Britain may publish July 7 bombing findings
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-14 08:59

The British government said Tuesday it was considering publishing some of the intelligence findings about the July 7 London transit bombings.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke is considering whether an account of the bombings — including intelligence and police findings — could be prepared "without the risk of compromising intelligence sources or prejudicing any possible prosecutions," said a Home Office spokesman who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is a civil servant and not authorized to speak publicly.

The attacks on three rush-hour subway trains and a bus killed 56 people, including four bombers.

The government says it has no plans for a public inquiry into the attacks, but it has acknowledged that relatives of the victims and many others seek an account of the attackers' motivation and preparation.

Details of an investigation would normally emerge during a trial, but in this case the four main suspects — three British men of Pakistani descent and a Jamaican-born convert to Islam — are dead. No one else has been charged in the attacks.

Patrick Mercer, home-affairs spokesman for the opposition Conservative Party, said only an independent inquiry would answer questions about the attacks, including "links between homegrown and international terrorists."

"In addition, it should examine any links between the perpetrators of the July 7 attack and the perpetrators of the attempted attack on July 21," he added. No one died in the attempted bombings on July 21 — also on three subway trains and a bus — because the attackers' explosives failed to detonate.

In Greece, meanwhile, a lawyer submitted a report to parliament claiming that British agents abducted and questioned seven Pakistani immigrants in Greece following the London bombings. The seven were later released.

"They were asked whether they had relatives in London, who they were in touch with, what those people's phone numbers were, whether they spoke to them before the bombings and where they lived," the lawyer, Frangiskos Ragoussis, told private Skai radio.

Greece's Public Order Ministry said a prosecutor had ordered a preliminary investigation into the allegations, and Greek Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis said he was unaware of the claims. A spokesman for Britain's Foreign Office declined comment.

Ragoussis also claimed at least 20 Pakistanis elsewhere in Greece were similarly treated. The lawyer said he took his report to parliament because prosecutors were acting too slowly.

Javed Aslam, a spokesman for the 30,000-strong Pakistani community in Greece, said the alleged detainees were verbally abused but were not otherwise harmed.