On the 7^th July, 2005, London was shaken by four huge bomb blasts. 3 of the 4 blasts were on London Underground trains at around 8:50am, and the 4^th was around an hour later on a number 30 bus in Tavistock Square, London.

The day before London had been awarded the 2012 Olympic Games by the International Olympics Committee, the city had woken in a good mood that day.

The UK government has since blamed four young British Muslims, Hasib Hussain, Mohammad Sidique Khan, Germaine Lindsay, and Shehzad Tanweer.

Whilst the government have put forward their side of events, there are many inflammatory videos posted on the internet, suggesting alternative, and much darker possibilities. One of the most popular videos of this kind is called “7/7 Ripple Effect” and was created by “Maud Dib”.

According to statistics obtained by the BBC, 1 in 4 British Muslims believe that the Government or MI5 has some kind of involvement in the 7/7 bombings.

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On July 7^th 2005, 3 young Muslims left Leeds in the early hours, stopping at a petrol station around 5am, and meeting the final member of the group at Luton station soon after.

The 4 men donned rucksacks packed with explosives, and boarded a train heading to central London. At around 8:30 am, CCTV footage at Kings Cross station shows the men heading towards the underground.

At 8:50 am, the world changed as 3 bombs tore through packed carriages on the London underground, followed an hour later by an explosion on a bus.

52 innocent people were killed. A further 784 people were injured.

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This blog post is intended to take a look at some of the evidence for and against the most common conspiracy theories surrounding that fateful day. I’ll draw a conclusion of my own, but the impression that you have after reading this post is entirely down to you.

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Within days of the bombings, Police claimed that they had found items of identification in some of the bombing locations, linking the suspected bombers to the scenes. In particular, it was claimed that the Driving License of the Bus Bomber had been found.

Theorists have pointed towards this piece of the puzzle as not being possible, or even making sense, pointing out that “when a body blows up, everything is destroyed, how can these personal documents remain intact?”

Theorists also point to similar circumstances following the 9/11 attacks in New York, when investigators managed to find a severely burnt passport belonging to one of the suspected bombers in the wreckage of the twin towers.

Forensic examinations performed on the Driving License of the bus bomber suggest that the license was not actually on the Bombers person at the time of detonation, and it has since been suggested that the bombers may have deliberately disposed of these documents with the hope of being identified following the attacks.

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Only 6 hours after the bombs were detonated, the then Deputy Police Commissioner for the Metropolitan Police Service, Brian Paddick, responded to questions from the press with regard to “Islamic Extremism” by saying: “as far as I am concerned, Islamic and Terrorism aren’t two words that go together”. At this stage it was not known who was behind the attacks, or why.

Only 2 hours later, then Prime Minister Tony Blair addressed the nation, saying, “we know that these people act in the name of Islam” – even though at that point there was no evidence to suggest that there was any element of Islamic involvement whatsoever.

However, the part that many online videos, blogs and articles fail to mention is what Tony Blair then went on to say:  “but we also know that the vast majority of Muslims are law abiding citizens”.

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The government have always refused an independent inquiry, however, a year after the attacks; they released an official account of events.

One of the major parts of this account was largely based on the 4 bombers catching a 7:40 am train from Luton to Kings Cross; however, as discovered by Internet Writer Nick Kollerstrom, all trains on that morning had been severely delayed due to overhead power problems. He claims that the 7:40 am train simply did NOT run on that day, and that this is where the “perfect crime” unravels.

The government admitted this mistake, and changed the official account to state that the terrorists caught an earlier train and that they left Luton earlier, at 7:25 am, though critically still got to London in time for the rest of the day’s events to unfold.

Nick also claimed that the whole story was a fabrication of lies, pointing toward a grainy CCTV image of the group as they entered Luton station on the 7^th July, claiming that the image appears to be a poor forgery, or a Photoshop.

He points to parts of the image, such as railings appearing to go through one of the men as proof that the images must have been put together in a hurry.

With the emergence of more CCTV footage from London Underground stations (available here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7378468.stm), this theory has been discounted; instead the current suggestion is that a blur of pixels in a low quality CCTV still cannot be used to discredit an entire account of events.

Nick was later shown additional CCTV footage released by the government by the BBC, and when questioned about whether the new images changed his opinion on whether the government were part of a cover up or not, and appearing shaken, he said that it “might prove the government’s case”.

It has also since been revealed that Nick has written an article entitled “The Auschwitz ‘Gas Chamber’ Illusion” (available here: http://www.codoh.com/newrevoices/nrillusion.html), even though he cannot speak a word of German, and has never set foot in Germany. He still stands by his Holocaust Denial (sourced from BBC Conspiracy Files / Daily Mail).

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Another one of the more prevalent conspiracy theories suggests that the bombs were never inside the carriages of the trains, rather were attached to the undercarriage of the train by government officials.

At the time of the attacks, Bruce Lait, a survivor from one of the train bombs, noted that there was a hole as though a bomb had “burst upward through the floor” of the train, but also stated that he “does not know” if he saw evidence suggesting whether the bomb was under the train or not.

However, other survivors from the same train, who crucially were closer to the blast than he, maintain that the blast came from within the train.

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Many theorists have noticed that in images of the destroyed number 30 bus, there is a van belonging to “Kingstar Demolition” next to the wreckage, and point toward this as evidence that there was outside involvement in the bombing on the bus, and that this company had been somehow involved in the bombings.

Whilst Kingstar do indeed specialise in controlled demolition, it is nothing of the kind needed to detonate a bomb on a bus, and their own website describes their method of demolition, “Concrete Crunching provides an efficient method for reducing concrete to rubble without vibration or water” and who’s managing director is quoted as explaining, that the company do not use, or have access to, any form of explosives.

And as for the “outright terror, bold and brilliant” advert seen on the side of the bus? Whilst some point toward this as a sick joke on the governments part, the simple fact is that it was an advert for the film The Descent, and was displayed on thousands of other buses that same day.

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The final theory that I’ll look at in this post, is the theory that points towards an anti-terrorism “drill” being performed at the exact stations on the same day as the attacks, and suggest that maybe the drill was used as a cover-up for a real attack.

Ex Scotland Yard Officer Peter Power is a crisis management consultant. He was running an exercise to prepare a publishing firm for possible terrorist attacks occurring simultaneously at underground stations in London.

Peters actual exercise was entirely office based, and was based around bombs going off in stations across London, including at 2 of the stations attacked on the day. He also claimed that he had chosen the scenario as it made sense to considering that London Underground had been bombed a total of 18 times in the past.

Both the police and the government have put his exercise occurring on the same day down as simply an extraordinary co-incidence.

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And finally, as for the man behind the biggest conspiracy film out there? “Maud Dib” may have found fame in the “7/7 Ripple Effect”, but it was fame of a different kind that he encountered when the BBC tracked him down in Ireland. Real name John Hill, and actually from Sheffield, it transpires that he believed that the Ark of the Covenant was buried nearby, and that according to posts on his website, he believes himself to be Jesus Christ.

When you add to all of this evidence that a bomb factory containing evidence that the bombers had accessed it was found in Leeds, that two of the bombers filmed martyrdom videos and the quickly mounting piles of CCTV footage and witness statements and you certainly have enough evidence to consider the government side of events as true. Whether or not you choose to however, is entirely up to you.