Mass casualties the aim in easy target

July 8, 2005
By Jonathan Pearlman

A counter-terrorism expert, Boaz Ganor, said in Sydney last night the attack in London was likely to have been by a radical Islamic group aimed at provoking a backlash against Britain's role in Iraq.

"It seems like an act of one of the groups of global jihad," Dr Ganor said.
"It was a series of simultaneous attacks designed to inflict mass casualties. The IRA attacks are the exact opposite. They usually attack government facilities and give a warning to avoid mass casualties."

Dr Ganor, the executive director of Israel's International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya, said London was a relatively soft target for terrorists.

"Britain is one of the main targets of global jihad and part of the coalition in Iraq. It is much easier to attack London than American cities.

"It has a large Islamic population and while the vast majority of them are opposed to Islamic radicalism it is enough to have a few dozen collaborators that can perpetrate an attack." Dr Ganor said British authorities had repeatedly warned that a terrorist attack against London was a matter of "when, not if".

"There has been information about attacks against British Airways and poison attacks, possibly involving the Underground. Whoever did it is probably trying to imitate the case of Madrid to provoke internal debate about the coalition against Iraq."

Dr Ganor, who is visiting Australia as a guest of the Limmud Oz conference, is also scheduled to address a security summit in Canberra next week.

He said yesterday the Bush Administration's push to impose democracy in the Middle East required long-term investment in education and welfare and risked further destabilising the region.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/07/08/1120704504696.html