I just finished reading The London Bombings: An Independent Inquiry by Nafeez Mossadeq Ahmed. It’ an extraordinary book: revelatory and yet deeply frustrating. Please read it: you will be a wiser, more informed citizen for doing so, even though you will not be happier.
Ahmed’s basic thesis is that there ought to be an independent public inquiry. He explains why – the obvious internal inconsistencies in the official record, and the discrepancies between the official explanation and the documented facts of the case. This part is blindingly obvious, because the inconsistencies are so clear and egregious. Next, he points out that any comprehensive inquiry should follow the links between the various actors – radical Islamic groups in the UK, Islamists elsewhere (especially Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Central Asia, and Algeria), western intelligence agencies, and certain commercial interests. The network of connections, deals, compromises, and double-crosses that he describes is both head-spinning in its detail and compelling in its logic.
And it’s this that makes it so depressing. We’d like to be able to explain things in terms of simple causes and effects, because then we can imagine that things might have been otherwise – if only Bush hadn’t invaded Iraq, if only Blair hadn’t been a poodle, then perhaps 7/7 wouldn’t have happened. But after reading Ahmed’s book, this is exposed as simple wishful thinking. These events are part of far-reaching, long-running geopolitical patterns, which individuals, however prominent, can do less to change than we would like. For example: the explosives used on 7/7 almost certainly came from Bosnia, but the British can’t admit this without also admitting a slew of related deals and relationships that they and the Americans have been – and are still – involved in. Terrorist attacks are simply part of the cost of doing business. This is not the stuff of conspiracy nut-cases: it’s all documented. But nobody wants to look at it.
Ultimately, of course, this book is self-refuting. Ahmed calls for a public inquiry, but then makes it crystal clear why the UK and US governments could never allow such an inquiry to take place. But the world is a much leakier place these days- witness Abu Ghraib – and books like this are the result.