Scotland Yard Commissioner Ian Blair, with Asst. Commissioners Andy Hayman and Peter Clark, is presently (0615 EDT) conducting a press conference broadcast live via the television networks. Salient points made:

- Fatalities number more than 50 with total casualties currently at least 700,

- 350 injured stayed in the hospital overnight, one person died at the hospital,

- There were only four explosions, three in the tubes, one on a bus,

- No evidence found of suicide bomber but can't rule it out,

- Each bomb contained less than 10 pounds of explosives,

- Bomb placement was on the floors of the trains - On the bus, it could have been on the seat,

- Evidence gathering is underway and expected to be time-consuming, review of closed-circuit television footage has commenced.

- The public is asked to call the terrorist hotline (0800-789-321) with any possible information that would help the investigation,

- Although all appearances indicate that al Qaeda may be responsible, London Police have no specific supporting evidence thus far.

Companion post at Interested-Participant.

Posted by: Mike Pechar at 06:13 AM | Comments (36) | Add Comment
Post contains 209 words, total size 2 kb.

1 You go Mike. I was juswt going to update the count. Big wreck delayed my getting home last night. I fatality and one serious injury. Helicopter the whole bit. Accident involved BIG boat on Semi trailer leaving the boat shattered and blocking the road. Had to take the gravels to get around. But did run into bikini clad girls while making the loop asking directions. Cool. Running a bit behind this AM but made good progress at work last night. Nightime is the right time. I figured you would be on this AM. Thanks for the posts especially yesterday you see all the trackbacks & comments. Awesome!!! I'm off to the office now.

Posted by: Hoiwie at July 08, 2005 06:56 AM (D3+20)

2 Reads like the Qaedas did that crime for a reason. I was pissed - so mad I went for a wasp nest in the barn. Shooting it was out of the question. Instead I got a can of WD40, lit the stream of petroleum and blasted the nest. The wasps came out charbroiled before they could get me!

Posted by: Downing Street Memo at July 08, 2005 09:50 AM (ScqM8)

3 "Although all APPEARENCES indicate that al Qaeda MAY be responsible, London Police have NO SPECIFIC SUPPORTING EVIDENCE thus far." This could be the most acrobatic useage of the English language that I've ever read. It's Big Brother Newspeak if ever I've heard it. But by all means, jump to conclusions. Let's nookularize the thair Aye-Rhabians. Do it for Big Brother. Do it for Israel.

Posted by: greg at July 08, 2005 09:59 AM (0gh4z)

4 Greg - SHUT THE F*** UP! You just don't know when to keep your mouth shut. btw, Mike and Howie, there are witnesses who say it was a suicider on the bus... ...survivors told how they saw a “suicide bomber” on board...

Posted by: Editor at July 08, 2005 10:41 AM (adpJH)

5 Editor, Blow me, you pretentious, pillow biting, goose stepping, closet nazi worshipping, pump fake, transvestite fuck. To the rest of you, Notice that no description of the 'suicide bomber' was provided. Rest assured, had they looked Arabic a description would have been included. This was an inside Psyops job. Booga Booga! Oooooo, scaaaaary!

Posted by: greg at July 08, 2005 11:12 AM (cjX2O)

6 Don't mind greg, he is just upset he couldn't get early warnings like Netanyahu the other JOOOs. But remember, he gets the advance notice only when it is the Mossad conducting the bombings. Or KKKarl Rove.

Posted by: Wine-aholic at July 08, 2005 11:18 AM (Wsn+K)

7 Greg - bl**ing you might be difficult since your cl*t is constantly in your on mouth... You should stop attempting to lick your own a** and read the article: He said he became suspicious of the olive-skinned man because he looked anxious and was fiddling constantly with his bag.

Posted by: Editor at July 08, 2005 11:18 AM (adpJH)

8 Editor suffers from penis envy. He can't even say the word clit without wigging out. He must have a micropenis like one might see in a neuroedocrinology textbook. 'olive skinned', eh? Well that clinches it, the terrorist was Italian. Case dismissed. Since when do suicide bombers carry bags? They wouldn't, the bomb would be strapped to them in a concealed manner. If one was carrying a bomb in a bag, they would seperate themselves from thing before it expolded. The Brits need to get their story straight. They have spoken of recovering unexpolded bombs with remote control devices and of suicide bombers. If we are to hear fairy tales, let's pick one story or the other.

Posted by: greg at July 08, 2005 11:41 AM (cjX2O)

9 endocrinology

Posted by: greg at July 08, 2005 11:48 AM (cjX2O)

10 when we find the people who did this only Allah can help them

Posted by: Graeme at July 08, 2005 12:16 PM (ZkJoj)

11 I'm so glad we have a terrorism expert whom can tell us how suicide bombers work, I bet in the whole history of terrorism there has never been a satchal bomb, ever. Thanks for cleverly pointing it out with your expert testimony Greg. we are forever in your debt.

Posted by: dave at July 08, 2005 12:26 PM (fsJ2z)

12 Dave, You pathetic retard. I didn't say satchal bombs don't exist. I said that they aren't used by SUICIDE BOMBERS. The bomber would seperate himself from the satchal before the explosion. Hai capito, cretino?

Posted by: greg at July 08, 2005 01:54 PM (ifKmS)

13 Greg, I'm sorry being wrong, and rabidly anti-semite seems to be short-circuiting your logic relays, but you're incorrect AGAIN: "1994 October 19th. - Israel, Tel Aviv, Dizengoff Street, Bus No.5: A hamas suicide bomber, holding a bag containing 44lbs of explosives blew himself up inside the bus, 22 people were killed and 46 injured. " "2003 September 9th. - Israel, Tzrifin army base, near Rishon Lezion: a suicide bomber wearing civilian clothes and carrying a leather bag containing a 3 - 4 kilogram bomb got out of a car at the bus stop and blew himself up around 5:40 p.m. at a hitchhiking post for soldiers outside a main entrance to military base and Assaf Harofeh Hospital. The assailant was a member of Hamas from the village of Rantis in the West Bank and studied at the Bir Zeit University in Ramallah; 8 Israeli soldiers died, and more than 30 people were injured." Less of course those Evil Jews® are lying again?

Posted by: dave at July 08, 2005 02:02 PM (fsJ2z)

14 Well Dave, Which is correct, suicide bombers or remote control devices? I've heard both stories. Let's get the story straight. It will be easier to sell one lie than two.

Posted by: greg at July 08, 2005 02:13 PM (nPBFW)

15 Greg: One has to wonder where you get your knowledge of explosives from, from your description it sounds like your source is Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny cartoons, perhaps you can explain to everyone the difference between a bomb placed under a seat vs. a bag underneath a suicide bomber vs. bomb placed on suicide bombers lap vs. bomb placed on a seat? As stated above there are instances of suicide bombers placing explosives in bags and exploding them -- care to refute?

Posted by: dave at July 08, 2005 02:13 PM (fsJ2z)

16 Graeme "when we find the people who did this only Allah can help them" But he won't. I think its fair to say that slaughtering his creations might not be the best way to get on his good side.

Posted by: Defense Guy at July 08, 2005 02:16 PM (jPCiN)

17 i thought i had seen some stupid, assinine people in my life but greg takes the cake....trying to make up facts that he pretends he knows about how terrorists work....how would you know that greg???...are you a terrorist in waiting???....you in the know???...or are you just some dumb ass rich kid loser who got some liberaltard education and didnt pay any atention in class cause you were too busy picking youre nose???...you sure have some hatred for Jewish people, dont ya???....i know, maybe youre a KKK member, thats the ticket!!!....you know, i had wished you a safe vaction while you were in Italy, but im taking that civilized wish back.....seems that since youre in Italy and from what ive read on another site that some sick Islamicfuckers have said that they plan to bomb Rome next, maybe youll get an up close, in youre face, look at some of youre Muslim buddies in action...better stay away from the buses greg....wait never mind that, get on the bus and sit in the back with one of them sweaty ,nervous ,backwards, Islamic goons , try and strike up a nice talk and let us know how it went, that is if you get back to us at all....no, i wont be nice, ive had enough with drug addicts like you greg....stop watching Conspiracy Theory over and over again and get a fucking life....oh and stay away from that crack pipe too, youll live longer, braindead waste of a human life

Posted by: THANOS35 at July 08, 2005 02:19 PM (QkIQE)

18 greg, use your fucking pea brain. If the Brits are bombing themselves, they would obviously plant clues to point at AQ. The fact that they have suspects without being totally sure is PROOF that you're a fucking twit.

Posted by: Carlos at July 08, 2005 02:23 PM (8e/V4)

19 I don't know why you guys bother with Greg anymore. I think everyone else here has easily grasped what's been figured out so far and is able to make sense of it too. But not Greg. No. So far, nothing points to the Jews or Bush so until one of his pals like Alex Jones comes up with a conspiracy which includes at least one of them, Greg will continue to babble incoherently. After that he'll, well ... continue to babble incoherently.

Posted by: Oyster at July 08, 2005 03:16 PM (fl6E1)

20 Dave, I'll give you one last chance to answer a simple question. I've heard two stories. One story says that the bombs were detonated remotely. The other story claims that suicide bombers were used. Which story is correct? I truly don't know how I can be any more clear with you. If you can't understand this straight forward question, I won't waste any more time on you.

Posted by: greg at July 08, 2005 03:50 PM (xcNPe)

21 Thanos34:"i thought i had seen some stupid, assinine people in my life" Thanos, Allow me to give you a little bit of advice. When you want to tell someone that they are stupid, be sure to check your spelling. The word is spelled 'asinine', and only a stupid ass would use the word against someone without spelling it correctly. Furthermore, you haven't 'seen' me. You have read things that I have written. You are poorly educated and I feel your shame.

Posted by: greg at July 08, 2005 04:06 PM (xcNPe)

22 Greg: Here in the real world, we have these things called forensic investigations, these are used to determine the evidence in a crime, and these ultimately point to the perpertrator, these unlike m00nbat propaganda take longer than 48 hours. I will wait for the published proof from the bus before judging the nature of the bomb. I am sure you might be unfamiliar with the word proof, so here is it's definition: proof n 1: any factual evidence that helps to establish the truth of something; "if you have any proof for what you say, now is the time to produce it" [syn: cogent evidence] I never argued to the nature of if a suicide bomber existed, I just pointed to the fact you're a bacofoil wrapped, conspiracy nut who grasps the very first "conspiracy story" in the wind, and posts it, then make up the facts around that story (e.g that suicide bombers never carry bags!) I think if you look back, I never said that the bomb was detonated by remote or by hand, I just said you were an idiot.

Posted by: dave at July 08, 2005 04:08 PM (fsJ2z)

23 Dave:'I'm sorry being wrong, and rabidly anti-semite seems to be short-circuiting your logic relays,' Dave, It would have been proper for you to have used the adjective, 'anti-Semitic'. Apparently, English is a second language for you and Thanos.

Posted by: greg at July 08, 2005 04:11 PM (xcNPe)

24 Carlos:"If the Brits are bombing themselves, they would obviously plant clues to point at AQ." Carlos, There's no need to fabricate evidence against AQ, since simpletons like yourself will arrive at that conclusion in the absence of any evidence.

Posted by: greg at July 08, 2005 04:16 PM (xcNPe)

25 Greg: I'm sorry your arguments have now slipped to the level of correcting both grammer and spelling, it must be awful being you, living with a twisted perspective of the real world and having to continually defend your moonbat opinions. On a brighter note, you could always slip back to your fantasy of a Clinton being back in the Whitehouse and tug on your tranny cock for a couple of hours.

Posted by: dave at July 08, 2005 04:19 PM (fsJ2z)

26 Oyster, Shuck you!

Posted by: greg at July 08, 2005 04:19 PM (xcNPe)

27 Dave, I guess you couldn't answer my question despite its simplicity. FYI, I detest both major parties. And why should I tug on my own cock when your mother and father are available?

Posted by: greg at July 08, 2005 04:23 PM (xcNPe)

28 Is there no one else? IS THERE NO ONE ELSE? Brad Pitt, 'Troy'.

Posted by: greg at July 08, 2005 04:26 PM (xcNPe)

29 Greg: Well see here we go again! Your lack of comprehension of what I said is almost amusing. You criticize others for jumping to an opinion: since simpletons like yourself will arrive at that conclusion in the absence of any evidence. Then you criticize me for not jumping to a conclusion when I said I would wait for the evidence -- irony? I don't think you will even find where I even said Al Qaeda was responsible for the attacks, because I await the evidence behind that also. It didn't however stop you from preemptively linking Israel to the crime, without evidence though did it? nor did it stop you from pointing to yet another conspiracy theory. sad.

Posted by: dave at July 08, 2005 04:31 PM (fsJ2z)

30 Dave:'sad'. There, there, Dave. Cheer up. And now, I must bid you farewell.

Posted by: greg at July 08, 2005 04:41 PM (xcNPe)

31 Greg: looks like you won't have a problem tripping over your tail, it's tucked squarely between your legs!

Posted by: dave at July 08, 2005 04:44 PM (fsJ2z)

32 Greg I am completely offended that you think we did this to ourselves surely I am reading you wrong! This attck on us was small in comparison to what happened to yourselves over there but please do not demean what has happened. I know our goverment, as much as I dont always agree with them, would never do this. Also the point you are making about the controlled explosions is just that. These suspicious packages were carefully detonated whether by remote control (which personally i think would be best) or manually, why does it matter? As long as no other person was hurted in the process.

Posted by: Sparky at July 08, 2005 06:20 PM (F1nba)

33 Oops Hurt

Posted by: sparky at July 08, 2005 06:58 PM (F1nba)

34 Greg, you ignorant slut. They SAID that there were indications that SOME of the bombs were detonated remotely and at least one WASN'T. What part of that don't you freaking understand? There were also two bombs that possibly malfunctioned and didn't go off. One was so unstable it was purposely detonated under controlled circumstances and the other not. This is what we've heard so far. Until later, that's all we know. We aren't there and we aren't part of the forensics team. Unless you are there and investigating yourself - then quit the crap. Good Lord, you're dense.

Posted by: Oyster at July 08, 2005 09:24 PM (YudAC)

35 Guys, we've been trying with greg for a while now, and he's even been banned and let return, but he's just a mouth-breathing moron who has a paranoid delusion about Joooooos and apparently believes that they are responsible for everything from skin cancer to bread mold. he is clearly a sociopath and probably has a pretty disturbing collection of bondage porn and beheading videos. Let's stop wasting our time and just ignore him as anything he produces is "...as a speech made by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing".

Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at July 09, 2005 01:55 PM (0yYS2)

36 Gee Guys: You mean someone besides me doesn't agree with traitor Greg. STRING HIM UP!

Posted by: greyrooster at July 12, 2005 11:47 PM (CBNGy)

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Here's a sampling of what others are saying.

The al Qaeda link to the bombings is called phony according to Aljazeera.com:

A group calling itself "The Secret Organization of Al Qaeda in Europe" posted a statement on an internet site, claiming responsibility for the deadly attacks that hit London on Thursday.

But MSNBC TV translator Jacob Keryakes said that the statement in which the group claimed responsibility for the attacks contained an error in one of the Qura'nic verses it cited. That suggests that the claim is phony, he said.

"This is not something Al Qaeda would do," he said.

"Condemnation with scant information will only aid the leaders of the West who want to use fear as a tool as well as allow them to arrest more Muslims unjustly under draconian terror laws," it said in a statement on Thursday.

"Yes, the rules of Islam do not allow the harming of innocent civilians, but at the same time the rules of Islam do not allow us to condemn Muslims with little evidence in order to remove the pressure from ourselves."

The organisation criticised the Group of Eight leaders meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland.

"The world's leaders congregating at the G8 summit in Gleneagles have quickly taken the opportunity to further their rhetoric to justify their 'war on terror'," the statement said.

What the murderers yesterday in London and Iraq seem not to understand is that their cowardly and barbarous attacks produce only profound anger and contempt, not despair and fear. Their bombs destroy not only innocent lives but any possible claim they have to be taken as anything other than bloodstained criminals.

Posted by: Mike Pechar at 05:26 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 531 words, total size 4 kb.

By Demesophist

In the comment section of a previous post GeoBandy chides:

I think, based on the information available, you may be overestimating the sophistication level required [for the London transit attacks].

It might be more appropriate to say that the method I'm using to account "sophistication" may not be 100% valid. I readily admit that, and it is a concern. But then no method of accounting an abstract idea like "sophistication" is 100% valid. The issue is what do we mean by the term, and why is it of interest to us? We use empirical measures to account for a quality that is far more complex than the method or test used not because we need 100% validity, but because we want enough validity to get a handle on the situation. So the appropriate question might be, "is my method valid enough?" more...

Posted by: Demosophist at 03:12 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 871 words, total size 6 kb.

By Demosophist

As I write this there's some confusion about whether there were four, or up to seven separate attacks on the London mass transit system. Early reports were confused by the fact that some explosions took place between metro stops and generated reports of attacks at the stops on either end. But it's not clear whether the current high estimate of seven was influenced by this misjudgment. Some sources are still saying only four attacks. more...

Posted by: Demosophist at 08:11 AM | Comments (23) | Add Comment
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Are we talking about the same France here? Perhaps the public face of Frace is a mask for a much deeper commitment to U.S. style anti-terrorism efforts. If true, then France has actually found the perfect counterterror style: publicly willing to negotiate with terrorists and assuming an anti-American stance critical of extraordary rendition while privately supporting the U.S. in the war on terror and participating in the same types of covert actions which are publicly criticized.

SMH Australia:

The operation that trapped [ Christian Ganczarski, a Christian convert to Islam who was allegedly the top al Qaeda agent in Europe and who was nabbed in a secret mission as he was being deported from Saudi Arabia ] was planned at a secret centre in Paris, code-named Alliance Base, set up by the CIA and French intelligence services in 2002. Its existence has not been previously disclosed.

Funded mainly by the CIA's Counter-terrorist Centre, the base tracks the
movement of terrorist suspects and plans operations to catch or spy on them....

Such joint intelligence work has been responsible for identifying, tracking and capturing or killing most of the jihadists targeted outside Iraq and Afghanistan since the attacks of September 11, 2001, terrorism experts say.

John McLaughlin, the former acting CIA director who retired recently after a 32-year career, described the relationship between the CIA and its French counterparts as "one of the best in the world. What they are willing to contribute is extraordinarily valuable".

Even as the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was criticising France in early 2003 for not doing its share in fighting terrorism, his US Special Operations Command was finalising a secret arrangement to put 200 French
special forces under US command in Afghanistan.

Posted by: Rusty at 11:09 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 409 words, total size 3 kb.

1 http://www.pbase.com/kburch/image/45384745 This was from my brother-in-laws change of command ceremony last weekend at Camp Lejeune - he was promoted to company commander of the Headquarters Company 6th Marines, 2nd Marine Division - Yes that's a Frenchie with him in the picture. The frenchie and some others had been with them since late 2002 on their deployment to Djibouti Africa and Haiti last year as were these Dutch Marines http://www.pbase.com/kburch/image/45384749. He's says you politics aside, they are professional soldiers who ARE in this WOT. http://www.pbase.com/kburch/camp_lejeune__june_24_2005 http://www.pbase.com/kburch/the_picture_from_iraq_you_wont_see_in_the_news

Posted by: Karl B at July 04, 2005 11:53 AM (7T29O)

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(Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) A fierce gun battle today in Riyadh has resulted in security forces killing the leader of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia.

From Aljazeera.Net:

Yunis Muhammad Ibrahim al-Hayari, a Moroccan, was killed during a raid on Sunday by security forces on an area where suspected militants were hiding, an Interior Ministry official was quoted by Saudi Press Agency (SPA) as saying.

The clashes took place in the Rawdah district, an upscale neighbourhood in eastern Riyadh, said Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Mansour al-Turki.

The unidentified official, quoted by SPA, said al-Hayari headed Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network in the kingdom, which has been ravaged by attacks during more than two years of violence.

Could it be that average Saudi citizens, lured by reward money and disgusted by the indiscriminate killing of innocent bystanders, are now regularly notifying the authorities with information about the terrorists?

Companion post at Interested-Participant.

Posted by: Mike Pechar at 08:46 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 206 words, total size 2 kb.

Ever want to e-mail a Taliban spokesman? You know, maybe find out his favorite color, which Beatles album he thinks is the best, or maybe what he thinks the prospects are for the AL taking the series this year.

Here are three e-mails from a pro-Talibam website with links to Mofti Latifollah Hakimi, spokesman for the 'Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan'. If you speak Pashtun, make sure to give him our best wishes!

alemarah@alemarah.com
alemarah1@yahoo.com
Khyber_safia@yahoo.com

As always, if you receive a reply, please FORWARD it to me immediately.

Interestingly enough, the website in question is registered to a man in Pakistan but is hosted on a Canadian server. Aren't there Canadian troops in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban today?

Posted by: Rusty at 01:33 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 126 words, total size 1 kb.

(Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) A list of 36 wanted terrorist suspects along with a schedule of financial rewards has been issued by the Saudi Arabian Interior Ministry. Fifteen of the suspects are believed to be in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Twenty-eight of the 36 are Saudi citizens while the rest are scattered among Chad, Yemen, Kuwait, Mauritania, and Morocco. According to a statement released by the ministry, all 36 are al-Qaeda members wanted for terrorist acts inside the kingdom.

The reward scheme announced is generous.

Anyone providing information on any of the suspects that leads to the arrest of a suspect will receive SR 1million (US$266,000). If more than one suspect is arrested, the reward will be SR 5million (US$1. 3million). Reward for information that helps stop a terrorist operation is SR 7million (us$1.86 million).

With all the money being offered in bounties, i.e. $25 million just for Zarqawi, I'm surprised that there doesn't seem to be many people taking advantage.

Companion post at Interested-Participant.

Posted by: Mike Pechar at 06:43 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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