Author Topic: CRAZY LONDON: Part Deux  (Read 2532 times)

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Tyson

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CRAZY LONDON: Part Deux
« on: July 21, 2005, 01:37:47 PM »
Hit again! Minor blasts, but it could have just been a field test of new tactics or something. What's interesting is that they're now using cell phone cameras as a helper in solving the crime. They want people to send in any pics they've taken of the events/people.

That to me, is a very cool idea. Most people don't like having security cameras constantly watching them. So: give them the control. Give them the camera. I think that's a win-win situation all around. More angles, better views, more images, and less privacy invasion. Agree? Disagree?

Oh, btw Nacho, remeber that weepy woman who I bet was going to be a symbol of the attacks? She was on the cover of Newsweek, I believe.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4703777.stm

London blasts cause chaos on Tube

Emergency services in protective clothing were deployed at the bus site
London's Tube network has been plunged into chaos with stations cleared after minor blasts on two trains and a bus.

Met Police chief Sir Ian Blair said three Tube lines were suspended but it was time London returned to normal.

The minor explosions - two weeks after blasts killed 56 - involved detonators only, a BBC reporter said. There was one injury.

Police sources say the blasts may have been near simultaneous and that they are being linked with the 7 July bombs.

They say a number of fugitives are being sought. Two people have been arrested in Whitehall.

Detectives are recovering a lot of evidence from the sites, and believe the latest events may either be a repetition of the 7 July attacks or may help with a breakthrough in the investigation.

Eyewitnesses heard bangs and saw abandoned rucksacks at the sites of the incidents at Warren Street and Oval tube stations as well as the number 26 bus in Bethnal Green.

There was an attempt to cause an explosion at Shepherd's Bush Hammersmith and City line, police said.

At Warren Street and Oval a man was seen running away from the scene.

On the bus, there were no injuries and the bus suffered no structural damage.

Large areas around all four sites were cordoned off. Tests for chemical, biological and radiological weapons proved negative.

One person was injured at Warren Street. There were reports the injured person may have been holding a rucksack containing the detonator.

Sir Ian appealed for witnesses with mobile phone pictures of any of the incidents to visit the www.police.uk website.

And he said it was "time to get London moving" again.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "We can't minimise incidents such as this because they obviously have been serious in the four different places as we know.

"I think all I'd like to say is this that we know why these things are done, they're done to scare people and to frighten them, to make them anxious and worried."

Mr Blair met with other senior ministers and Sir Ian later on Thursday.

The BBC's Andrew Winstanley said devices had been found but appeared to have been dummies, containing no explosives.

Police said armed officers were deployed to University College Hospital after an incident. A large area was cordoned off.

The hospital has not received any casualties or been alerted to casualties.

The whole of the Northern Line has been suspended, along with the Victoria Line and the Hammersmith and City line.

A number of other stations were closed during the alert, including Great Portland Street, Westminster, Waterloo, St Paul's and Oxford Circus tube stations, as well as Waterloo tube station and King's Cross Thameslink.

There were also alerts at Wood Lane in Shepherd's Bush, around St Paul's and, outside London, at St Albans station.

Tony Blair cancelled events in the afternoon and attended a meeting of the Cobra committee along with Sir Ian. Whitehall was briefly closed down.

London Underground went to an amber alert with trains taken to the next station and evacuated.

An eyewitness at Oval station said there had been a small bang, and a man had then run off when the Tube reached the station.

A spokesman for Stagecoach said the driver of the number 26 bus travelling through Bethnal Green had heard a bang on upper deck.

The bus driver was very shaken but said to be fine.

At Shepherd's Bush Hammersmith and City line station, police told reporters that a man had threatened to blow himself up and then ran off.

Sosiane Mohellavi, 35, was travelling from Oxford Circus to Walthamstow when she was evacuated from a train at Warren Street.

"I was in the carriage and we smelt smoke - it was like something was burning. "Everyone was panicked and people were screaming. We had to pull the alarm. I am still shaking."

Offline nacho

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CRAZY LONDON: Part Deux
« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2005, 02:00:15 PM »

Offline nacho

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CRAZY LONDON: Part Deux
« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2005, 05:19:44 PM »
America responds:

Police to Check Bags on NYC Subways
By SARA KUGLER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 17 minutes ago
NEW YORK - Police will begin conducting random searches of packages and backpacks carried by people entering city subways, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Thursday after a new series of bomb attacks in London.

Authorities said the system is still being developed, but the plan is for passengers carrying bags to be selected at random before they have passed through turnstiles.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly promised that officers would not engage in racial profiling, and that passengers will be free to "turn around and leave" rather than consent to a search.

Officials would not immediately say how frequently the checks would occur. The checks are scheduled to begin at some stations by Thursday evening and will be occurring throughout the system by rush hour on Friday.

"We just live in a world where, sadly, these kinds of security measures are necessary," Bloomberg said. "Are they intrusive? Yes, a little bit. But we are trying to find that right balance."

Searching the bags of more than a token number of straphangers may be impossible.

New York's subways carry about 4.5 million passengers on the average weekday, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

There are 468 subway stations in the system, most of which have multiple entrances, and during rush hours, the flood of commuters hurrying in and out of key stations can be overwhelming.

Asked whether the searches might create bottlenecks at subway entrances, Kelly suggested the searches would be of a small enough sampling of passengers that only individuals, rather than whole crowds, would be delayed.

"We are going to do it in a reasonable commonsense way," he said.

Similar types of random searches of subway passengers have prompted complaints from civil liberties groups in other cities, and in some cases have been challenged in court.

Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the searches in New York could be problematic, if not conducted properly.

"The department can and should be actively and aggressively investigating anyone they suspect of bringing explosives into the subway, but police searches of people without any individualized suspicion is contrary to our most basic constitutional values," he said.

Authorities said there is also a possibility that checks will be conducted on some bus and train passengers.

Tyson

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CRAZY LONDON: Part Deux
« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2005, 07:00:07 PM »
Quote
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly promised that officers would not engage in racial profiling, and that passengers will be free to "turn around and leave" rather than consent to a search.


Riiight. Where have I heard this before?