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London Terrorist Attacks July 2005

 
  

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FinderWolf
13:20 / 21.07.05
Thoughts and prayers are with you all over there.
 
 
waxy dan
13:23 / 21.07.05
I find myself very supportive of the "pathetic bombers"; may many more bombers aspire to their level.

Is it jinxing (can 'jinx' be used as a verb) to slag them off for their apparent ineptitude?
 
 
Ganesh
13:23 / 21.07.05
Cabinet Office Briefing Room 'A', kids.

I know. Doesn't stop it sounding Austin Powers. Bet they're moving things around on a giant map, trying on eyepatches and stroking their pussies right now.
 
 
illmatic
13:24 / 21.07.05
I suppose the key question is just what damage did they intend to cause? The possibility of some kind of hoax or "joke" (however ineptly exectued) is infintely more reassuring than the intention of mass murder.
 
 
Axolotl
13:25 / 21.07.05
As a slight aside I wonder how many man hours are spent ensuring that government & miltary projects have cool acronyms.
 
 
Bill Posters
13:25 / 21.07.05
Quanters, I would move to Brighton at the earliest available opportunity, but it appears that I am to die of anthrax, radiation poisoning or some other nasty before this afternoon is out, sorry.

But just in case I cheat death, Sleaze, when you say the Apple store's less busy than usual, does the security guard look distracted, maybe with back turned watching tv? If so, would you be so kind as to get me an iMac and one of those little cutsie iPods when your do your grab, thanks.

Actually in all seriousness, i don't think we should panic just yet, like DF says, nothing seems wrong with me or anyone else who's right here atm*.

* If those are the last words i ever post i will feel very, very stupid indeed and so politely make it my last wish that a mod deletes them so i don't go down in history as one of those sad unknowns with an heinously ironic choice of last words, ta.
 
 
Saveloy
13:25 / 21.07.05
Blimey! Look at the first picture here:

It's Michael Foot!
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
13:28 / 21.07.05
The police have 'operational control' of any emergency situation, according to the Mayor of London website (ref).

This is an article on Civil Resilience, but there's little or no comment on how good it was - the answer, if I recall, is that it was lousy.

NEWSFLASH: arrest in Whitehall.
 
 
Not Here Still
13:29 / 21.07.05
BBC News 24 reporting armed police arresting man at Downing Street.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
13:31 / 21.07.05
Is it Tony?
 
 
Not Here Still
13:33 / 21.07.05
Doubt it...

Cameras all just been turned off after request by rozzers.
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
13:36 / 21.07.05
Links:

UK Resilience home

Home Office on terrorism

MI5

London Prepared

Preparing for Emergencies, also known as the Breathe Into A Paper Bag leaflet, the government's fantastically vacuous handbook for the helpless.
 
 
Psych Safeling
13:36 / 21.07.05
They showed it on Sky. All quite exciting. Policeman points large gun down alley, other policeman appears leading chap with no evident hazardous material on person, looking sheepish rather than threatening (perhaps as result of aforementioned large gun).
 
 
haus of fraser
13:40 / 21.07.05
Ah well, at least we have frequent mention of the somewhat ludicrously Bond-villainesque Team Cobra, for light relief.

ahhh good old Cobra commander...



er i mean...




(any mods taking offence at an utterly cheap gag in a serious thread please feel free to delete or move this post..)
 
 
Sax
13:41 / 21.07.05
Elsewhere... Blast Prepared at Bomb Factory.

Army bomb disposal teams are preparing to carry out a controlled blast at a suspected bomb making factory in Leeds.

It's in Hyde Park (the Leeds one), near where, I think, Deva lives.
 
 
sleazenation
13:42 / 21.07.05
I love the way we have re-used that last London bombings thread... it's as if it's all sooooooo two weeks ago...
 
 
Not Here Still
13:44 / 21.07.05
Not Tony - he (Tony) on telly now. Doing statement.

Basically: We can't minimise incidents such as this as obviously serious but apparently no casualties, react calmly, continue as normal...
 
 
Benny the Ball
13:44 / 21.07.05
Please turn your cameras off, we may shoot someone...
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
13:48 / 21.07.05
My favourite bit was:

"I heard about this, as you all probably did, during lunch with the Australian Prime Minister..."
 
 
sleazenation
13:49 / 21.07.05
Australian PM John Howard appears to be in town - wasn't he in the US when 9/11 occured? Is this guy a jinx or what?
 
 
Benny the Ball
13:49 / 21.07.05
Sax, that above quote should be the first line to every book you write from now on.
 
 
Sax
13:50 / 21.07.05
It does have a certain zing to it, doesn't it?
 
 
Triplets
13:55 / 21.07.05
Cobra Commander, the only man hard enough to wear a giant vagina on his chest pocket.
 
 
Sekhmet
13:57 / 21.07.05
So this looks to be a minor incident, right? No one hurt or killed that anyone knows of? Hopefully just a bunch of wankers with fireworks?
 
 
Hattie's Kitchen
14:00 / 21.07.05
Tony Blair says "these incidents are designed to frighten people"...

No fucking shit, Sherlock.
 
 
_Boboss
14:01 / 21.07.05
that pic of clarke's a beaut.

he puts the fat in chow yun fat.
 
 
Psych Safeling
14:01 / 21.07.05
Looks like it. As far as I can see it's kind of good news (assuming no casualties apart from Mr Wires-sticking-out-of-his-top). We all guessed there was a potentially large pool of would-be suicide bombers out there, and we feared they might have the wherewithal. This, surely, proves that at least some of them do not.
 
 
Not Here Still
14:02 / 21.07.05
One thing is clear about this afternoon's events: the bombers and bomb makers were very different from the suicide bombers whose attacks exactly two weeks ago killed more than 50 people.

First indications suggested those responsible for today's attacks were "amateurs" and their bombs were crude. There is a report for example, that one of the devices was a nail bomb.

This time, the police have more evidence to help them in their investigations. The devices themselves, for a start. There are reports as I write that the police have captured the bomber at Warren Street, or chased him into a nearby hospital. There also should be valuable evidence from CCTV cameras.

This could be good news, if it provides important information. It might help the police and MI5 fill the huge intelligence gap that the July 7 bombings so clearly showed existed.

But so many questions remain. Were they copy-cat bombers? Were the targets chosen in the form of the four points of the compass - north, south, east, west, like the July 7 bombs were supposed to be?

Members of the public reported problems on the tube lines hours before the attacks. Was there prior intelligence of possible attacks?

The answers to these questions should be forthcoming rather more quickly than those we still await from the July 7 explosions.

Richard Norton Taylor, Guardian Security Correspondent, on the Newsblog
 
 
Sax
14:03 / 21.07.05
Incident at University College Hospital has been "stood down", according to PA.
 
 
grant
14:14 / 21.07.05
Ganesh, is that how chem/bio bombs work?

No idea.


Chemical bombs are designed to spread a lot of a chemical over a large area at once. The agents are generally something you'd notice right away -- think tear gas plus plus. Can't breathe, people going in to convulsions, that kind of thing.

Biological bombs are a different matter. (More on the commonly feared agents here and here).

As I mentioned up-thread, I (not an expert, but with some experience with bio-terror attacks) don't think bombs are particularly good ways to spread biological agents. They do get talked about, though, as a possibility, especially on subways.

Oh, and this old science show on bioterrorism has this rather unpleasant factoid:

Botulinum toxin, or "botox," is considered 100,000 times more powerful than Sarin. It can cause respiratory failure in 2-12 hours. It seems to me that if you'd been hit with a spray of botulinim toxin, you'd know it right away.
 
 
Bill Posters
14:14 / 21.07.05
indeed, just went to have a look and there's nothing much happening around that whole area atm. As you were folks...
 
 
Olulabelle
14:15 / 21.07.05
So just to check - everyone (Sleaze, Bill, Doozy) is still breathing OK at the moment? No weird smells or sudden unexplainable rashes?
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
14:18 / 21.07.05
Or at least, no more than usual?
 
 
Our Lady Has Left the Building
14:20 / 21.07.05
BBC saying two people 'detained' so far...
 
 
Bill Posters
14:27 / 21.07.05
Nick takes the words right outta my mouth, heh. But no, all's well here thanks and they are now reporting the chemical teams found nothing at any of the incidents. (I am feeling very glad i am not smoking atm though, makes you feel so much more prepared for a biohazard lungfuck.)
 
  

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