Terror Attacks: Amateur Hour or Al Qaeda Operation?

July 3, 2007 — -- The terror attacks in London and Glasgow panicked the world, prompted long lines at airport security checkpoints and led British government officials to link the perpetrators to al Qaeda.

Details are still emerging about the twin plots -- to detonate two car bombs in London and to ram a Jeep Cherokee into the entrance of Glasgow Airport -- as British authorities continue to make arrests and pursue their investigation.

The country, already on edge as the anniversary of the 7/7 London transit bombings approaches, was "dealing, in general terms, with people who are associated with al Qaeda," said new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

But terrorism experts contend that the plots seem to be the work of amateurs who may have been inspired by al Qaeda but were not directed by Osama bin Laden's terrorist group.

"They seemed to be on their own due to the fact that these bombs were homemade," said Peter Lehr, research fellow at the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St Andrews University in Scotland, adding that most members of al Qaeda have access to explosives and training in the use of bombs.

"These guys could barely be considered amateurs they were so inept," said Larry Johnson, a former counterterrorism expert at the State Department. "You're looking at a group of people filled with desire to do something but desire doesn't equal capability. From a planning standpoint, they didn't even try to take steps to mask their identities."

The plots failed largely due to simple blunders and mistaken assumptions, said Lehr. "Just using petrol canisters, nuts and bolts and a cell phone to trigger the explosion, the London bombing attempt would probably not have worked. It wouldn't have brought down the building, but it was still powerful enough to kill and maim people," he explained. "Just compare it to car bombings in Iraq using military-style explosives, which deliver much more bang for the buck."

In addition, it was revealed that the perpetrators called a pair of cellphones six times in a failed attempt to detonate the car bombs -- the intact phones provided investigators with plenty of evidence to track down the plotters.

Also, the perpetrators didn't take simple steps to increase the power of the bombings. "The first car, they could barely get a fire started but no one thought to lower the window to feed the fire," said Johnson. "You can turn gasoline into an explosive but they didn't know what to do. Even if those tanks exploded, they don't burst apart into thousands of pieces of shrapnel. They tend to break apart at the seam."