One year on, a London bomber issues a threat from the dead

7-7 Anniversary Edition

One year after the bombing of London, al Qaeda have released a tape in which one of the bombers, Shehzad Tanweer, threatens more and bigger attacks.

In the first direct claim to have directly masterminded the four London suicide attacks that killed 52 people, al-Qaida's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, stated on the film that Tanweer and the ringleader, Mohammed Sidique Khan, had been trained "in the manufacture of explosives" at al-Qaida camps.

The timing of the release was seen by anti-terrorist officers as a deliberate attempt to cause as much distress as possible to the bereaved and survivors. Security in the capital for the anniversary of the suicide bombings was already at its highest level before the video was broadcast yesterday on the Arabic television station al-Jazeera.

Counter-terrorism officials will examine the apparent evidence of al-Qaida's direct and detailed involvement in the bombings amid fears of another attack.

One can only shake one's head at the cruelty of the timing to those who have lost loved ones. To have this day of all days kidnapped by such people is obscene.

In the video Tanweer, 22, speaking in his west Yorkshire accent, can be heard justifying his attack on the Aldgate tube in which seven people died and more than a hundred were injured. He says non-Muslims of Britain "deserve to be attacked" because they voted for a government which "continues to oppress our mothers, children, brothers and sisters in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya."

Jabbing his finger emphatically, he warns: "What have you witnessed now is only the beginning of a string of attacks that will continue and become stronger until you pull your forces out of Afghanistan and Iraq and until you stop your financial and military support to America and Israel."

On this same day, it is being reported that police have compiled a secret dossier that says British foreign policy and the war in Iraq have had a "huge impact" in making the UK a target for terrorists.

"Foreign policy and Iraq; Iraq HAS [its emphasis] had a huge impact. Iraq is cited many times in interviews with detained extremists but it is over-simplistic to describe terrorism as the result of foreign policy. What western foreign policy does provide is justification for violence ..."

The report says the removal of grievances the jihadists use to justify violence will take time: "What will change them - gradually - is argument, the removal of justifying causes (Palestine, Iraq), the erosion of perverted beliefs and day-to-day frustrations."

In a speech weeks after London was attacked, Tony Blair said it was not the Iraq war but an evil ideology that was to blame for attacks on Britain: "If it is Iraq that motivates [the bombers], why is the same ideology killing Iraqis by terror in defiance of an elected Iraqi government? What was September 11 2001 the reprisal for?"

Why does Blair even have to ask that question? Why must we pretend that none of us know the answer? The people who Bush and Blair tell us were responsible for these attacks have made speeches and tapes in which they say what causes infuriate and drive their base.

Bin Laden has stated that 9-11 was an attack based on America's foreign policy, especially - but not exclusively - their support for Israel and their perceived aid in the oppression of the Palestinians.

7-7 was a response to Blair's decision to align ourselves to that same foreign policy.

Now, even the police are saying what Blair wants us to ignore.

Terrorism does not come out of a vacuum. And no matter how evil their methods, we should stop pretending that they wish to destroy our way of life or overtake our country into one large theocratic state.

They, rather, would like us to stop interfering in the Arab world. To stop supporting dictatorships and aiding in the oppression of their people.

If we are going to have a dialogue, then let's at least have an honest one. For honest dialogue is the very thing that Blair's perameters are designed to avoid.

Tags: 7-7, remembrance, anniversary, one year on,