Unity in Struggle against the Crimes of the Warmongers Remains the Watchword

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Unity in Struggle against the Crimes of the Warmongers Remains the Watchword

The Demand for a Public Inquiry into the London Bombings

Unanswered Questions Surrounding the July 7 Bombings

Report Published on Effects of Terror Laws on British Muslims

United Communities Protest March

An Injury to One is an Injury to All!

Today marks the anniversary of the tragic loss of life and distress caused by the London bombings. But the intervening year has been one of growing anger against the warmongers in government who have not drawn the conclusion that it is their crimes that are responsible for the loss of innocent lives both in this country and Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, including British soldiers on foreign soil. Indeed, Tony Blair and his government and the associated media have used the past few days to blame the Muslim community for their allegedly unfounded grievances.

            The anger has grown against the government as their crimes against human rights, against peace and against the sovereignty of countries and peoples have increased. The growing movement has been joined by military families against war, the families and communities of those who have been the target of state-organised violence and racism, and indeed the survivors of 7/7 who are demanding that the truth of these outrages be uncovered.

            The fact is that the crimes and injustices committed by the government in the name of “humanitarian” intervention and of “ordinary, law-abiding citizens” are arousing the anger and opposition, organised and unorganised, of all sections of the community and the polity. The people will not be bullied into believing that the problem in society is the “terror” caused by Islamist extremists, nor that the whole Muslim community should be indicted for allegedly not standing up to such “extremists”, nor that those who demand a guarantee for human rights or the renewal of society on the basis of rights and justice are not living in the “real world”. On the contrary, the crimes committed by Blair and Bush in pursuit of the “war on terror” and neo-liberal globalisation are deepening the mass opposition of the people in this country and throughout the world. It is not and can never be acceptable that “the end justifies the means”, the pragmatic outlook of Tony Blair and the British government which is causing such havoc and bloodshed to the world’s peoples. This is an outlook in which principles have no validity and the right to sovereignty, dignity and the sanctity of the human person can be violated because “the rules of the game are changing”.

            In pursuit of these ends, the government is once again whipping up hysteria that “martyrdom” is unacceptable, even though only assertions, not evidence, are all that has been presented about the London bombings. Meanwhile, the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes and the Forest Gate raid are also hard facts.

            The people are rejecting all the attempts to undermine their unity and divert and subvert their movement against fascism and war, against relations of exploitation at home and globally, and against occupation, aggression and oppression. They do not agree that the “universal values” of Anglo-US imperialism should be imposed by any means in any part of the globe. Rather, it is the working class and people who have the aspiration and determination that a different world is both possible and necessary, and that it is the people’s forces themselves which have the means to provide the solutions to the crimes of war and exploitation that are ravaging the peoples of the world.

            The dangerous situation facing the people cannot be underestimated, as the future of humanity and all that it holds dear is threatened by the those acting in the interests of the monopolies and the financial elites. But unity in struggle is the people’s watchword, and our Party is confident that following this guideline the people’s movement will continue to grow and end in the realisation of that other world in which the people’s security and well-being is at the centre of all concerns.

Unity in Struggle against the Crimes of the Warmongers!

Another World Is Possible!

Many of the survivors of London bombings of July 7, 2005, which killed 52 people and injured more than 700, are demanding a public inquiry and pointing out that vital questions remain unanswered by the government.

            A Home Office spokeswoman said recently, “The Home Secretary does not believe the public inquiry would add to our understanding of the causes of those atrocities.” But Jacqui Putnam, a survivor from an adjacent carriage to one of the bombs on the underground, said that “there are other things, questions that should be answered that need to be answered publicly. There are people whose lives will never be the same, the bereaved who have lost their loved ones – we need answers.”

            “The big question is always ‘why?’,” Kirsty Jones, who was also on the Piccadilly Line train, said. “July 7 was so extraordinary that it is puzzling there has been no inquiry.”

Many unanswered questions remain regarding the bombings, particularly as to who organised and carried them out and what was the motivation for their actions.

            The official conspiracy theory, promoted by the government and the media, is that four young Muslims, Mohammed Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Hasib Mir Hussain and Germaine Lindsay, under the influence of Al-Qaida fundamentalist Islamic ideology conspired together. Then on July 7, they travelled to Luton by car from where they took a train to King’s Cross station in London. At King’s Cross, they separated, boarded underground trains and a bus and set off bombs which they were carrying. The evidence which has so far been put into the public domain as proof of the truthfulness of this theory is a CCTV image which allegedly shows the four young men entering Luton station on the morning of July 7, and two videos aired initially by Al Jazeera TV. One of these videos, which was aired in September 2005, purports to show Mohammed Sidique Khan and the second video, aired on July 6, 2006, purports to show Shehzad Tanweer outlining their political views. These videos are being presented as proof positive of the accuracy of the official conspiracy theory.   Rather conveniently for the proponents of this theory, none of these young men are alive and so are in no position to answer the allegations levelled against them.

            The trustworthiness of government and corporate media accounts of events can be judged in the light  of the definite claim that the government of Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, that Jean Charles de Menezes, the young Brazilian shot and killed   at Stockwell station had been wearing a heavy coat in hot weather and had fled and jumped over the ticket barrier when challenged by police and that “credible” information had been received indicating that the house in Forest Gate contained a chemical weapon. All of these accounts turned out to be based on falsehoods.

            If, however, the official conspiracy theory is not to be taken on trust, there are a number of outstanding questions which need to be answered if there is to be any clarity as to what actually happened on July 7 and who bears responsibility for the death and destruction of that day.

            1. Who contracted Visor Consultants to run an “anti-terrorist” rehearsal at the stations where the bombs exploded and who selected those particular stations for the drill?

            Mr Peter Power, Managing Director of Disaster and Crisis Management firm, Visor Consultants, interviewed by Radio 5 Live's Drivetime programme on the afternoon of July 7, 2005, said:

            "...at half past nine this morning we were actually running an exercise for a company of over a thousand people in London based on simultaneous bombs going off precisely at the railway stations where it happened this morning, so I still have the hairs on the back of my neck standing upright!"

            2. What role, if any, has Haroon Rashid Aswat played in these events?  Reports circulating at the time of the explosions identified him as the so-called “mastermind” of the London bombings. He was subsequently arrested in Zambia and returned to Britain. In the US, a “terror expert”, John Loftus, told Fox News' Dayside show that Haroon Rashid Aswat was an MI6 intelligence asset that British security helped protect and hide before the bombings.

            3. Why did the police identify these four young men as the perpetrators of the July 7 bombings, given the number of dead bodes that must have been found in London on that day? What precise forensic evidence led them to draw this conclusion? It has been said that these young men were identified by their credit cards, but why would their credit cards lead the police to the conclusion that they were the perpetrators?

            4. What precisely did the police and secret services know about the four accused and what links did they have with them prior to July 7, 2005?

            Initially, the official conspiracy theory claimed that these four individuals were completely unknown to the police and the secret services. However, more recently, some doubt has been shed on this.   A US journalist, Ron Suskind, claimed that Mohammed Sidique Khan was considered so dangerous by the FBI that in 2003 the US placed him on a "no fly list". This claim has been denied by the FBI which has argued that it is based on a case of mistaken identity. The author, however, stands by his claim.

            Furthermore, Martin Gilbertson, a computer technician who helped to encrypt emails at an Islamic bookshop in Leeds where Khan and Tanweer used to go claims that in October 2003 he delivered a dossier to West Yorkshire anti-terrorist police outlining his concerns about the views of Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammed Sidique Khan. There have also been further allegations that Mohammed Sidique Khan’s car was bugged by MI5 and even that he was working for them. The former claim has been denied by the police.

            5. On what evidence do the police base their reconstruction of the train journey of the 4 young men from Luton to London?  Initially, it was claimed that they travelled from Luton on the 0740 train arriving at King’s Cross Thameslink station at 0816 and that the police had a further CCTV image of the four at Kings Cross station at 0826. However, research carried out by the July 7 Truth Campaign has established that on 7 July 2005, the 0740 was cancelled and the next train to leave was the 0748 which arrived at Kings Cross Thameslink station at 0842. According to information from the Department of Transport, the tubes on which the bombs exploded departed Kings Cross at 0835, 0842 and 0848, so it would have been impossible for anyone travelling on the 0748 from Luton on that day to have exploded a bomb on either of the first two underground trains on which bombs did explode. Even if they had caught the 0730 which actually departed at 0742 and arrived at Kings Cross at 0839, it would have been impossible for them to have travelled on either of the first two tubes on which bombs exploded.

            Since the CCTV image allegedly showing the four young men going into Luton station is time stamped 07.21.54, the earliest possible train they could have caught on that day, which was marked by disruption to the regular service, would have been the 0724 which actually departed at 0725 and arrived at Kings Cross at 0823. Given that Transport for London advises allocating 6 minutes for transfer between Kings Cross Thameslink and the underground station, it is difficult to see how these four young men could then be captured on a CCTV image in Kings Cross underground at 0826.

            These are only some of the unanswered questions which continue to surround the July 7 bombings and without the answers to which, it will be impossible to make any clear judgement regarding what happened on that day.   Many survivors of these events are calling for a full public inquiry into the events of that day to provide precisely these answers. On the other hand, the corporate media are attempting to subvert this demand by raising a call for an inquiry into the "intelligence failures" that led up to the July 7 bombings. This is an attempt to consolidate the official conspiracy theory as "the truth of what happened on the day” and on this basis to divert attention from the many unanswered questions which remain about the July 7 bombings.

On the eve of the first anniversary of the London bombings, the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) have released an updated version of British Anti-Terrorism: A Modern Day Witch-hunt, a study of the application of the anti-terror legislation in Britain since 9/11 and its implications for the Muslim community.

            The new edition of the report by Fahad Ansari contains updated statistics on anti-terror arrests in Britain, details about the new Terrorism Act 2006 and an update about the plight of the original Belmarsh detainees.

            From internment to control orders, proposals to ban Hizb-ut Tahrir and other Muslim organisations to extradition, new legislation and police powers, this report covers the gamut of the British government's latest anti-terrorism proposals.

            This clear analysis not only makes the case that the government's anti-terrorist strategy violates basic human rights and curtails civil liberties, it powerfully argues, that it is also counter-productive.

            Using case studies, Ansari relates in graphic detail how these proposals single out Muslims and the Muslim communities in Britain, equating it with a latter day witch-hunt.

 

British Anti-Terrorism: A Modern Day Witch-hunt, by Fahad Ansari, 102pp, ISBN: 1-903718-36-8. For more information, please contact IHRC on 020 8904 4222 or 07958 522 196 or email info@ihrc.org.

On Sunday, June 18, 2006, more than 2,000 people marched in East London to protest against the police raid against the community and against the shooting of Mohammed Abdul Kahar in Forest Gate.

            The demonstration was aimed at showing the community’s anger and frustration at the raids. The march started in Plashet Park, East Ham, and took a circular route along Romford Road, along Green Street, returning to a rally in Plashet Park via Plashet Grove.

Demonstrators carried placards with statements such as “The War on Terror is a War on Us”. The slogans of the demonstration had been agreed beforehand by the community and summed up the purpose of the demonstration.

            The official statement of march organisers called for the following:

·        A full and unqualified apology from the Metropolitan Police to be personally issued to those who were victims of these events;

·        A call for an end to police privately briefing newspapers;

·        Stop the politicisation of the police force;

·        We are not prepared to live in fear or be silenced;

·        End to association of Islam with terrorism;

·        A full apology from the Prime Minister to the families and community;

·        The “war on terror” needs to be urgently reviewed (as it is dividing communities and heightening alienation).

            In his speech Abul Koyair, brother of Mohammed Abdul Kahar who was shot during the raid, thanked everyone for coming and said: “This has been a very hard time. We don’t want this to happen to any other person, and I mean no one, whether Muslim or Non-Muslim.”

            A statement from his brother Mohammed Abdul Kahar, who was too ill to be there, was also read out. In this he said: “I would like to thank everyone for attending; justice for us extends to our neighbours and community. Thank you to all communities.”

            The organisers of the march pointed out that they were opposed to state terrorism, individual terrorism and police terrorism. They said, “This march is a first step. All of us together is the only way we can stop it.”   They made the point that where people have not had community support in other areas they have suffered in isolation. They pointed out that the community were not going to let that happen in Forest Gate and were determined to make sure it does not happen anywhere else.

 

The Gulf Crisis Group, Milton Keynes, produced the following leaflet for the June 18 demonstration against the police raid and shooting in Forest Gate, East London.

                They write to WDIE: Having attended the march we feel that this was a very significant community initiative to counter some of the division and fear that is being created as a result of the current climate in the country under the guise of the “War on Terror”. The community in Forest Gate has taken an assertive position to stand up against the police shooting and raids on families. They have also taken a stand against the government and media propaganda that divides different communities.

                We feel that such actions should be actively supported and also publicised. This is because it cuts against the general fear that pressures people into keeping their heads down and can lead to communities being divided and isolated

Greetings

Gulf Crisis Group

 

Everybody, regardless of race, colour or religion has the right to live their life in peace in their own home, free from fear that they may be attacked or shot. If we allow the police to get away with doing this to one section of working class communities, whether they are Muslim, Christian, Jew, Sikh or Hindu; whether black, white or brown, then we are opening a very dangerous door. There can be no exceptions; police attacks and assaults against the people cannot be tolerated under any circumstances.

          The minority people of Newham have a history of successfully resisting racist attacks by police and racist gangs. 'An Injury to One is an Injury to All!' was a slogan of the struggles of the Virk brothers, the Newham 8, and the Newham 7.   It is still an important principle to uphold. The smear campaign in the press against the family in Forest Gate is nazi-like propaganda to slander them and to prevent people from speaking out to support them as good neighbours would normally do.

            Muslims are currently bearing the brunt of state attacks under Terrorism laws. Anti-war campaigners have also been targeted under these laws. The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act is being used to stop anti-war protests near parliament. Soldiers opposed to British imperialist aggression face the Armed Forces Bill. This would make going absent without leave (AWOL) to avoid serving in a "military occupation of a foreign country or territory" a crime punishable by life imprisonment (Armed Forces Bill, Section 8).

            Many people are already extremely concerned at the new laws that have been passed. These are laws that restrict the right to demonstrate, to speak out against the activities of our government. These laws are now available to be used in other contexts. They can be used to prevent protests about government activities both abroad in other countries like Iraq or at home when people protest against NHS privatisation or when workers demand their rights. In this way laws can be brought in during press hysteria against one section of the community (e.g. Muslims) and then extended to everyone else.   This is the danger of the working people allowing themselves to be divided.

            The excuse for the attacks on the families in Forest Gate has been the danger of terrorism. It is becoming clearer with every passing day that terrorism of the state breeds acts of individual terrorism. The source of terrorism around the world is imperialism, the military aggression and plunder of other people's economies. To end the threat of terrorism all terrorism must be opposed. British, and all, imperialism must become a thing of the past.

            In these circumstances people of all sections of the working class need to support each other in their hour of need and speak out wherever possible against the police attacks on families in East London. There is a need for a united front of working people of all communities to oppose any divisions amongst us and to say no to police attacks on minorities.

Gulf Crisis Group

c/o Peace and Justice Centre, Church of Christ the Cornerstone, 300 Saxon Gate West, Milton Keynes, MK9 2ES