portrait of a Mass Murderer

[JPaul]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4678837.stm

The above link is to the BBC website and gives some details of the people who carried out the recent atrocities in London.

You may find a couple of the "pen portraits" quite surprising. Not everyone fits into the nice wee pigeon holes we like to put people in.

[Barbarossa]

Yes, it's bizarre. I will never fully understand what motivates anyone to become a suicide bomber, least of all people such as these, well educated, seemingly well balanced, not reclusives, no real history of political activism, and seemingly with everything to live for.

[manker]

I guess it goes to show that preventing these kind of things is nigh on impossible.

It is difficult to accept that seemingly decent people such as these could commit this atrocity. Particularly the 30 year-old teaching assistant.

I am sure that we will maintain our vigilence but ultimately preventatitive steps can only do so much.

[sArA]

And....because they are dead we will never know what made them do it.

What I find most surprising is that this appears to have come completely out of the blue for all those closest to them...

I mean, you would imagine that if a close friend or relative was involved in something this extreme that hints or signs would have emerged.

I heard somewhere (no backup, sorry) that the bombs were detonated remotely. Which makes me wonder if they did not intend to be suicide bombers, but rather they thought they would plant them and leave...if this is the case, they were betrayed by their leaders, perhaps to stop them from talking if caught.

[Barbarossa]

I heard somewhere (no backup, sorry) that the bombs were detonated remotely. Which makes me wonder if they did not intend to be suicide bombers, but rather they thought they would plant them and leave...if this is the case, they were betrayed by their leaders, perhaps to stop them from talking if caught.

From the BBC:

Police sources have told the BBC they had not recovered any timing devices from the bomb scenes, possibly indicating that detonation was by hand

I don't know if they would be able to tell if there were any remote-detonation devices attached? One would assume they could..

Also, I don't know about the logistics of remotely detonating a bomb on the Tube:- It couldn't have been done by mobile phone signal (since there is no signal on the tube, especially the deep tunnels).. would a radio signal work? My gut instinct says not...

Anyway, regardless of that, I still don't understand any of this.

[JPaul]

...if this is the case, they were betrayed by their leaders, perhaps to stop them from talking if caught.

I think that's exactly right.

Tho' perhaps that will stop some others from agreeing to such things.

I can't believe that someone with a young child and another on the way wanted to die like this. Mind you, I can't believe that they were willing to kill other people's children either. It is totally beyond my ken.

[Tikibonbon]

What I find most surprising is that this appears to have come completely out of the blue for all those closest to them...

I wouldn't say out of the blue, as 2 of the men were identified last year by British Intelligence but later deemed to be a nonthreat.