Skip to main content
Search
Services
WORLD

UK to unveil London bomb inquiries

From Paula Hancocks
CNN

story.bombings.candles.afp.jpg
Candles bearing the names of some of the bombing locations are shown at a St. Paul's Cathedral last November.

SPECIAL REPORT

YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS

Great Britain
London
Acts of terror
Tony Blair

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Two reports on the July 7 London transit bombings last year are due to be released on Thursday, 10 months after the attacks.

The official account of what happened during rush hour that Thursday morning will detail how the four bombers used cheap explosives and techniques found on the Internet to attack three underground trains and a bus.

The intelligence committee's findings are expected to make recommendations on how security services should adapt to terrorism tactics.

British intelligence services are likely to come under a fresh barrage of criticism. The nation had received reliable warnings that an attack of this nature was not a case of if but when.

That was little consolation to those caught up in England's worst ever terrorist attack, where 52 were killed and 700 were injured by the four bombers from the north of England.

"We're employing more people now in the intelligence services," says security analyst, Steve Park. "We know that MI5 and MI6 are recruiting at the moment, they're taking on thousands of people for all different types of jobs and those jobs are to specifically look at people like Sidique Kahn, who quite frankly, shouldn't be able to walk on the streets of London without somebody knowing where he is."

MI5 is Britain's domestic spy service; MI6 is the UK's Secret Intelligence Service.

The suspected ringleader Mohammed Sidique Kahn and fellow suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer were already known to the authorities. They were under partial surveillance for up to a year before the attacks.

In looking at how intelligence agencies could not have suspected their plans, authorities are likely to cite a lack of resources.

"Four years after 9/11, two years after the UK's entry to the Iraq war, why didn't we have enough surveillance people and if we didn't have enough surveillance people was there not something else we could have done, for instance why were the uniform police in the home towns of these men not alerted,?" asks former government intelligence analyst Crispin Black.

Two questions likely to be raised about the July 7 attacks are:

  • Why was the national terror alert system lowered from severe general to substantial just before the attacks?
  • Why was not one single arrest made in connection with the bombings?
  • "It may be that they carried out the bombing independently of al Qaeda. It may be that they're not connected to anybody. It may be they made the bombs themselves and delivered them, but the idea that they did it with no other support is not one I think is credible," says Black.

    The intelligence service MI5 argues there is nothing more it could have done to stop the bombers, and both of Thursday's reports are expected to conclude that while there was clearly a failure of intelligence, no single agency or individual is to blame.

    Story Tools
    Subscribe to Time for $1.99 cover
    Top Stories
    Get up-to-the minute news from CNN
    CNN.com gives you the latest stories and video from the around the world, with in-depth coverage of U.S. news, politics, entertainment, health, crime, tech and more.
    Top Stories
    Get up-to-the minute news from CNN
    CNN.com gives you the latest stories and video from the around the world, with in-depth coverage of U.S. news, politics, entertainment, health, crime, tech and more.
    Search JobsMORE OPTIONS


     
    Search
    © 2007 Cable News Network.
    A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.
    Terms under which this service is provided to you.
    Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. Site Map.
    Offsite Icon External sites open in new window; not endorsed by CNN.com
    Pipeline Icon Pay service with live and archived video. Learn more
    Radio News Icon Download audio news  |  RSS Feed Add RSS headlines