Angry survivors demand London 7/7 bombs inquiry

LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) - Angry survivors of the deadly London suicide bombings have demanded the government hold an inquiry into the attacks after it was revealed two of the bombers had come to the attention of MI5 over a year earlier.

Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammad Sidique Khan, the suspected ringleader of the July 7, 2005 attacks on three underground trains and a bus which left 52 commuters dead, were watched by security teams looking at another group of suspected militants.

Although they were seen holding a number of meetings with the suspected ringleader of the gang convicted of plotting bomb attacks in Britain using fertiliser-based explosives, ntelligence officials decided they did not warrant further investigation.

Most survivors and bereaved families will be shocked and furious at the news, said Rachel North who was on board the train blown up by Germaine Lindsay near Russell Square station.

It was the bloodiest attack on July 7, killing 27 people and injuring 340 as the blast occurred in a narrow tunnel deep underground.

''You want to believe it was appalling bad luck and nobody could have stopped it,'' North told Reuters.

''But the knowledge these guys were being taped and watched talking about jihad and then carried out explosions a year later ... I think it's going to be devastating for people to deal with psychologically.'' A sizeable number of bereaved relatives and survivors, some badly maimed in the attacks, have repeatedly demanded a full independent inquiry into the attacks.

They argue that it is the only way to ensure all the facts are made public, all the questions are answered and lessons can be properly learned.

The news that the men were not ''clean skins'' -- individuals with no criminal record or history of militant behaviour -- as the government and police had initially said, showed the public had a right to all the information, they argue.

''We were deceived,'' said Jacqui Putnam, who was on board the train blown up by Khan near Edgware Road station which killed six and injured 163.

''We were told that these four characters were not affiliated with al Qaeda and were working entirely independently. We were told that when it was known that they weren't, because they had been under surveillance.'' ''We will never know, if they had done something differently, if lives would have been saved.'' Court documents show that Khan and Tanweer met Omar Khyam, the suspected mastermind of the plot known to police as ''Operation Crevice'', and his brother up to four times in early 2004 before officers swooped.

Undercover surveillance recorded the group discussing jihad.

But no immediate action was taken to probe their background further because there was a lack of resources and they were believed to be only involved in fundraising activities.

''Yes, Khan and Tanweer were seen during the Crevice surveillance operation,'' said one senior anti-terrorism detective.

''From our perspective they were not priority targets because (a) they were not part of the Crevice plot and (b) they did not pose a threat.'' He said tough decisions had to be taken on a day-to-day basis using what resources were available. Monitoring just one suspect for 24 hours a day required 50 officers, he said.

But he admitted that had further investigations been carried out, it was possible the July 7 plot could have been thwarted.

However the survivors are angrier with the government than with the police or MI5 because they say the official reports are riddled with holes and inaccuracies.

''We can see the picture the government gave us of clean skins was a false picture,'' North said.

''Somebody somewhere made a mistake of judgement and it's not appropriate to cover things up.'' To cap it all, survivors say the government had still failed to take practical actions they had recommended.

For example, the public were still unaware that the only way to escape an underground train in a tunnel was via the front or rear carriage as there were no new information signs.

''If they are not made public then the same mistakes will be made again,'' Putnam said. ''I have no confidence that any lessons have been learned.'' The government has argued that holding an inquiry would be an expensive distraction for the security services battling to deal with the threat posed by other terrorism cells at large across Britain.

''I don't think it would mean everybody would have to stop catching terrorists,'' North said.

''I would also argue that if the nature of the attacks of 7/7 are important enough to change aspects of the constitution and to introduce new legislation then surely it merits an independent inquiry as well.'' Putnam said she had no doubt that the government wanted ''to sweep it all under the carpet''.

''I don't care who scores political points on this. I only care that me, my friends, my colleagues, every other worker who travels on public transport right across the country needs this information.'' She hopes that an inquiry would finally bring closure and possibly help erase the mental scars and the suffering of post traumatic stress.

''It's two years on and I still cannot sleep,'' she said. ''I still suffer nightmares, I still relive it at night in different ways and that's something I expect I will have to get used to.

''But we're not going to go away. We're going to shout louder. The longer this goes on, the more determined I am, the more angry I get at this lack of response.'' REUTERS SS VC1805