The more I hear about it, the more this attack seems like amateur hour.

I'm thinking students, around age 20 or so. A few teenagers as stragglers. An older guy or two with the intelligence of a teenager.

They're dangerous, of course. No better than cockroaches. But this doesn't have the hallmarks of real pros. More like a bunch of second-stringers trying to impress the higher ups. Even the one in Spain was more sophisticated.

Oh boy! Smells like a thrilling new police mystery -- CSI: Westminster. Followed by Law and Order: Islamic Victimhood Unit. Followed by an very special encore presentation of Barrister Lance Ito in "12 Angry Imams."

Maybe I'll TiVo it, but I think I know how this plot turns out.

Phinn--

I wouldn't be so sure. Coordination of *anything* involves some skill. Ditto explosives work.

And remember, while these were undeniably "soft" targets, the British police are more suspicious of these sort of things than American police. Thus, at any point this whole op could have been rolled up, and it wasn't.

They may have been dumber than they could have been, but they were still smart enough.

BTW, has anyone heard what explosive was used? I'm assuming plastique. . . ? Or is Scotland Yard keeping all the evidence quiet?

Also, anyone confirm that the bus bombs were suicide bombs or simply jihadi gift bags?

Thanks,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

It's not what they did that gets my attention; it's what they didn't do. Six bombs during rush hour, but only 50 dead.

I'm really not trying to be callous. I'm not saying that 50 murders aren't horrific. War on civilians is so atrocious, I can't even find the words to describe it.

All I am saying is that, by their methods, this operation strikes me as far less sophisticated than many others. The level of technical skill behind this is rudimentary.

All I've heard so far is that approx. ten pounds of explosive were used in each bomb, but not what kind of explosive or how it was detonated.

I heard the ten pounds thing as well. I'm no expert, but wouldn't ten pounds of c-4 have done a heck of a lot more damage? (not to downplay the damage that was done) Makes you think it could have been a lot worse

I heard 10-lbs each, and none was semetex. Some Brits are already laughing-down the attack as amateurish also - my nod goes to the smart-schoolboy or college-kid crowd, this kind of stuff is self-recruited. The notion that it was supposed to be seven bombs on the seventh day of the seventh month of a year that adds up to seven and all that kind of numerology mumbo-jumbo also speaks to the impressionable student-naif aspect as well, IMO.