UK missed warning signs
18/11/2005 12:19  - (SA)  

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London - Muddled thinking about terrorism and political denial about Iraq led British intelligence services to miss warning signs that could have prevented the July 7 London bombings, an intelligence expert claims in a new book about the attacks.

Crispin Black, author of 7-7: What Went Wrong, said failure to address the country's intelligence shortcomings will "make it more likely that we're going to be hit again."

"I don't think that all terrorist attacks are discoverable or deterrable," said Black before the book's publication on Friday. "But I feel strongly that July 7 was discoverable and deterrable."

Black, a former military intelligence officer who advised the government's cabinet office for several years, praised the response of Londoners and the emergency services on the day of the attacks. Fifty-six people were killed - including four suicide bombers - and more than 700 were wounded in explosions on three subway trains and a bus during the morning rush hour.

But he accused the government of adopting the attitude that Britain "had done everything it could do to prevent such attacks."

What went so wrong?

In fact, Black claimed, several signals were missed. He said Mohammad Sidique Khan, the bombers' presumed ringleader, had been investigated by the security services in connection with an alleged truck bomb plot that was thwarted in 2004.

Britain's MI5 intelligence service reportedly did not find Khan to be a threat to national security and failed to put him under surveillance. The government has declined to comment on the claim, which has been widely reported and backed up by intelligence experts.

Black said both the French and Saudi security services possessed intelligence that an attack on London was being planned.

French sources "had produced an assessment which suggested strongly that a bomb plot against the UK would emerge from small pockets within the homegrown Pakistani population," said Black. Three of the four bombers were Britons of Pakistani descent.

It was unclear whether the French information was passed on. After the bombings, Saudi officials said they had warned Britain last December of a planned summer attack.

"Why had we got these things so wrong when nearly everybody was expecting an attack?" said Black.

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