Terror Attacks in London - July 7

Londoners have ridden a rollercoaster of emotion in 24 hours, from the jubilent high of winning the 2012 Olympics to the lows from the terror attacks on three tube trains and a London bus this morning.

I am and will always be a Londoner at heart. I may live and work in America, but I have travelled the tube tunnels bombed this morning, I have commuted into London, Kings Cross, Aldgate scenes of the two worst train bombs today, and over the years have ridden on plenty of red London buses since I was old enough to purchase a Red Bus Rover ticket and armed with a free bus map, head off to explore parts of London that I was less familiar with.

The attacks today are very personal to me and although I do not feel as gut-wrenched as 9/11/01, where I was too close to New York for comfort, today I could only sit, watch, read and listen to the reports coming from London 3,500 miles away.

Like looking into a fishbowl, everything seemed so familiar, yet I was far enough removed from any danger.

I applaude the actions of the emergency services who are well trained at dealing with emergencies of this type in London. Bombings sadly are not new in London. I have been used to them all through my earlier years, except, more often than not there were warnings a sporting way to execute terror. Very British.

Today, was different, yes, London always has known it was a target, although the tube and buses are considered a soft target. In what is clearly a coordinated attack to tie in with the first day of the G8 meeting in Scotland, the M.O. the speed at which responsibility by a group with the same name as those who bombed the trains in Spain seems to quick.

There is the other obvious connection, the date 9/11 5/7 (day and month) if we are simply looking at numbers. One might question the number of bombs, I have failed to search on any current reports that Scotland Yard have 2 unexploded bombs from this morning, that would lead t clues of the bombers and the builders of the bombs. Where were these found? do they actually exist. If so 6 bombs could have some significance, is this a political message to 6 of the major G8 countries who have a stake in the current war on terror? Or is this all simply a coincidence.

Perhaps Britain has been caught out with its pants around the ankles and no inteligence to warn of this attack - and perhaps Jack Straw is simply protecting those agency MI5 might have in the UK working inside the cells to ensure nothing worse is being planned.

The bombs are clearly a message , a political one.

Yet, thinking back to New York, Washington, the fields of Pennsylvania and the railways of Spain, this is not a big attack in London as shocking as it still is.
London could so easily have been hit with chemical weapons this morning, or perhaps the security in the UK is so good that this effort is the best the terrorists could muster.

One thing is for certain, Scotland Yard will be pouring over hours of video tapes from camera in stations and streets of London to identifiy the bombers. This will be done in quick order.

In medieval times wrongdooers would have their heads cut off and place on spikes along the walls of the Tower of London and London Bridge as a dederrant to others. Perhaps this sentance would fit the crime of today, despite Britain beingn a civilized multi-cultural society.