Nice try, must try harder. The methodology though lays out the infantile path along which the rest of the show predictably travels.
The aim of this section of the programme was to prove that it is possible to enter Luton station at 7.22am, purchase tickets to London (return tickets in the case of the 7/7 accused, almost as if they had intended to return) and catch a 7.25 train. In the mockumentary, Andrew 'Impartial' Maxwell began "to fret that they're not going to make it" as if he had some vested interest in the official conspiracy theory being the case. In fact, they failed. Having been persuaded to be pretend suicide bombers for a day, setting Tony all aquiver, the task of buying tickets and catching a train inside 3 minutes was a stretch too far, and that was without carrying large rucksacks, much less ones full of highly-volatile home-made explosives!
This section of the mockumentary features a short clip of footage from Luton station on the morning of 7 July 2005, but
The last image of the accused on 7/7 was filmed at King's Cross Thameslink which, in 2005, was quite some distance from King's Cross underground station -- in fact, nowhere near where it is now. This means that there is no visual record of the four accused anywhere on the underground network. Whether the CCTV is missing through cock-up or conspiracy is almost irrelevant (but worthy of further investigation) but the fact stands that there is no visual evidence showing the accused on the London underground, much less the platforms and the trains they are accused of attacking.
This section of the show features an aspiring but failed London mayoral candidate, Brian Paddick. In 2005 Paddick was the Deputy Assistant Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and was routinely wheeled out to front 7/7 and 21/7 related press conferences.
Would-be mayor Paddick's opening words are, "I don't know" in response to a question about where there is a lack of CCTV footage, where he calmly admits that there is no CCTV of the four suspects on the underground or any bus, and that he has no idea why this might have been.
Sir Ian Blair termed the investigation into the London bombings as the "single biggest criminal inquiry in English history". Obviously the magnitude of the crime and the significance of the investigation wasn't enough for a Deputy Assistant Commissioner to take an interest and avail himself of key aspects of investigation's progress. That aside, Paddick's information reaches the public domain approximately seven years too late, even though it properly belonged in the realms of the Metropolitan Police terror chiefs Andy Hayman (on the
phone-hacking News International payroll immediately he stopped being a police person) and Peter Clarke (who
flatly refused to reveal whether a key player in the 7/7 story,
Mohammed Quayyum Khan (aka 'Q') was on the police or intelligence payroll).
Where was Deputy Assistant Chief Commissioner Brian Paddick in 2005, 2006, 2007 when certain "survivors" (one of whom claimed to have been
specifically "asked to take you lot [J7] on") were categorically stating that their inside police contacts had told them that the CCTV really, really, really did exist?
Paddick then diverts the discussion on to "other evidence to place the bombers at the scene in terms of DNA
and so forth and identity documents,
and that sort of thing." Paddick must be referring to the
identification documents of the accused that were scattered about the carriage some distance from their alleged locations, demonstrating no damage commensurate with having been at the heart of a massive explosion. This unexploded identification documentation conundrum forced even top government scientists testifying at the 7/7 Inquests to admit defeat when it came to explaining the method by which the ID might have been placed where it had.
Maxwell insightfully notes that Paddick fails to persuade anyone of anything, so falls back onto a tried, tested but not very successful method of wheeling out a survivor to state, "We know what happened that day, because we were there, we saw it". In 7/7 Conspiracy Road trip the survivor in question is Edgware Road survivor, Jacqui Puttnam. Interestingly, Puttnam is introduced not as a "survivor" of the incident, but instead as someone who "witnessed the Edgware Road tube explosion".
Puttnam may well have been there, in a carriage adjacent to the one in which the explosion took place, but in the aftermath, chaos and trauma of an explosion, it's unlikely that Puttnam or anyone else knew anything much about what happened by virtue of having been there. As is usually the case, such details are filled in after the event by a range of methods, not through some divine insight that arises from merely having the misfortune to have been present. Remember that the initial story of 7/7 was a power surge and there are several contemporaneous
survivor accounts which refer to announcements of such, and survivors who describe having felt the sensation of being electrocuted.
To understand the invalidity of Puttnam's testimony, it is crucial to examine what she says in detail. She opens with, "I walked past Sidique Khan", as if she could possibly know such a thing with any degree of certainty. Given that there is no footage of any of the accused on the underground, this bit of information may equally be true or false, but Puttnam has no way of knowing definitively. She is, however, seemingly convinced that this is absolutely the case. She continues, "We know who caused it... on my train it was Sidique Khan. They made sure they left enough evidence that it was them, plus they were seen." This is a reference to the magically scattered ID mentioned by Paddick, the identification documents that didn't show any signs of damage commensurate with having been involved in a massive explosion and conveniently indicted four young men without a trial or any judicial scrutiny. It is fairly safe to infer however that
someone certainly wanted it to be the case that there was "left enough evidence that it was them". Whether or not it was the accused remains to be proven.
Puttnam's testimony becomes even more diluted when she invokes perhaps the most unreliable witness in the 7/7 story, Danny Biddle. Puttnam says, "I've spoken to Danny Biddle who was the worst injured survivor. || Danny saw Sidique Khan reach down and detonate the bomb." This, of course, is patently untrue but it makes for an attention-grabbing story. You can read all about
Danny Biddle's many and varied eye-witness accounts here.
As if Puttnam's testimony so far wasn't far-fetched enough, she then enters the world of pure fantasy by continuing, "He [Khan] stood on the platform when I walked past him and looked at me and thought 'You might die today'. He didn't care what kind of person I was, he was gonna do that." Jacqui, Jacqui, you didn't know Mohammed Sidique Khan and you can't pretend to possess the ability to read his thoughts any more you could the thoughts of any other complete stranger.
Conspiracy Road Tripping Straw Man #4: Tony Topping – The Bombers Were Duped
This is where the 7/7 Ripple Effect alternative false-hypothesis is presented and features the exercise of security darling,
disgraced ex-policeman, Peter Power.
Dr Mohammed Naseem of Birmingham Central Mosque is introduced and, in his usual measured and considered way, intelligently addresses questions directed at him, running rings around presenter Maxwell's devil's advocation techniques.
Not much to lampoon with measured and reasoned responses, which is not the stuff BBC conspiracy mockumentaries are made of, so this section was padded out with some footage of the participants eating while Tony and Layla petulantly bickered over nonsense.
Conspiracy Road Tripping Straw Man #5: Layla – The Bombs Were Planted by Someone Else
Introduced here is a bomb expert with a made-up name, Chris Hunter (not unlike Tory Chairman
Grant Shapps' made up name, Michael Green). Hunter is "A former army bomb disposal expert and intelligence officer" and "now a counter-terrorism consultant" and was presented as an unbiased expert without even a hint of irony. He looked straight at the camera and nodded a little too feverishly as he said it was ridiculous that elements of the State could have been involved in any degree with 7/7. Being able to look someone in the eye and lie convincingly is a core skill for most intelligence operatives, yet Hunter wasn't particularly convincing as he fluffed his way through the interview.
However, on the subject of 7/7, Hunter was much better as he assessed the damage to the Aldgate train while looking at a photo of the inside of the King's Cross/Russell Square Piccadilly line train.
Cleverly, presenter Andrew Maxwell invokes the magic bouncing blast theory of 7/7 lore to account for the upwards-twisted metal in carriages, but the bomb expert himself only acknowledged Maxwell's words and didn't peddle that line of nonsense of his own accord. It was Maxwell who made a comment about the explosions being so powerful, "so you could suck some floor back up [into the carriage]".
Made-Up-Name Hunter then talks some nonsense about "the fact that there were fragment... there was fragmentation in these devices as well.
Basically, you know, bits of metal Sellotaped, or taped to the
actual bombs themselves, and those were used to
effectively enhance the damage
to the, er, the individuals
on the, you know, on the carriage itself. || What they do is
effectively, if you've just got explosive you get blast damage, as if the blast isn't damaging enough as it is,
they actually add nuts and bolts
and things, so you get these critical puncture,
erm, puncture wounds,
effectively."
Nuts and bolts are not an indicator of the power of explosives as Hunter incorrectly asserts, they are entirely separate and unrelated, but thanks for the drive down the intellectual
cul-de-sac.
The description Hunter gives of the 7/7 devices wasn't a description of the devices allegedly used on 7/7 but instead one that accurately describes the so-called 'bomb' found in Wormwood Scrubs and left there by the
21/7 no-bombs 'bomber' and British Army
applicant, Manfo Kwaku Asiedu. In fact, the 7/7 Inquests never mentioned any metal taped to the outside of the explosives allegedly used but instead suggested that explosives were wrapped in Mackey's ice-cream bags and surrounded by ice packs to keep them cold.
 |
"Chris (made-up name) Hunter" proudly basking in the
glory of doing
security work in the NATO-annihilated Libya, where
the majority
of Libyans received no obvious benefit from his 'security'
endeavours |
In 2012 "Hunter" was selected to be one of 15 Ambassadors for Prime Minister David Cameron’s youth development initiative, the National Citizen Service. As a 'counter-terrorism consultant', and in precisely the same way as the long-time darling of alternative 7/7 narratives,
disgraced Peter Power, "Hunter" stands to profit greatly from fanciful, unproven and evidence-free narratives about suicidal asymmetrical threats which manifest themselves out of the blue, even after Nobel Peace Prize winning Obama done went and got that old CIA assett, Osama.
That a man who had pledged his life in service of queen and country, and who personally stands to benefit directly from terrorism and terrorist threats real or imaginary, would happily lend credence to the magical bouncing bomb theory comes as little surprise. Even taking this into account his contribution adds nothing to the collective pool of knowledge about the events of 7/7.
Conspiracy Road Tripping Straw Man #6: Tony Topping – Homemade Bombs Not Powerful Enough
For the grand finale the BBC/
Renegade Productions contract the services of Sidney Alford and pull out all the licence-fee stops to blow up a decrepit old bus, allegedly with some sort of home-made explosive conconction.
The bus used in the programme is a different type to that affected on 7/7, having a different seating layout, much older and flimsier internal furniture and only a single set of doors at the front end of the bus. There is a 'Space Chimps 2' advertisement on one side. This suggests the bus had its last passenger use in 2010, unless "Space Chimps" was a subtle reference to the show's participants.
When we first see the bus the lower back-end has been removed. When the bus is blown up this section of the bus is covered over. No mention is made of the preparation undergone by the bus prior to its demise and no explanation for this manipulation of the bus is given either. It appears as though the engine and fuel tank may have been removed, thereby further reducing the overall solidity of the aged bus structure and making for a more spectacular bit of TV viewing. The bus of course as the only above-ground incident on 7/7, thereby providing an iconic visual terror hook that none of the other incidents on the morning could provide.
 |
| Decrepit, empty and weakened old bus with the lower-back removed |
 |
Decrepit, empty and weakened old bus with the lower-back
opening covered over again as if nothing ever happened. |
Sidney Alford is seen with a box of what he refers to as black pepper, saying that a policeman reported smelling pepper at the scene. If this is the case, it's the first time in seven years it has been reported publicly and, furthermore,
no organic material was found at any of the crime scenes indicating large quantities of blackpepper. Alford states that the hydrogen peroxide is contained within two bottles with black caps, which can be seen behind the cream coloured washing-up bowl.
 |
| Black pepper and water bombs? |
We then see Sidney unscrewing the cap off of a bottle with a blue cap and red ring around the neck with what looks like the word 'Water' written on it (the 'W' isn't clear). Due to the editing of the programme it is not clear from which bottle the liquid is poured in with the black pepper, although the red ring around the neck would appear to indicate the water bottle. If hydrogen peroxide was being poured from a bottle marked 'Water' then this would be a dangerous practise. If water is contained in the bottle and is being added to the black pepper then there is no explanation as to what its purpose is. If the liquid is neither hydrogen peroxide nor water, the programme does not indicate what else it might be. No explanation is given for how hydrogen peroxide could be 'boiled' as a method to concentrate it, as is the suggestion for both 7/7 and 21/7. Alford gives no explanation for the detonator that was used in his experiment.
As with 7/7, the nature of the explosives used to blow up the bus are not revealed.
In the closing minutes of 7/7 Conspiracy Road Trip, a last-ditch attempt is made to imbue the programme with some credibility through interviewing a family member of the bereaved. For this, Graham Foulkes is interviewed alongside the 7/7 memorial in Hyde Park. No mention is made of the fact that Graham Foulkes was also
a victim of News International phone hacking scandal and that he has also been
very vocal in challenging the government and security services for a number of years; with dignity, courage and conviction Foulkes challenges the State again in the programme.
Conclusion
The 7/7 Conspiracy Road Trip finishes with a final interview of Jon Scobie, who says:
"Of course it does not mean, Andrew, that those guys did do it, that does not prosecute those four men. So I do maintain that 7/7 is a justification to continue these wars in the middle-east and continue empire building and to continue British imperialism spreading across the world."
Credit to Mr Scobie for his closing comment as it constitutes the first vaguely political analysis on TV of 7/7 in over 7 years, not just as an isolated incident but as an event that occured not in a vacuum but in a much broader geo-political context. It also acts as an indication of what the programme might have been had the ex-BBC crew at
Renegade Pictures actually fulfilled any of the promises they made when soliciting J7's involvement in the programme, instead of shooting fish in a barrell. Here's how Renegade Productions lied to recruit participants:
This episode we will also aim to address the following greater issues concerning the British government:
- The need for an independent public inquiry.
- The public distrust for the British government - especially Blair.
- Inquiries Act implications.
- Greater point that government suppression of information, feeds conspiracy theories, with potentially dangerous consequences.
While general public distrust of the government featured minorly in the programme, it failed to address the lack of government transparency on the issue of 7/7, or the need for a fully independent public inquiry or the limitations that the Inquiries Act 2005 would impose upon such an inquiry.
In recent times, not long before Francis Fukuyama's now-recanted end of history and the much-vaunted apparent end of ideology, the hidden facets of the State were well known by the common people. It is time now for once common knowledge to become common once again and time for the people to hold to account the State apparatuses; for it is these State apparatuses that exist as the barrier between the criminality and crimes of those operating under cover of the Faustian nexus between State, Secret State and private corporate interests and the meting out of appropriate levels of justice to them by the people who have suffered and continue to suffer the consequences of their actions.
