Perhaps it was intended for the people attending the Saturday matinée performance at the Haymarket Theatre Royal: it's running a play based on some Vatican intrigue right now.

There aren't (or weren't when I was there last) all that many clubs on Haymarket, though there are some up- and down-market restaurants, a cinema multiplex, and the theatre, of course.

If mass casualties were the intent, then Trafalgar Sq., Leicester Sq., or Piccadilly Circus would all have been better targets. If sinners were the target, then Soho's just a few blocks away.

Usually, rather than always. While there's no doubt that - unlike AQ - mass casualties for mass casualties' sake was never part of the IRA's bombing MO, it was far from uncommon for bombs to be planted in areas where it was impractical for them to be cleared on short notice or for the call to come moments before the bomb went off. It's an open question whether the calls were more to do with saving lives or providing a civilised front when it came to matters such as international fundraising.

"The choice of targets seems to have been more for show than actual effect. Haymarket is a busy place, but far less so at 0230 than at 2200, when all the plays are letting out, people are going to restaurants and clubs or looking for taxis. Real destruction could have been much greater on busy streets at earlier hours"

I think this is a fair point. However, does it not rest on a critical and possibly mistaken assumption - namely that we are assuming that the first car was meant to be detonated at or almost immediately after the moment that the driver crashed to a halt outside the nightclub?

It seems to me that at this point, while it's clearly a possibility, there's actually no conclusive proof that this was the case. It seems unlikely that it was a suicide mission. Add to that the fact that it seems possible that the driver stopped the way he did and legged it because a part of the bomb malfunctioned and started spurting smoke and it seems to me that both the intended final destination and the time for detonation are actually open to question.

Or I could be wrong - I admit I've taken my eye off the press coverage since this evening.

I think this is very true, but it doesn't make the possibilities any less dangerous or daunting.

The reality is that this time, they got lucky, but because nothing bad happened, that doesn't mean it wasn't a bad thing. Two car bombs indicate that they intended to probably do the "first bomb to get the crowd, second bomb to kill a lot of people" method.

Lucky for the Brits the guys who were doing the bombing weren't so good, and the right people happened to be in the right places at the right time. Next time, they may not be so careless-and that is the real concern.

This incident, with the discovery of a second bomb, has some of the hallmarks of an AQ exercise. Multiple bombs in popular locations, while not absolute proof of AQ hands, is very suggestive.

The choice of targets seems to have been more for show than actual effect. Haymarket is a busy place, but far less so at 0230 than at 2200, when all the plays are letting out, people are going to restaurants and clubs or looking for taxis. Real destruction could have been much greater on busy streets at earlier hours; in malls or mall parking lots; at Wembley, Arsenal, or Chelsea stadiums before or after a match; at Wimbledon that's just getting cranked up.

That the bombs seem to have been half-assed also fits with the 'decentralization of AQ' theories, pointing to home-grown bombers rather than imported bomb-making talent. So, it could be an AQ clone or wannabe.

But those two Mercedes are going to be interesting evidence. Unless they were both stolen, they're going to point somewhere. Even if they are stolen, the places they were stolen from could be interesting, if only pointing to a particular city. There's likely to be forensic evidence galore in those vehicles as the 'devices' seem to have been hastily compiled.

And London, the city of the watchful eye, will have those cars--and likely their drivers--on more than one camera. That's not a 'slam dunk' for finding the perps, but it's a big help.

BTW, when the IRA set bombs, they always informed the authorities in advance of the time of detonation so that the areas could be cleared. (With a few exceptions, of course... Brighton, the Real-IRA's bombing in Omagh, etc.) AQ hasn't adopted that tactic anywhere yet. Were they to do so, it'd help their own PR, but that's another matter.

They found this one cause they got lucky. bcause the noob terrorist was not a good driver or he was high on his gas bomb fumes.

Oh, i'm not saying this isn't a genuine incident. I was just observing , in light of jame's comment , about how often these things seem to occur at a moment that is politically convenient for the government.

And of course there is a track record of the UK government having agent provocateurs inside terrorist organisations(although to be fair, even with my distaste for the current labour party & government, that's probably going too far)

Anyway...

It's too early to come up with anything concrete, but it increasingly looks like this was a real Keystone Kops outfit. It looks probable that the detonator on the first car bomb malfunctioned and that the driver pulled over wildly and ran off because he thought it was about to blow up. The second car was left parked illegally and when the chaps came to tow it away, it reeked of leaking petrol. Furthermore, while they bear some superficial resemblance to the sort of things being deployed in Iraq, they are very, very crude in comparison and the terrorists appear neither to have been able to get hold of explosives nor to mix up a batch of their own, a la the 7/7 bombers. Unless further details emerge -and of course they might - it frankly doesn't look very impressive, though it was obviously planned with a degree of political sophistication.

Or to be more precise , given the propensity of these 'terror plots" to be uncovered immediately after bad news for the labour government.

They found this one cause they got lucky. bcause the noob terrorist was not a good driver or he was high on his gas bomb fumes.

Why ?

After all this is the same labour goverment that had one of its top press officers send out an email on the 11th september 2001 saying "It's now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury".

From there it's a very small step to conjuring up news to try and hide or obscure news which "we want to bury" and of course "TERROR" plots are very easy to rustle up. All you need is evidence is some guy said "you know what we should do?", and bingo the front pages are full.

In the pub last night , we were talking about blair finally leaving no 10. When the topic turned to him being interviewed by the police again, my friend commented that if blair had still been in No 10 we would have a new terror plot on the news the next day. I guess brown is either just following habit or it was purely an instinctive response by the labour press machine.

Or to be more precise , given the propensity of these 'terror plots" to be uncovered immediately after bad news for the labour government.

So yesterday it breaks that blair has interviewed again by the police, and lo and behold yet another terror plot emerges.

Last time blair was interviewed (and after lord levy was arrested) it was the "AQ wants to behead british soldier" plot that was suddenly uncovered.

And then there was the 'liquid plot' which erupted just as the labour government was being roundly attacked from all sides over the poor support for UK troops in afghanistan.

After a while you just assume that labour are trying to hide something.

Well they just found another and are saying it now smeels like al qaeda.

Could be. If so, it means something has caused Al Qaeda to change their bomb designs, and that in itself deserves closer examination.