January 2003 London’s 2012 Olympic bid is debated in Parliament. On 21 January 2003, the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee releases a report (entitled ‘A London Olympic Bid for 2012’) stating that due to the availability of land, a bid for the 2012 Games was London’s (and therefore the UK’s) only chance to host a Games for the foreseeable future, possibly ever.
May 2003 Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, announces that the Government would ‘back London to the hilt’ with £2.38 billion in funding.
11 July 2003 The International Olympic Committee is officially notified by the British Olympic Association that London will bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games.
January 2004 Planning applications for the proposed 2012 Olympic developments are submitted to the four relevant London boroughs affected by the Games. London officially launches its Olympic bid for 2012 on 16 January 2004. Tony Blair announces that the proposed East London base for the Olympics will be completely regenerated with new facilities for the Games.
1 October 2004 The four affected East London boroughs each grant planning permission for the 2012 Olympics.
14 November 2004 The London bid team flies to Lausanne, Switzerland, to hand in a six-hundred-page bid document to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). London’s Olympic bid application states that the legacy of the 2012 games will be ‘the regeneration of an entire community for the direct benefit of everyone who lives there’.
19 November 2004 Just five days later, the ringleader of the four 7/7 bombers, Mohammed Sidique Khan, along with another of the bombers, Shehzad Tanweer, both fly to Pakistan. There they spent four months at clandestine military training camps in Pakistan, learning how to make explosives and build bombs.
8 February 2005 Bombers Khan and Tanweer arrive back in the UK.
9 February 2005 Just one day later, the International Olympic Committee flies to the UK, to visit London for a week-long tour in order to audit the London bid.
22 March 2005 A subsequent IOC report following the February visit to London says that transport is the crucial limiting factor that impacts upon the strength of the London Olympic bid. Out of a total of eleven criteria, Britain’s Olympic bid scores lowest for its ‘transport concept’ with a minimum score of 4.7 points and a maximum of 6.7 out of ten. The report calls for ‘substantial improvement’ of the London Underground system. Terrorism is also cited as a ‘global concern’ for the Olympic candidate cities.
Summer 2005 Plans for a Tablighi Jamaat mosque on the Abbey Mills site, to cater for forty thousand worshippers, are announced by acclaimed architect Ali Mangera of Mangera Yvars. The project for an International Islamic Centre with school, gardens, mosque and exhibition spaces is to cover a built area of 180,000 metres squared on a site one kilometre in length. The project is reportedly expected to cost around £100 million and include wind turbines and solar panels.
28 June 2005 The group of four 7/7 bombers carries out a full hostile reconnaissance mission and visits King’s Cross station, London.
Tuesday, 5 July 2005 Mohammed Sidique Khan arrives with his pregnant partner at Dewsbury Hospital.
Wednesday, 6 July 2005
2 a.m. IOC members meet in Singapore to hear the final presentations for five host-city contenders: London, New York, Madrid, Moscow and Paris, in one of the most hotly contested bidding processes in Olympic history.
4.35 a.m. Bomb ringleader Mohammed Sidique Khan sends a hurried text message to co-bomber Shehzad Tanweer in connection with his partner’s pregnancy complications: ‘Having major problem. Cannot make time. Will ring you when I get it sorted. Wait at home.’
5.20 a.m. Khan and Tanweer are filmed arriving at the Asda superstore in Pudsey, driving a blue Nissan Micra hire car. They walk around the store leisurely and purchase fifteen bags of ice.
7.30 a.m. The London bid team, led by Lord Coe, takes to the stage to make its final presentation.
10 a.m. Conclusion of the host-city bid presentations.
11.26 a.m. IOC members vote in a secret electronic ballot. Moscow, New York City and Madrid are eliminated in the first three rounds.
11.45 a.m. Conclusion of the fourth round of voting, which is solely between the remaining contenders, London and Paris.
12.48 p.m. Announcement that London has won the bid over Paris by just four votes – and is named the official host city for the XXX Olympiad and XIV Paralympic Games.
Following the announcement, London’s mayor, Ken Livingstone, says: ‘This is an area with the poorest children, contaminated soil. Go and see the area as it is now and judge it after it is transformed.’
Thursday 7 July, 2005
4.30 a.m. In a carbon copy of the day before, the four bombers try again to set off for London, but this time without distraction or interruption. They take with them improvised explosive devices that have been constructed using materials purchased from garden centres and shops. The devices are packed into rucksacks using the ice purchased the previous morning, from the Pudsey branch of Asda, to keep them cool. The intention is to target Tube trains all departing from King’s Cross station.
8.50 a.m. Three of the bombers detonate their bombs aboard underground trains. Hasib Hussain, the youngest of the four bombers, just eighteen years old, finds that his bomb fails to detonate in synchronisation with the rest. A faulty nine-volt battery used to send an electrical pulse into the detonator of the device is the cause. He returns to ground level from a very busy northbound platform of King’s Cross station. He calmly goes into a WH Smith store.
8.59 a.m. Hasib purchases a new nine-volt battery for £4.49. He tries to make phone calls to his three friends, who by now are all dead, having martyred themselves, murdering thirty-nine people in the process. After failing to reach them on the phone, Hasib boards a number 30 double-decker bus and sits toward the rear on the upper deck.
9.47 a.m. As the bus passes the British Medical Association building at Tavistock Square, Hasib lets out a scream before connecting the newly purchased battery to his rucksack-based bomb. He dies instantly, murdering a further thirteen people in the process.
Fifty-two people had been murdered. The four bombers were dead and more than seven hundred people were injured.
25 October 2005 The mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, acknowledges that some of the venues for the 2012 Olympics might have to be moved, with increased security levels a priority, in light of the London bombings in July. He comments: ‘Can we reconfigure some of those things so that we can all save money, that we can work with the local and neighbouring developments to integrate it all better?’
16 November 2005 A compulsory purchase order is issued for a part of the Abbey Mills mosque site under the London Development Agency (Lower Lea Valley, Olympic and Legacy) Compulsory Purchase Order 2005. It is stated that the CPO is for an area which links West Ham station to Greenway land, to enable the building of the West Ham ramp (footbridge and temporary walkway) which is cited will provide better pedestrian access for the 2012 Olympic Games, associated events and ‘legacy uses’. The work is to be funded and undertaken directly by the Olympic Development Authority.
9 May 2006 A public enquiry is opened in relation to the application by the London Development Agency for confirmation of the London Development Agency (Lower Lea Valley, Olympic and Legacy) Compulsory Purchase Order 2005. The report states:
During the Olympic Games some 80% of spectators are expected to arrive by rail, with West Ham station being one of the main arrival points. The above plots (Abbey Mills mosque site) are required for the construction of a ramp linking the station to the Greenway, which will, in turn, provide access to the Olympic Park. After the Games the ramp will remain as part of the legacy of improved transport and pedestrian infrastructure with good accessibility to retained venues and to future development. On this basis… satisfied that there is a clear justification to secure the acquisition of these plots.
October 2006 The Tablighi Jamaat charitable
trust’s temporary permit expires before proper building work on the mosque can commence.
February 2007 Further details are revealed by the mosque’s architect. It is reported that the mega-mosque will now house seventy thousand worshippers and incorporate a Muslim foundation, a mosque, an Islamic boarding school and accommodation to house travelling missionary groups. It is suggested that the development might serve as a reception centre for athletes and fans from Islamic countries during the 2012 games. The ‘mega-mosque’ development is reported to be Britain’s largest religious building and expected to cost £300 million. At the time, the Tablighi Jamaat charitable trust Anjuman-e-Islahul Muslimeen had an average turnover of less than half a million pounds a year.
March 2007 A report by Waterman Environmental Services reveals that the Abbey Mills mosque site has medium to high levels of contamination. The report documents significant soil and groundwater impact (principally by mercury, lead, arsenic, oil and fuels), that asbestos fibres had been detected, that there is elevated soil contamination, and that there are methane and carbon dioxide land-gas readings.
February 2010 Newham Council orders Tablighi Jamaat to cease all public and religious activities on site.
February 2011 The Tablighi Jamaat trust begins a planning appeal against the decision.
23 May 2011 The Tablighi Jamaat trust overturns the enforcement notice and is granted a two-year extension within which to submit a master plan for the future of the site.
9 September 2012 The Paralympics closing ceremony takes place and concludes London’s summer of Games.
19 September 2012 New plans for a ten-thousand-capacity mosque are submitted to Newham Council. New architects for the project tell the media that the scheme is the size of Battersea Power Station. The new development is expected to be at least four times the size of St Paul’s Cathedral and is to include a library, dining hall, sports pitches and a visitor centre. (St Paul’s Cathedral can house no more than 2,500 worshippers.)
October 2012 Just a month after the end of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games, a digger moves in to dig up the foundations of the West Ham ramp that had originally been installed at the far end of the District line platform to move a million stadium-bound spectators.
5 December 2012 Councillors consider at length new plans for a prayer hall for almost 7,500 men and a separate facility for about two thousand women. The planning application is rejected.
May 2013 The High Court orders the trust to clear the site and the Tablighi Jamaat trust makes an application to a judge to appeal the decision.
16 July 2013 The local council serves an enforcement notice on the charitable trust to remove those buildings without planning permission, stop using it as a place of worship, make the polluted grounds safe or appeal the notice.
June 2014 A public enquiry of the Planning Inspectorate opens at the ExCel Exhibition Centre to appeal the rejection of the plans for a 29,227-square-metre mosque and examine the expired permission granted to the site for the use of a temporary smaller mosque. A recommendation by the Planning Inspectorate is expected to be passed to the Communities Secretary for the final say on plans.
6 July 2015 At the tenth annual 7/7 Memorial Lecture, which took place at the British Medical Association in Tavistock Square, Tessa Jowell says, ‘Empathy extends to the built environment – how new parts of our city are designed, how they fit with existing communities. So often “development” is seen as destructive of community. We need to keep a wide vision, looking at more than what immediately meets the eye, thinking empathically about how what is done affects the people all around. Just look at the way the Olympic park was developed. The idea was not just to transform the waterlogged and contaminated brownfield site into a glorious Olympic park but also to bind a community together, to help develop its capacity, to tighten and strengthen its bonds.’
7 July 2015 A tenth anniversary memorial service for the attacks is held at St Paul’s Cathedral, conducted by the Bishop of London.
29 October 2015 The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Greg Clark, dismisses the planning-permission appeal lodged by the Tablighi Jamaat trust and refuses planning permission for redevelopment of the derelict Abbey Mills site.
At the time of writing, temporary mosque buildings erected at the Abbey Mills site continue to be used and are reportedly attended by 2,500 to 3,000 Tablighi Jamaat worshippers each week – on an area of land in the heart of London, larger than six international rugby pitches in size.
Ten years on 7/7 remains the largest criminal investigation the UK has ever seen, costing £100 million. No direct convictions for involvement in 7/7 were ever made.
There remains no evidence to suggest that the bombers had any idea the Olympic vote was taking place on the morning of 6 July 2005.
There is evidence to suggest that someone was assisting them in their quest for martyrdom, which should have happened on the 6 July 2005 at 8.50 a.m., before the Olympic vote.
APPENDIX
Operation Theseus
Besides the 7/7 police investigation, which began in July 2005 and lasted five years, Operation Theseus was also the name for a failed World War II operation. During the Battle of Gazala, the Nazis had been heavily outnumbered, yet still triumphed when the Allies lost the city of Tobruk to German-led forces. Churchill called it a disgrace. After the defeat, the German general, Erwin Rommel, had allegedly said to a captured British officer, ‘What difference does it make if you have two tanks to my one, when you spread them out and let me smash them in detail?’
The legend of Theseus
Theseus was the mythical Greek figure who journeyed to Crete in a black-sailed ship to slay the Minotaur in his labyrinthine lair using just a ball of string for guidance. On his return to Athens, Theseus had forgotten his promise to replace his black sails with white ones, to signal the success of the mission. On sighting the ship and thinking that his son had failed, Theseus’s father, Aegeus, hurled himself off a cliff and drowned – resulting in the name for the Mediterranean between Greece and Turkey: the Aegean Sea.
The ship of Theseus paradox
After Theseus’s ship had returned to dock in Athens, it was preserved in the harbour, for all to see, in memoriam.
Every time a plank decayed, it was replaced by a new timber. Eventually, it had been repaired so much and so often, that no one knew how much of the original vessel remained.
Philosophers argued over whether it was still the same ship or not, and the problem came to be known as the ship of Theseus paradox.
Identity and change
How many years had it taken before Jake’s grandmother no longer thought of herself as Irish? If she lost that part of her heritage, was she still the same person? How many years before the girl in the sari shop no longer thought of herself as Indian? How long before you think of yourself as a British Muslim, rather than first and foremost Syrian, Iraqi, Somali? Is there a fear that our heritage will be consumed – replaced over time like the ship, plank by plank, by another culture – or does it remain steadfastly the same?
If we use the same old planks of wood each time to build an identical boat, generation after generation, and sail it to a new destination each time, expecting it to remain intact forever – is this realistic? Is this the Theseus paradox for religion?
Was the paradox of Operation Theseus the fact that it was set up to investigate a terrorist attack when all along it should have been concerned with the criminal motives behind it?
The Police Dependants’ Trust
The Theseus Paradox supports the work of the Police Dependants’ Trust, which includes development of the National Welfare Contingency Fund. The fund has been designed to assist with the mental-health needs of police officers following a major terrorist or other national incident.
Visit www.pdtrust.org for more details.
The 7/7 Memorial Trust
The Theseus Paradox supports the work of the 7/7 Memorial
Trust as it continues to raise funds for a memorial in Tavistock Square gardens. The memorial will provide a fitting tribute to those who lost their lives on the Number 30 bus, and celebrate the courage and resilience of the survivors, the emergency services and those members of the public who did what they could to help. The Trust also stages the annual 7/7 Memorial Lecture, which was conceived to provide a lasting positive remembrance to those who lost their lives across all four sites and to acknowledge the courage of survivors, victims’ families and first responders, whose lives were changed forever on that day.
Visit www.tavistocksquarememorialtrust.org for more information.
THE THESEUS PARADOX: The stunning breakthrough thriller based on real events, from the Scotland Yard detective turned author. Page 38
