The operational commander of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, warned Tony Blair today that his policies would bring more destruction to London, in a videotaped message broadcast exactly four weeks after the July 7 bombings.
Dr al-Zawahiri, 54, the Egyptian doctor who is Osama bin Laden's right hand man and the effective controller of the al-Qaeda network, said that Mr Blair had only himself to blame for what happened to Britain.
"Blair has brought to you destruction in Central London, and will bring you more of that, God willing," he said.
Dr al-Zawahiri also had a message for America, warning of horrors "worse than they faced in Vietnam".
The videotape was shown on al-Jazeera, the Arabic language news channel based in Qatar. The bespectacled al-Zawahiri was dressed in his customary black and white, wagging his finger at the camera. The video was shot against a plain background with an AK-47 assault rifle propped up behind his right shoulder.
President George W. Bush responded to the threats today by saying they would not drive the United States out of Iraq or the broader Middle East.
"We will stay on the offence against these people," the President said of the comments by al-Zawahiri.
"They’re terrorists and they’re killers and they will kill innocent people ... so they can impose their dark vision on the world," Mr Bush said at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Dr al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden have been in hiding since the 9/11 attacks. They are believed to be somewhere in the lawless tribal regions of southern Afghanistan and Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province.
Today's recording will be intended partly as reassurance to al-Qaeda's admirers that its leaders are still at large, and able to comment approvingly on recent events in the sporadic campaign of terror attacks by extremists on Western targets.
The reference to the London bombings suggests that the tape was made in the last four weeks. It is not clear if the senior al-Qaeda leadership still has any practical input into plans for future attacks by the plethora of terror groups that claim affiliation to it.
In the last 12 months, the mantle of leadership has appeared to pass to the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who claims to co-ordinate the bloody insurgency in Iraq.
"As for you, the Americans, what you have seen in New York and Washington, what losses that you see in Afghanistan and Iraq, despite the media blackout, is merely the losses of the initial clashes," said Dr al-Zawahiri, in an apparent reference to the suicide bombings and other terror activities organised by al-Zarqawi's organisation.
"If you go on with the same policy of aggression against Muslims, you will see, with God’s will, what will make you forget the horrible things in Vietnam and Afghanistan."
America believes that Dr al-Zawahiri, who has a $25 million bounty on his head, is the main planner and ideologue in the old al-Qaeda hierarchy.
Analysts suspect that the group may issue coded messages in their recordings, to activate sleeper groups to carry out specific terror plots, as well as the customary calls for jihad (holy war).
In his last appearance on a videotape broadcast on al-Jazeera in June, Dr al-Zawahiri singled out Egypt particularly for criticism. Less that a month later, three bombers attacked the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing at least 67 people including an estimated ten Britons.
In London today the Tube tunnel in which half of the victims died has finally re-opened. An estimated 6,000 officers, half of them armed, were on duty to guard Underground and mainline stations and patrol the streets to deter a repeat of the July 7 bombings and the failed attacks that followed two Thursdays later.
Commuters, many with no alternative but to use public transport, got on with their journeys as normal.
"It is the first thing I thought of this morning - it is Thursday, something is bound to happen because it is Thursday," said Rosemary Gajlmal, 20, a Romanian who works as a waitress at a Central London bagel restaurant. "But I have to catch the bus as there is no other way to work. What can I do?"
The Piccadilly Line was fully operational for the first time since Jamaican-born Jermaine Lindsay blew himself up on a train deep underground between King's Cross and Russell Square stations, killing 26 fellow passengers.
The first train to run along the track this morning arrived at King's Cross at 5.37am and was held at both stations for one minute as staff and the few early morning commuters held a silent tribute.
At Russell Square, which was used as a temporary mortuary following the attack, a further tribute was spelt out on an electronic message board in the station forecourt. It read,"In memory of July 7 2005."
By 8.50am, the time that three co-ordinated blasts rocked the Tube network, a steady stream of commuters continued to leave Russell Square. A few stopped to look at flowers left in tribute, but the moment otherwise passed without any special recognition. "That’s the most significant tribute there could be," said a Transport for London spokesman. "Life is carrying on as normal."
Last Thursday saw the biggest security presence on the streets of London since the Second World War, after intelligence warnings of another terrorist strike. Even more police were expected to be on duty today, including more than 3,000 marksmen.
The massive security operation got under way as it emerged from New York that the July 7 attackers had built their bombs not with military explosives — as had been thought at first — but from everyday items such as hair bleach and food preservative.
The easy availability of such ingredients added to concerns that the huge police presence in London might prompt the terrorists to change tactics and go for a soft target in another city.
"We do not know what it is the minds of these deeply evil people but we are doing all we can to thwart them with the public’s help and determination," one senior officer said.
The first man to be charged over the London attacks was remanded in custody today.
Ismael Abdurahman, 23, appeared at Bow Street Magistrates Court in Central London charged with failing to disclose information to police about Hussain Osman, who is suspected trying to explode a bomb at Shepherd's Bush Tube station on July 21.
In a brief hearing lasting just under ten minutes Mr Abdurahman spoke only to give his name. District judge Timothy Workman remanded him in custody until a further hearing on August 11.
Fourteen other people are in British custody, including three suspected bombers from the failed July 21 operation.
Mr Osman was arrested in Rome last Friday and Italian authorities said today that he will face his first extradition hearing under the new European arrest warrant on August 17.
Mr Osman, born Hamdi Issac in Ethiopia, is currently being held in a high-security jail in Rome after fleeing the UK on a Eurostar train last week. His lawyer, Antonietta Sonnessa, and the Italian prosecutors have said the process could take weeks before a decision is reached on Britain’s extradition request.
According to comments reported in the Corriere della Sera newspaper today, Mr Osman has told his lawyer that he fears what might happen to him in an English prison.
He told Signora Sonnessa: "I am afraid of going back to England, I am afraid of what might happen to me in prison, I am afraid of spending the rest of my life in a cell. I beg of you, do everything you can to keep me here."
Mr Osman has claimed that the device he is said to have had with him on a Hammersmith and City Line train on July 21 consisted mainly of flour and was only designed to make a bang - a suggestion dismissed by Scotland Yard.
He added: "I would never have killed anyone, still less ever dream of carrying out a suicide attack. I love life, I have never thought of dying. The very idea terrifies me."
The leader of London’s rank-and-file police gave warning that his members’ ability to protect London could be fatally compromised unless they had time to rest and recuperate. Glen Smyth, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said that many officers had endured an "exhausting regime" since the bombings.
Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, admits that his forces are stretched and there is no sign that Scotland Yard can drop its guard yet.
Police teams are still investigating possible links between the July 7 and July 21 teams. They have established that both groups used home-made explosives but not whether the chemicals are exactly the same. Scientists believe that there may be two bombmakers.
Last night the New York Police Commissioner, Raymond Kelly, spelt out for the first time how the terrorists had constructed their arsenal from a visit to "a hardware store or some beauty supply store". American police officials said that the bombs were made in Leeds and stored in an industrial fridge in the city before being moved south in drinks coolers stashed in the boot of two cars. They were probably set off using mobile phones.
Commissioner Kelly was briefing business leaders on security using information obtained by officers sent to monitor the London investigation.
Transport for London said today that the number of passengers using the Tube had dipped since the July 7 bombings, although the fact that it was summer and that many lines had suffered disruptions had contributed.
A TfL spokesman said that passenger numbers had dipped by around 30 per cent at weekends and by between 5 per cent and 15 per cent on weekdays.
Members of Ireland’s Brazilian community were today joining a protest at the fatal shooting of a Brazilian electrician at Stockwell Tube station on the day after the second wave of attacks. Jean Charles de Menezes was shot seven times in the head after being mistaken for a suicide bomber.
His death, for which the Met has accepted full responsibility, is being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
The Washington Post reported today that the International Association of Chiefs of Police had issued guidelines to its 20,000 members saying that officers confronting suspected suicide bombers should shoot the suspect in the head.
"There is not a responsible chief or head of a law enforcement agency in this country who isn't now pondering the dilemma a suicide bomber presents to their officers," Terrance W. Gainer, the US Capitol Police Chief, told the newspaper.
"I really empathise with the British authorities," added Mr Gainer, who is responsible for protecting both houses of Congress as well as staff and visitors.
"It's a Hobson's choice. How do you control someone you think has a suicide belt on? But what are the consequences of shooting someone, who, because of behavioural profiles, looks and acts like a suicide bomber but turns out isn't?"
