Where The One-Eyed Man Is King

By now, it's pretty clear that the bombs that ripped dozens of Londoners to shreds and maimed hundreds more were constructed locally by people with little more technical know-how than the Weather Underground. You don't need a faux terror "expert" like Stephen Emerson to tell you that that might mean the attacks were also planned locally. Despite mounting evidence supporting the local angle, an anonymous "senior counterterrorism official," either from the State Department or the Pentagon, is trying to spin journalists with ominous suggestions of a Zarqawi hand in the bombing plot -- and doing so without offering any evidence. I'll get to this disinformation campaign later. For now, read on.

London has a burgeoning community of radical Islamists. Most of them are followers of, or are sympathetic to, one-eyed cleric Abu Hamza Al-Masri. Al-Masri cut his teeth (and lost his hand) in Afghanistan in the 1980's fighting alongside Osama and a entire generation of future jihadi leaders. His Finsbury Park mosque has been a favorite stop of shoe bomber Richard Reid and Zacharias Moussaoui. To be sure, the majority of the mosque's attendees reject the radical, politicized version of Islam espoused by al-Qaida's leadership. On Friday, Finsbury Park Mosque played host to one of the Muslim community's fiercest denunciations of the attacks. Al-Masri has nonetheless been under scrutiny since 1999, when Scotland Yard questioned him about terror-related activities. Soon after, Yemen unsuccessfully requested his extradition for plotting bombings there.

Now Al-Masri is on trial for inciting violence. He faces a maximum sentence of life. And he could be extradicted to the US after his conviction. Al-Masri's trial was set to begin on Tuesday -- two days before the terror attacks in London. Could the bombings be related to his prosecution? Undoubtedly. Unfortunately, a "senior counterterrorism official" is trying to spin reporters with the claim that Zarqawi planned the attacks. (The claim is also discussed here.) This looks, smells and quacks like a Pentagon/State Department disinformation campaign designed to reinforce the notion of Iraq as a "central battlefield in the war on terror." Zarqawi's involvement in the London attacks would also bolster his profile among the American public, fulfilling a PR goal the White House established once they essentially gave up on capturing bin Laden.

It appears British intelligence has rejected the Pentagon's misinformation. As the New York Times reports:

Investigators have concluded that the bombs that ripped through three subway trains and a bus on Thursday were relatively crude devices containing less than 10 pounds of explosives each. That finding supports a theory gaining momentum among the authorities that the plot was carried out by a sleeper cell of homegrown extremists rather than highly trained terrorists exported to Britain.

As long as the Bush administration's disinformation is accepted at face value, we are living in the land of the blind, a place where, as Bob Dylan reminded us, the one-eyed man is king.