July 11, 2005

U.S. official cites London bombing probe's 'urgency'

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. investigators suspect those who carried out deadly terror bombings in London last week remain alive, adding urgency to the investigation, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Sunday.

The United States has sent FBI agents with forensic expertise to help British authorities analyze the crime scene, which authorities in both countries say bear the hallmarks of the al Qaeda network that attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

"And I think we're proceeding on the assumption that the bombers are still at large, and of course that adds a special urgency to figuring out who's done this," Chertoff said on the ABC television program "This Week."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff speaks during an interview with George Stephanopolous on "This Week" in Washington July 10, 2005. (REUTERS/Linda Spillers/ABC News)

Four blasts tore through London's transport network on Thursday, killing more than 50 people on three subway trains and a double-decker bus.

Chertoff said it was too early to conclude that no suicide bombers had been involved.

Police in London said the subway bombs went off almost simultaneously, making it more likely they were detonated by timers rather than suicide bombers.

British police said they had arrested three people under terrorism laws at London's Heathrow airport early on Sunday but had no cause so far to link them to the bombings. They also appealed to the public for images taken at the attack sites.

Frances Townsend, President George W. Bush's homeland security adviser, said in an interview on Fox News Sunday the bomb that went off on the bus may have been carried by someone trying to put it on a subway car.

"The forensics aren't there yet to say that these were suicide bombers," she said. "The one that we have to look at ... is the one on the bus, that's not as clear."

She said Britain's emergency response may have prevented the bomb on the bus from going into the subway system.

"What happened was that bus was not on its normal route, that bus was diverted as a result of the initial bombings inside the underground system, and so it was off its normal route.

"So that bomber, or the individual carrying that bomb, may not have been able to get into the subway system," she said.

Chertoff, on ABC, said: "Clearly we're dealing with a group that is sympathetic to al Qaeda."

In a separate appearance on the NBC program "Meet the Press," Chertoff was asked whether al Qaeda was "alive and well" despite the U.S.-declared global war on terrorism sparked by the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

"Well, it is," he replied. He referred both to a core group led by Osama bin Laden and a network of semi-autonomous groups that he said predated 2001.

Chertoff declined to estimate how long U.S. terror alert levels for buses, subways and trains would remain at elevated levels after they were raised last week in response to the London attacks.

"We're obviously going to continue into Monday with the rush hours," Chertoff said. "We'll continue to look at it next week and we'll see where we are."

(Additional reporting by Chris Baltimore)

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