Sucker-Cide Bombers ReduxHadn't revisited this theory in awhile; to be honest the attempted second round of bombings rather convinced me that the first round must have been intended. But Michael Leddeen channels
a famed spymaster:
ML: "Well, officially they seemed pretty confident. I think the main thing was that the three bombs in the subways went off more or less at the same instant, and that suggested there were timers. And then I think they actually found physical evidence of timers."
JJA: "Really. How brilliant. And since when do suicide terrorists need timers? Isn't part of the cult that you get to push your own button and blast off?"
ML: "Well, I think the simultaneity of the three explosions suggested technological coordination, if you see what I mean..."
JJA: "Couldn't they just coordinate their watches? They all met before they set off to kill, didn't they? And they were all well educated, I don't think any of them had a problem telling time."
ML: "Yes, some of the British papers, and a very smart Italian journalist named Guido Olimpio, have suggested that the terrorists were duped, that they didn't expect to be blown up..."
JJA: "Yes, notice that the London police chief was 'puzzled' to discover that the bombers were carrying around their personal identity documents. That's pretty lousy tradecraft, isn't it? It's what led the police to Leeds, where they found explosives and all kinds of leads."Mark Steyn hints at
something similar in the Telegraph:
The more we know about the events of July 7, the more it seems likely that at least some of the suicide bombers were set up, that they were happy to kill others but not themselves. That's good news: it suggests that the jihad has limited appeal in Leeds, at least as a participatory sport. If, as the clichés have it, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were really creating "a thousand bin Ladens" every day, there'd be bombs on the Tube every day. But, if you have to sucker suicide bombers into signing up for the gig, that indicates a certain operational weakness.
