In an article on Sunday, a security adviser to the prime minister, former Scotland Yard chief Lord John Stevens, warned: "Make no mistake, this weekend's bomb attacks signal a major escalation in the war being waged on us by Islamic militants."

Writing in the News of the World weekly tabloid, Lord Stevens said there had been a significant increase in Al Qaeda influence in Britain.

"The terror of 7/7 (the 2005 attacks in London) was awful enough, but now Al Qaeda has imported the tactics of Baghdad and Bali to our streets," he said.

"And it will get worse before it gets better."

A cryptic posting by John Chuckman:

June 29, 2007
The Piccadilly Panic
The London Car Bomb

By JOHN CHUCKMAN

We should all exercise a healthy skepticism regarding the story of the car-bomb just found in London.

There are powerful reasons for this.

The grant of an appeal to the Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing. There is powerful evidence that key evidence in his trial was tampered with or manufactured by the CIA. The U.S. wanted this matter off its plate, the families of the dead being a constant irritation. And who better to pin it on than the then much-disliked Libyans?

Actually, nothing is easier to fake than an amateur device like this. It takes little sophistication, and there is low risk of discovery.

The CIA has just released papers it terms the 'family jewels' which concern many dark matters from decades ago. While these papers are carefully selected to make the CIA look more ineffectual than it is and to give it a public-relations boost in light of its torture and kidnapping activities today, they still document a perfect willingness to engage in the most unethical behavior.

Mr. Brown has just taken office, and expectations are high that he will distance himself from Blair's foreign policy, a policy many thoughtful people regard as foolish, destructive, and rather servile.

In the United States, paranoid games have been regularly - such as phony terror alerts and ridiculous arrests -played concerning threats to keep fears fired up.

John Chuckman is the author of What's It All About? The Decline of the American Empire, published by Constable & Robinson Ltd, London. Available from Indigo Books, Canada.