Honest, 'til I read the last bit of your post, it hadn't occurred to me. I thought the punchline was going to concern the other clues of an amateurish attack, in particular the hilarious branding concept. The Secret Organization Group of al-Qaeda of Jihad Organisation in Europe? Come on.
This is all I could find on a quick Lexis-Nexis search. From the Herald Sun
Several injured and shocked passengers who survived the blast said a non-European man in his 20s sat down and fiddled in his bag seconds before impact.
But police have also found a timing device, which would indicate the bombs were planted earlier, according to media reports.
I have a hunch that people might be reading undue significance into the guy's fidgets after the fact. What happened seconds before the explosion is going to be singled out, whatever it was.
N.B. See Language Log for a litany of observed variations on the Organization of Secret Jihad Organization theme, as well as the Arabic original ("Jama'at al-Tanzim al-Sirri, Tanzim Qa'idat al-Jihad fi Urupa").
"Basically, there was a young gentleman, an olive-skinned gentleman, in front of me and he kept diving into a bag at his feet. He became more and more agitated and so, on reflection, that may have been the bomber I was standing next to."
That witness got off the bus just before it exploded. Further down in the article a couple of witnesses are reported (second-hand) as "saying some guy came and sat down on the bottom deck and that he exploded. They said the guy sat down and the explosion happened. They thought it was a suicide bomber."
Until we get firsthand witnesses, though, I agree with 10.
Reports today say the explosions seem to have been synchronized, so maybe you are not very far off. He could have been thinking "Wait a minute - 9:30? I thought I had until 10:30. Oh, crap. Crap crap crap. Okay, think, is it the red wire or the blue wire? Ooooh, I am in so much trouble. Bin Laden is going to kill me. I think it was the blue. Yeah, here we go."
I suppose that the complexion of the man was not that incredibly important to the investigation.
London is full of muslims, seikhs, hindus, buddhists, non-religious Asians and Africans and middle-easterns, not to mentions southern Europeans. Probably more than a third of the population is not "white" in appearance.
There are plently of fundamentalist muslims who were born in Britain. The police reckon it is unlikely that the perpetrators originated from the middle east anyway.
England is mostly whitebread, but there are deep pockets of South Asians. I used to live in Luton, for example, parts of which looked and felt like Jalalabad. It's also got ahistory of radicalized Muslims. It produced two British Taliban, for example, and the train station there was evacuated today after the cops found a car in the parking lot that seems to be connected to the bombings.
Also, the cops are currently tumbling a bunch of houses in Leeds, a place I visited once for a couple of days and remember as pretty Wonder Bread and Hellman's, though neighboring Bradford is known to many as Bradfordistand.
The most sobering news here today is that the bombers apparently took their own lives, but they were born here. Lots of people rattled about that.
Honest, 'til I read the last bit of your post, it hadn't occurred to me. I thought the punchline was going to concern the other clues of an amateurish attack, in particular the hilarious branding concept. The Secret Organization Group of al-Qaeda of Jihad Organisation in Europe? Come on.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 07- 8-05 10:30 PM
I bet the acronym in Arabic is WANGUS KORANUS or something.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 07- 8-05 10:32 PM
Huh, maybe I'm paranoid. Or hopeful. But I'm definitely curious.
The name is very not catchy.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 07- 8-05 10:34 PM
Secret Organization Group of al-Qaeda of Jihad Organisation in Europe
Now that is amateurish. Can't they afford someone to enforce a consistent house style?
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 07- 8-05 10:34 PM
It's 10:35, Ben, time to pusfuck the nunshitters!
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 07- 8-05 10:35 PM
So much for my vaunted dovepopsicle placidity.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 07- 8-05 10:39 PM
Are you insinuating that he was French and upset by the Olympic thing -- possibly a lackey of Guy Dru?
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 07- 8-05 10:54 PM
This is all I could find on a quick Lexis-Nexis search. From the Herald Sun
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 07- 8-05 11:04 PM
Good enough for me.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 07- 8-05 11:18 PM
I have a hunch that people might be reading undue significance into the guy's fidgets after the fact. What happened seconds before the explosion is going to be singled out, whatever it was.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 07- 9-05 12:00 AM
That's true. But I was kind of enjoying contemplating the guy with the bomb thinking "oh shit, I meant 30 minutes".
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 07- 9-05 12:05 AM
N.B. See Language Log for a litany of observed variations on the Organization of Secret Jihad Organization theme, as well as the Arabic original ("Jama'at al-Tanzim al-Sirri, Tanzim Qa'idat al-Jihad fi Urupa").
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 07- 9-05 12:28 AM
FWIW: The Scotsman.
"Basically, there was a young gentleman, an olive-skinned gentleman, in front of me and he kept diving into a bag at his feet. He became more and more agitated and so, on reflection, that may have been the bomber I was standing next to."
Posted by Backword Dave | Link to this comment | 07- 9-05 3:56 AM
if he was standing next to the young, olive-skin gentleman, how did he survive?
was this gentleman standing or sitting down?
i believe there is a bit of reticence on part of some media because they do not know and hesitate to speculate. such odd behavior...
Posted by larrybob | Link to this comment | 07- 9-05 7:59 AM
That witness got off the bus just before it exploded. Further down in the article a couple of witnesses are reported (second-hand) as "saying some guy came and sat down on the bottom deck and that he exploded. They said the guy sat down and the explosion happened. They thought it was a suicide bomber."
Until we get firsthand witnesses, though, I agree with 10.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 07- 9-05 8:41 AM
11
Reports today say the explosions seem to have been synchronized, so maybe you are not very far off. He could have been thinking "Wait a minute - 9:30? I thought I had until 10:30. Oh, crap. Crap crap crap. Okay, think, is it the red wire or the blue wire? Ooooh, I am in so much trouble. Bin Laden is going to kill me. I think it was the blue. Yeah, here we go."
Posted by Tripp | Link to this comment | 07- 9-05 10:54 AM
But the bomb on the bus went off 57 minutes later than the others...
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 07- 9-05 10:55 AM
i am just stuck on the thought of what it would be like to be that guy who stepped off the bus moments before it exploded.
Posted by silvana | Link to this comment | 07-10-05 1:51 AM
Stepping off the bus &c. was the theme of this Times piece.
Posted by ac | Link to this comment | 07-10-05 9:24 AM
I suppose that the complexion of the man was not that incredibly important to the investigation.
London is full of muslims, seikhs, hindus, buddhists, non-religious Asians and Africans and middle-easterns, not to mentions southern Europeans. Probably more than a third of the population is not "white" in appearance.
There are plently of fundamentalist muslims who were born in Britain. The police reckon it is unlikely that the perpetrators originated from the middle east anyway.
Posted by Mark | Link to this comment | 07-12-05 9:11 AM
England is mostly whitebread, but there are deep pockets of South Asians. I used to live in Luton, for example, parts of which looked and felt like Jalalabad. It's also got ahistory of radicalized Muslims. It produced two British Taliban, for example, and the train station there was evacuated today after the cops found a car in the parking lot that seems to be connected to the bombings.
Also, the cops are currently tumbling a bunch of houses in Leeds, a place I visited once for a couple of days and remember as pretty Wonder Bread and Hellman's, though neighboring Bradford is known to many as Bradfordistand.
The most sobering news here today is that the bombers apparently took their own lives, but they were born here. Lots of people rattled about that.
Posted by peter snees | Link to this comment | 07-12-05 6:46 PM