03 July 2006
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From the Editor…
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Cover story
The suicide bomber in his own words
Shazad Tanweer wrote the statement below on his university application form. Five years later this optimistic young man blew himself up with seven others. What changed him?
Features
Where were you?
Five things you might have missed last week
The task force was a sham
Whitehall documents leaked to the New Statesman reveal that the Foreign Office manipulated the task force on extremism, set up to respond to the bombings
I'm a survivor, but not a victim
Has victimhood become a badge of honour? Alice O’Keeffe, who was on one of the bombed trains, argues that we should value resilience more
The day we knew would come
When it happened we were ready, recalls Lucy Chapman, a London hospital doctor
Can British Islam change?
Muslims have become the country's most politically aware faith group, but they are divided about what must happen now
Al-Qaeda: still a step ahead
Why the organisational skills of Osama Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri continue to outwit the west
Before the next attack
After every terrorist attack, governments respond with ever more repressive laws, tearing up civil liberties in the search for greater security. It is a cycle that cannot continue. Bruce Ackerman proposes an alternative
Regulars
The Politics Column
Familiarity and contempt
Brown is convinced he must confirm his centrist credentials to prepare for the takeover, but it is a strange moment to spark civil war. A three-way contest would not be a foregone conclusion
The bug's story No 3935
Set by Stan Knafler: The people of Malham (population: 120) were baffled at the news that their parish hall had been bugged, reported the Observer. The bug was found in a 13-amp wall socket. But what led to the discovery?
Culture
Rider on the storm
Haunted by visions of apocalypse and the approach of war, Kandinsky aimed to create a global "spiritual awakening". Richard Cork on the mystic who revolutionised 20th-century painting
Leading man
Bush, Sarkozy and Blair have much to learn from Shakespeare's heroes
Through the keyhole
David Cameron's "green" architect gives Sarah Sands a preview of the Tory leader's controversial new home
Theatre
Waiting for the Big Number
New production of a classic musical relies on a single, spellbinding song Evita Adelphi Theatre, London WC2
Film
Bob Geldof should look and learn
A fly-on-the-wall documentary keeps it real with Kanye Dave Chappelle's Block Party (15) dir: Michel Gondry
Television
What? No more big African adventures?
A stupid scheme by greedy public-school boys makes oddly delightful viewing Coup! BBC2
Books
The winner takes it all
Management guides claim that anyone can make it, if they work hard enough. By promoting this false dream, such books threaten to turn us into slaves
A man with many sides
Thomas Hardy: the guarded life Ralph Pite Picador, 524pp, £25 ISBN 033048186X
Drugs and debauchery
The Death of Marco Pantani: a biography Matt Rendell Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 324pp, £16.99 ISBN 0297850962
Dizzy the dandy
The Politics of Pleasure: a portrait of Benjamin Disraeli William Kuhn Free Press, 402pp, £20 ISBN 0743256875
Sense of superiority
Broken Genius: the rise and fall of William Shockley, creator of the electronic age Joel N Shurkin Palgrave Macmillan, 298pp, £19.99 ISBN 1403988153
American theme park
The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil George Saunders Bloomsbury, 368pp, £10.99 ISBN 1594481520
The Righteous Men
The NS guide to The Righteous Men
The master's sketchbook
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman Haruki Murakami Harvill Secker, 338pp, £16.99 ISBN 1843432692
The talking cure
Conversation: a history of a declining art Stephen Miller Yale University Press, 336pp, £15 ISBN 0300110308
Secrets and shadows
A Fine Dark Line Joe R Lansdale Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 320pp, £16.99 ISBN 0297845594
Backwoods girl
Winter's Bone Daniel Woodrell Sceptre, 226pp, £12.99 ISBN 034089797X
Cartoon network
Tintin and the secret of literature Tom McCarthy Granta, 240pp, £14.99 ISBN 1862078319









