Lesson for Terrorism Investigators: Return Those Calls!

Investigations into who did what in the London/Glasgow car bombings of a few weeks ago will probably continue for months to come.

Although nearly a dozen people are suspected of being involved, one or more may be innocent.

Mohamed Haneef, arrested on July 2 as he tried to leave Australia, has been charged with recklessly leaving his mobile phone SIM card with a distant cousin. That cousin's brother was in the Glasgow Jeep, and the SIM card was found in the fire-damaged jeep.

Maybe I'm biased, since I belong to a large extended family, but this charge seems a little goofy. If I understand it, Haneef is charged with:

• Letting a distant cousin use his SIM card
• Being the owner of a SIM card that got left in a jeep on the other side of the world
• Still being the SIM card owner when someone tried to use the jeep to torch an airport terminal

It gets better. Haneef says he tried to call a British officer four times, to clear his name, and that his calls were not returned.

A likely story! However, a police investigation showed that Haneef did call the British officer's number four times on July 2.

At first, I thought that Australian authorities had demonstrated their investigative prowess by intercepting Haneef as he was boarding a plane headed for India: and with a one-way ticket!

It was good police work, in a way, but hardly the sort of thing that legends are made of. "Haneef told police he was leaving Australia to be with his family in Bangalore, where his daughter had been born just days before his arrest. Her stay in hospital was prolonged after complications arose during the Caesarean (!) birth." (AP/FOXNews.com)

I think even Inspector Lestrad might have been able to intercept the - fugitive? - under those circumstances.

Mohamed Haneef may be guilty of complicity in the car bombings. Or he may not.

I sincerely hope that, either way, he is treated better than Richard Jewell.

More about Mohamed Haneef: Suspect in Failed U.K. Terror Attacks Called British Investigator.

My views on rational investigations and Richard Jewell: Arrests, Doctors and Terrorists: Keeping a Cool Head

London, Glasgow Timeline June 29 and 30, 2007

I did a little checking for another post, and came up with a timeline of sorts. There are better ones out there, but this covers the major events so far in the London / Glasgow attacks.

All times are Britain's GMT (UTC+0)

Friday, June 29, 2007

• 1:25 a.m.: Ambulance goes to central London nightclub Tiger Tiger nightclub to treat a patron. Police called when ambulance crew sees smoke coming from a green Mercedes. (Tiger Tiger was having ladies' night)
• 2:00 a.m. or so: Bomb squad arrives. They find the car packed with gasoline, nails, "patio gas" (propane) cylinders and something to set the mess off, and defuse the explosives.
• 2:30 a.m., roughly: Blue Mercedes between Haymarket and Trafalgar Square is ticketed and towed. It was parked illegally.
• Later that morning: Attendants at the impound lot, smell gasoline around the blue Mercedes. Police close street to investigate.
• 9:00 p.m.: Police report: Blue Mercedes had explosives materials inside, much like the green Mercedes.

Saturday, June 30

• 3:15 p.m.: A flaming Jeep Cherokee with two men inside crashes through the main entrance of Glasgow's Blackpool airport. The Jeep, the driver, and the passenger are put out. The men were arrested and the Jeep investigated.
• 8:15 p.m.: British authorities raise their country's security alert level to critical, indicating that terror attacks are imminent - the highest level possible. Not a bad idea, under the circumstances.

A Better Class of Terrorist

Homicidal religious fanatics aren't intrinsically funny, but even amid the burning wreckage of an ancient religion and a Jeep Cherokee there's room for humor.

Many seem to be shocked at all the doctors and medical professionals associated with the London / Glasgow attacks of June 29 and 30.(I harangue about that in Doctors, Terrorists, and the Proletariat: What's a Person to Think?.)

Others have a more balanced view of the world. As someone from the Britain's Midlands wrote, "[I] think it just goes to show we seem to be getting a better class of terrorist over here at the moment."