside the wreck of the bus in Tavistock Place. The bomber is believed to have died in the attack (DYLAN MARTINEZ/REUTERS) Police hunting for first clue to begin joining up the dots By Stewart Tendler and Daniel McGrory As police collect sackloads of evidence, three main theories over the identity of the bombers are emerging POLICE are counting on forensic teams to provide the breakthrough that will enable them to find the terrorist cell responsible for the bombings. The scientific teams have accumulated sacks full of material as evidence, some of it so small that it is barely visible to the eye. A senior officer at Scotland Yard said last night: "Right now we have a ton of material to investigate. There are hours of CCTV footage to go through, thousands of telephone calls and e-mails to pore over as well as the testimony of survivors. "What we need is that first, practical clue so we can start joining up the dots." In Madrid it was a partial thumbprint on a mobile telephone Sim card that led police to their first suspects. In Istanbul it was a chassis number on a truck used in a suicide bombing that helped investigators to identify the terrorist cell responsible. The problem for Scotland Yard detectives is that this scientific operation requires patience and time. They are piecing together the biggest forensic jigsaw puzzle that London has ever seen. Yesterday, forensic teams were picking metal fragments from the bombed-out bus that were embedded in buildings a hundred yards away. They will also recover evidence from the bodies of the victims. >From the remains, the police will be able tell for certain whether a suicide bomber was responsible, or if not it will show where the terrorist left the bomb. "I'm afraid you have to recover every damn thing you can," the officer said. "The chances of someone coming forward to identify the cell is unlikely so it's the evidence which is likely to lead us to these people." Police said that they were confident last night that the terrorist who blew up the No 30 bus died with his victims. Their effort now is to discover if there is enough DNA to identity him. "Find one of the gang, and it leads you to the rest of the cell," the officer said. The other priority is to piece together the design and construction of the bombs. Experts say that those who make bombs leave their tell-tale trademarks, which is why police have asked their counterparts around Europe to send their files from the most recent atrocities. The officer at Scotland Yard, a veteran of the 30-year battle with IRA bombers, said: "We need to know the explosive used, the type of detonator and timer, wires, tape. "We even need to know all we can about the bags that they were carried in because we might be able to trace where they were bought and so narrow down the location of the bombers." A closely guarded military and scientific complex near Sevenoaks, Kent, in the heart of the Home Counties and a nondesdescript office block in Lambeth, South London, will be the twin centres in this manhunt. The first, Fort Halstead, is the home of the forensic explosives laboratory. Scientists there have handled material from blasts as big as the Lockerbie bombing and as small as IRA devices hidden in lunch boxes. The forensic laboratories in South Lambeth Road, an ugly brick-and-concrete 1970s tower block, will co-ordinate the other parts of the search, from fingerprints to DNA and fibres. The next step will be for the forensic science teams to stage what they call a "Byford conference" to figure out who should do what. The name comes from Sir Lawerence Byford, a former police chief inspector, who wrote a damning report on the failures of the police investigation into the Yorkshire Ripper case. His recommendation was that one scientist should be chosen to oversee a whole operation. Each of the others should run an area of expertise and all would advise the senior police investigator. This method was first used in the aftermath of the IRA hotel bombing during the Conservative Party conference in Brighton in 1984. Peter Yapp, deputy director of forensic science at the Control Risk Group, said: "Forensics has developed tremendously in the past ten years. Now we can find answers from even microscopic traces, but this won't be a quick process. "The bodies will also tell their own tragic story. They too are vital evidence. You are looking for the key that will send you in the right direction. The police investigators can then focus their energies in the one direction. "Sometimes it is the bombers who make a mistake, who leave the smallest clue when they believe that they have thought of everything to cover their tracks." (7/9/2005): THEORY ONE TEAM OF BRITISH BOMBERS THE possibility that the bombs were planted by British-born terrorists is the one that causes police most concern. Many young Muslims have been radicalised by events since 9/11 and an unknown number have travelled to Afghanistan, Chechnya and Iraq to take part in the jihad. Many have returned as trained terrorists, fired with fundamentalist ideas and a hatred of the West and with firearms and explosives experience. Two recent anti-terrorist operations, which police believe thwarted major bomb attacks in the UK, involved the break-up of alleged terror cells made up of Britons. Naeem Noor Khan, an al-Qaeda operative arrested in Pakistan last year, had maps of the London underground on his computer and had been in contact with British suspects. Omar Bakri Mohammed, the radical cleric two of whose British followers have been involved in suicide bomb attacks in Israel, declared earlier this year that Islamists were no longer bound by a so-called "covenant of security" which forbade carrying out attacks in Britain. The Syrian-born founder of al-Muhajiroun told followers in an internet sermon: "I believe the whole of Britain has become Dar ul-Harb [land of war]." In such a state, he added, "the kuffar [non-believer] has no sanctity for their own life or property." THEORY TWO THE MADRID CONNECTION SCOTLAND YARD has been in close contact with the anti-terrorist authorities in Spain since the blasts on Thursday morning because of the clear similarities with the Madrid train bombs in March last year. Several suspects from the Madrid cell are still at large and a number are known to have fled to the UK. Three are currently in prison here fighting extradition to Spain. The UK security services are also reported to have asked for help in finding Mohamed Guerbouzi, a Moroccan wanted in his homeland for alleged links with the Madrid attacks and the suicide bombings in Casablanca in 2003. As in Madrid, the bombs appear to have been placed in rucksacks and left on crowded morning rush-hour trains. It seems likely that they were detonated by the use of timing devices such as the mobile phone alarm clock settings used in the Madrid explosions. The bus bomb is a flaw in the theory that links the two atrocities. But police sources have suggested that the bus bomb was improvised by a bomber who, as alarm spread in London, was blocked from entering a Tube station. Instead he jumped on a Number 30 bus and either left his bomb upstairs or detonated it, killing himself in the process. The Madrid bombers had planned to carry out other attacks in Spain but "martyred" themselves in suicide explosions when cornered by police. THEORY THREE BIN LADEN HIT SQUAD ARAB sources with close links to al-Qaeda suggest that the attack on London was personally ordered by Osama bin Laden after the rejection last year of his offer of a truce. Bin Laden had offered to halt activities against the West if the UK and other countries withdrew troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. Their theory raises the possibility that the al-Qaeda leadership despatched a team under its central command to carry out the attacks. If so, the planning will have gone on for a year or more. In 1998, when al-Qaeda attacked two US embassies in east Africa, the leadership sent in distinct teams to carry out the tasks of targeting, reconnaissance, financing and bombmaking. Only at the last minute were the bombers selected. By then the leaders, who had lived in Kenya running legitimate businesses, were long gone. One of the men wanted by the US for his alleged involvement, Khalid al Fawaaz, was running bin Laden's media office in West London and has been in prison fighting extradition since 1999. One al-Qaeda affiliate said: "I don't think they were after killing the maximum number of people. They know the British are familiar with terrorism after the IRA experience. If you kill too many Britons, they will side with the Government. But if you paralyse the transport system and inflict major damage they'll say why should we live like this, why for God's sake are we staying with America?" (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1686839_2,00.html) (7/9/2005): Forensic science officers work beside the wreck of the bus in Tavistock Place. The bomber is believed to have died in the attack (DYLAN MARTINEZ/REUTERS) (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1686839_1,00.html) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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