'Shock and horror'

Tuesday's police raids, which began at 0630 BST, centred on two properties in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, and four in Leeds.

Police said they had arrested a relative of one of the four suspects in Yorkshire and taken them to London for questioning.

Explosives were also found in a car at Luton railway station, where experts have carried out seven controlled explosions, with three more expected to follow. A second car believed to be linked to the attacks was also found at the station and towed to Leighton Buzzard, 10 miles (16km) west of Luton, for further examination.

Sir Iqbal Sacranie, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said it had received news of the suspects with "anguish, shock and horror". He said: "It appears our youth have been involved in last week's horrific bombings against innocent people. "While the police investigation continues we reiterate our absolute commitment and resolve to helping the police bring to justice all involved in this crime of mass murder. Nothing in Islam can ever justify the evil actions of the bombers."

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said the searches, carried out under the Anti-Terrorism Act, were intelligence-led and "directly connected" to last week's attacks. Head of the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch Peter Clarke said documents identifying three of the men were found near three blast sites. But there is no identity for the fourth bomber and police do not know if his remains are at the King's Cross blast site or if he has fled. Three of the four men were from the West Yorkshire area, said Mr Clarke.

His colleague, assistant commissioner Andy Hayman, said: "I want to conclude by making it absolutely clear that no-one should be in any doubt the work last Thursday is that of extremists and criminals.

"No-one should smear or stigmatise any community with these acts."

Following developments on Tuesday he described the investigation as "complex and intensive" and "moving at great speed".

BOMB MANHUNT

Police said there was forensic evidence that one of the bombers died in the Aldgate Tube explosion. Property belonging to one of the suspects from West Yorkshire, who was reported missing by his family just after 1000 BST on Thursday, was also found on the devastated bus. A third man's property was found at both the Aldgate and Edgware Road blasts.

Mr Clarke said: "We are trying to establish their movements in the run up to last week's attacks and specifically to establish if they all died in the explosions."

Eleven victims of the blasts have now been formally identified. Eight inquests will be opened on Wednesday, including those of Londoners Jamie Gordon, 30, and Phillip Russell, 29. - BBC

Flashback: British Muslim suicide bombers Ashif Muhahmmad Hanif, 22 (R) and Omar Khan Sharif, 27 (L) are seen as they pose with AK 47 rifles in a frame grab taken from a videotape handed out by Hamas March 8, 2004, nearly a year after their deaths. The 22-year-old Briton of Pakistani descent blew himself up at Mike's Place, a jazz club on Tel Aviv's beach promenade, on April 30, 2003, killing three people in an attack claimed by Hamas. Hanif's partner in the attack, 27-year-old Sharif, attempted to detonate his bomb, but failed, then fled the scene. His body later washed ashore on the Tel Aviv beach.

Flashback 2003: over the top response to dubious info

Prime Minister Tony Blair was "shocked" to learn the bombers were born and raised in the UK, his official spokesman said. "But he is determined that we should take on this extremism," the spokesman added. "It is his view that this is not a problem that is limited to this country, but it is a symptom of a much bigger problem and we need to look at that.

"This problem didn't start in this society, in this country. It started beyond our shores."

[this is a lie]

Remember David Copeland and David Tovey??? are they not extremists???

The bombers appear to be the security services' worst nightmare, so-called "clean skins", apparently ordinary young men who were below the intelligence radar. Detectives are working furiously piecing together their lives as neighbours in West Yorkshire told of their shock that suicide attackers had been living in their midst.

Like Tanweer, Khan seemed an unlikely suicide bomber. Friends said he was married with an eight-month-old baby girl and that he worked with disabled children in a primary school. Hussain lived with his parents and neighbours said he had become "very religious" two years ago.

When he left his home last Thursday morning, with only a few hours to live, he had told his parents he was going to London for the day with friends. manchester online

London bombings: the truth emerges

By Jason Bennetto and Ian Herbert Published: 13 August 2005 [excerpt]

Intelligence officers now believe the four British-born suicide bombers - Shahzad Tanweer, 22, Hasib Hussain, 18. Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, and Germaine Lindsay, 19 - were probably organised and radicalised by the eldest bomber, Khan. The 30-year-old teaching assistant who, like Tanweer, spent three months in Pakistan before returning to Britain in February this year, may have been instructed in bomb-making techniques at a foreign camp. Alternatively it is thought that he could have been assisted in Britain or obtained information from the internet.

Senior police sources in West Yorkshire suggest that gyms and boxing clubs in Leeds - rather than mosques - were the key to the development of the young men into bombers.

It was at a gymnasium in Lodge Lane, Beeston, that Khan is thought to have begun radicalising the two younger Leeds-based men - Hussain and Tanweer.

Already an accomplished youth worker of 10 years' experience, he appears to have brought both Hussain and Tanweer to a gym established in the basement of the Hardy Street mosque, also in Beeston.

Khan was eventually forced to leave the gym at the Hardy Street and he set up another gym at the former Hamara youth centre in Lodge Lane, where he was noted for not allowing adults in while the boys were training. One of the remaining mysteries of the July 7 bombings is the link between Lindsay and the other three attackers. Lindsay hailed from Huddersfield, 20 miles away and, unlike Tanweer and Khan, he was not known to Hussain's family. Yet Lindsay's telephone number was stored in Hussain's mobile. Evidence of a recent link between Lindsay and Hussain is provided by Mr Nashar, who described how he and Lindsay met last October at the Leeds Grand Mosque, five miles from Beeston, where Lindsay had asked him to find him somewhere to live. He says he introduced Lindsay to the flat that eventually became the attackers' bomb factory.

* A memorial service for the victims of the July 7 bombings will be held at St Paul's Cathedral in London on 1 November. Independent

A video grab from Al Jazeera television aired on September 1, 2005, shows a man believed to be one of the July 7 London suicide bombers, Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30. Al Jazeera said the tape contained the will of Khan, in which he blamed the attacks on Britain's support for the war on Iraq and Western "tyrants". At least two groups linked to al Qaeda have already claimed responsibility for the July 7 suicide bombings on London's transport system which killed 52 people. REUTERS/Al Jazeera TV via REUTERS TV see: London Bombings Claims of responsibility

Friends claim Khan's statement was faked

Old and young refuse to accept youth worker's role in attack

Sandra Laville - Saturday September 3, 2005 The Guardian

Five young men sit in their cars on Maud Avenue in the early evening sunshine. Opposite, in Cross Flats park, another group of teenagers kicks a ball around a purpose-built football pitch designed to keep the young people of the deprived Leeds suburb of Beeston off the streets.

Their personal memories of Mohammad Sidique Khan, brought up like them in a rundown, redbrick terrace perched on a hill overlooking the affluent city centre, were stronger than ever yesterday. They knew Khan as a youth leader, a joker, a friend and a mentor. They had played football with him on the pitch opposite; across the main street, on the ground floor of the Hardy Street mosque, he had supervised and encouraged them as they trained in the boys-only gym.

One, who gave his name as Saj, had been on day trips quad biking with the 30-year-old youth worker - born to a foundry worker and educated at the local secondary school - who investigators believe was the recruiting sergeant and ringleader of the July 7 suicide attacks in London.

In the two months since Khan left his wife and young baby at their flat in Dewsbury, and led his three recruits, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Hasib Hussain, 18, and Germaine Lindsay, 19, to London to explode four bombs on the transport system, Saj and his friends have been living in denial.

"A lot of people loved him round here. I have known him all my life, he was a friend to everyone," said Saj. "He never talked of terrorism to me. I just don't accept that he or the others did this. I am suspicious of what the police say, there is no proof and look how they shot that Brazilian guy who was innocent."

Provided yesterday with what seemed to be evidence, the video statement of Khan apparently admitting his role in the bombings, his proteges were left confused. After watching it on Thursday night, Saj was one of the few young men to admit it was evidence of a kind. "That is proof I suppose. It just shows you doesn't it?"

His friends were less easy to persuade. Paranoid that their conversations were being recorded by MI5, none would give their names but their sentiments were clear. "It's a fake," said one. "Look at the way his lips were moving; they looked odd, the whole thing is a fake."

It is not just the young who need persuading. Many older men in the grid of potholed streets and boarded-up houses which back on to alleys where rubbish lies uncollected believe Khan, a dedicated teaching assistant at Hillside Primary school, is the victim of a conspiracy.

"It's crap," said Mohammed Afsal, a father of five and member of the Hardy Street mosque. "I know people can change in a second, but I can't say he is one of them. He taught my son, he was a very good teacher. He was never hardline - no one could say he was an extremist - he was peaceful and dedicated to the children. They all loved him."

The release of the video brought television satellite vans, a media pack and police vans back to Beeston yesterday after weeks in which the citizens have had what they say is "a little peace".

In the intervening period, the parents of Hussain and Tanweer have moved back, devastated, but attempting to get on with their lives. Khan's wife, Hasina Patel, who is expecting a baby, his young daughter and his mother-in-law, Farida Patel, are essentially living in hiding in Dewsbury, according to friends. "They will not be happy at all about this video," said one.

His parents, Tika Khan and Mamida Begum, have not been seen at their home in Nottingham since the police led them away in the aftermath of the bombings.

In Beeston, community leaders say they have spent the weeks urging parents to pay more attention to what their sons are doing. At Friday prayers each week, families are urged to look out for their young sons: the unspoken fear is that others may follow in Khan's footsteps. Afzal Choudhry, a youth worker who spent six months working with Khan in Beeston, hopes they will not. He said the video may have a positive impact in the long term, forcing young people to accept that he was involved. "It makes it more clear that he perpetrated these acts, it was definitely him, it was his voice and his face, that cannot be denied," he said.

Mr Choudhry believes it was only in the last five years that Khan became particularly religious. In the months before July 7, Khan had travelled to Pakistan with Tanweer and had also visited Afghanistan.

Police are investigating whether it was on this last trip that the attacks were planned. Like many people yesterday, Dr Hassan Akertib, from the Leeds Forum of Mosques, had to accept what police have been saying, that Khan was one of the suicide bombers.

His greatest fear now is that other young men may still be under Khan's spell. "This video will make some see him as a martyr, definitely," he said. "We are very concerned. We are trying to reach out to his circle of friends to find out what influence he still holds on them and to try and eradicate it."

- guardian.co.uk

7/7 bomber's widow speaks

23 September 2005, 13:02

The widow of one of the London suicide bombers has spoken publically for the first time about the incident.

In an interview with the Sun newspaper, Samantha Lewthwaite said that Jamaican-born Jermaine Lindsay was a peaceful, gentle family man when they met and married in Huddersfield.

However, shortly after they moved to Aylesbury, Lindsay met a group of men at a mosque in Luton and his character began to change radically. He disappeared for days at a time, visiting mosques around the country. She assumed that on 7th of July he was again visiting a mosque, and that her "world collapsed" when she was shown CCTV footage of Jermaine carrying one of the four bombs.

Ms. Lewthwaite said she condemned her husband's actions. Ms Lewthwaite now faces the prospect of two children to bring up alone - and eventually telling them what their father did. - ITV

LINDSAY'S WIDOW 'IS MOTIVATED BY GREED'

Sue Carroll - Mirror

IT says something about the nature of the British people that after 7/7 suicide bomber Jermaine Lindsay slaughtered 26 people on a London Tube a wave of support went out to his wife.

The hapless Samantha Lewthwaite - an Islam convert - knew, it transpired, nothing of her husband's horrific plan. Pregnant with their second child and mother of a 17-month son, she appeared to be as much a victim of his religious fanaticism as the innocent souls blown up when he detonated his bomb.

On the face of it what else is there to feel for Samantha - just 21, betrayed by the man she loved and left to face an uncertain future - but pity?

Although she is guilty of no crime her name will always be associated with the most appalling act of infamy. Given that background, one might have assumed the sensible move would be to seek anonymity and pray for a peaceful existence.

Instead she has chosen to speak out - and, if it's true, was paid £30,000 to do so - then the grieving families of those people her husband murdered have every right to feel outraged.

Far from delivering an insight into the mind of a killer his deluded widow tells us he wasn't really bad at all. He was, she assures us: "A loving person who would harm nobody."

In short, her "naive and simple" husband was a bit of a victim himself and his misfortune was to fall in with a bad crowd at the mosque.

It strikes me that what she truly never knew was her husband. Wherever Lindsay's heart lay it was not with the children he cruelly abandoned. Or his wife. Meanwhile she says she will raise their son and daughter: "Knowing their father was a man who truly loved them."

If Samantha Lewthwaite had the vaguest idea of what love is she would be too broken, tormented, shamed and shocked to tell her story. - Mirror

BRITAIN: WIDOW OF LONDON BOMBER "ABHORS" ATTACK

London, 23 Sept. (AKI) - The Muslim convert widow of Jamaican-born 7/7 suicide bomber Jermaine Lindsay told the British tabloid The Sun her "naive and innocent" husband's mind had been "poisoned" by a London mosque, condemning his attack on a Tube train that killed 26 people as "abhorrent". Samantha Lewthwaite, who gave birth to Lindsay's son Ruqayyah 15 days ago, said her husband was "a peace-loving person who would harm nobody". She dreads the day that she will have to tell Ruqayyah and her other children "what their father did".

The couple married in 2002, before moving from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, to Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. After they moved, Lindsay, 19, changed from a "peaceful man who loved people" into someone, his wife said, she no longer knew. After he met a group of men at a prayer meeting last year, Lindsay began attending mosques around Britain, Lewthwaite said. "How these people could have turned him and poisoned his mind is dreadful," she said.

Lewthwaite, who is the daughter of a British soldier, reported her husband missing following the attacks. Her "world collapsed" when police later showed her CCTV footage of him on his way to carrying out his attack," she said.

The coordinated suicide bombings of London's transport system, carried out by Lindsay and 3 men of Pakistani descent, killed 56 people, including the four bombers. In a video released this week, al-Qaeda's number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, claimed responsibility for the "blessed" London attacks, saying they were targeted at "the arrogance of the Zionists and the British and American Crusaders."

At least two of the London bombers attended religious schools in Pakistan, but Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf has denied any of the bombers - the oldest of whom was 30 - was radicalised in Pakistan, saying their "mindset changed in the UK."

As part of a post-7/7 move to stamp out radical preaching in mosques, Britain's interior minister Charles Clarke has offered 7.4 million euros over the next 18 months, to fund the country's first-ever national multi-sectarian council of imams and mosques, to nurture moderate, homegrown imams. Britain's 1,400 mosques are currently run by an 'old guard' of ovewhelmingly elderly and foreign-born men.- adnki.com

London bomber buried in Pakistan

The remains of one of the four London suicide bombers have been buried in Pakistan, the country's interior minister has said.

The remains of Shehzad Tanweer, 22, were flown in by his parents on Wednesday and buried on Thursday in Punjab province, Aftab Sherpao said.

More than 50 people died in the attacks on four sites in London on 7 July.

Pakistan cracked down on extremists after it was shown at least of the two bombers had visited the country.

London's Metropolitan Police said they would not comment on the matter.

Madrassas

Tanweer's remains were buried near his ancestral town of Samundari after being flown from London to Lahore, Mr Sherpao said.

Residents said the burial had been arranged by Tanweer's uncle, Tahir Pervaiz.

Mr Pervaiz told Reuters: "The burial has taken place."

One resident told the agency 100 to 150 people attended a quiet funeral in the compound of a local Islamic saint's shrine.

British police say Tanweer killed seven people when he detonated a bomb at London's Aldgate underground station.

They say the other attacks were carried out by Mohammed Sidique Khan, Germaine Lindsay and Hasib Hussain.

Pakistan has confirmed that Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer arrived in Pakistan last year and left together after spending three months in the country.

After the bombings, President Pervez Musharraf said all foreign students at madrassas, or religious schools, some 1,400 pupils, had to leave the country.

Shehzad Tanweer was one of three bombers who staged a dummy run

He also ordered all madrassas to register with the authorities by the end of the year.

Hundreds of suspected extremists were also arrested.

The president also vowed to crack down on anti-Western hate speeches in mosques or in recordings. - BBC

LONDON BOMBERS

Shehzad Tanweer : Aged 22, born Bradford, lived Beeston, Leeds. Studied religion in Pakistan. Forensic evidence linking him to Aldgate blast.

Mohammad Sidique Khan: Aged 30, from Beeston, Leeds, recently moved to Dewsbury, married with baby. ID found at Edgware Road blast site.

Hasib Mir Hussain: Aged 18, lived Holbeck, Leeds. Reported missing on day of bombings. Said to have turned very religious two years ago. ID found in No 30 bus.

Germaine Lindsay: Jamaican-born man living in Buckinghamshire. Believed to have carried out King's Cross attack.

Jihad videos left in mosques in tube bomber's town

Martin Wainwright - Thursday November 10, 2005 - The Guardian

Police are investigating claims that tapes and DVDs inciting Muslims to violence were left at mosques in the town where one of the July 7 bombers lived during last weekend's Eid celebrations. Detectives from the West Yorkshire force are examining a videotape handed in by worshippers in Dewsbury, who were concerned that young people were being targeted by the anonymous drop at two mosques in the Savile Town area.

The tape is understood to show scenes of violence against Muslims, including footage of funeral processions and burials from Iraq overlaid by verses from the Qur'an. Along with others, it was left with genuine religious material at the mosque's reception area in sleeves allegedly disguised to suggest that the contents were celebratory sermons and texts.

Residents have experienced repeated fears of violence since Mohammad Sidique Khan, a 30-year-old with a young daughter, was identified as the bomber who killed himself and six others on a Circle line train at Edgware Road station in London. He left a video message to be broadcast after his death, saying he was "at war and a soldier" inspired by Osama bin Laden and the Iraqi insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Khan, who had worked at a primary school in Beeston, Leeds, close to the homes of two of the other July 7 bombers, lived further out of Dewsbury in the suburb of Thornhill Lees. But the whole of the town's British Asian community has been affected by the fallout from the tragedy and the police investigation into Khan's movements and associates.

Safiq Patel, a resident and journalist for Yorkshire Asian News, said worshippers at the mosques in South Street had picked up the tapes thinking them to be prayer material. They had been disturbed by the "jihad contents" which appeared on their screens instead.

He said: "It is someone trying to drum up violence, especially among the younger members of the community. Somebody is trying to infiltrate their consciences, decision-making and values in the hope of perhaps recruiting the terrorists of the future from this community."

Senior officers from West Yorkshire police put out a message of reassurance in Dewsbury yesterday afternoon, repeating previous statements aimed at maintaining calm.

A spokeswoman for the force said: "Members of the local Asian community brought this matter to our attention. We have received a copy of a video which is currently being looked at. The inquiry is at an early stage." - guardian

Revealed: How suicide bomber used to work for the Government

By Ian Herbert, North of England Correspondent - Published: 11 March 2006

His raging hatred for the West, in a video justifying the London suicide bombings, has made him seem the most transparent of the four men who detonated bombs in rucksacks and killed 52 others on 7 July.

But Mohammad Sidique Khan's extraordinary and rapid transition from law-abiding citizen to terrorist is revealed in documents showing he used to work for the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), helping promote British firms overseas. He also helped Leeds police deal with confrontations between rival gangs of youths.

Leeds education authority's personnel file on Khan, obtained by The Independent under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act, shows details of his work for the DTI's export arm in Yorkshire in the mid-1990s, when Britain was seeking more trade links with Asia.

But the investigations reveal that Khan lied on his CV about the seniority of his role at the DTI, which escaped the Leeds primary school that hired him on the basis of it. But he did help in the government-led drive to get more trade missions off the ground between 1995 and 1996.

Khan prospered as a primary school learning mentor, and his file provides the first real sense of the charisma and empathy with young people which enabled him ultimately to recruit fellow suicide bombers Shahzad Tanweer and Hasib Hussain. But it also charts his sharp decline from 2003. Prolonged absences from school - when it is now known he was visiting Pakistan - were followed by an unexpected failure to return from extended sick leave in 2004.

He was told his pay was being stopped and he sent an undated typewritten letter to the headteacher, Sarah Balfour. "I'm sorry I've not been in touch for a while," he wrote. "A lot has happened in the last few months. There is no definite timeframe to when I will return. We are returning next week. Unfortunately this is a letter of resignation from my post."

Before Khan took his job with the DTI in August 1995, he had been on a trip to the US. Friends said he came back with cowboy boots and a leather jacket, telling his contemporaries he wanted a career in the US. He became an administration assistant with the Benefits Agency, which he said was dull. The DTI offered better prospects.

John Major's Conservative government had just published its Competitiveness White Paper which committed the DTI to boost overseas trade, in Asia among other places. Khan's role did not include "monitoring security" for visits by exporters to overseas British embassies, as he said on his CV. But his fluency in Urdu and Punjabi may have made him optimistic about his prospects of moving beyond his relatively lowly position.

Khan left to study at Leeds Metropolitan University in September 1996, and took a 2:2 in business management, his file reveals. He clearly believed his vocation lay in steering disenchanted youths away from crime. He took paid youth and community work from Leeds council while finishing his degree and juggled a job at a petrol station in Ilkley, West Yorkshire.

The youth work was for a Saturday club affiliated to Leeds Community School, itself linked to the Iqra bookstore where police later found DVDs glorifying terrorism.

He wrote on his school job application: "As a youth worker I have had extensive experience in managing difficult children. I was approached by a member of the community who told me in confidence [that] his younger brother had been suspended from school and his parents were extremely upset. I began ... a discussion with the child [and] met his parents at their house and the situation was [resolved]."

Khan also detailed a "potentially dangerous" confrontation at a school. "I have an excellent rapport with the youth [community] so ... I targeted the ringleaders and spoke to them, calming them down and offering sympathy as well as empathy.

"We then approached the teachers and as a large group casually walked together up Beeston Hill which [defused] the situation." Associates of Khan have confirmed his role as an interlocutor between police and youths.

Khan also described his interventions in the case of a young heroin addict, his help in getting excluded children back into school and how he arbitrated in a dispute between rival gangs. "I feel patience and understanding comes through experience and maturity," he wrote. "I constantly analyse society and speak to people regarding current issues. I consider my ability to empathise with others and listen to their problems as well as offer viable solutions to be one of my strong assists."

Hillside Primary was obviously impressed, giving Khan several extensions to an initial £200-a-month contract. He also drove the school minibus.

Mrs Balfour, wife of the Labour MP John Trickett, valued him and allowed him paid special leave. "He was great with the children and they all loved him," she has said. "He did so much for them, helping and supporting them and running extra clubs and activities."

Khan's handwritten notes, which seem to be a part of his appraisals, reveal more. "I'm energetic, I [look for a] way of bettering things," he wrote. "Can build up trust and rapport with disillusion, understanding and empathy."

Khan clearly became disenchanted with the modest form of Islam practised by his father, Tika Khan, and stepmother, Mamida Begum. But in 1999 he had started frequenting the mosque. His file shows the process to radical Islam had started by 2002, a year after he joined Hillside. He began taking leave on religious grounds.

He took more than two weeks in January/February 2002 for "Muslim religious obligation, Haj, pilgrimage" and a similar period for "religious observances" the next year. From November 2003, he took 18 months, costing his employer an estimated £6,000.

But the sharp decline came in September 2004 when he was signed off sick, first for three days, then a further 10 days, a further three weeks and another three weeks. He is believed to have cited depression.

On 9 December 2004, after 10 weeks of absence began, Mrs Balfour told her personnel department in an "urgent" memo: "Sidique Khan should have provided the school with a sick note from November 22. Despite several letters reminding him of the school's sickness-reporting procedures he has failed to provide a sick-note. I request you to stop [his] pay."

Three days before, Khan had flown to Pakistan via Istanbul with Shahzad Tanweer. A week later, they took a train to Lahore then Faisalabad, and disappeared, Pakistani security officers said. They surfaced in Britain on 8 February.

MI5 believes they met Muslim extremists during the visit. Khan died, killing seven others, when he detonated his bomb at Edgware Road station on 7 July. - independent.co.uk