Terrorists’ fascination with world’s transport system
A.H.
Jaffor Ullah
2005/05/11
In the last four years or so, al-Qaeda, the brainchild of Saudi renegade
Osama bin Laden launched three successful attacks against three western nations
namely,
America
,
Spain
, and
Great Britain
. In all three cases, the victim
nation’s transport system was used to launch the attack.
Take the case of September 11, 2001,
attack. In the early morning hours,
four passenger jetliners were hijacked by four groups of Arab terrorists, mostly
comprising of Saudi and other Middle Eastern Arab speaking terrorists belonging
to al-Qaeda. The terrorists then
commandeered four planes; two groups went for the financial district located in
the southern part of Manhattan borough, one group headed toward Pentagon
Building while the last group made a u-turn abruptly in rural Ohio to head back
for Washington DC to demolish an important federal building but the plane fell
to the ground under some bizarre circumstances.
In
Madrid
bombing on March 11, 2004, right before Spaniards were heading for polls,
terrorists struck a commuter train near
Madrid
blasting a few compartments and killing 191 innocent passengers.
This time around, on July 7, 2005,
the terrorists most likely belonging to al-Qaeda faction struck London’s
public transport system in the morning rush hour detonating three subway trains
or tube stations and one above ground double-decker bus killing over 50
passengers and injuring more than 700 people.
Now the British investigators are saying that all three “tube” trains
in 7-7 attacks were blasted within seconds.
That means these were coordinated blasts, a work of real professional
bunch of terrorists.
Here is the comparison between 9-11
and 7-7 attacks. I used data from an
Associated Press news article published in the wake of 7-7 attacks in
London
.
The AP article drew the timelines
for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in
New York
and
Washington
, and Thursday’s (7-7-05) bombings in
London
. Times listed are local;
London
is five hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time.
Sept. 11, 2001
8:46 a.m. — Flight 11 hits the
World
Trade
Center
's north tower.
9:03 a.m. — Flight 175 crashes
into the south tower of the
World
Trade
Center
.
9:37 a.m. — Flight 77 hits the
Pentagon.
10:03 a.m. — United 93 crashes in
Pennsylvania
, 125 miles from
Washington
.
July 7, 2005
8:51 a.m. — London Underground
train explodes 100 yards into a tunnel near the financial district.
8:56 a.m. — Explosion near the
King's Cross station in north
London
.
9:17 a.m. — Explosion near
Edgware Road
station.
9:47 a.m. — Double-decker bus
explodes near
Tavistock Square
.
The above information came from
report published by mid-day July 7, 2005. However,
the British investigators are now saying that all three explosions in the
underground took place within seconds. It
is mere a coincidence that both in
America
and in
England
4 targets was selected by the terrorists. Why
did they choose four targets? It is
a mystery only they could solve. Perhaps
it could be due to logistics. Osama
bin Laden’s organization, al-Qaeda, is big on publicity.
To reap a maximum publicity al-Qaeda likes to blast multiple sites,
simultaneously. This is their
hallmark.
Osama’s terror organization has
shown to the world that it likes to attack or make use of transport system.
Because of the complex and dynamic nature of modern days transport
system, Osama’s jihadi brigade found the system very vulnerable.
They took advantage of air transport system in
America
, above ground railway system in
Madrid
,
Spain
, and finally the British underground railway system.
It is no brainier; anyone with an evil intent could blast a bomb.
Osama’s jihadi brigade members are hell-bent on bringing chaos in the
western world. And they found
security lapse in the public transport system in the West.
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