From a July 12 Radio Free Europe report on the first arrest in the case:

The arrested man is thought to be a relative of one of the main suspects. The present whereabouts of all the main suspects is unknown: police are considering the possibility that one or all of them were killed in the bomb blasts.

But the most ominous news is that authorities believe most of the suspects were of Pakistani origin but born in Britain and raised in the provincial city of Leeds in Yorkshire. One of the bombers is thought to be from Luton, an industrial town just north of London. Both cities have large Muslim populations.

If these facts are correct, the implications are grave indeed.

It would mean that instead of having to deal with a handful of foreign terrorists who arrived in England on a single terrorist mission, the British authorities are facing a domestic terror scene that has been able to secretly nurture, train, and equip British citizens for a major attack on one of the world's great cities -- all under the noses of the police and intelligence communities.

London-based security analyst Chris Langton of the International Institute for Strategic Studies says the events are a setback for national security.

"This is a blow to the security of the country in that this happened without anybody being aware that it was imminent -- particularly because the extensive surveillance and intelligence-gathering activities that have gone on over the last months have been successful in many other ways, in preventing attacks," Langton said.

Analysts say it's too early to conclude that Britain already has a fully developed terror network. But some -- like London-based security consultant Crispin Black -- say it's fairly obvious the bombers had access to expertise, probably from overseas.

"I don't accept the story that these [young men] would spontaneously turn into suicide bombers and carry out a do-it-yourself operation in London. I think they have technical support from a bomb maker, and command and control [links] from someone else," Black said.

Conspiranoiacs are also jumping all over claims that the bodies of the attackers were conveniently found with lots of ID. E.g.:

Police found plenty of identification, including drivers' licences and bank cards, on the four men's bodies.

"They wanted people to know who they were," a security source told the Evening Standard. "They wanted to be martyrs." (Globe & Mail, July 14)

This is drawing obvious analogies to the seeming anomaly of a hijacker's passport surviving the WTC disaster and being found by the FBI in the rubble. E.g.:

Personal documents of all of them found at the scenes framing the patsies, just like paper passports of the hijackers found on 9/11. (Prison Planet)

Well, we agree—it is weird. But once again, why do the conspiranoiacs always have to overstate the case? PP uses the plural ("passports"), but only one supposed hijacker passport was found in the WTC rubble. It belonged to Satam al-Suqami, and confusion about more than one found passport stems from early erroneous accounts that it was Mohammed Atta's passport that was found. (Wikipedia)

Numerous conspiranoid sites (Newsrake, Rense, KurtNimmo) seem not to have got the word that these early accounts were wrong, and happily go on assuming that both al-Suqami's and Atta's were found.

People who take such dogmatic stances shouldn't play so fast and loose with the facts.

From Bloomberg, July 14:

British police today raided an eighth home in England as they expanded their investigation of last week's London subway and bus bombings, attacks that may have been carried out by U.K.-born Muslims as young as 18.

The house in Lodge Lane in the Beeston area of Leeds, in northern England, was being searched by officers from London's Metropolitan Police, said a West Yorkshire Police spokeswoman in a telephone interview. A house in Aylesbury, northwest of London, was still being searched today after officers raided the building late yesterday, police said. The searches began with raids on six other homes in the Leeds area two days ago.

While authorities haven't named their four suspects, U.K. news organizations including the BBC have, describing them as 18 to 30 years old and from West Yorkshire. A fifth man, possibly the mastermind, is being sought, the BBC said. Police said they couldn't rule out more attacks from people tied to the bombers.

Once again, residents were evacuated from the "cordon zone" around the house, although further details weren't available. Pretty scary how fast Leeds is starting to look like Palestine.

Prison Planet is among those examining the information now available on the four suspects and determining: "As we predicted, the so-called suicide bombers are ordinary people who would have nothing to gain and everything to lose from blowing themselves up. We have a frame-up in action." (Does anyone ever have anything "to gain" from suicide bombings? Other than a ticket to paradise?)

Actually the results are rather a mixed bag. According to Newsday's profile today (July 14), assembled from wire reports:

Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, spent "more time in the gym than the mosque" and his friends said "he never talked with them about religion."

Ejaz Fiaz, early 30s, "had recently dyed his hair blond and shaved the beard he'd proudly grown as a mark of a devout Muslim."

Hasib Mir Hussain, 19, had long hair and blue contact lenses, and was "a charmer who liked to flirt," but "turned very religious two years ago."

Shahzad Tanweer, 22, was "quiet" and "religious" and travelled to Pakistan this year to study Islam.

The accounts of un-Islamic behavior are drawing analogies to the 9-11 hijackers' partying on the eve of their attacks. From PP's "How the Government Stages the London Bombings in Ten Easy Steps":

6) 4th Arab goes out partying in London night before and ends up getting out of bed late. No worries, the 9/11 'hijackers' did the same thing but that didn't cause us a big problem.

No source or link is provided for the claim that the "4th Arab" partied on the eve of the attack. (And, as we've pointed out, none of the London suspects were Arabs.) And claims (e.g. on 9-11Research) about the 9-11 hijackers' supposed drinking binge may be overstated. Wikipedia tells us the incident at the Hollywood, FLA, sports bar was a week before the attacks (not the "night before") and that Mohammed Atta, at least, was just drinking juice.

London explosives have military origin

LONDON, July 13 (UPI) -- Scotland Yard has asked for European cooperation in finding how last week's London subway and bus bombers obtained military plastic explosives.

Traces of the explosive known as C4 were found at all four blast sites, and The Times of London said Scotland Yard considers it vital to determine if they were part of a terrorist stockpile.

C4 is manufactured mostly in the United States, and is more deadly and efficient than commercial varieties. It is easy to hide, stable, and is often missed by traditional bomb-sniffing detection systems, the newspaper said.

Forensic scientists told the newspaper the construction of the four devices detonated in London was very technically advanced, and unlike any instructions that can be found on the Internet.

The attacks in the morning rush-hour Thursday killed at least 52 people, and injured more than 700. At least four British bombers, three of Pakistani descent are among the dead.

Another man was arrested in West Yorkshire Tuesday, but no further details have been released.

London bombers used 'military' explosives

LONDON, July 12 (UPI) -- High-grade military explosives appear to have been used in the London bombings last Thursday, a senior French counter-terrorism officer has said.

"The nature of the explosives appears to be military, which is very worrying," said Superintendent Christophe Chaboud, the chief of the French anti-terrorist police, who was in London to assist Scotland Yard with the investigation.

Detectives have concluded that a single bomb maker built all four devices as similar components were found at all four blast sites, the Times of London reported Tuesday.

British intelligence officials have asked their European counterparts to check military stockpiles and commercial sites to determine is explosives are missing, European-based intelligence officials told the New York Times.

But one official said the only "concrete evidence" was that the explosives were not homemade. "We don't know if they are civil industrial or military industrial explosives."

Contradicting earlier reports (e.g. Reuters, July 9) that timers were used in the bombs, authorities are now saying the attacks were suicide bombings. A July 14 NBC report on this claim also notes:

British police are pursuing a fifth bombing suspect who may have masterminded the London attacks. According to an unidentified source quoted in The Times of London, detectives are looking for Magdy el-Nashar, 33, an Egyptian-born academic who recently taught chemistry at Leeds University. The newspaper said he was believed to have rented one of the homes being searched in Leeds.

This would appear to be the only Arab related to the case. Contrary to the ignorant assumption of Prison Planet, none of the alleged bombers were Arab.

Prison Planet also reminds us of a possible military connection to last year's Madrid attacks, reprinting this story from the London Times:

Madrid Bombers Linked to Spanish Security Service

London Times | June 21 2004

THE man accused of supplying the dynamite used in the al-Qaeda train bombings in Madrid was in possession of the private telephone number of the head of Spain’s Civil Guard bomb squad, it emerged yesterday.

Emilio Suárez Trashorras, who is alleged to have supplied 200kg of dynamite used in the bombs, had obtained the number of Juan Jesús Sánchez Manzano, the head of Tedax.

The revelation has raised fresh concerns in Madrid about links between those held responsible for the March bombings, which killed 190 people, and Spain’s security services, and shortcomings in the police investigation. Señor Suárez Trashorras and two other men implicated in the bombings have already been identified as police informers. Other members of the group had evaded police surveillance, despite concerns within the security services about their activities and evidence of their association with al-Qaeda.

The telephone number of Señor Sánchez Manzano was contained in a Civil Guard dossier handed to Juan del Olmo, the investigating judge, at the National Court in Madrid. The number was written on a piece of paper found in the possession of Carmen Toro, the wife of Señor Suárez Trashorras. Both are in custody accused of supplying dynamite used in the Madrid bombs.

Although you are fair and correct in some of your criticism, you net effect is obscuring the truth. You ad hominem attach (conspiranoid) language places you in the same general category as Ann Coulter.

I understand why anyone can take exception to prisonplanet. But, have you had a chance the read the absolute crap in the 911 Commission Report. Who's side are you on?