Coroner's Inquests into the London Bombings of the 7 July 2005

Coroner's Inquests into the London Bombings of the 7 July 2005

Mr Hugo Keith, Queen's Counsel, says that the inquest should address rumours and suspicions generated by conspiracy theorists.

Source: Hearing transcripts - 11 October 2010 - Morning session
8 Some of the questions may never fully be answered
9 and some may of course also fall outside the scope of
10 these inquests, but what we can say is that a great deal
11 of time, energy and resources has been devoted to
12 finding out what happened to each deceased. Thus it is
13 to be hoped that these inquests, however unpleasant and
14 distressing, as they will be, will assist in answering
15 the families' questions in allaying some of the rumours
16 and suspicion generated by conspiracy theorists.
17 I'll return a little later to the question of
18 whether there is, in truth, any basis for some of the
19 theories that have been canvassed in the press and on
20 the internet.
21 We are confident that these inquests can deliver
22 meaningful conclusions about the indirect as well as the
23 direct causes of the deaths, as well as the potential
24 responsibility and the lessons can be learnt.

Although the inquest opens with a presumption of the guilt of the 4 bombers, it appears that they will be hoping to clear up any existing questions and concerns. The Queen's Counsel has certainly opened the door to discussing conspiracy theory-related concerns and hopefully we'll finally have a trustworthy review of the important points of what I believe to be a false-flag attack on the UK.

The home page for the inquest is at 7julyinquests.independent.gov.uk...

I'm a little concerned that the video evidence released so far completely avoids direct views of the blast areas but there's plenty of time for more conclusive photographic and video evidence to be released on this website.

IMO this is 9/11's baby brother and should be watched closely!

It looks like it will be February before they address the forensics concerning the bombs and the bombers. It should still be worth the wait as long as the evidence gets a good airing instead of being passed as a given.

Transcript source
11 Turning to forensic issues, issues 7, 8 and 9 on the
12 list of provisional issues, we can see there three
13 issues relating to the manner of construction and mode
14 of operation of the bombs, the involvement of Khan,
15 Tanweer, Hussain and Lindsay in the development of the
16 explosive devices and the presence at the scenes of
17 those four bombers and their proximity to the
18 explosions.
19 My Lady will hear evidence from the police and
20 forensic investigators about what was found at
21 111 Chapeltown Road, at 18 Alexandra Grove, at the
22 various cars as well as the bombsites, and I will
23 outline this evidence in a moment.
24 The majority of this material is contained in
25 a forensic report which, as you know, was prepared by

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1 the Metropolitan Police as your coroner's officers
2 earlier in the year.
3 This evidence, which will be heard in February, will
4 address issues such as how the materials were purchased,
5 how the bombs were constructed and how the four men were
6 linked, both to the bomb factories in the two addresses
7 and to the bombsites themselves.
8 Although, of course, it is, I repeat, entirely
9 a matter for you, I should say that we have found no
10 cogent evidence to suggest anything other than the four
11 bombers were intimately connected with the construction,
12 transportation and detonation of those bombs.
13 Issues 10 and 11 fall under the rubric of pathology
14 issues and those are issues upon which I've touched
15 already, they include the issue of blast injuries and
16 whether it will be necessary to call pathology evidence
17 and those are issues to which we will turn in the new
18 year.
19 Issue 12, the backgrounds of Khan, Tanweer, Hussain
20 and Lindsay. These concern issues such as their
21 education, radicalisation, association, overseas travel
22 that they undertook as well as their movements before
23 the immediate days preceding 7 July.
24 As with travel to London, my Lady, the background
25 evidence is not at the heart of the events of 7 July,

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1 but it will, we anticipate, shed light on those events
2 and, accordingly, the evidence won't dwell on the area
3 although it will address it as comprehensively as you
4 have directed.
5 At your direction, I propose to call some evidence
6 that summarises the educational, family and work
7 histories of the bombers, but then look in greater
8 detail at those aspects of their lives that shed light
9 either on their motivations or on their actions.
10 For example, the travel by Tanweer and Khan to
11 Pakistan between 18 November 2004 and 8 February 2005.
12 We intend to look at the videos of 26 October 2004 and
13 15 November, compiled by Khan before he went to
14 Pakistan, the rental of Chapeltown Road and
15 Alexandra Grove, the videos made also by Khan and
16 Tanweer in advance of 7 July, but released afterwards
17 posthumously for propaganda purposes.
18 At your direction we will also call witnesses
19 relating to an Islamic bookshop in Beeston, the Iqra
20 bookshop, with which both Tanweer and Khan, as well as
21 two of the other defendants who stood trial in the
22 conspiracy trial to which I've made reference, had some
23 involvement.

Here, it's explained how the bombers wrote up an incriminating "to-do list"

18 Other than tape over the net curtains to keep them
19 affixed to the window frames so as to prevent people
20 seeing in, the extraordinary chaos and profusion of
21 equipment and materials scattered throughout
22 18 Alexandra Grove makes it plain, you may think, that
23 the bombers took no steps to clear up behind them in an
24 attempt to hide their evil work. They had no intention
25 of returning, you may deduce, or of facing their

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1 accusers.
2 One piece of paper, we shall see, made reference to
3 "things to do", including ice packs, boiling, batteries,
4 shrapnel and wiring and to "backup plan" and "rules for
5 the day" as well as to "wills" and "reconnaissance".
6 We can see, perhaps, on the screen, although it's
7 difficult to read the writing, exhibit CW/254 which
8 contains at page 2, if we can zoom in on the top
9 left-hand part of the page, please -- it's going to be
10 too difficult to see -- but there are references on that
11 page to the work that they were carrying out and
12 handwriting analysis established that Tanweer and
13 Hussain had definitely written on this document and
14 strong support for the conclusion that Khan had written
15 on it too. That is a document that contains a reference
16 to "wills" and "reconnaissance". [INQ10097-2]
17 Another piece of paper contained volumes and weights
18 possibly relating to the calculation of hydrogen
19 peroxide densities.
20 We can see there percentages and volumes and figures
21 produced on that page, which, in the opinion of the
22 Metropolitan Police forensic investigators, related to
23 the calculations necessary for part of what was being
24 done. Handwriting analysis conducted by the police also
25 showed that there was moderate support for the view that

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1 the handwriting on that document was Tanweer and
2 Hussain's.

Funny that they added "wills" and "reconnaissance" to the list but forgot to write "purchase one-way tickets to London"

I'm way behind on this as I'm still on 11 Oct Morning...

Why is it that 9/11 and the 7/7 bombings were the ONLY time in history(excluding other FF's) in which we didnt need a real crimminal/forensic investigation into what happened?

reply to post by JohnJasper


Evidence as far as I've kept up (25 Oct) has mainly focussed on the Aldgate train and I'll post some of the key items that have been addressed in court in just a moment.

Approved Ruling

Earlier this week, the presiding Coroner, Lady Justice Hallett, made a decision about 2 important issues surrounding secret evidence.

Hearing transcripts - 3 November 2010 - Approved ruling
The two issues are:

i. As a member of the Court of Appeal sitting as a Deputy Assistant Coroner, do I have the power to order disclosure to myself and then adduce in evidence material, if it exists, that would otherwise be excluded by virtue of section 17(1) of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000? (“RIPA”)

ii. Sitting as a Deputy Assistant Coroner, do I have the power to hold closed hearings from which the interested persons are excluded and during which I admit evidence of which they have no knowledge?

In a decision that should be hailed as a (rare) victory for justice, Lady Justice Hallett's basically said that if MI5 want secret evidence to be considered in the case, they will have to make it available to all "interested parties." The intelligence organisation wanted to have classified information about whether the atrocities in London in 2005 could have been prevented considered exclusively by the coroner. This information is allegedly so sensitive that it "will never see the light of day" because it would "threaten national security" (yea, right!) yet has been made available to a "battery of lawyers acting for the Secretary of State."

Evidence left in the cars

Source:

In a review of CCTV evidence, a number of anomalies were brought to our attention:

(2 rucksacks or 4?)
...But a commuter, Susan Clarke, provided a statement in which she recounts how she saw four men getting out of the two cars carrying two large rucksacks, although the CCTV shows in fact that all four put on rucksacks...

(The mystery of the jogging bottoms?)
...They then leave for the station itself. Tanweer, the driver of the Nissan appeared for some reason to have changed his jogging bottoms between the moment when he's seen by CCTV at Woodall Services on the M1 and the moment when he leaves the car in the car park at Luton for the last time at 07.21, and his original jogging bottoms were found by the police in the back seat of Lindsay's red Fiat Brava...

(Then 12 extra bombs and a gun and bullets left in the car?)
...The Nissan car, my Lady, when searched, was found to have four further improvised explosive devices in a black rucksack. Two of them showed traces, after they had been made safe, of HMTD, the initiator explosive substance to which I have made reference. Two of them also had nails attached to them with plastic tape and were plainly designed to cause yet greater injury. There were also eight other home-made devices, at least one of which showed traces of HMTD. Half of them were made from shallow dishes, half from tubes, and it may be that the intention of the bombers had been to throw them, if they were apprehended and came under attack. Also found in the car were icepacks, nails, for the purpose that I have outlined, spare batteries, coolboxes and thermometers. The relevancy of the coolboxes and thermometers will become plain in a moment. The other car, the Fiat Brava, was found, on analysis, to have traces of pepper, pepper being one of the constituent parts of the main explosive substance, and HMTD was also detected on samples from the rear passenger and driver seats.
Also in this car were three icepacks, a telescopic sight for a firearm, a semi-automatic pistol, a magazine, and a case containing a carrier bag with one silver and five yellow-coloured bullets. A police investigation showed that a DNA profile matching that of Lindsay was found on swabbings on the side of the pistol and his fingerprints were found on the latches of the case, inside the case and on the handles of the bag in which the telescopic sight and pistol were found and on two of the bullets. The gun had been modified by having had a make-fit barrel attached, but was capable of firing, although curiously the bullets which were found with it could not have been fired from that gun, that is to say they weren't capable of being fired from that gun...
(What were the bombers thinking when they decided to take all of this extra gear with them?)

Unique explosives used

Allegedly, the 7-7 bombers managed to successfully mix up and detonate an explosive formula that had never been used before.

My Lady, from the damage wrought, forensic investigators concluded that each of the bombs consisted of several kilograms of high explosive. There were no traces of recognised high explosives, that is to say the sort of high explosive that forensic investigators are accustomed to seeing. In light of that, and the nature of the damage, and because of the finding of the remains of icepacks at Alexandra Grove, the forensic experts concluded that the mixture used in each of the bombsites was that which had been found at Alexandra Grove: namely, a mixture of pepper and hydrogen peroxide. At that time, such use was unique in the United Kingdom and possibly worldwide.

Yet back in 2005, a senior French policeman stated that the explosives were "of military origin."

The bombs used in Thursday's terrorist attacks were of "military origin", according to a senior French policeman sent to London to help in what has become the biggest criminal investigation in British history.

Christophe Chaboud, head of the French Anti-Terrorism Co-ordination Unit, told Le Monde newspaper that the explosives used in the bombings were of "military origin", which he described as "very worrying". " We're more used to cells making home-made explosives with chemicals," he said. "How did they get them? Either by trafficking, for example, in the Balkans, or they had someone on the inside who enabled them to get out of the military establishment."

(Curiously, it's a Frenchman who has just let slip that the recent East Midlands' cargo bomb was dearmed just 17 minutes before it would have detonated! Funny how these Frenchman seem to keep popping up!)

Lindsays Fiat Bravo involved in armed robbery?

It came as a huge surprise to me that Lindsay's car had apparently been involved in an armed robbery 5 weeks earlier. I don't know what to make of this report.

On 27 May, just five weeks before, Luton police received a call from a man to the effect that there was a gunman in his flat. When armed police arrived, neither the owner of the flat, presumably the person who called, nor the gunman were there. All had fled. Then a member of the public called in to say he had seen three males, two black and one Asian, wearing balaclavas and running down the road and he saw one of them holding a handgun. They got into a car and he managed to the a note of the car registration number, and it was a Fiat, R662 DSF. Lindsay's car.

CCTV Anomlalies

Source:
Strange description of temporary CCTV at King's cross. According to testimony, the temporary CCTV system in use at Kings Cross at the time had 76 cameras moving in sequence from one second at a time. Now I'm not sure what they meant by this but it is definitely a strange coincidence that for the crucial 20 minutes from 8:30 to 8:50, the camera recording was the one in the tunnel capturing the bombers as they came through.

Q. When they got to King's Cross, in terms of the available footage, although there were quite a few cameras at King's Cross station, is it right that the only cameras that were recording for the relevant time was a camera in the tunnel?
A. There were 76 -- it was a temporary system. King's Cross underground had a temporary system in place. 76 cameras moving in sequence from one second at a time. Fortunately for us, at the appropriate period, between 8.30 and 8.50, it sat for 20 minutes on that one camera and that allowed us, at that period, they came through and we got the first sighting.

Then it turns out that a McDonalds manager chose a crucial moment to turn off the CCTV system!

Q. Finally this, Inspector: the movements of Hasib Hussain, you've shown us the various bits of footage of his movements and of the buses. Was there any footage from inside McDonalds restaurant where he seemed to be present for some 8 minutes?
A. There was no footage. We recovered the CCTV from McDonalds, but unfortunately the system was -- the recording was stopped prior to him going into that location.
Q. So there were cameras, but for some reason they weren't recording?
A. There were cameras and, in fact, you see the office manager in the office going to the video machine and switching the "stop" button and it stops.

and of course, the well known failure of the route 30 bus CCTV and apparently the number 91 bus as well.

Q. Then finally the buses. The number 91 bus that he was believed to have taken along the Euston Road, no cameras inside that bus?
A. No, sir, no.
Q. Is that because there were cameras and they had malfunctioned or --
A. I can't recall the reasons why, but it was a main priority for us to find him on the bus, as you can see by our actions on the night of the 7th, to get the route 30 bus footage to identify him. So when we had the witness statement stating that -- the 91 bus, that was a priority for us to identify it and, for whatever reason, we didn't identify that footage. So I can't say at the moment whether that was malfunctioned or it wasn't there, it was recorded over, but for one of those reasons why we didn't have access to it.
Q. The same with the number 30 bus, there were cameras, but it wasn't --
A. The route 30 bus had malfunctioned earlier in the year, so we identified it that night, we viewed it that night at the laboratory, and it showed footage from earlier in the year, nothing of the date in question.

(to be continued)