Embassy Bomb Warning Ignored by British Intelligence

Date: Sun, 02 Nov 1997 12:08:28 +0000
From: Leiah and Jason Elbaum <elbaum@dircon.co.uk>

The British newspaper The Mail on Sunday reports (2 November) that the British intelligence service MI5 was warned in advance of the devastating 1994 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in London, yet it took no action, failing even to tip off the police or the Israeli government.

The warning, a written report from a highly trusted source, was sent for assessment to a desk officer in MI5's international terrorism section. After she failed to act on the report, it was later found buried in the filing cupboard of another officer, reports the Mail, leading to speculation of a bungled coverup. Neither officer was disciplined and MI5 management failed to institute procedures to prevent the recurrence of such an incident.

Responding to the revelations, Israel's ambassador to Britain Moshe Raviv said, "This story is completely new to me. The Embassy had passed on to the Foreign Office general warnings based on information from Jerusalem. These warnings had been sent to a number of our embassies and as a consequence we had asked the Foreign Office to step up security and vigilance at the Embassy in London. If this information is correct, it is amazing that greater efforts were not made to prevent the attacks."

Shabtai Shevet, head of Israel's Mossad in 1994, called the development a setback in the fight against international terrorism. "Had a similar piece of information concerning a British office or institution been known to us we would not have hesitated to pass it to them," he said.

The embassy bombing in July 1994, just 24 hours after Jordan's King Hussein shook hands with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at the White House, was one of the worst terrorist bombings London has seen. A 50-pound (22 kg) car bomb injured 13 and almost destroyed the embassy. Later that night a second bomb injured six people at the London offices of Britain's main Jewish charities and pro-Israel institutions.

Credit for the attacks was claimed by a previously unknown group, the Palestinian Resistance Jaffa Group Palestine. Two Palestinians were later convicted for the attacks. The presiding judge said it was only "Providence" that more people were not seriously injured or killed.

The revelations were published after the lifting of a two-month-old gagging order by the British government. British Home Secretary Jack Straw allowed publication, adding, "It is not the case that such information as the Security Service had in its possession would have enabled it to prevent the Israeli bombing from happening."

Jason and Leiah Elbaum

IRIS

<http://www.netaxs.com/~iris/>

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