There is an old and hence now little used expression about a Left-Handed Gift from the Gods. A man who fears being burned to death above all things and who gets a fatal heart attack in his sleep five minutes before his bedroom erupts in flame has received such a gift; so has a boy whose broken arm keeps him from being in a fatal bus accident with the rest of his hockey team. A left-handed gift is the one you don’t welcome, save in retrospect.
The bombing of three subway trains and a bus in London on July 7th 2005 was a left-handed gift. It was a deadly terrorist attack, 56 people (including four apparent suicide attackers) are known to have died and hundreds of Londoners were injured. This is an attack that nobody would appreciate, but… Al Qaeda’s long desired attack on British territory could have been much worse. In comparison to some of the plots that Jihadists have been incubating for Britain, four bombs on a mass transit system with home-made high explosive really wasn’t that much in the scheme of things.
In January 2003, British police raided a flat in Birmingham where an al Qaeda cell associated with Ansar al Islam (a group then headquartered in a remote part of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq) was brewing ricin. Ricin is a biological toxin that is untreatable once a miniscule lethal dosage — about 1.5 micrograms for a typical adult — has been ingested or injected. It can be weaponized for aerosol delivery via the lungs. Once someone is infected, toxaemia rapidly sets in and death is virtually inescapable.
Imagine that Kamel Bourgass (the Algerian chemist who was assembling the toxin) had succeeded beyond his own dreams and several kilos of this substance were strewn through the London Underground. Thousands of people might have gone home feeling they were coming down with a slight cold, and in the morning they would have all sought hospital care with a raging fever — a symptom of the blood poisoning that would have killed them in a few more hours.
As it was, the Ricin plot was broken up thanks to a timely warning to the British from the Algerian government. Moreover, the planned attack with the toxin did not consist of an aerosolized agent dispersed in the subways, but with an infected handcream that was to be smeared on doors throughout a London neighborhood… not the most effective means of causing mass panic, especially as Ricin cannot penetrate through intact skin (although one wonders if a hand moisturizer would facilitate penetration by the toxin). Even so, nobody noticed Aum Shinrikyo’s first attacks in Japan with biological and chemical attacks either, and Ansar al Islam might have learned more quickly from its mistakes than the Japanese religious cult ever did.
Then there was the spree of ammonium nitrate truck bombs envisioned by another British al Qaeda cell in early 2004. This plot had some input from a Canadian, Momin Khawaja, who now awaits trial in Ottawa under the first application of our new Anti-Terrorism law. After the ring was broken up in March 2004, it transpired that this terrorist cell had amassed some 600 kilos of the fertilizer they needed as a base for their explosives; and that they were planning to use most of it for a single attack at Heathrow. One of the wrinkles planned for this attack included the acquisition of a rare industrial chemical which could have been added to the basic bomb. The chemical would not have evaporated or burned away in the explosion, but would have been scattered about; waiting for the chance to contaminate the wounded and emergency responders — where an hour’s exposure would have resulted in blindness and significantly eroded lung capacity.
There was also British Muslim involvement in another al Qaeda plan to manufacture nerve gas (Sarin) for attacks inside Europe — rapid action by police from several European nations broke this ring up in early 2001.
British Muslims have also been active inside Israel — where two attempted the classic vest-pack suicide attack; one of which went off. Another was arrested in Georgia after enrolling in a flight school. After 911, didn’t he think the Americans would be watching? Other British Muslims have been killed in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kashmir, fighting in the ranks of Muslim guerrillas.
The left-handed gifts from what the British are now calling the 7/7 attacks is that the attack could have been attempted years ago with sarin nerve gas, or ricin toxin, or even with a chemical-laced conventional bomb of 500 kilos in size. There is another gift to consider. So far, it seems possible that three of the four bombers on July 7th weren’t even contemplating suicide, but may have been involuntarily ‘martyred’ by the bomb builder’s deliberate plans. One of the common indicators that a Jihadist intended to die in his attack has yet to be mentioned by British police — Islamist suicide attackers have often been known to wear seven or eight pairs of underwear and perhaps a jockstrap or two (In expectation of their 72 virgins, some like to make sure their equipment is especially safe).
If the attackers of July 7th were ‘martyred’ against their will, it should be useful for the British and other Western news media to make frequent note of this. It might affect the Jihadists’ recruiting efforts next time round.
Post Scriptum: On July 21st there was yet another left-handed gift… a failed second wave of attacks on London’s Underground. This time, the four attackers were using an improvised explosive compound made of commonly available substances, but which is extremely unreliable and ages poorly — the ‘Shoebomber’ Richard Reid attempted to use sneakers saturated in the same mixture to down an airliner in mid flight. To the consternation of the four candidate suicide bombers, each of them failed in his mission. Their detonators went off but the main charges barely even fizzled. All of the attackers were caught on film and a vigorous investigation is now underway.
This second attack is disturbing in that it suggests the possibility that a long planned al Qaeda offensive may be underway in the UK. Dire news, but every attack — particularly the failed ones — cost the terrorists much by providing new leads for investigators and a stronger taste for action in the general public.
