From “Police raid homes over blasts” in News.com.au, with thanks to The One Who Must Not Be Named:
Earlier, it was revealed al-Qaeda threatened to launch attacks in Europe in an internet warning posted five weeks before the London terrorist bombings that British intelligence services claimed to have no knowledge about.
But the Spanish secret service only forwarded the May 29 message to Britain’s MI5 spy agency at the weekend – two days after the attacks.
The Spanish national intelligence centre, called CNI, sent a copy of the Arabic-language message – signed by “Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades – European division” – on Saturday to MI5, according to Spain’s El Mundo newspaper.
The same group – named after an al-Qaeda leader who was killed in Afghanistan – claimed responsibility for the Madrid train bombings of March 11 last year, in which 191 people died, and twin bombings in Istanbul in November 2003 that killed 63 people.
The message, entitled “Letter to mujahedeen in Europe”, states in part: “We now call on the mujahedeen around the world to launch the expected attack”. Spanish intelligence officials believe this was a reference to the London attacks.
The revelation came as it emerged the severed head of a man had been found near the bus torn apart at Tavestock Place in the London bombings, strengthening suspicions that a suicide bomber was behind the blast. Suicide attacks in Israel have shown that a head is often the only remnant of a suicide bomber.
London’s Daily Telegraph reported yesterday that the head found near the bus had almost certainly been blown out of the upper deck, where a rucksack-sized bomb is believed to have been planted on a seat.
One passenger who got off the bus just before the explosion had noticed a nervous young man behaving oddly on the bus and frequently dipping into a bag at his feet.