The middle eastern wack jobs are at it again.

Explosions Hit Three Tube Stations, One Bus
Thursday, July 21, 2005

Two weeks to the day when terrorist attacks in London killed a total of 56 people, explosions struck three Underground stations and a bus Thursday afternoon.

The London police commissioner confirmed that four explosions occurred in the subway and on a bus in the Hackney neighborhood of East London. None of the explosions appear to have detonated properly. Officials are hoping that the left-over explosives will provide a wealth of forensic evidence to help investigators hunt down the bombers.

Police said there was one report of an injury.

One Sky News reporter on the ground said officials said the explosive device on the bus appears to be the same type used in the July 7 bombings in London. The material is highly explosive, which is why such a large area around the bus has been cordoned off.

Police also said an armed police unit had entered University College hospital. Press Association, the British news agency, said they arrived shortly after an injured person was carried in.

Sky News TV reported that police were searching for a man with a blue shirt with wires protruding. Officers asked employees to look for a black or Asian male, 6 feet 2 inches tall, wearing a blue top with a hole in the back and wires protruding.

Scotland Yard said there have been two arrests, one at Downing Street and one at greater Scotland Yard, but officials are stressing the arrests may not be related. There will be a police briefing at 12:30 p.m. EDT.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday that officials hoped that London would return to normal "as soon as possible."

"We can't minimize incidents such as this," Blair said during a news conference with visiting Australian Prime Minister John Howard, adding that such attacks are attempted "to make people worried and frightened and taking responsibility off the shoulders of people who engage in these acts."

Blair said the police and security services were "fairly clear" on what happened and what the next steps were, and it was "important to respond by keeping to our normal lives."

"People have seen our country react to terrorist attacks that are meant to make people worried and scared and react, and people have reacted with great dignity ... it's not going to change us … our reaction's got to be the same" as it was after the July 7 attacks, Blair added.

He said it was too early to speculate on who might be responsible for the attacks.

Howard told Blair that Australia would remain a "steadfast partner" with Britain in the fight against terrorism.

"Terrorism is an enemy to all free people," Howard said. "Terrorism is not just about individual circumstances and individual events."

'People Were Panicking'

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair described the incidents as "serious."

"We've had four explosions — four attempts at explosions," Blair said outside police headquarters at Scotland Yard. "At the moment the casualty numbers appear to be very low ... the bombs appear to be smaller" than those detonated July 7.

The Warren Street, Shepherd's Bush and Oval stations were evacuated. Emergency services personnel were called to the stations, police said. There were reports of a nail bomb that exploded and/or a backpack that exploded at Warren Street but those reports have not yet been confirmed.

Police in chemical protection suits were seen preparing to enter the Warren Street station but no chemical agents were involved in the explosions.

There was also an incident at 10 Downing Street, where the British prime minister's offices are located. Two police officers trained their guns on a man before leading him off the premises; his shirt was unbuttoned in the front.

The head of Scotland Yard said in a brief press conference Thursday that commuters and other Londoners should stay exactly where they are; he said it's possible more portions of the transit system will be shut down.

Some witnesses said they heard gunshots at the Warren Street stop but according to Sky News, police believe those noises were actually detonators going off for bombs that didn't explode.

"People were panicking. But very fortunately the train was only 15 seconds from the station," witness Ivan McCracken told Sky News.

McCracken said he smelled smoke, and people were panicking and coming into his carriage. He said he spoke to an Italian man who was comforting a woman after the evacuation.

"He said that a man was carrying a rucksack and the rucksack suddenly exploded. It was a minor explosion but enough to blow open the rucksack," McCracken said. "The man then made an exclamation as if something had gone wrong. At that point everyone rushed from the carriage."

Services on the Victoria, Hammersmith and Northern lines were suspended, the London Underground said.

"I was in the carriage and we smelled smoke — it was like something was burning," said Losiane Mohellavi, 35, who was evacuated at Warren Street. "Everyone was panicked and people were screaming. We had to pull the alarm. I am still shaking."

Stagecoach, the company which operates the stricken No. 26 bus, said the driver heard a bang and went upstairs, where he found the windows blown out. The company said the bus was structurally intact and there were no reports of injuries.

Closed-circuit TV cameras on Hackney Road showed the No. 26 bus immobilized at a stop with its indicator lights flashing. The area around the bus had been cordoned off.

Keith Roberts, a shopkeeper near where the bus was sitting empty, said the bus driver was speaking to police and not only the bus but nearby houses were also evacuated. Roberts and another witness from the Shepherd's Bush station who called in to Sky News said they were told by police to get off their cell phones.

The concern is that authorities believe that at least two bombs have not gone off, one of which could be on the bus. Cell phones work on radio frequencies, which could set off the potential bombs.

The reports came exactly two weeks to the day that four homicide bombers attacked three subway stations and a double-decker bus in London, killing 52 others.

Although not as serious, Thursday's incidents were hauntingly similar to the blasts two weeks ago, which involved explosions at three Underground stations simultaneously — quickly followed by a blast on a bus. Those bombings, during the morning rush hour, also occurred in the center of London, hitting the Underground railway from various directions.

Thursday's incidents, however, were more geographically spread out.

London Ambulance said it was called to the Oval station at 12:38 p.m. and Warren Street at 12:45 p.m. The July 7 attacks began at 8:51 a.m.

Prime Minister Blair was scheduled to meet with various British intelligence agencies Thursday. He canceled a visit to a school in East London, which was in the same general area as the potential bus bomb.

President Bush was briefed on the London incidents, according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who said U.S. officials are "monitoring the situation closely.'"

Washington, D.C., Metro officials said the city's subways, which have been on a higher alert since the July 7 London bombings, will see an increase in security and bomb-sniffing dogs.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has also been advised and is monitoring the situation. There is no plan to change the terror threat level at this time; the Department of Homeland Security is still gathering information.

The concern among U.S. officials in these situations is whether there would be legitimate follow-up attacks by the same group responsible for the July 7 bombings, or "copy cat" incidents, of lesser severity and effectiveness.

The explosions came as Pakistani intelligence officials said authorities are seeking the former aide of a radical cleric in Britain in connection with the July 7 bombings.

The officials said British investigators asked Pakistani authorities to search for Haroon Rashid Aswat (search), who reportedly had been in close contact with the suicide bombers just before the July 7 attacks. Aswat, 31, was of Indian origin and may not be in Pakistan, according to two intelligence officials in Islamabad and one in Lahore.

FOX News' Wendell Goler, Catherine Herridge, Amy Kellogg and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
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Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

We were lucky this time none of them worked properly.

Hopefully Londoner's will start to get angry now and demand results from the government.

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1993 320TE M104
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past:

1983 230E W123 M102
1994 E300D S124 OM606 (x2)
1967 250SE W108 M129
1972 280se 3.5 W108 M116
1980 280SE W116 M110
1980 350SE W116 M116
1992 300E W124 M103
1994 E280 W124 M104
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"music and women I cannot but give way to, whatever my business" -Pepys

Also since these fanatics believe everything is controlled by Allah, maybe they will get the message that Allah no longer approves of these operations. But then again Al-Qaida is known for multiple attacks on a particular target if the first attack fails.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

If only England would adopt Sharia and put their women in blue bags, the valiant Al Queda warriors wouldn't have to kill innocent people in subways.

U. You're good, u.

Well done old boy. ZING !!!

Now, keep 'em coming people!

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1989 300CE - 269,000 km
1994 SL600 - 59,000 km

...results like gettin the hell outta Iraq for starters, then given the boot to Phony Bliar as a chaser.

You actually think that would change anything? what about the attacks against us during Clintons terms when he had "the let them do whatever they want" policy?

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Change anything? Dunno, but it would right a wrong, and that's always a good place to start.

we already righted a wrong when we went in and took that scumbag out of power...like we should have in '92.

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Bush I was smart enough NOT to do that. He knew what trouble it would bring, guess ole W didn't read his dad's book.

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1994 C 280 117.5k, White (Good as new)
1997 Toyota Camry 149k Miles (Not so pretty anymore)

1990 190e 2.6 95k (Sold-Should not have)
1981 240d Stick ??? Miles...sold

Yeah, nothing like a good retreat to get everything calm. I mean, look what it did for France in WWII. They surrendered and those mean old Nazis quit killing them. Well, quit killing most of them. But if those that they killed had only capitulated, then everythin would have been okay for them, too. Well, except for those that the Nazis wanted dead, not matter what. But shoot, there weren't too many of them and they never were really French anyway. Like that Dreyfus character.

...uh, are you done with Mr Strawman yet? Looks like you scored a direct hit, so pat yourself on the back and take a bow.

Now, there's a valid comparison.

According to Mr. Blair and his Foreign Secretary, it's nonsense to assume that the bombings have anything to do with British presence in Iraq.

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2011 Prius

aren't you just glad we are taking the fight to them?

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72 W114/M130

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