Translated Text:
A Group of the Secret Organization (1) (2) The Organization of al-Qaeda for Jihad in Europe
In the name of God the Merciful the Compassionate, and Peace and Blessings upon the cheerful fighter, our master Mohammed, Peace and Blessings upon Him (3).
I bear the good news, O Arab Umma, that revenge upon the British Crusader Zionist government has come, in response to the massacres that Britain has carried out in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The hero Mujahideen have carried out a blessed raid in London. Now, Britain burns with fear and terror and dread from the North to the South, from the East to the West.
We warned the British government and the British people repeatedly (4).
And now we have kept our promises, and carried out a blessed raid (5) in Britain after strenuous efforts on the part of the heroic Mujahideen over a long period of time in order to ensure the success of the raid.
We still warn both the governments of Denmark and Italy and all the Crusader governments that they will face the same punishment if they do not withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. He who warns is excused (6).
God Most High Says: “If ye will aid (the cause of) Allah, He will aid you, and make fast your feet.” Thursday, 30/5/1426 H. 7/7/2005
Translator’s Notes:
Numbers used as endnotes were added by the translator
(1) This part of the group name contains a grammar mistake, and a couple other grammatical or stylistic errors can be found in the document. This has led some to dismiss it as a hoax. However, there have been mistakes in other al-Qaeda (Group Profile) documents, depending upon who wrote them. Also, if the group that carried out these attacks consists mostly of Arab Muslims raised in Britain, then they may not have had the formal training in written Arabic that would be needed to write an error-proof statement. This in and of itself is not enough to write this claim off as false. Just because the group did not have access to the al-Qaeda core- group’s “media wing” or various eloquent spokespeople to write its claim of responsibility does not mean that they did not have enough connections to al-Qaeda’s men in Europe to call themselves by that name, or to act in the name of the group.
Another reason the statement is being called a hoax is that it was removed from the al- Qal3ah Web site on which it was posted shortly afterward. This is not sufficient to invalidate the claim. When it was pulled down, the site administrator put up a message in Arabic and in broken English. The one in English was labeled: “to the media,” and stated that the site’s administrator had not seen the content until after it was posted and asked that the site not be blamed for hosting such content temporarily. In Arabic, it warned that no group could use the site to claim any operation or incite violence. It did not say that the claim of responsibility was invalid or a hoax. The site administrator may have been worried that worldwide media coverage of his site in connection to this attack would bring the site down (it is down now), especially since it is hosted in Houston, Texas and its founder is London-based.
There have been no competing claims of responsibility, and no representative of al-Qaeda or any of its branches has challenged the claim. There are about equal chances of it being authentic as of it being fake. Unless the group posts more details to prove its responsibility, the investigation will have to corroborate that this was, indeed, the work of a “secret group” from al-Qaeda’s organization in Europe.
(2) It is possible that this phrase “a secret group of the organization” is meant to imply the meaning of a “sleeper cell.”
(3) As members of Jihadist Web sites noted while trying to assess for themselves the authenticity of this document, this is not how statements from the Mujahideen typically begin. However, this means only that the writer is not familiar with the language or style of good Jihadist writing. That does not mean that the claim is false; it means that the organization did not bother with procuring or recruiting the help of a good media mouthpiece.
(4) Since this particular group has never before been heard of, here, when the writer says “we warned the British government repeatedly,” he seems to be speaking in the name of al- Qaeda, representing his group as a branch of that organization. The warnings he may be referring to are the speeches of al-Qaeda-core members, such as Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, who have been put out in audio and video form since the invasion of both countries. This includes the “hudna” offered by Bin Laden to European countries on April 15, 2004, in which he promises a truce for any countries that withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. This does not mean that Bin Laden or Zawahiri had anything to do with or even knew of this attack, only that the perpetrators (if this statement is theirs) see themselves as part of this organization and acting on these threats.
(5) The short statement describes the attack as “the blessed raid” twice. This may imply that the attack had the blessing of someone with the authority to do so, such as one of the radical London-based Sheikhs.
(6) This phrase refers to the Islamic obligation to warn one’s enemies and give them an opportunity to change their behavior before attacking them. Once they have been warned and a period of time has passed without reaction, an attack becomes “legal.”