Juan Cole - July 8, 2005

Death Toll in London climbing toward 50

The death toll in the horrible London bombings seems headed toward 50 or higher as some severely wounded passengers have succumbed.

The driver of the double decker bus that was bombed has given his account.

Iraq Comes to London
In Iraq, Car Bombs and Attacks Kill 24, Wound Dozens in 24 Hours

Al-Sharq al-Awsat reports that [Arabic URL] its contacts in the radical fundamentalist community of British Muslims maintain that the July 7 attacks on London were undertaken by one of several al-Qaeda sleeper cells in Europe, which had been planted there by Ayman al-Zawahiri and his lieutenants in preparation for a decades-long war with the West.

Cole at Salon.com, Beliefnet

My article at Salon.com, "The Time of Revenge Has Come, discusses the way Bush's incompetent crusade in Iraq has made us all less safe. Short excerpt:

"The United Kingdom had not been a target for al-Qaida in the late 1990s. But in October 2001, bin Laden threatened the United Kingdom with suicide aircraft attacks if it joined in the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan.

Japan in Iraq

Reposted by permission:

'Shingetsu Newsletter No. 33 July 7, 2005

Japan's GSDF mission to Samawa has continued to produce a steady drumbeat of news over the past two weeks. Picking up from where Shingetsu Newsletter No. 26 left off, the political responses to the June 23rd attack ultimately fell along expected lines. MOFA asserted that the attack was not "real terrorism" and that there was nothing to get excited about. Senior officials of the Koizumi administration echoed this same basic line.