US press paints a very different picture :: Guardian Newsblog
Dateline: Monday July 11 2005

From a more distant perspective, the American press has taken an early opportunity to do something it felt incapable of on September 12 2001, and apply analytical distance to the events.
For a Londoner reading major articles in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and The New York Times this weekend, it was difficult to recognise the city being described. In Friday’s Wall Street Journal Europe the paper’s reports of events opened thus:

"For years, London has stood as an extreme example of Europe’s problem of fighting Islamic terrorism. The British capital was home to so many extremist Islamic groups and its bookstore so chock full of Islamist tracts that law enforcement officers across the Continent referred to it derisively as Londonistan".

Based on the news today that the bombings were likely suicide bombings by British-born Islamic extremists, it appears distance gives the US press an accurate perspective.

ABC News reports:

Prior to the 9/11 attacks, it was legal in Britain for militants to promote armed struggle as long as it was aimed at other parts of the world.