Bin Laden's present role in the Al Qaida and the International Islamic front (IIF) is confined to target country indication, ideological motivation and boosting the morale. Once a target country is decided, it is left to organizations having the capability for clandestine operations in that country to plan and carry out the terrorist strike. Bin Laden and the Al Qaida GHQ need not necessarily be aware of the details of planning and the progress of its implementation until the strike is actually carried out.

For the people of London it is a double blow. Caught in the web of brutal power wielders, they have become victims of their wars .More than a million and had marched through the streets of London protesting against Tony Blair joining the US led invasion of Iraq. During that 15/ 16 February, 2003 weekend peace marches and rallies were held against the impending war by tens of millions all over the world, with over 8 million in Europe alone, spread over 500 cities and towns in 60 countries ; from Auckland and Melbourne it then swept over Asia, Africa and Europe and on to North and South America.

The protesters belonged to all races and classes, mothers with babies, young and old alike; and from across the whole political spectrum. The protests were the largest ever held, much bigger and more universal than against the Vietnam War, especially in Australia, Spain, Italy, UK and USA, whose governments were aligned with USA. The war was launched against the will of the overwhelming members of the United Nations and its Charter.

Seven by seven, (7/7) is the beginning of the revenge attacks for US-UK led attacks against Iraq, Afghanistan, and ongoing Israeli state terrorism against Palestine as warned Bin Laden. An Al Qaida Europe outfit claimed credit for the attacks on three subway trains and a red double decker bus in London .In a painstaking process of forensic investigations to identify the bombers and identifying the bodies so far over 50 persons have been declared dead. The British police announced on 13 July that three in a team of four were young British-born Muslims of Pakistani origin, who carried out the deadly terrorist attacks in London, but they were looking for a possible master hand from abroad.

However, there is a fog of confusion in details. Hundreds of race hate attacks have been carried out against Mosques and Muslims in UK, thus starting a cycle of backlashes. The British experience of Catholic North Irish terrorism now dormant is a different kettle of fish. The Irish wanted to attract attention to their cause and not kill people en masse, except for their hatred of Margaret Thatcher and Britain’s coercive machine.

One strongly condemns the attacks against innocent civilians in London as the earlier ones in Madrid , Bali etc and admires the Londoners fortitude and stiff upper lip but the knowledge that the suffering has been brought upon them by its own government in spite of their opposition must be a disconcerting thought .So the comparison with the Londoner’s resilience against Nazi Blitzes is not very accurate .Even then it is now accepted that the seeds for the rise of Nazism were sown by the humiliating peace imposed on Germany by the British and the French after the first world war .

A survey by US academics published in the Lancet last October came up with some 100,000 probable civilian deaths so far in Iraq. (The number must be much higher now with robust Iraqi resistance and US inspired civil war like conditions) "Most died as a result of the violence, but many others died as a result of the increasingly difficult living conditions, reflected in increasing child mortality levels." Over 1750 US soldiers have been killed and tens of thousand maimed and injured in the war by the Iraqi resistance against the occupation. US leaders and Generals have reiterated that they do not do body counts [of Iraqis]. When some one mentioned the dead Iraqi civilians shown on Arab TV channels, one US General advised changing the channel.

London’s Mayor, Ken Livingston, while opposing Tony Blair‘s support to the war was prescient: "An assault on Iraq will inflame world opinion and jeopardize security and peace everywhere. London, as one of the major world cities, has a great deal to lose from war and a lot to gain from peace, international cooperation and global stability." There is little doubt that there would be far reaching ramifications on British economy so reliant on tourism and trade from foreign visitors.

Reacting to the London bombings, Robert Fisk in the “Independent’ of London recalled one of bin Laden’s recent video tapes, "If you bomb our cities we will bomb yours." Just before the US presidential elections, Bin Laden enquired: "Why do we not attack Sweden?" “And it's no use Mr. Blair telling us yesterday that "they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear" said Fisk.”They" are not trying to destroy "what we hold dear". They are trying to get public opinion to force Blair to withdraw from Iraq, from his alliance with the United States, and from his adherence to Bush's policies in the Middle East. The Spanish paid the price for their support for Bush - and Spain's subsequent retreat from Iraq proved that the Madrid bombings achieved their objectives - while the Australians were made to suffer in Bali.”

Tony Blair called the bombings "barbaric" – which they were. Nevertheless, “what were the civilian deaths of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in 2003, the children torn apart by cluster bombs, the countless innocent Iraqis gunned down at American military checkpoints? When they die, it is "collateral damage"; when "we" die, it is "barbaric terrorism" added Fisk. “if Tony Blair really believes that by "fighting terrorism" in Iraq we could more efficiently protect Britain - fight them there rather than let them come here, as Bush constantly says - this argument is no longer valid ,“ Fisk continued.
It “would have taken months to plan - to choose safe houses, prepare explosives, identify targets, ensure security, choose the bombers, the hour, the minute, to plan the communications (mobile phones are giveaways) and co-ordination and sophisticated planning .” So terror has come to stay if current policies are pursued.” Fisk then rubs it in. It” represented a total failure of our security services - the same intelligence "experts" who claim there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq when there was none, but who utterly failed to uncover a months-long plot to kill Londoners.

“Trains, planes, buses, cars, metros i.e. London’s transportation are fair game in revenge .Can one search three million London commuters every day. “Then come the Muslims of Britain, who have long been awaiting this nightmare. Now every one of our Muslims becomes the "usual suspect", the man or woman with brown eyes, the man with the beard, the woman in the scarf, the boy with the worry beads, the girl who says she's been racially abused.