Perpetrators of the London bombings

The formation of the British army’s Force Reconnaissance Regiment was announced by Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon on April 5th 2004, as part of the UK army’s ‘Special Forces.’ It would focus, Hoon explained, on ‘combating terrorism’.  That was one month before the BBC’s Panorama program, which scripted the first outline of what London would suffer a year later on 7/7.

The FRR would go ‘deep undercover’ for its reconnaissance, behind ‘enemy’ lines. On April 6, 2005, the FRR came into existence, a mere three months before 7/7. It appears as a secretive organisation above the law, with a license to kill – and with bomb making skills. Its insignia shows a sword being shoved up through a helmeted head.

Let’s take a closer look, at the little that has come out. Our main areas of concern are:

  • The assassination of Jean Charles de Menezes
  • The gunning down of two young men as ‘terrorists’ at Canary Wharf at 10.30 am on July 7th
  • The fabrication of bomb equipment in Basra
  • The startling rescue of FRR agents once captured in Basra.

Here is an Irish view:

’By May 2005 another of the British military intelligence units involved in the ‘dirty war’ in Northern Ireland – the 14th Intelligence Detachment – nicknamed the ‘14th’ or ‘the Det’- was renamed the Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR) responsible for ‘counter-terrorism’ operations in Iraq and the UK. Brigadier Gordon Kerr was appointed the head of the SRR. All retain immunity from prosecution – this time that held by all coalition troops in Iraq at the demand of the Bush administration as occupying power.

‘True to old form in Northern Ireland we now know that the SRR have already been involved in getting at least one more innocent person killed. On the day that the Brazilian Jean Charles De Menezes was killed by armed police in the London underground at least one member of the Special Reconnaissance Regiment was the man who wrongly identified him as possibly being one of the July the 7th bombers. The government and the Metropolitan Police have refused to answer questions about whether more than one member of the SRR was involved in the surveillance team following Menezes.

The Scotsman newspaper also reported that the two SAS men arrested by Iraqi police last August for allegedly driving around with automatic weapons and bomb making equipment were also under the command of the SRR – which would also put them under the command of Brigadier Gordon Kerr as head of that unit.’ 

Here is a socialist view:

Members of military intelligence from the Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR) carried out the flawed surveillance of Jean Charles de Menezes. The SRR ran death squads in Iraq, targeting supporters of the resistance to the US-British occupation of that country. When the SRR was formed in 2005 it incorporated a secret unit of the British army that had supplied names, addresses and photographs of Catholic targets to Loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland.

So it had trained killers and bomb-makers from its inception – three months before 7/7. 

Those seconded into the FRR had sophisticated bomb-making technology:

“According to investigators examining past collusion between the security forces and paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, members of the shadowy army undercover outfit, the Force Research Unit, and officers from MI5 learned in the early 1990s that a senior IRA member in south Armagh was working to develop bombs triggered by light beams. They decided the risks would be diminished if they knew what technology was being used.

“‘The thinking of the security forces was that if they were intimate with the technology, then they could develop counter-measures, thereby staying one step ahead of the IRA,’ a senior source close to the inquiry explained. ‘It may seem absurd that the security services were supplying technology to the IRA, but the strategy was sound.

The Identity of De Menezes’ Assassins

 Even Wikipedia comments on the involvement of the SRR in the Charles de Menezes assassination:

On 22 July 2005 Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by armed police officers on the London Underground rail system, at Stockwell tube station. Three media reports carry assertions by unattributed UK government sources that SRR personnel were involved in the intelligence collection effort leading to the shooting and on the tube train whilst the offensive action occurred.

We should doubt Wiki’s view that police shot de Menezes. The Met were evidently distressed (I would say) at not being able to deny responsibility, even though such a mode of killing was quite foreign to their practice. The British police are not into shooting seven dum-dum bullets slowly into the back of the head of a totally innocent man pinned to the ground. But, they had to shoulder the blame, because the killers were immune from public scrutiny.

Here is The Times drawing attention to the real assassins of De Menezes:-

Press photographs of members of the armed response team taken in the immediate aftermath of the killing show at least one man carrying a special forces weapon that is not issued to SO19, the Metropolitan police firearms unit.

The man, wearing civilian clothes with a blue cap marked “Police”, was carrying a specially modified Heckler & Koch G3K rifle with a shortened barrel and a butt from a PSG-1 sniper rifle fitted to it — a combination used by the SAS.

Another man, dressed in a T-shirt, jeans and trainers, was carrying a Heckler & Koch G36C. Although this weapon is used on occasion by SO19 it appears to be fitted with a target illuminator purchased as an “urgent operational requirement” for UK special forces involved in the war on terror.[5]  July 2005

The Express made a similar comment, about a photo taken just after the event:

The picture, along with several others, was taken outside Jean Charles’s home in a block of flats in Scotia Road, Tulse Hill, and shows several men who appear to be carrying SAS weapons and wearing military issue clothing. The man in the blue check shirt wore a helmet with a green SR tag on the side. It is believed this means he was part of the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, based next to the SAS HQ in Hereford.  

Basra, September 19, 2005

“Iraqi police sources in Basra told the BBC the ‘two British men were arrested after failing to stop at a checkpoint.  There was an exchange of gunfire.  The men were wearing traditional Arab clothing, and when the police eventually stopped them, they said they found explosives and weapons in their car.  It’s widely believed the two British servicemen were operating undercover.”

“Iraqi leader, Fattah al-Sheikh said that police had ‘caught two non-Iraqis, who seem to be Britons and were in a car of the Cressida type.  It was a booby-trapped car laden with ammunition and was meant to explode in the centre of the city of Basra.”

Who were these people? Quoting from The Scotsman:

British defence sources told the Scotsman (9/20/05) that the soldiers were part of an “undercover special forces detachment” set up this year to “bridge the intelligence void” in Basra, drawing on ‘special forces’ experience in Northern Ireland and Aden, where British troops went ‘deep’ undercover in local communities to try to break the code of silence against foreign forces.”

These elite forces operate under the Special Reconnaissance Regiment and were formed last year by then defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, “to gather human intelligence during counter-terrorist missions.”

The Scotsman added, rather crucially: “This is the same Regiment that was involved in the unlawful July 22 execution – multiple head-shots – of the innocent Brazilian, Mr. Jean Charles de Menezes, after he boarded a tube train in Stockwell Underground station.” That was a well-informed source speaking to The Scotsman.

Nafeez Ahmed commented, on the Basra episode, ‘A glance at the Special Reconnaissance Regiment gives a more concrete idea of the sort of operations these two British soldiers were involved in. The Regiment, formed recently, is “modelled on an undercover unit that operated in Northern Ireland” according to Whitehall sources. The Regiment had “absorbed the 14th Intelligence Company, known as ’14 Int,’ a plainclothes unit set up to gather intelligence covertly on suspect terrorists in Northern Ireland. Its recruits are trained by the SAS.”

After the SRR killers had their cover blown, what happened? They were rescued, in a spectacular manner: “British forces used up to 10 tanks supported by helicopters to smash through the walls of the jail and free the two British Servicemen. Several media reports and eyewitness accounts suggested that the SAS operatives were disguised as Al Qaeda ‘terrorists.’

The SAS were made to shoulder the blame. Why was it so vital to rescue them and to cover their identity by blaming the SAS? Why have we since heard nothing, not even the names of the persons arrested? There must have been something awful that the two bomb-makers could have blurted out, had they not been rescued. Normally undercover agents know that they will be abandoned to their fate if caught, and do not expect to be rescued.

Captain Ken Masters, commander of the Royal Military Police’s Special Investigations Branch in Iraq, was charged with investigating allegations of mistreatment of Iraqi civilians by British soldiers. While attempting to investigate the ‘rescue’ of the FRR members, he was found hung in his military accommodation in Basra on October 15. Reports indicate that he had displayed no signs of stress or illness and that no suicide notes were found at the scene. Following this, there was no government enquiry, no questions in the House – nobody went to jail.

What bunch of killers could have such power?

Through the Looking-Glass

For the SRR to go ‘deep undercover’ behind the ‘enemy’ lines might have made a grain of sense in Northern Ireland, however when applied to Al-Qaeda the situation is very different. Al-Qaeda does not exist, it is The Phantom Menace Its primary characteristic, is non-existence. Its image has been nurtured and developed since the late ‘90s by the FBI and MI6 (For readers sceptical, see essays by Nafeez Ahmed, eg here) If killer thugs already somewhat ethically challenged are given a mandate to go ‘deep undercover’ etc, what is going to happen? Are they not going to go right through the looking-glass and end up as being themselves, ‘the enemy’? It is the anti-terror militia who create the false-flag terror events, that is the frightful reality and paradox of our new millennium.

Look at Bali, in 2002,  or at Madrid 2004 when the big NATO anti-terror drill March 4-10th culminated so to speak in the railway-station explosions of 11th March. What NATO had drilled for in several European capital cities, then happened.

In the months prior to 7/7, Warner Brothers were filming in the London Underground for their smash hit, ‘V for Vendetta.’ We here hypothesise that the FRR were responsible for planting the bombs on the London Underground, in which they would have had assistance from US agents planted as film crew. That film featured a tube train primed to explode. It was due to open later in 2005 but had to be postponed as its theme was too similar to the 7/7 event. Its filming ended in June, 2005. Its photography co-ordinator died mysteriously and unexpectedly in December, prior to the release.

 Acknowledgement: The case here presented has come about through discussions with Andrew McGregor. I have basically applied his suggestions and insights.

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