London Attacked

London was whacked by Al Qaeda this morning. Four bombs exploded in the transit system killing and injuring many innocent people. reports indicate 45 dead so far, and counting.

Arab sources said the blasts were likely the work of al Qaeda, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported. German magazine Der Spiegel, bolstered the charges, saying a group calling itself "Secret Organization -- al Qaeda in Europe" is claiming responsibility.

I believe it to be important to know our enemy. Accordingly, here is the text of the message in an Islamicist website provided by BBC News.

In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate, may peace be upon the cheerful one and undaunted fighter, Prophet Muhammad, God's peace be upon him.

Nation of Islam and Arab nation: Rejoice for it is time to take revenge against the British Zionist Crusader government in retaliation for the massacres Britain is committing in Iraq and Afghanistan. The heroic mujahideen have carried out a blessed raid in London. Britain is now burning with fear, terror and panic in its northern, southern, eastern, and western quarters.

We have repeatedly warned the British Government and people. We have fulfilled our promise and carried out our blessed military raid in Britain after our mujahideen exerted strenuous efforts over a long period of time to ensure the success of the raid.

We continue to warn the governments of Denmark and Italy and all the Crusader governments that they will be punished in the same way if they do not withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. He who warns is excused.

God says: "You who believe: If ye will aid (the cause of) Allah, He will aid you, and plant your feet firmly."

"He who warns is excused." I presume that's a passage from the Koran. Interesting moral theology that.

As for the claim that, "Britain is now burning with fear, terror and panic in its northern, southern, eastern, and western quarters" they clearly do not understand the Brits. Hitler levelled half of London during the Blitz and Londoners did not panic. Instead, they tenaciously took the fight to their enemies and defeated them. I say to Al Qaeda, Listen to Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George Bush. "You have been warned."

We think of ourselves as living in a peaceable dominion in Canada. This is an illusion which can, and may well be, shattered in an instant. The warning above includes Canada as one of the "Crusader governments" who will be punished by those who blew up innocent people today in the name of their merciful and compassionate God.

Canada has had military forces deployed in Afghanistan from the beginning of that conflict and is about to deploy significantly more forces in order to expand the (NATO garrisoned) zone beyond the nation's capital of Kabul. During this deployment our fighting troops will likely experience combat similar to that now facing coalition forces in Iraq and currently being experienced by American forces in the boonies of Afghanistan. Our special ops guys have been out in the Afghani weeds already, of course, but keep our troops and all allied forces in your prayers as they head into harm's way.

From CBCNews

In Canada, a spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan said an alert had gone out to possible targets across the country. "All agencies with security contingency plans, be they transit or others, are going to be vigilant and have been notified," said Alex Swann.

Responding to the alert, the Toronto Transit Commission issued a "vigilance notice," and the region's Go Transit system dispatched extra security guards to patrol platforms at its Union Station hub.

The TTC is probably as prepared as any transit system in the world to deal with this kind of emergency," commission chair Howard Moscoe told a news conference in Toronto. He said the agency had gone through "two dress rehearsals" already, starting with a complete review of safety procedures after an August 1995 subway crash and continuing after the September 2001 attacks against the United States.

The 10,000 employees of the transit system were alerted Thursday morning to be extra vigilant for anything suspicious, Moscoe said. "Life has to get on," he added. "People just have to be assured that the Toronto system has done all that it possibly can." Montreal's subway system also got some extra police attention Thursday morning, with officers visible in most downtown stations.

In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security raised its terror alert level for railway, bus and subway systems. Police officers were posted on board all Amtrak trains, washrooms were closed in San Francisco area transit stations, and commuters in New York and Boston were asked to report any sign of suspicious activity. Police officers carrying machine guns and sniffer dogs could be seenwalking through the Washington subway system, searching all stations and connecting buses for signs of explosives.

Security was also beefed up in Madrid, with army and police units patrolling train stations, shopping malls and airports. A chain of suicide bombings killed 191 train commuters in Spain in series of attacks on March 11, 2004.