London observed not one but two minutes of silence and several more of teary-eyed reminiscence as the first anniversary of the London terrorist bombings became official right at the stroke of noon. July 7th, 2005, 52 persons lost their lives in the cowardly terrorist attack. The King's Cross train and Underground station were the focal point of the mourning as they were the focal point of the attacks one year ago too - hence the image of a cross hanging from the end of a rosary, left along many floral tributes to the victims of that infamous day...
posted by Luminous (\ô/) Luciano™ @ 7:27 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Silence, tears as London remembers deadly bombings
by Robin Millard Fri Jul 7, 1:48 PM ET
LONDON (AFP) - Mourners stood in tearful silence, policemen removed their hats and London's trademark buses and taxis slowed to a halt as the capital paid its respects a year after bombs tore through the city.
ADVERTISEMENT
London is a city that never stops, but for two minutes it did, and nowhere more so than at the King's Cross train and Underground station.
There, at the stroke of noon, bereaved relatives, friends and well-wishers stood together in silence to remember those who died when suicide bombers unleashed carnage on London's transport network exactly one year ago.
Red double-decker buses and black taxis halted on the busy streets around King's Cross as a crowd of more than 1,000 crammed the pavement by a temporary memorial garden to remember the nightmare scenes of July 7, 2005.
The scene was repeated across London and Britain to remember the nation's worst terrorist atrocity, when four British Muslims blew themselves up on three Underground trains and a bus, killing 52 others as well.
King's Cross was where the bombers arrived in London together in a commuter train, then split up to carry out their blasts -- the deadliest of which was closest to the station.
The crowd at King's Cross swelled in the minutes before midday, filling with people from all tranches of British society -- office workers, builders, Muslims, Christians, whites, blacks, Asians, youths, mothers with children.
The silence was a sharp contrast to a year ago, when police, fire brigade and ambulance sirens pierced the summer air amid confusion, horror, disbelief and bloodshed.
Police officers, out in large numbers Friday to reassure the public, removed their hats and helmets to signal the start of the silence. Spontaneously, the crowd bunched tighter together.
One woman softly hummed the Whitney Houston tune "I Will Always Love You". Other mourners reached out to hold hands.
When two minutes had passed and the police officers put their hats back on, many people in the crowd burst into tears.
A steady stream of mourners and well-wishers had arrived during the morning to lay flowers, cards, poems and pictures at the memorial garden, including Mayor Ken Livingstone and Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell.
Two young men, visibly upset, hugged each other and were consoled by the station staff on hand.
Others stood in silence while groups of friends grimly greeted each other, reunited again due to the commemorations.
Carrying flowers, Nader Mozakka, 50, arrived with his children and friends to pay tribute to his wife Behnaz, 47, a scientist who was among the victims.
"It brings it all back," he told AFP as he stood looking at the garden.
"It was absolutely devastating. She was killed for no reason, absolutely nothing was achieved. My wife did not deserve that and I do not deserve that," he said.
"I do not understand it. I don't know if I'm angry. Every day is a roller-coaster of emotions."
Mozakka is among many who are calling for an official public inquiry, an idea rejected by Prime Minister Tony Blair's government which thinks it would divert resources away from preventing another attack.
On a bouquet bearing a pink ribbon, a card read: "Dear Phil, we miss you. With love, Vikki, Jodie, Loulou."
One poem attached to a bunch of flowers read: "To the innocent who died; To the brave who saved our lives; To the wounded who survived; And the rest of us who cried. And what for? A cause that's built on lies. Rest in peace, friends."
Hayley Warner, 19, from Leicester in central England, told AFP: "I'm just here to show my gratitude to the people who risked their lives trying to save others.
"You see it hapenning in America, but when it happened here it brought it all home. It was shocking. It gets you a bit terrified."
Chris Rose, 20, said he had deliberately decided to ride on the Underground to King's Cross to lay flowers.
"I thought we should take the Tube because if you don't, they win," he said. "I was looking round me, though."
from the July 07, 2006 edition
(Photograph) VIGILANCE: A policeman conducted searches at King's Cross subway station in London last month. Antiterror activity has risen sharply since the 7/7 attacks.
LEFTERIS PITARAKIS/AP
A year after bombings, London still on alert
On the anniversary of 7/7, Al Jazeera airs a video warning of more attacks.
By Mark Rice-Oxley | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
LONDON – Ben McCarthy didn't usually ride the subway. But he'd left his motorbike at work the night before, so on he went.
Fifteen minutes later a bomb demolished his train in the sooty gloom of the London Underground, one of four explosions a year ago Friday that claimed 52 lives and injured more than 700.
Reporters on
the Job
The Monitor gives the story behind the story.
In the Monitor
Thursday, 07/06/06
Arab leaders may hold key to Gaza calm
Obrador rejects recount
Quest for leverage on North Korea
A year after bombings, London still on alert
Editorial: China under North Korea's missile toe
More stories...
Get all the Monitor's headlines by e-mail.
Subscribe for free.
E-mail this story
Write a letter to the Editor
Printer-friendly version
Permission to reprint/republish
"I was quite traumatized by it, and still don't like traveling on the Tube," says Mr. McCarthy, who was able to walk to safety through the smoky carnage. "But you get to view life slightly differently, perhaps try and live it to the full a bit more."
A year after 7/7, it is clear that London's deadliest bombings since World War II have affected far more than the lives of McCarthy and the estimated 4,000 or so caught up in the attacks.
That day was Britain's Sept. 11, inasmuch as it woke authorities to the threat posed by Islamic radicals at home. It has piled pressure on police and intelligence services, stretching both to the limits. Recruitment for theintelligence agencies is rising sharply, and the government has introduced tough antiterror legislation that some support, but others say sacrifices liberty on the altar of security. Heightened antiterror efforts have left many Muslims - including the overwhelming majority that decried the attacks - feeling alienated in their own country.
"The most important thing that has changed was the perception held by the government, police, and intelligence services that Islamic terrorism was not something that would happen in the UK," says Bob Ayers, a security expert with the Chatham House think tank. "There used to be a very hands-off approach. That has changed.
"There is now a clear and unamibiguous recognition that domestic terrorism is a serious and viable threat," he adds.
Al Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri appeared in a video on Al Jazeera Thursday praising one of the London bombers, who threatened more attacks in a testament filmed before the 7/7 bombings.
"What you have witnessed now is only the beginning of a string of attacks that will continue and become stronger until you pull your forces out of Afghanistan and Iraq," said the man, identified as Shehzad Tanweer.
A flurry of antiterror activity has underscored British authorities' recognition of the heightened threat, though no one has yet been charged in connection with the bombings.
MI5, the domestic-security agency, is recruiting vigorously, and plans to boost staff numbers by more than 50 percent over the next three years. Some candidates have been rejected on security grounds, leading to fears that Al Qaeda sympathizers may be trying to infiltrate the organization.
Police meanwhile have foiled at least three terror plots since last summer, and are working on 70 antiterror investigations - more than ever before - according to Peter Clarke, London's top antiterror officer. Sixty individuals are awaiting trial for terrorism-related offenses. Several arrests have been made including at least one involving a man said to have ties to an alleged plot to bomb targets in Canada.
The London force is stretched thin, sucking in specialist resources - surveillance, armed support, intelligence analysis - from other areas, experts say. The 7/7 investigation alone has yielded more than 13,000 witness statements and 6,000 hours of video surveillance footage, some of which still has to be analyzed.
"Despite the increase in resources, we are running at or near capacity," said Mr. Clarke. "There has been an unrelenting demand for intelligence to be investigated and operations conducted to arrest suspects or disrupt terrorist activity when judged to be appropriate."
Two mistakes by police officers have dented reputations, however. Charles Shoebridge, a former counterterrorism intelligence officer, says the shooting of an innocent Brazilian, Jean Charles de Menezes, at Stockwell subway station has created such outcry that it may jeopardize future antiterrorist operations.
"Were Stockwell to happen again, but this time with a real suicide bomber, officers may be less willing to open fire purely on the basis of intelligence they've received," he says. "Such a delay could prove catastrophic."
An incident at London's Forest Gate, meanwhile, in which two innocent Muslims were roughly arrested, has provoked anger at what some feel is the scapegoating of an entire community for the actions of four misguided youths. Since 7/7, many Muslims have complained bitterly about being targeted disproportionately by the police.
But the authorities say they have to act early, before they can be sure that intelligence is watertight, in order to prevent terror plots from reaching fruition. "I suspect that most Muslims would recognize that Forest Gate in a sense had to happen," said Prime Minister Tony Blair this week. "The police, if they receive this information, ... are bound to go and investigate and take whatever action, and actually if they didn't, most people would say they are not performing their duty properly."
Asghar Bukhari, chairman of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee lobby group, counters that such tactics will generate disenchantment, radicalizing Muslim youths. A poll this week found that 16 percent of Muslims - more than 150,000 adults - say that while the July 7 attacks may have been wrong, the cause was right.
For many Muslims, Mr. Bukhari says, sympathizing with the right of Palestinians or Chechens to resist oppression is a natural instinct.
He adds that many have been alienated by new government legislation which makes "glorification of terrorism" an offense. "Should I be locked up for supporting the Palestinians? Where does that leave us? All that is saying to us is, don't support the Muslims or we're locking you up."
The measure is part of a package of laws drawn up to counter the terrorist threat. One bill in particular, giving police 28 days to hold suspects, has created alarm in a country that prides itself on liberal values. Another that severely curbs the freedoms of terror suspects is being challenged in the courts.
But for most Londoners, life has reverted to business as usual, says McCarthy. He adds, however, that "individuals caught up in it will always see their city in a different light. I don't think I will ever forget that whenever I'm on the Tube."
The preceding and following articles are from THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR -
www.csmonitor.com
Why was Britain targeted?
Some blame 7/7 on Britain's support for the US war in Iraq. Others point to more deep-seated causes.
By Mark Rice-Oxley | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
LONDON – When terrorists killed 191 people in Madrid in March 2004, the repercussions were rapid: Socialists stunningly defeated the pro-US government in that week's election, and soon withdrew Spanish troops from Iraq. There was little doubt in Spanish minds that the attacks were directly linked to the nation's involvement in the Iraq war.
Now, in the wake of the July 7 London bombings, the same question is being asked in Britain. Was the worst terrorist attack in London's history a direct consequence of robust British support for the US campaign in Iraq? Or were there deeper-seated causes?
In the Monitor
Thursday, 07/06/06
Academics, Muslim leaders, and many Britons say Iraq was crucial.
A survey published in the Guardian newspaper Tuesday found that nearly two-thirds of respondents believed it was a factor. A report issued by the influential independent think tank Chatham House said there was "no doubt" that Iraq had made Britain's antiterror struggle more difficult.
Yet some say that approach is too simplistic. Al Qaeda-type terrorism - the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, for example - long predates the Iraq war. And its targets have included Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia. Some radical jihadis identify all non-Islamic states - not just Western ones - as enemies.
Some experts argue that Britain has been a target for years and that its policy toward countries such as Israel and Afghanistan may be as much to blame.
"The terrorism of the kind that led to the London bombings began long before the Iraq war," says Prof. George Joffe, an expert in the Middle East at the Center for International Studies at Cambridge University.
Nations that have sided with the US campaign in Iraq have found themselves in the firing line since 2003. Australia was targeted in an attack on its Jakarta embassy in September 2004; Spain suffered the Madrid bombings; British interests were attacked in Istanbul in November 2003. Coalition partners Denmark and Italy have been directly threatened in Islamist website postings.
Osama bin Laden has asked Western powers: "Why did we not attack Sweden?"
"[The Iraq war] gave a boost to the Al-Qaeda network's propaganda, recruitment and fundraising," asserts the Chatham House report, coauthored by terrorism experts Frank Gregory and Paul Wilkinson.
Many Britons agree. The Guardian survey, carried out by the ICM research group, found that 33 percent of Britons ascribed "a lot" of blame for 7/7 to the decision to invade Iraq, and 31 percent "a little." Only 28 percent said the Iraq gambit was not at all responsible for the London attacks.
There is a growing realization, moreover, that the Iraq war has not just ignited the fury of Al Qaeda members, but may have driven countless new recruits into their camp - like the four perpetrators of the 7/7 Tube and bus bombings.
Inayat Bunglawala of the mainstream Muslim Council of Britain lobby group says it has become much harder for moderates to persuade disaffected youth to maintain faith in the authorities when the authorities are seen to be responsible for Muslim deaths in Iraq.
"The Iraq war certainly helped Al Qaeda to recruit more people and boosted their propaganda efforts," he says. "It has undermined mainstream Muslim organizations."
YOUR VIEWS
How can Europe prevent homegrown terror?
Share your views and read what others are saying.
The British government has dismissed suggestions that it brought terror upon itself by joining the Iraq campaign.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair prefers to speak of the enemy in terms of its "evil ideology," not its geopolitical ambitions. Some academics partly agree, noting that some Al Qaeda formulations seem more concerned with a religious-historic quest to spread the Islamic umma, or community, than with specific facts on the ground.
But Professor Joffe says that the overriding motivation for Islamist terrorism remains US and British policy in the Middle East.
Another academic, Robert Pape of the University of Chicago, supports this contention in a study of suicide bombings over the past 25 years. He found that 95 percent of all episodes were aimed at forcing occupying states to remove military forces from contested territory.
He noted that Iran, the world's foremost Islamic theocracy, has not produced a single suicide bomber. It is also not occupied by a Western force.
Some terrorism experts also partly support Blair's contention. If Iraq truly was the cause for the bombings, then antiwar countries like Germany and France should be able to rest easy. But they aren't. France's president, Jacques Chirac, warned recently that no country is safe from terrorism.
When asked if the London bombings might accelerate plans to withdraw from Iraq, Maj. Charles Heyman, a defense expert with Jane's Information Group in Britain, said: "You're joking. Surrender to a bunch of terrorists? Britain will not respond that way."
As Mr. Blair said this week: "We have got to be very careful that we don't enter into a situation where we think if we make some compromise on some aspect of foreign policy, these people are going to change.
"They are not going to change. They will just say 'They are on the run, let's step it up.' "
Post a Comment
<< Home