Reprehensibly calculated timing, facilitated again by Al-Jazeera. From AP: “Video by one of London bombers released”
LONDON – One of the suicide bombers who struck London’s transit system a year ago said in a video broadcast Thursday that the attacks were “only the beginning.”
The video, broadcast by Al-Jazeera, showed Shehzad Tanweer delivering the warning shortly before the July 7, 2005, attacks that killed 52 people and the four bombers.
“What you have witnessed now is only the beginning,” Tanweer said in the video.
Tanweer, 22, killed six people and himself aboard a London Underground train.
Ahmed al-Sheikh, an editor at Al-Jazeera in Doha, Qatar, would not say how or when the Arab broadcaster obtained the video. He said it was a long tape, and the station had shown only a small portion of it.
Andy Hayman, head of Specialist Operations for the Metropolitan Police, said the video would become part of the continuing investigation of the
bombings.
“There can be no doubt that the release of the video at this time can only cause maximum hurt and distress to the families and friends of those who died on 7/7 and the hundreds of people who were injured in the terrorist attacks,” Hayman said.
Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office said it had no immediate comment on the video.
In September, Al-Jazeera played a video from another of the four bombers, Mohammad Sidique Khan.
In that video, Khan claimed that the British public were to blame for the terror attacks because of their support for Western governments which “continuously perpetuate atrocities” against the Islamic world.
“We are at war and I am a soldier,” Khan had said.
Khan’s farewell message had been broadcast alongside a video of al-Qaida’s No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, warning of more attacks. They did not appear together on the recording, but analysts said it provided the strongest link yet between the terrorist network and the four London bombers.
Peter Clarke, who heads the anti-terrorist branch of the Metropolitan Police, said he believed Khan had probably recorded his so-called living will outside of Britain.
“The splicing of the footage with the comments of al-Zawahri and the release through the usual al-Qaida channels suggests it may well have been recorded overseas,” Clarke said.
Clarke also confirmed that both Tanweer and Khan had made at least three trips to Pakistan before the bombings, making a final visit in early 2005.