64. Terror Strikes London: The Al-Qaeda Mastermind (Ep 3)

The Rest Is Classified

Goalhanger

History

4.6 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 13 July 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

He left a video for his daughter before he vanished to Pakistan. A quiet farewell, wrapped in the language of faith and finality. What no one knew was that in the mountains near the Afghan border, he would meet the man who would change everything. In the penultimate episode of our series on the 7/7 Bombings, Gordon and David uncover how two young British men - Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer - crossed a hidden threshold. From idealistic jihadist sympathisers to suicide bombers in waiting. In the lawless tribal belt of Pakistan, they were recruited, trained, and transformed - not by force, but by belief. Listen as we track their journey through the shadows: covert meetings, bomb-making lessons, and the chilling promise that paradise lies after death. This is the moment the 7/7 plot was born - not in London, but in the borderlands of a broken state, under the guidance of a quiet figure with deep ties to al-Qaeda. ------------------- To sign up to The Declassified Club, go to ⁠www.therestisclassified.com⁠. To sign up to the free newsletter, go to: ⁠https://mailchi.mp/goalhanger.com/tric-free-newsletter-sign-up⁠ ------------------- Get our exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ nordvpn.com/restisclassified It's risk-free with Nord's 30 day money back guarantee ------------------- Order a signed edition of Gordon's latest book, The Spy in the Archive, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠via this link.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Order a signed edition of David's latest book, The Seventh Floor, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠via this link.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ------------------- Email: [email protected] Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@triclassified⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Callum Hill Senior Producer: Dom Johnson Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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0:00.0	For exclusive interviews, bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to series,
0:09.0	first look at live show tickets, a weekly newsletter, and discounted books,
0:13.1	join the Declassified Club at the rest is classified.com. Breaking news are getting from the PA newswire that there's been reports of an explosion outside Liverpool Street station
0:35.0	well there may be for telling the ambulance of need to be a significant author to busts.
0:39.3	We're moving back, please.
0:42.3	We're going to be...
0:45.3	...most Londoners actually are not going to be afraid by this.
0:53.3	I think they're going to continue
0:54.3	their daily business.
0:55.3	We considered the attack last week on British soil, an attack on the civilized world.
1:02.1	And what we are confronting here is an evil ideology. It is not a clash of civilizations
1:09.0	or civilized people.
1:13.7	Muslim or other feel revulsion at it.
1:17.9	Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail.
1:23.2	We are at war, and I am a soldier.
1:26.5	Now you too will taste the reality of this situation.
1:31.7	Your democratically elected governments continuously perpetuate atrocities against my people,
1:34.5	and your support of them makes you directly responsible.
1:38.2	Until we feel security, you will be our target.
1:42.5	Until you stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment, and torture of my people,
1:46.1	we will not stop this fight. Well, welcome to the rest is classified. I'm David McCloskey. And I'm Goulden Carrera. And that was the video testimony
1:51.0	of bomber Muhammad Sadie Khan, MSK, released after he died, killed himself in the July 7th attacks,
	...

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