So, what’s this “bang” on the tube all about then? Anyone got any clearer idea than “either a bomb or a big crash”? And does this count as Sod’s Law, coming the day after the Olympics announcement?
Update: BBC now reports “reports of an explosion”, and says Transport for London are saying it’s thanks to a power failure. Hmmm… “walking wounded” caused by a power failure?
Fuck: Explosions at Aldgate, Edgware Road, King’s Cross, Old Street and Russell Square.
Unconfirmed rumours of 30 dead.
Piss – Russell Square may have been on a bus.
10:05am – Right – I’m calling this – terrorist attack. Sky News seems to be the only site working. I’m trawling for eyewitnesses.
“I saw lots of people running up a road and then saw the top of a bus destroyed,” one eyewitness told Sky News.
LBC News radio is still reporting “power surges”, but also advising “get away from the City, but don’t use public transport”.
10:15 – Eyewitness reports of “half the bus in the air” at Russell Square. BBC news site down. Radio still confused.
10:20 – FTSE dropping 3%, Pound dropping vs. the dollar. Reports of “at least one explosive device on the Underground”. If you have TV access, ITV have rolling coverage, apparently.
10:24 – Scotland Yard confirm bus explosion on Tavistock Place nr Russell Square, and “multiple” explosions across London. Bus system shut down as well now. This is major.
10:26 – Rumours of two more bus explosions, plus suspect packages in litter bins.
10:33 – my mate who works in the City didn’t go to work today, so no confirmation yet on rumours that they’re evacuating the Square Mile.
10:36 – Reuters is down. Just before it went was reporting large areas of London being cordoned off. Apparently Sky News’ helicopter is being prevented from filming over Russell Square. Helicopters everywhere though. More reports of “three busses”.
More advice to “get out of the area”, but no indication of where “the area” is – it seems to be the whole of Zone One (where I am).
10:40 – Sky has more on the Bus “ripped in two”, plus
Bradley Anderson told Sky News that he was involved in the Edgware Road incident on a Circle line train.He said: “We just left Paddington station. About 15 seconds later there was some kind of explosion and we collided with another train.
“We were heading into the station when there was some kind of explosion or something.
“Everything went black and we collided into some kind of oncoming train.
“There was debris all over the trains. They evacuated us.”
10:42 – Trains into London all halted. Marble Arch intersection (one of the busiest in central London for those who don’t know) has been closed. Roads being shut everywhere. Still no real news on casualties. No confirmation on anything other than the bus blast from official sources yet.
10:46 – bus was apparently a southbound 205, from Euston (big mainline/tube intersection) – “packed” with people evacuated from the tube. Reports of bodies at Edgeware Road.
10:47 – People being stretchered off at Aldgate.
10:49 – Home Secretary Charles “Safety Elephant” Clarke speaking at Downing Street. He has nothing of use to add. Surprise, surprise. Sounds worried, though.
10:51 – Upper Woburn Place bus bomb as well, apparently. This is all over. London Ambulance Service getting overloaded – all units concentrating on explosions. Web straining…
10:53 – “Scores reported dead”. Aldgate “pretty grim” according to a mate of a mate – loads of smoke. Here’s how it looks (via Sky): 
10:55 – Metropolitan Police say they’d tell us more if they knew what the hell was going on. Tony Blair to address the nation shortly. I’m rather glad I cycled to work today…
Unconfirmed reports of “a number” of dead at Russell Square.
10:59 – my overlords have just realised the office is half empty and are trying to find out where everyone is. On the ball here…
11:02 – BBC World Service is back up
British Telecom are apparently going to shut down all phone lines soon, so I may go offline without warning.
Controlled explosions apparently expected at Russell Square soon.
11:04 – reports of a bus explosion at South Kensington. Three minutes’ walk away. Nice.
11:08 – Blair expected within half an hour from Gleneagles. THAT’ll help. Cheers Tone.
Haven’t seen a bus go by in half an hour or more. Everyone walking and looking a tad worried.
11:10 – eyewitness confirmation from a friend – the entire top of the bus in Russell Square has been ripped off. Packed with people evacuated from Euston. Cunning, abject bastards.
11:12 – Hearing rumours of Brighton and Swindon stations being hit as well. they’ve gone to the provinces. Fuck.
11:15 – The Guardian also liveblogging
11:17 – 
11:18 – America’s waking up to the news
11:25 – The BBC have eyewitness stories: “The doors opened and as everyone was starting to get off, I saw a few lights starting to flicker overhead and then there was an explosion on the opposite side to me, just behind the train that had just pulled in.”
Now reports of 90 “casualties” from Aldgate East alone. Mostly stretchers, no idea how many dead.
11:32 – Photos. Reports of the army being deployed all over now. Quiet in Chelsea at the moment – bar the reports of a bomb on a bus up the road. Didn’t hear anything, but South Ken cordoned off apparently.
11:49 – just popped out for a fag. Busses are still running where I am after all. Rather them than me… Two bombs on my route home, so I guess I’m stuck here for a while. Internet still up. Comments section seems to be having updates as well if it cuts out.
11:51 – reports of “many” people with limbs missing arriving at hospitals.
11:53 – At King’s Cross, scene of one of the worst Underground disasters ever back in the late 1980s, people were using umbrellas to smash windows of the trains. 95 casualties and one confirmed fatality being reported from Aldgate East now.
11:58 – Email from an Israeli friend (Gaza strip) saying “Fuck”. Which says something… Blair expected in the next couple of minutes.
12:01 – 2 confirmed deaths now, via the Met Police. Certain to rise. Could be worse than Madrid.
12:02 – Blair – “It’s reasonably clear that there has been a series of terrorist attacks in London. It is my intention to leave the G8 to talk to police and emergency services personnel face to face… The G8 leaders will continue in my absence… Each of the countries around that table have some experience of terrorism… They all share our complete resolution for the defeat of terrorism. It is particularly barbaric that this has happened on the day people are meeting to try and help the problem of poverty in Africa… Just as it is reasonably clear that this is a terrorist attack… it is reasonably clear it has been timed to coincide with the opening of the G8… It is important, however, that the terrorists realise our determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than their determination to cause the death and destruction of innocent people and impose their extremism on the world. It is our determination that they will never succeed in destroying what we have here in this country and in other civilised countries around the world.”
Looked and sounded shaken. Not surprising really.
12:06 – we may be getting moved away from the windows here shortly, as there’s a bus route outside, so I may be away from the computer. Will warn if so.
12:10 – via a Red Cross worker in the comments: “We have already deployed 10 ambulances in response to a request from the London Ambulance Service and another 14 are on standby across South Eastern Territory. Updates will be posted on RedRoom and the website.”
12:12 – bus explosion may have been a suicide bomber, according to reports.
12:15 – rumours of Al Quaida caim of responsibility. Well, they would, wouldn’t they? Twats.
12:20 – Tim Worstall has lots of links to more blog coverage if I get cut off.
12:25 – reports of trapped tube train at King’s Cross, major rescue operation underway. Phone networks pretty much all screwed. Official advice – stay where you are.
12:29 – 
12:31 – in the comments, a report of another explosion – this time in Leicester Square. About half a mile from Downing Street.
12:34 – from the comments: ” Someone here at work has just been phoned by a guy he knows in Canary Wharf (I know, it’s a bit removed – but I trust him)
“He says marines have shot a man there who they think to have been a suicide bomber”
Workmate’s husband reports Cambridge Circus – slap bang in the heart of the West End – has been completely shut down. That’s just north of Leicester Square, so explosion report there may have been a controlled one.
12:37 – Leicester Square rumour is nonsense.
12:42 – Soho seems to have been cordoned off to act as Army HQ. Have heard nothing from my mate who works for Sony there.
12:47 – South Kensington may just be a suspect package. Canary Wharf apparently calm – shooting rumour may be jus that – there’s a lot of it about.
12:52 – Military are apparently denying all rumours they’re involved. Purely a civilian thing – at the moment.
12:53 – Robin grant also liveblogging
12:54 – Charles Clarke statement in House of Commons: “Metropolitan Police are in operational command… The Underground is closed and will remain so for some time… There are no busses in central London… Airports are operating normally… The Prime Minister is returning to London.”
12:58 – When the site’s working, the BBC’s coverage is pretty good – fewer sensationalist attempts at scoops, more facts. For a kind of BBC liveblog, try here.
13:01 – God, us Brits are great. Hardly any panic – more just getting pissed off that it’s going to be a bugger getting home. I love this country sometimes.
13:04 From the comments, via Justin, the supposed Al Quaida statement:
Jamaat al-Tandheem Al-Sierri (secret organization group)
Organization of Qaeda’t al-Jihad in EuropeIn the name of God the most merciful…
Rejoice the nation of Islam, rejoice nation of Arabs, the time of revenge has come for the crusaders’ Zionist British government.
As retaliation for the massacres which the British commit in Iraq and Afghanistan, the mujahideen have successfully done it this time in London.
And this is Britain now burning from fear and panic from the north to the south, from the east to the west.
We have warned the brutish governments and British nation many times.
And here we are, we have done what we have promised. We have done a military operation after heavy work and planning, which the mujahideen have done, and it has taken a long time to ensure the success of this operation.
And we still warn the government of Denmark and Italy, all the crusader governments, that they will have the same punishment if they do not pull their forces out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
So beware.
Thursday 7/7/2005
Jamaat al-Tandheem Al-Sierri (secret organization group)
Organization of al Qaeda’t al-Jihad in Europe.
13:12 – From Tim Worstall’s comments section, “Bart from Kansas” earns my “insensitive cunt of the day” award. From the comments here, “Roger” earns the “stupid fucking reaction of the day” award. Yeah – let’s burn some mosques, Roger. Fucking GENIUS. Moron.
13:17 – from the comments, reports that Soho is NOT closed off. All normal.
13:18 – FTSE down 115. Traders being asked to calm the fuck down. Everyone else relaxed.
13:27 – Wikipedia’s got loads. And some good analysis via email from Daniel Johnson:
A brief summation of where we seem to stand based on my attempt at rational thought:First of all; it seems the new channels, in particular the BBC are reluctant to get involved here.. the BBC didn’t even broadcast Tony Blair’s 1pm statement with the G8 leaders. Blair, Hoon, Davis, the police etc seem to be focusing their energy on the PR front to comforting British residents. Our TV screens are filled with calm police officers offering directions and people calmly going about their business. We’re not being told anything.
The mujahideen have accepted responsibility – a claim which I don’t think holds weight at the moment.. it was inevitable that some small Far Eastern group would.. I’d wait for police reports and word from the government on this.
It also appears that nothing has actually happened since 11am. There are rumours of packages in Tottenham Court Road, the Royal Bank of Scotland hiding their staff in a basement, Soho being used as an Army base, explosions on the M25 (a weird one). Not wishing to tempt fate, but it seems quite possible that all of these could be rumours, much like the planes that were headed into Canary Wharf and Westminster on 9/11 – Somewhere between panick and misplaced excitement comes a million different rumours.
However there does seem to be a bit of a paradoxical thing happening. The broadcasters are holding back – reluctant to report news and instead focusing on reporting on the good work of the emergency services (from eye witness accounts and personally talking to people on the phone, the services are doing a great job and we should be incredibly proud). So they’re very calm- but the public is spinning the rumour mill.. before long I’m sure we’ll get IRA rumours, G8 rebels, etc- we should take comfort in the fact that the leaders of the free world are all together in a room, our emergency services are doing an amazing job – and the majority of scare-mongering rumours appear to be just that.
I’m off for some lunch (and a soothing pint) – back shortly.
14:05 – I tell you what, if this is an “Islamic” terrorist attack, they’re doing a piss-poor job. The pubs are all packed out, people sipping their pints happily, all a tad pissed off, but basically fine with it. Nice one, Al Quaeda – you profess to be from a teetotal religion, and you’ve given the pub trade a massive mid-week boost. Result.
14:12 – update on the “insensitive cunt of the day” award – a new winner – Mike from New York, in the comments to this post. What a twat. I’d kiindly suggest, Mike old bean, that you go fuck yourself.
14:17 – and, for the record, the anonymous comments purporting to be from celebrating Muslims appear to be coming from the same computer as that from which Mike was posting. Nice one, Mike, you tit.
14:21 – bomb in Tavistock Square bus in the upper back of the thing. Met Police refuse to confirm it was a suicide attack. Fucked-up pictures fo the damage here and here. Christ…
14:28 – I’ve still only heard 45 dead tops (via the untrustworthy/sensationalist Sky – BBC’s last report I heard was 24). Lots more injured, but reports from hospitals suggest that despite earlier reports most are walking wounded. Could be a surprisingly low body count.
14:40 – more, from the comments and Guardian Newsblog – “Ambulance sources suggest 23 people have been killed at King’s Cross, nine at Edgware road, seven at Aldgate, two at Russell Square. There are hundreds – possibly more than a thousand – injured.”
14:42 – Slideshow of images. Worrying viewing – especially if you know and love this city well. But, at least in terms of death toll, so far we seem to have got off lightly.
14:53 – It all seems to have calmed down. For more blog coverage, check out the Kinja digest someone’s set up.
14:58 – Victoria, Paddington and Euston stations have re-opened. Looks like King’s Cross will be shut for a while.
15:05 – Now that it’s calm, people are starting to head home… Not entirely sure what route I can take considering I go via South Kensington and Edgeware Road, but still – the joys of a bike, eh? Sidestreets and ignoring one-way systems ahoy!
15:12 – the people who were trapped underground at King’s Cross are apparently just getting out now. No reports on any casualties. But that’s six hours stuck down there. Bloody hell.
15:13 – King’s Cross apparently to reopen for overland suburban services soon.
15:33 – Bus services beginning to return to central London, bar the King’s Cross, Russell Square and Aldgate areas. Will be slow and crappy (no change there then…), with extra police etc. to help with directions and travel advice.
15:35 – Met Police press conference: casualty bureau has a technical fault, so no one has any ideas on numbers.
“At the moment we don’t know if this was suicide bombers or just packages left… There is no indication that these were anything other than conventional explosives, but we have no indication of the size or type of device… [CCTV] has been one of our first priorities, as has collecting forensic evidence”
No people are left trapped underground.
“Almost all the system was cleared within an hour… We don’t have any information [about bus bomb fatalities]… The security level in London has been high over recent months. We have had all the security services actively engaged in antiterrorism activities during this period… We are content that the security level was appropriate even not withstanding the fact that G8 was happening in Scotland.”
15:40 – ctd: “We have 11,000 Metropolitan Police Officers on duty in Scotland and 31,000 in London. We have more than enough to cope… we won’t be bringing any back [from g8]… London has always been a terrorist target, and we are clearly shocked by what has happened today, but we are not surprised… we have spent years rehearsing and planning for this scenario… that plan has worked exactly as it should have done”
15:42 – “we don’t have any intelligence about any other devices… but we are making sure that the public transport system is thoroughly searched before opening for business”
15:45 – ctd: “As far as I am concerned, ‘Islamic’ and ‘terrorism’ do not go together… we have received no claims as to who is responsible, so it is too early to speculate.”
“We have no reports of a police sniper shooting anybody today… We understand that a group claiming to be linked to Al Quaida have claimed responsibility on the internet, which we will be investigating, but we have no evidence yet that that is the case.”
Reports of Heathrow Terminal 3 being evacuated (not via the news conference though).
15:49 – ctd: “We had no warning from any organisation”
“During rush hour we would be running 500 trains… around 600-900 people on them”
“We move around 3 million people a day”
15:51 – ctd: “People didn’t panic… people just got on with it… I was impressed with just how calm people were in very, very traumatic circumstances”
We Brits rule.
16:01 – Casualty bureau is up and running – number is 0870 156 6344 – but try family and friends first to prevent overload.
16:05 – official figure is at least 33 dead.
16:15 – I’m going to follow police advice and head home. Should be back online in c.30-45 minutes, depending on road closures. I’ll take the camera, but am going to try and avoid the affected areas as much as possible…
17:00 – back home. Lots of police sirens, little else. As normal. Brits rule.
An observation:
Liverpool St/Aldgate East/Moorgate was all the same incident.
- this is near Brick Lane, with a sizable Bangladeshi/Muslim community.
Edgeware Road
- the heart of a major Arab/Muslim community
King’s Cross/Russell Square and Woburn Place
- by the King’s Cross Estate, with a sizable Bangladeshi/Muslim community, plus the School of Oriental and African Studies, one of the world’s leading universities for the study of Islam (amongst others)
Was this intended to stir up anti-Muslim tension as much as anything? Otherwise the locations are rather bizarre – King’s Cross and Liverpool Street, as major rail termini, make sense if you intend to cause maximum damage/casualties. Edgeware Road is near Paddington, another major station, so that could make sense too. But nothing at Charing Cross, Victoria, Waterloo etc. Nothing at Heathrow or Gatwick either. Odd. Why go for half measures?
Either way, from the casualties so far we’ve got off lightly. Seems like fluke as much as anything.
17:21 – That bus really doesn’t look good. Official casualties from all blasts is still only 33 though:
Shadow Home Secretary (and Tory leadership frontrunner) David Davis on BBC News points out that Identity Cards “don’t prevent this sort of thing”. Considering there was no warning, the police kept warning levels the same as they have been for a month, and no one yet know who was responsible (despite claims), he’s got a very good point.
17:30 – Blair statement – “I’ve just attended a meeting of the government’s emergency committee… there will be announcements as soon as possible… there will of course now be the most intense police and emergency service action to make sure we bring those responsible to justice. I would also like to pay tribute to the stoicism and resilience of the people of London, who have responded in a way that is typical of them… {The terrorists] are trying to use the slaughter of innocent people to cow us, to stop us from doing what we want to do… the should not and will not succeed… When they try to intimidate us they will not intimidate us. When they try to change our way of life it will not be changed. WHen they try to divide us they will not succeed and our resolve will hold firm… Our values will long outlast theirs. The purpose of terrorism is to terrorise people. And we will not be terrorised… THis is a very sad day for the British people, but we will hold true to the British way of life.”
17:43 – a message to our sensible American friends (and others from around the world), many of whom are posting in the comments:
Cheers for the messages of support. London’s grateful. And we’re going to keep our heads. Stiff upper lip and all that – wouldn’t do to get all emotional. Hardly British – and if we stop being British about it, the bastards have won. So we’ll have a few beers, make as many sick jokes about it in pubs up and down the land as we can, and get on with our lives as normal. Other than causing the grief of too many innocent people, these cunts will have achieved precisely fuck all. We shall not be moved.
17:59 – I’d missed this – Eyewitness blogger account of the Edgeware blast.
18:10 – Police report – 37 confirmed dead, including two from the bus. 700 casualties total, “a number” in a severe condition, but “many” got to hospitals by themselves – so total is likely to rise, but no one knows by how much.
18:35 – Just heard that my Sharpener blog buddy Andrew was on the train behind the one hit at Liverpool Street, but is fine – and on his usual form:
“to the terrorist cunts who tried to kill me today:“Fuck you. You missed me. Better luck next time.”
18:57 – Nice, BBC News special report cuts away to a weather report. Britain, as I believe I may have said a few times today, rules.
19:07 – discussions are underway for a “Fuck you, terrorist dicks” protest/show of solidarity, Madrid style, this weekend. I’ll let you know more when we’ve finalised something.
Trains are running out of London from King’s Cross and St Pancras. 4 trains an hour from Euston. Near normal service at Liverpool Street. Limited services at Paddington. 2 per hour London Bridge to Brighton. Near normal services at Charing Cross, Blackfriars, Marylebone, Victoria, Fenchurch Street (though the latter’s worth avoiding).
Busses up and running, but major delays – many roads still closed. Gray’s Inn, Caledonian, East Smithfield, Commercial Road, all approaches to Aldgate, M25 and M4 out of London are packed.
You can get home, if you’ve been waiting, but it may take a while.
19:16 – Just had an email request for details of how to give charity donations to help the victims. Nothing that I’ve heard of so far. I’d say give it to Oxfam or Make Poverty History – Londoners are fairly well-off. Bunk it to people who matter – the African buggers who were meant to be getting helped out at G8 today. The terrorist bastards have screwed them over more than they have us.
20:14 – Just spoke to my grandmother, a nurse in London throughout the Blitz. Though naturally worried about her grandson being in one of the prime targets, she’s living proof that London has coped with worse than this. We refuse to give in to this sort of thing.
20:51 – Only just found this, but spot on.
21:46 – reports of seven people in intensive care in one London hospital – could be unconscious for days or weeks. Few reports of life-threatening injuries, many reports of lost limbs and emergency amputations.
22:00 – Third Avenue has a good world press roundup, while Yes But No But Yes rounds up blog reactions.
22:31 – The BBC, after a few splutters when the news site went down this morning, is doing brilliantly. Meanwhile, The Guardian has a handy reminder of why we’re used to this shit. And here, for those who care, is an old post explaining why I’m used to this shit.
22:41 – The BBC’s London radio station will be broadcasting throughout the night. Should have travel info for those of us trying to get to work tomorrow. The Beeb’s London site also has more pictures.
23:20 – Nearly time for bed. All I ask is that we don’t forget the others who have died today, from whom those bastard terrorists managed to distract our attention.
– don’t let a bunch of psychos distract us from what really matters.
Thursday morning update from the Met Police (update: actually, it’s Friday, isn’t it? Lost track there somewhere…): 700 casualties, of which 350 were minor. 350 were taken to hospital, of which 100 were kept overnight, of which 22 are in a critical condition.
There are over 50 dead that they know of. There will be more, but thanks to the nature of the blasts on the bus and between Russell Square and King’s Cross, it’s difficult to count the bodies.
Final update: Sign up to the pledge to join a fuck you, terrorist dicks protest.
July 7th, 2005 at 9:57 am
The police say power surges. I’m not so sure – Sky News have just interviewed an eyewitness whose description of the casualties was terrible.
July 7th, 2005 at 9:59 am
Radio 5: A cabbie has phoned in saying police have told him that 30 people are dead at Oldgate.
July 7th, 2005 at 10:06 am
BBC News website is down – obviously been inundated.
You liveblogging this?
July 7th, 2005 at 10:22 am
BBC News 24 are describing the bus as having “no top deck” and at least one death. There’s talk of a bomb in a litter bin.
July 7th, 2005 at 10:26 am
Radio 5: Scotland Yard confirm explosion on a bus at Tavistock Square near Russel Square.
The power surge story was obviously circulated to avoid panic but events have done for that cover story.
July 7th, 2005 at 10:31 am
a bit suspicious with the whole G8 thing
July 7th, 2005 at 10:36 am
Well I suppose that’s going to dissolve the argument against ID cards then….
July 7th, 2005 at 10:38 am
Yep… bit suss after the Olympic announcement yesterday as well…
July 7th, 2005 at 10:45 am
Could get major this
July 7th, 2005 at 10:50 am
from the guardian:
“One witness who had been in a train at the time of the explosions reported seeing “bodies everywhere” in the carriages and limbs lying in on the floor.”
fuck.
July 7th, 2005 at 10:50 am
Most news websites down now…anymore news
? Am at work…Oxford St, Manchester
July 7th, 2005 at 10:54 am
BBC News 24: Police say there’s going to be “a series of controlled explosions” around Russell Square soon.
News sites crapping out left, right and centre.
July 7th, 2005 at 10:58 am
Who they pointing finger at? Always interesting to see which ‘experts’ are rolled out and who gets it most wrong
July 7th, 2005 at 10:58 am
Working in Green Park – this is really useful, thanks…
July 7th, 2005 at 11:00 am
AFP ticket still up: reporting not so much on blasts, more on markets, tumbling all over europe.
Fuck, I can’t believe I am even asking this: regular explosives only right? We think?
July 7th, 2005 at 11:00 am
The Guardian are liveblogging as well.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:04 am
BBC News 24: Talk of a train crash at Kings Cross. Police say Tavistock Sq is *not* the major incident. Kings Cross is the major incident.
Jesus, is this really happening?
July 7th, 2005 at 11:07 am
This looks worse than Madrid.
Fuck
July 7th, 2005 at 11:09 am
At work in Mortimer St W1…National Grid have officially killed the power surge lie..rumour of CCRF callout i.e troops in Soho Square.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:10 am
The news just started on France 3, and they’re discussing a fire in southwestern france. Fuckers. Tell me more, what’s on TV and radio.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:13 am
Katie: there’s a live video feed on the BBC.
Brighton railway station has been closed.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:14 am
Same problem as election night: no fucking sound. I have the shittiest computer ever.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:15 am
Swindon Station also being evacuated.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:16 am
Provincial rail closures look to be for precautionary security checks – no reports that anywhere outside London has been hit.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:16 am
In Germany the BBC World and Sky news feeds are still showing a there is “a technical problem with this channel” showing for BBC and Sky News – German News has a report on Fucking Angeline Jolie! Rai Uno Italia is taking the BBC feed and showing it though.
Thanks (in a perverse way) for liveblogging this.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:16 am
speaking to brother in london… apparently bob crowe rmt union leader had been on tv blaming privatisation b4 extent and scope of attack realised…oh dear
July 7th, 2005 at 11:17 am
Tony – statement due at 12 – Safety elephant due to speak at 12:15.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:20 am
big round of applause for messrs. bush & blair I think…
July 7th, 2005 at 11:21 am
Met thinks there have been 6 explosions – 5 on the Tube, 1 on a bus.
Official list of explosions
Aldgate East
Norgate
Russell Sq
Liverpool St
Edgware Rd
Kings Cross
Met asking media not to speculate!
July 7th, 2005 at 11:23 am
BBC saying troops deployed in Charing Cross.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:23 am
My husband works in a “sensitive” area in Birmingham and they have not been asked to evacuate, so I doubt this is nationwide.
I am sorry for all of you in London. All my thoughts with you.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:24 am
following on http://www.met.police.uk/news_template.htm
July 7th, 2005 at 11:25 am
Correction – Moorgate.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:27 am
Shit! Five Live feed just wigged out
July 7th, 2005 at 11:27 am
http://www-us.flickr.com/photos/bigdaddymerk/
July 7th, 2005 at 11:29 am
BBC site down again
July 7th, 2005 at 11:29 am
Just phoned a mate who lives 200 yards from Brighton Station – he definitely hasn’t heard a bang.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:30 am
I’m guessing the bus bomb was someone who was supposed to deliver to another underground. My god.
French TV finally showing footage. All the brits they’re interviewing are very stoic and calm. I love how British people react to a real crisis. I’m so proud.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:32 am
BBC News 24: “almost certainly” Al Qaeda.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:32 am
“almost certainly the work of al-Qaeda” – from the BBC
July 7th, 2005 at 11:33 am
damn, beat me to it
July 7th, 2005 at 11:34 am
Bob Crow needs a good kicking for his comments on Sky News. Send him to me, I’ll do it.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:35 am
CNN reports that there are talks to bring counter-terrorism experts from Gleneagles, Scotland to assist with security
July 7th, 2005 at 11:36 am
almost certainly the work of murderers…remove the cause, tell it like it is…notice how it is always the workers who get targetted?…twats
July 7th, 2005 at 11:38 am
What has Bob Crowe been saying?
July 7th, 2005 at 11:39 am
targeted
July 7th, 2005 at 11:39 am
BBC radio say there was evidence of explosives being used at one of the sites
July 7th, 2005 at 11:41 am
while the power surge theory was being circulated bob crowe had got himself on tv and was harping on about what you get with privatisation or something…p45’s are us
July 7th, 2005 at 11:41 am
Bus exploded at or near Russell square. People have been evacuated from Charring Cross out of London.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:42 am
Passed on from one of my message board users:
“Vodafone are one of our major clients and this is part of an email we recieved
Due to the incidents across London today, Vodafone have invoked a procedure
whereby cellular bandwidth is prioritised to government and emergency
services.
You may well get a full signal but you may not be able to make/receive calls
or Blackberry messages during the course of today.”
July 7th, 2005 at 11:46 am
Call from Press colleague at Gleneagles, talk there suggests reports of dead are at 90, but are unconfirmed.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:46 am
Mobile phone networks are shutting down because terrorist attacks in spain used bombs that were set off by mobile phones
July 7th, 2005 at 11:47 am
One interesting point – former head of Met Anti-terrorist unit has admitted that its almost impossible to prevent this kind of attack.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:48 am
BBC News online: At least one blast site has shown evidence of explosives, say police.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:51 am
from bbc eyewitness:
“I was on the train that the “Bang” happened on. I must have been 2 -3 carriages down from where it originated. I would like to praise the people in my carriage and on the train as a whole for remaining calm despite the sense of fear everyone must have felt whne this happened. After waiting for maybe 15 minutes or more we were rescued by emergency services and had to walk the remainder of the way down the track to Aldgate station. There was twisted metal from the train laying on the track which we had to pass as well as injured people who needed urgent medical attention. The emergency services were doing an excellent job taking care of people and their response in general was superb. Bravo to them.”
brits are great.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:51 am
One interesting point – former head of Met Anti-terrorist unit has admitted that its almost impossible to prevent this kind of attack.
What rot. As we all know, ID Cards could have prevented this. That, or invading Iraq again.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:51 am
Jesus Christ. This bus doesn’t even look like a bus an more.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:55 am
CNN doing a live feed.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:57 am
First report from hospital – Royal London.
100 casualties in so far – 1 fatality, 10 critical, 7 serious.
Should note that in Tube incidents, the most critically injured are usually the last to be taken out, so figures may rise.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:01 pm
Stand by for Blair…
July 7th, 2005 at 12:02 pm
They’re now saying 7 explosions…? BBC: “buses were packed. They’d been turning people away because the Tube was closed.”
July 7th, 2005 at 12:03 pm
Tony – on now.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:05 pm
Ah, to live in bullet- and bombproof splendour, eh? Do what you like and the little people pay the bill. What a fucker.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:06 pm
Blair’s ‘dramatic pause’ was built for days like today…
July 7th, 2005 at 12:06 pm
Tony – reasonably clear its a terrorist attack and timed to coincide with G8.
Will leave G8 to get reports – G8 to continue in absence Tony to return later tonight.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:08 pm
Just got off phone to friend. Police are boarding buses in Brum to check for devices. Dont know if they’re just doing that to reasure people, but… who knows.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:09 pm
I lay this atrocity at Blair’s door. If we weren’t in Iraq on a lie would this have happened?
July 7th, 2005 at 12:09 pm
i work for the red cross, and just got this in a company email:
“We have already deployed 10 ambulances in response to a request from the London Ambulance Service and another 14 are on standby across South Eastern Territory. Updates will be posted on RedRoom and the website.”
July 7th, 2005 at 12:10 pm
French TV finally reporting properly. Chirac has pledged total solidarity. What a difference a day makes.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:11 pm
bbc news: AQ apparently claiming responsibility
July 7th, 2005 at 12:12 pm
bbc news have just said theyve found a 200 word statement online from al qaeda admitting resposibility, wether its true or not is another thing
July 7th, 2005 at 12:14 pm
Anders
September 11th happened before Iraq.
Blair was in Gleneagles discussing Africa and climate change.
This butchery was carried out by a bunch of back hearted, brainwashed, monstrous slaughterers. Stop being so self-flagellating and know your enemy.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:14 pm
Police now speculating that the bus explosion was a suicide bomber.
Possible, I suppose, but then it wouldn’t be the first time a bus has gone up due to a fuck up by a bomber either.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:16 pm
Nothing on Al Jazeera yet to suggest that AQ has officially claimed responsibility.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:19 pm
Bloody hell. I don’t normally go into Central London, but I was there last night. Am safe at home today, but my mobile doesn’t work – apparently the networks are being cleared for emergency use only.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:20 pm
I sincerely hope every one of them was a suicide bomber.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:21 pm
any other liveblogs on this issue?
July 7th, 2005 at 12:22 pm
not getting into blame game…don’t know if buses being checked here in manchester but not much traffic at all in centre,however was quiet this morning also…
July 7th, 2005 at 12:23 pm
So, in response to the Blair comment about it coinciding with the opening of the G8, a french pundit just suggested it was a result of the olympic success, and that if Paris had won it would have been here. What a total solipsistic wanker.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:23 pm
AQ tend to claim responsibility in the most oblique manner and rarely do they do so quickly – although this has all their trademarks.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:25 pm
Katie’s right. It couldn’t have been Paris, this was clearly a planned and co-ordinated attack. Not something that was thrown together in 24 hours.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:27 pm
Very loose rumours about yet another blast at leicester square. anyone heard anything?
July 7th, 2005 at 12:27 pm
if you have IRC , join #london on irc.freenode.net
live updates
July 7th, 2005 at 12:30 pm
I’m not so far from Leicester Square, I’ve not heard any blasts.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:30 pm
Someone here at work has just been phoned by a guy he knows in Canary Wharf (I know, it’s a bit removed – but I trust him)
He says marines have shot a man there who they think to have been a suicide bomber
July 7th, 2005 at 12:31 pm
blast in Leicester sq. on teh guardian news blog site…
also of ppl trapped on the underground at KingsX…
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/
July 7th, 2005 at 12:31 pm
ITV News: Police have said that londoners should stay at home and not travel.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:34 pm
I think he was speculating that two attacks had been planned and the final choice of which city was hit was made after the announcement. He was basing this entirely on the fact that the first attack took place at Aldgate, the olympic village stop. I’ll try and find out who it was…
What’s this seventh attack? They’re talking about seven.
And what’s going on with the “stay where you are” thing? Go home! Run home! Staying where you are kills!
A french eyewitness phoned in and was praising how sotic brits in her underground were.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:37 pm
The Guardian newsblog is now saying there wasn’t an explosion at Leicester Sq. and all is calm.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:37 pm
from guardian blog:
Update Reader Rod Stanley emails in – he works near Leicester Square, and all is calm there. Thanks for that, Rod.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:38 pm
i’m running updates at http://www.projectnothing.com
e-mail me with anything you’ve got, and stay safe
July 7th, 2005 at 12:41 pm
http://www.newsquarechambers.co.uk/calculators/daycalculator.htm
been calculating dates, sept 11, madrid and that (am i daft?)…anyway dates do not stand out…good job G8 did not start yesterday with the square being packed…brits are best
July 7th, 2005 at 12:43 pm
“I lay this atrocity at Blair’s door. If we weren’t in Iraq on a lie would this have happened?”
…and if you’d just turned the other cheek in school the bully would have left you alone.
This just would have happend a few years from now when the islamists did it to de-stabliize you rather than in an attempt to defend themselves out of desperation.
My prayers go out to all who have been killed or injured. In case anyone wasn’t convinced, these bastards want to kill us and must be dealt with harshly if they are to be beaten.
Good work on a great blog – amazing current info.
Be strong UK!!!
July 7th, 2005 at 12:43 pm
200 wounded now? Is that right?
July 7th, 2005 at 12:46 pm
The Safety Elephant’s up next…
July 7th, 2005 at 12:47 pm
Katie:
The seven include two attacks in the vicinity of Russell Square – one on the tube and the bus in Tavistock Square which was carrying people away from Russell Sq tube.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:49 pm
I remember watching New Yorkers walkeing home on September 11th. Apparently the same thing in the city. The BBC’s reporters’ log thing is patently amazed by how calm the public are.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:50 pm
my brother is at lse…one of the bombs was on his route..i have spoken with him and have picked this up from lse website….pretty impressive…any other decent emergency procedures out there?
Please would students and staff text or phone their parents and families to confirm they are ok.
The main LSE switchboard number is very busy. A hotline number is +44 (0)20 7849 4900. Please leave your name and number and the details of who you are trying to reach here.
There is also an emergency email – July7thIncident@lse.ac.uk. You can email here if you have any problems reaching people by ‘phone.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:51 pm
Sure anonymous at 12:43, let’s go kick the shit out of some towelheads, that will solve the problem.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:52 pm
From Back to Iraq:
Today’s blasts in London have been claimed by Al Qaeda’s European chapter, Qaeda’t al-Jihad in Europe. A statement has been posted on a site often used by Qaeda agents, http://www.qal3ata.com. The statement follows (translated by one of my staff here in Baghdad):
Jamaat al-Tandheem Al-Sierri (secret organization group)
Organization of Qaeda’t al-Jihad in Europe
In the name of God the most merciful…
Rejoice the nation of Islam, rejoice nation of Arabs, the time of revenge has come for the crusaders’ Zionist British government.
As retaliation for the massacres which the British commit in Iraq and Afghanistan, the mujahideen have successfully done it this time in London.
And this is Britain now burning from fear and panic from the north to the south, from the east to the west.
We have warned the brutish governments and British nation many times.
And here we are, we have done what we have promised. We have done a military operation after heavy work and planning, which the mujahideen have done, and it has taken a long time to ensure the success of this operation.
And we still warn the government of Denmark and Italy, all the crusader governments, that they will have the same punishment if they do not pull their forces out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
So beware.
Thursday 7/7/2005
Jamaat al-Tandheem Al-Sierri (secret organization group)
Organization of al Qaeda’t al-Jihad in Europe.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:54 pm
Charles Clarke to make statement 13.15 BST
July 7th, 2005 at 12:54 pm
Charles Clarke to make a statement to the House of Commons at 1:15pm (BBC News 24)
July 7th, 2005 at 12:54 pm
Clarke up now…
July 7th, 2005 at 12:55 pm
was that the people’s front of judea? bastards
July 7th, 2005 at 12:59 pm
Nothing new from Clarke – only confirmed three tube bombs and one bus bomb. TfL will decide on restarting Zone 1 bus services later on today.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:59 pm
“burning from fear and panic”
I don’t know about you, but that’s not what I am seeing. I am seeing people coping. I feel quite proud.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:01 pm
If any of those fuckers at Finsbury Park mosque are reading this. I hope you have fire extinguishers in the building, you are going to need them very shortly.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:01 pm
German TV just reported Polish government building in flames….
July 7th, 2005 at 1:03 pm
“If any of those fuckers at Finsbury Park mosque are reading this. I hope you have fire extinguishers in the building, you are going to need them very shortly”
I’m sure that will help you numb nuts, come back when you’ve grown a brain.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:05 pm
Roger:
Don’t be a fucking twat.
The vast majority of the congrgation at Finsbury Park Mosque, and other mosques, are decent, honest and honourable people who will be as horrified by today’s events as we all are.
Talking about revenge attacks just fuels the fires of the extremists.
Absolutely the last thing we need is fucking attack on a mosque, any mosque, as that will achieve is to drive people in the arms of the bastards responsible for this attack.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:06 pm
British bloggers take up the slack.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:06 pm
Roger
That is not what this country believes in. Do not stoop to the level of the slime that planned and executed this.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:07 pm
Roger:
Don’t be a fucking twat.
Absolutely!
July 7th, 2005 at 1:08 pm
must confess i have NOT attacked my asian colleagues and also have NO plans to do so…am thinking that it is time for a responsible and accurate media for the foreseeable future
July 7th, 2005 at 1:10 pm
For fucks sake. Just like Catholics condemn the IRA, Muslims will condemn this. This is carried out by a small bunch of fanatics with a twisted view of their own religious superiority.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:12 pm
Rogers comment may be extreme – anger does that.
But why, oh why do we tolerate people who hate us living amongst us. We all know they’re there, many of them are very open about it.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:13 pm
roger: it’s people like you i’m most scared of — i live near finsbury park mosque and i’m worried to go out in the street now in case there is some lunatic taking it into his head to make some lunatic retaliation like you suggest.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:13 pm
Just came back to the office from a walk through Soho. there’s nothing out of the ordinary going on and soho sq. has not been closed off.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:17 pm
why do we tolerate people who hate us living amongst us…
good point…another one is why are they here if they do not like it? cannot suss that one out either…
July 7th, 2005 at 1:17 pm
Roger
If somebody firebombs the mosque today I just hope you’re prepared for a long night spent in a small room talking to fucked-off special branch officers.
Arsehole.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:18 pm
Neil,
What’s going on in Poland according to German TV?
more info please.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:19 pm
City traders switch off automatic trading systems to prevent excessive trading (these perform automated buys/sells when stocks hit certain price points or when particular movements take place)
July 7th, 2005 at 1:20 pm
Polish governement building was indeed in flames, but it seems it was caused rather by a careless repair worker than al-Qaeda.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:21 pm
Poland is mosty likely just lightning damage. – Personal report from warsaw.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:21 pm
They gave a short sentence with no details that in Poland and Hungary (also with troops in Iraq) there were reports of a government building in flames and a shopping centre in Budapest being evacuated, but nothing since….
July 7th, 2005 at 1:21 pm
I was in the NYC subways on 9/11 as the trains jerked to a stop every 15 seconds. When I finally got to my stop, I was furious that it had taken me so long to get to work…of course, then someone told me that it was okay for me to be late because a jet had just crashed into a building downtown.
I know a load of people out there in the world find it fashionable to hate Americans right now, but hopefully some of them will realize our people are not the sum of our foreign policy. I can assure you that millions of us are waking up to the news of the attacks in London, and millions of us wish we could be there to help.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:23 pm
Wikipedia has gone nova.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:26 pm
Thames Clippers
Due to the explosions in London today we are putting on free travel on the river on all of our boats. For more information please call us on 0870 781 5049
http://www.thamesclippers.com/
July 7th, 2005 at 1:28 pm
No “fear and panic” to be seen in Canary Wharf.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:31 pm
I know it is early days but when we get talk of one or two confirmed casualties is it possible that they and the suspected suicide bombers are one and the same?..
July 7th, 2005 at 1:33 pm
Having seen the pics of the damage, I’d expect more than one death from that bus. Looks like the device was at the rear of the top deck.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:35 pm
HM the Q has released a statement expressing shock and sympathy while praising the emergency services.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:36 pm
Some good news:
In light of events in London today, the National Blood Service would like to reassure the public that blood stocks are currently healthy and it will meet the demand for blood from hospitals if requested.
All blood donors who are due to give blood today should keep their appointments. Anyone wishing to give blood or who would like to know where their nearest blood collection session is should call 0845 7 711 711 or log on to http://www.blood.co.uk.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:36 pm
You Brits need to wise up. Of course this is the work of a few “extremist” muslims, and the majority are “peaceful” and will “condemn” the attacks, but that is all smoke and mirrors – DECEPTION.
They all send money and support, they will take over your country and make your dhimmitude formal.
Set an example and hang some Dune Coons from the tower gates!
Mike from NY
July 7th, 2005 at 1:36 pm
thanks for the updates!
July 7th, 2005 at 1:39 pm
until you Mike, I was under the impression that New Yorkers weren’t quite as crap as other Americans. You do your city, your country and the human race a disservice with your existence.
Please correct that error.
hugs and kisses.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:40 pm
Just to add to the comments on the email, there are always lots of rumours flying around after these events, most of which turn out not to be true. I can remember the reports of a car bomb at the State Department on 9/11, for instance.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:41 pm
Mike for NY:
Either keep that crap to yourself or take it to the nearest online sewer that will tolerate it.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:42 pm
I’ve just heard an eyewitness account that a suicide bomber was shot at Canary Wharf… can anyone confirm?
July 7th, 2005 at 1:42 pm
text message from the Greater Manchester Police which reads as follows:
2NO OF EXPLOSIONS HAVE OCCURRED IN LONDON. THESE ARE CURRENTLY BEING INVESTIGATED – INCREASED VIGILANCE IS REQUESTED AS A PRECAUTION
July 7th, 2005 at 1:43 pm
Mike, I’m a New Yorker living in London. I saw the towers collapse on 9/11 and I saw the blood on the streets today, but I refuse to turn on a sizeable portion of British citizens simply because they might share the same religion or ethnicity as the attackers.
Shut up and stop giving the rest of us New Yorkers a bad name, you twat.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:44 pm
I think the Canary Wharf story is untrue. Of course we can’t be sure but that rumour started over an hour ago and it’s still not been reported by a reputable news source.
Also, having talked to people who work there- all seems calm.
Dan
July 7th, 2005 at 1:45 pm
Just reading on another site that the bus explosion may not have many casualties. Apparently the tops are quite light and flimsy to keep the overall weight of the bus down.
If that’s the case, the top would have blown off immediately and the majority of the blast force would have escaped directly upward out the gaping hole and not be distributed around the bomb as intended.
This design may have saved many many lives.
Keep the reports coming folks for those of us who can’t get to a TV.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:47 pm
24 confirmed dead now: weak source (policeman on the street and in Glasgow, but that’s what they are being told at the mo)
July 7th, 2005 at 1:49 pm
“The vast majority of the congrgation at Finsbury Park Mosque, and other mosques, are decent, honest and honourable people who will be as horrified by today’s events as we all are.”
Your clever sarcasm cheered me up! I can tell it’s sarcasm as I work near a mosque.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:50 pm
You know Mike, I sang your national anthem on Monday with my hand in my heart because I believe in what it stands for. I believe in your country, sometimes more than my own. It was my home for a long time, and I was there on 9/11.
I spend a large portion of my life defending the USA, explaining to my fellow europeans why people like you feel the way you do, that you’re scared, and that you want to hang on to something tangible and easy rather than confront the ethereal greys of the world. I apologised for people like you. I thought I understood you.
Now something similar (albeit smaller scale) has happened to us, and this is how you respond. So don’t expect people like me to try to understand you, try to help you, or try to stand up for you. Never again.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:51 pm
Truly Allah is merciful and greaet to smite you zionists even in your city!
Q
July 7th, 2005 at 1:51 pm
Kneejerk reactions are counterproductive, we all know that. Just as everyone has remained calm, we need to examine this with a cool head and react rationally. Mike, you just made an ass of yourself. Most Brits won’t lose their heads over this. Any that do and attack muslims should face the full force of the law. Keeping our composure is the highest form of respect we can show for the victims and their friends and families. And as for the individuals taking the opportunity to attack those opposed to laws and regulations that are robbing us of our civil liberties, well, you shame yourselves.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:53 pm
After this attack are all the infidel Londoner’s going to run to the nearest Mosque and pray to Allah for forgiveness?
Better yet, why not get it over with and institute Sharia Law in order to show tolerance to those who wish you dead.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:54 pm
is there still anti-global trouble in edinburgh/stirling or has this been knocked on the head?
July 7th, 2005 at 1:54 pm
Mike –
Cut the crap. Everybody with a brain knows that Muslims are against this type of thing, as they’ve been continuously speaking out against it, having countless protest marches against terrorist activities, forming their own taskforces to root out such extremists, cooperating on all fronts with the authorities in multiple countries, opening their mosques for investigators, not hindering investigations in any way, refraining from raising money supporting such groups, speaking praises on efforts to hunt down such extremists, passing out lollipops and kittens, and singing Kumbaya on an endless loop.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:56 pm
I live next door to the Finsbury Park mosque; if the mood in the streets when I get home tonight is anything other than sombre and depressed, I’ll eat all the hats the wingnuts provide.
Mike in NY: you’re a cunt, and I wish you’d died in the place of one of the innocent victims today.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:57 pm
Mike from NY:
One word – NORAID
Now shut the fuck up!
July 7th, 2005 at 1:57 pm
Met police now confirming four events:
Tavistock Sq bus bomb
L’pool St/Aldgate/Moorgate tube
Russell Sq/Kings X tube
Edgware tube
July 7th, 2005 at 1:57 pm
You have our condolences for these barbaric attacks on your citizenry. These monsters have no soul and have no conscience. Blowing up a bus�. They make me sick�
I love how Americans are viewed by the very minuscule amount of idiots that voice their opinion on the internet. If any of you have ever been to Middle America share it with your friends. They have no idea what America or Americans are really like. It is almost as if people use anything as a lens to focus their asinine pre-conceived notions even tighter than it were before.
July 7th, 2005 at 1:59 pm
Mike,
The kufr will kneel and bow his head to the sword
Q
July 7th, 2005 at 1:59 pm
I am collecting a list of informative links (without commenting on them) on my blog: http://www.aboutthisboy.co.uk/blog/ so please feel free to comment and add new links to help friends etc. http://www.aboutthisboy.co.uk/blog/2005/07/07/explosions-in-london/
July 7th, 2005 at 2:00 pm
>>> I can tell it’s sarcasm as I work near a mosque.
Funny, I’ve worked with the congregations of Mosques and with those of Gurdwaras, Ashrams, Synagogues, Churches, etc.
And in all that time I’ve met nothing more than a whole of decent, honest people.
I wonder who has the more accurate opinion here…?
July 7th, 2005 at 2:00 pm
So George said to Tony. Well we are right behind you on this Tony, we’ll bomb Teheran by Tea Time
July 7th, 2005 at 2:02 pm
Right as much as I would like to think that the bus blast looks worse than it is..
Have a look at this close up..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fgt/24238458/in/pool-74918957@N00/
:-(
July 7th, 2005 at 2:03 pm
And again:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigdaddymerk/24237683/in/pool-74918957@N00/
Oh shit.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:03 pm
Can I just note at this juncture that as this in the British blog talking about an attack in Britain in which British citizens have been killed and injured, the last thing that any of us Brits are going to appreciate is…
…fuckwit trolling from overseas.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:05 pm
Soul – I did live in middle america. And do love to tell people about the great people I met there. But people like Mike from NY make it a losing battle.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:06 pm
what fucks these people off most? people who won’t bite or those they have polarised? as i have said, forget what cause they are fighting for..remove that and you have what they are…murderers…plain and simple..whatever colour etc
July 7th, 2005 at 2:06 pm
John W: Bloody hell. The BBC aren’t showing anything like that.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:08 pm
Well said Unity. Nice call on NORAID by the way, having been on the receiving end of that funding for most of my life I can really appreciate its benefits. Oh and anon blogger, stop showing off your knowledge of Islamic terms, they still show you up for the bigoted bastard you are. Your actions would isolate an innocent community and give succour to the bastards that carried this out today.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:08 pm
A quarter of a century of Jihadist attacks against the West and yet, despite another attack upon innocent civilians, the surviving victims rise up to demand respect and tolerance be given to the very ideology which encourages such barbarism.
Appeasement has failed.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:11 pm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/czottmann/24235324/in/pool-74918957@N00/
Right some food for the trolls, follow the link you trolls and post on their with your palls.
For the sensible, anyone know where that photo was taken?
July 7th, 2005 at 2:12 pm
Condolences and sympathies from America.
Hope you get the bastards who did it and string them up.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:12 pm
Please don’t feed the trolls.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:13 pm
I just wanted to thank you for all your great updates during the day.
I guess I lied. One thing more In response to some of the comments posted: please, I beg you all, most Americans aren’t anywhere near as insane as some of the posters on this blog. After all, Muslims pray three times a day, and a lot of Americans would love that…
But seriously, speaking for myself (because that’s the only person I can speak for) I respect Islamic faith and, in my experience, have found Muslims to be among the first to condemn terrorist activity of any kind, let alone Al Qaeda. I feel ridiculous even writing this message, but the fact that I have to write it is not ridiculous, it’s terrifying. Islam does not equal terrorism, and the Americans who think so are a tiny minority.
And I’m from Kansas. KANSAS. Our New York friend knows that that hardly makes me your butter-milk liberal type.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:13 pm
Apparently there will be a major annoucement at 3pm which will hopefully shed some light on how we all get home tonight.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:14 pm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigdaddymerk/24233597/in/pool-74918957@N00/
Funking hell look at the blast damage on the wall, I think thats near the bus.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:17 pm
“Just reading on another site that the bus explosion may not have many casualties. Apparently the tops are quite light and flimsy to keep the overall weight of the bus down.”
I think this might be true. When a double-decker whacks into a railway bridge, as it does regularly at Finsbury Park, the top just slices off. Sothere may only be 3 or 4 dead from the bus, rather than the 30 I’d feared.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:18 pm
The pictures are Tavistock Square
July 7th, 2005 at 2:18 pm
I am reading this site from Boston, and it is giving me a far better indication of what is happening in London and how people there are coping than any of our television networks.
Not everyone here thinks like Mike. Please know I am sickened by these atrocities, and am praying for the victims of these heinous crimes.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:18 pm
Thanks for keeping us informed — excellent work under difficult circumstances, I’m sure. It was comforting just to have a steady stream of information, knowing it would be improved and refined as more became known. My condolences to any and all.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:19 pm
Can we just get back to reporting what’s happening and stop slinging shit around?
July 7th, 2005 at 2:19 pm
Quote from Louisa Baldin on BBC news..
“The front of the BMA building is splattered with blood”
Fuck
July 7th, 2005 at 2:21 pm
Just to reassure some of our American visitors, we do know that wingnuts are very much in the minority over your side of the pond.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:21 pm
The Bus was a No. 30 from Hackney
July 7th, 2005 at 2:21 pm
The bus was a number 30 coming from hackney to marble arch, was hit at 10:45.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:21 pm
“For the sensible, anyone know where that photo was taken?”
Apparently it was near the BMA building.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:23 pm
yip sod the slanging..are we looking at a miracle here, number of fatalties wise?
July 7th, 2005 at 2:24 pm
The police have confirmed the explosion was in the top of the rear of the bus, but can’t confirm if it was a suicide bommer.
Now I am no terrorist, but if it was me I’d sit in the middle on the bottom….just speculationg that last bit of course.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:25 pm
“If we are . . . going to be destroyed by [a] bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things–praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts–not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs.”
–C.S. Lewis
July 7th, 2005 at 2:26 pm
People in London…
Have they closed the mobile phone network or not?
July 7th, 2005 at 2:27 pm
“despite another attack upon innocent civilians, the surviving victims rise up to demand respect and tolerance be given to the very ideology which encourages such barbarism.”
I know. I saw an ITV clip this morning, interview of someone who was on one of the trains.
He was blaming the emergency services for not responding quick enough, said it was “almost a travesty”.
Asked what he thought of “whomever” carried out the attacks, he said “Well speaking as a barrister, I wouldn’t want to prejudge, but I pity them.”
(Interviewer: “Pity”?) “Yes, pity. Anyone who could be driven to such cruelty deserves my pity”.
And that, my British brothers, perfectly illustrates the problem. Screw pity, these bastards don’t needs counseling, or to get in touch with their feelings, or more foriegn aid…
They need to be stopped, KILLED, and without mercy or hesitation. If not, they will do you. Bank on it.
Mike from NY
July 7th, 2005 at 2:29 pm
Mobile phones are working in London but the networks are pretty jammed, so it’s hard to get a call through incoming or outgoing. Landlines and ‘net access unaffected.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:29 pm
Can you switch off anonymous comments please
July 7th, 2005 at 2:29 pm
Texting people seems to be working fine- not to sure about calling.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:30 pm
someone post this mike twats i.p. address, i am sure we could find a use for it.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:30 pm
Mobile networks are up, but providers are giving priority to emergency services. Text messages seem to be the best way to get in touch with people
July 7th, 2005 at 2:30 pm
Not sure what to make of this…
Netanyahu Changed Plans Due to Warning
July 7th, 2005 at 2:31 pm
Yeah, I think the phones are down. Friend of mine’s dad works in the MoD and said they ordered all phone networks to be taken down periodically to prevent any detonations, plus an awful lot of people ringing other people to check they’re ok, so it’s still not easy to phone people.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:33 pm
Are there any people who look Arabic on the streets?
And if so, how are people reacting to them?
July 7th, 2005 at 2:34 pm
In case anyone’s missed this update from Nosemonkey…
14:17 – and, for the record, the anonymous comments purporting to be from celebrating Muslims appear to be coming from the same computer as that from which Mike was posting. Nice one, Mike, you tit.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:34 pm
Poons – the mobile phone networks are still up, but most of the capacity is being reserved for emergency calls. It was impossible to get through earlier, but I’ve been able to make some calls since (On Orange to another Orange phone. I’ve sent and received texts to T-Mobile as well)
July 7th, 2005 at 2:35 pm
Are there any people who look Arabic on the streets?
And if so, how are people reacting to them?
Same as usual I expect – we don’t tend to go much for lynchings over here.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:35 pm
guardian:
1424 Suddenly, the terrible scale of today’s attack becomes clear. Ambulance sources suggest 23 people have been killed at King’s Cross, nine at Edgware road, seven at Aldgate, two at Russell Square. There are hundreds – possibly more than a thousand – injured.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:37 pm
To John Wards: if you were taking a bus at rush hour, you’d sit wherever humanly possible.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:37 pm
that’s good Anthony.
The same cannot be said for us Americans.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:37 pm
Poons – I’m going to leave them – just shows him for being the twat he is. A sterling testimony to the kind of attitude that makes everyone pissed off with the US, even though we all actually have great affection for America and most Americans.
John – even if all my stat things hadn’t crashed under the strain, I still wouldn’t post IPs – even for someone that stupid. He’s probably only 14 anyway, so it’d just fuck his parents off.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:39 pm
Mike,
Give it a rest. Now is not the time or place. People are dead. Things remain confused and uncertain. There’s enough on their plate without your yammering. Pray for them, help them, or get out of the way. But keep your screed private for now.
kevin
July 7th, 2005 at 2:39 pm
Stations are re-opneing, all will be open again soon with the exception of Kings Cross
July 7th, 2005 at 2:40 pm
Go to
http://www.flickr.com/groups/74918957@N00/pool/show/
for continuous slide show of pooled images.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:41 pm
wikipedia are referring to abul hamza going on trial today…but no details. Anybody know any more?
July 7th, 2005 at 2:41 pm
Oh, and Don – I passed a couple of Muslim girls on the way back from the pub. No one reacting at all. Because, contrary to the beliefs of some people who’ve posted here today, there’s tit all reason to be suspicious. After all, if you’re an Islamic terrorist you’re hardly likely to dress in traditional garb, are you?
July 7th, 2005 at 2:42 pm
ok, would have giving something to do ;-)
Re: the bus.
I’m from the sticks, you can sit where you like on a bus :D
How does it work in rush hour? Downstairs full including standing room then upstairs?
Just hoping its not a suicide bommer as that is a step my brain does not want to ake just yet.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:42 pm
I don’t think it fair to either judge all Muslims by the actions of a few, or all Americans by the comments of a few…
I’m sure that I can safely say that the vast majority of Americans wish to convey their heartfelt sympathy for the events this morning and stand with England in our prayers and sentiments.
Hopefully, we can all work together against these extremists to end their evil.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:44 pm
Mike – if that barrister you quote from ITV this morning can say that, doesn’t that say a damn sight more about his humanity than a desperate hunger for vengeance?
July 7th, 2005 at 2:45 pm
We real New Yorkers are with you, just like you backed us up on 9/11. I’ve contacted my friends at Canary and they’re all ok. I’ll hoist a few pints for you all this afternoon.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:45 pm
I hope this is taken in the spirit in which it is intended:
http://www.b3ta.com/board/4857946
July 7th, 2005 at 2:45 pm
Not sure what to make of this…
tricky i think
July 7th, 2005 at 2:47 pm
God bless you all in London. I am very proud of the way you seem to be conducting yourselves in the face of such evil.
This blog, BTW, is by far the best coverage of events I’ve seen thus far today (currently 3:46AM London time).
Our prayers and thoughts are with you.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:47 pm
Whilst i know that Mike is a tit, i can see his rather reactive point. The murderers need to be caught and punished. However, my question to him is this: although the just outcome, what exactly will that do to reduce the risk of terrorism? Having grown up in Belfast (that’s in Northern Ireland Mike) my life has been affected daily by terrorism. You can kill the American funded IRA, you can break the legs of the British backed UVF, but by and large if the communities from which the terrorists come do not reject them wholesale (and i’m not suggesting that the british islamic community supports terrorism) then there will continue to be terrorists. To really defeat terrorism we need to defeat poverty, abandon unilateral action, admit that colonialism, old or new, is criminal, and address injustice wherever it occurrs, be it in oil rich nations or not.
Steve V
July 7th, 2005 at 2:52 pm
Just heard that the BNP are spamming local authorities up here in the North West with racist e-mail of the “Muslims out” variety, apparently from spoof addresses in other local authoritiesd and financial institutions.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:53 pm
barbobot,
Are you a Moslem fanatic? Did you help bomb the Tube? Your comments say you are that type.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:53 pm
im so sorry this happened. it hurts so much. i hope you know that when the s*it hits the fan americans will ALWAYS go to the mat for you. WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!
RIP VICTIMS
stephen washington dc usa
July 7th, 2005 at 2:54 pm
now saying only 4 explosions
liv st/aldgate east
rus sq/euston
one blast each apparently
from the BBC
July 7th, 2005 at 2:55 pm
at least 40 killed apparently
July 7th, 2005 at 2:56 pm
Interesting stuff. All the rumors remind me of what it was like to be in DC on Sept 11 when every 2 minutes there was another warning of a suspected bomb here, another plane there, suspicious packages outside the state dept etc. Hard to increase the signal to noise ratio in the opening stages.
Stay safe. I’m taking your advice and heading out for a smoke.
Cheers-
MH
Dupont, DC
July 7th, 2005 at 2:56 pm
http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/0200sport/sportlatest/tm_objectid=15711306%26method=full%26siteid=50081%26headline=london%2d2012%2dcelebrations%2dcancelled-name_page.html
cancelled events
July 7th, 2005 at 2:57 pm
I am 100 yds from Aldgate and can tell you that the great British reaction has been….to go to the pub. If in doubt, get drunk!
July 7th, 2005 at 3:05 pm
God Bless the UK.
Another american pissed off at that fuckwit Mike.
July 7th, 2005 at 3:06 pm
live blogging also at http://www.livingroom.org.au/blog/archives/london_explosion.php
July 7th, 2005 at 3:09 pm
I’ve gotten unconfirmed reports from a couple seperate sources that actions are being taken in Toronto (Canada) to add a bit more security to the transit system there. Extra police and security staff called in. Nothing has happened yet. I’ve not been able to confirm this yet, so take with a grain of salt.
Canada sends its condolences folks. Good to see that you Brits are taking it in stride and keeping your wits about you. Looks good on ya!
July 7th, 2005 at 3:10 pm
if you are going to the pub do not accept a drink off this guy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5124651,00.html
July 7th, 2005 at 3:15 pm
Steve V,
I really object to your claim that poverty has anything whatsoever to do with this.
This is about people who hold to a creed of hatred and violence.
July 7th, 2005 at 3:23 pm
If I were there, I’d have a pint and a smoke with you and count it an honor. The British have more backbone than anyone.
July 7th, 2005 at 3:24 pm
hold to a creed of hatred and violence
How rude of you to speak of Mr Bush in such a way
July 7th, 2005 at 3:27 pm
Met police unable to confirm numbers of dead in bus bombing at this stage
July 7th, 2005 at 3:29 pm
If anyone wants me, I’ll be at the pub.
July 7th, 2005 at 3:32 pm
“We argued, as did the security services in this country, that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain. Tragically Londoners have now paid the price of the Government ignoring such warnings.” George Galloway in the Guardian. Anyone else fed up with him whining all the time?
July 7th, 2005 at 3:35 pm
The first explosion took place at 8.51am outside Liverpool Street. Seven people are confirmed dead. Five minutes later, there was a second explosion at Kings Cross, where 21 people died. At 9.17 a blast at Edgware Road killed five. At 9.47 was the bus explosion; there are fatalities, the amount so far unconfirmed. No warning was received, and no organisation has claimed responsibility.
Victoria station is currently closed due to a bombscare; I hope this turns out to be nothing.
July 7th, 2005 at 3:35 pm
Galloway is a literate nob..he would have probably argued that we should have kept out of europe in 1939, rehearsing his ‘I told you so’ for the blitz….
July 7th, 2005 at 3:36 pm
My Condolences for the dead, My Best Wishes to all Londoners.
Thomas in Atlanta
July 7th, 2005 at 3:45 pm
Press conference said they want people to start thinking about going home soon, obviously they don’t want everyone leaving at the same time though.
July 7th, 2005 at 3:46 pm
Hi, horrible day.
Must say thank you for your liveblogging of it all. It has been my primary source all day, especially whilst main news sites slowed down under the pressure.
I am off home shortly to kiss my kids!
July 7th, 2005 at 3:52 pm
This sucks.
Condolences and prayers for Londoners. Keep the faith!
Thanks for the liveblogging.
July 7th, 2005 at 3:56 pm
Prayers to you all from America!
Just so you know, our federal security level hasn’t increased but locally within cities like NY, Boston, L.A., etc. There is now a large police presence and an increased sense of anxiety, caution, and everyone is certainly very alert of their surroundings. The subways and tunnels especially. We are obviously, just as vulnerable as London.
Mike from NYC is a complete twat! I would have asked to forgive him as an initial reaction of anger which is normal for most Americans. However, his IP is posting a variety of posts and he’s proven himself to be quite the troll. So just ignore him, he does not represent the majority of Americans.
The majority of Americans don’t blame peaceful Muslims, we blame the radical Muslims who have hijacked Islam in their bloody rampage. A Moroccan Imam has just been arrested and linked to 9/11, Madrid, and other attacks along with other top level AQ terrorists. He apparently met with the 9/11 hijackers themselves as well as those involved in the Madrid bombing. His travels were far and wide throughout Europe.
Very impressed by the reaction on the street in London, you Brits are always so collected emotionally.
An American of Scottish decent, God Bless you all and may you find your way home to be with your loved ones as soon as possible.
July 7th, 2005 at 3:57 pm
If anyone can post a transcript of Blair’s and Bush’s reaction it would be great. All I can get are excerpts. Best wishes to all, and support the war on terror.
Robert, Dallas, TX USA
July 7th, 2005 at 3:59 pm
In the USA our deep sympathy goes out to the British people.
Maybe more will realize now that we are fighting a war against a ruthless and barbaric enemy.
Most Muslims don’t support this – but all too may refuse to speak out against it.
Let them show their support for their adopted homelands by helping to bring the culprits to justice – or justice to the culprits.
- KSM
July 7th, 2005 at 4:03 pm
My condolences to you and your countrymen also. Our CNN coverage has listed 45 dead with at least 45 more critical.There are many more injuries. The live interviews of victims seem to protray them as being in shock-understandable.
July 7th, 2005 at 4:06 pm
Romania stands with you all… and our hearts go out to those who were injured and the families of those who lost loved ones today.
Pax
July 7th, 2005 at 4:07 pm
Robert:
Blair transcript:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/docs4/pm_statement.html
Most comprehensive report on Bush I can find:
http://tinyurl.com/7ejr9
July 7th, 2005 at 4:18 pm
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1188285,00.html
EYE WITNESSES SUGGESTING BUS DRIVER COULD HAVE BEEN INVOLVED?
July 7th, 2005 at 4:19 pm
All overground rail stations are now open, apart from King’s Cross.
All underground services still suspended, but a few may restart this evening.
Bus services returning to normal; Zone 1 services were suspended so it’ll take a while for them to get back to normal.
There was a small area of Heathrow evacuated due to a believed dodgy package, but it’s back to normal now.
Congestion charge suspended today.
TFL website might be useful for getting home.
July 7th, 2005 at 4:24 pm
Not religious…but for fairness sake…I have to post the religious intolerances of the bible. People condemn the Koran for telling people to kill worshipers of false gods…the Bible perhaps does this even more:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/intol_bibl3.htm
Deuteronomy 13:12-15 “If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying, Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known; Then shalt thou inquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you; Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.”
July 7th, 2005 at 4:29 pm
So, where all all those idiots who were supporting the “10 Euros” idea? I don’t hear them now…
July 7th, 2005 at 4:29 pm
Way to ignore the entire New Testament, Anon.
Let’s not have a religious debate today, this is hardly the time for pettiness.
July 7th, 2005 at 4:29 pm
My thoughts and prayers are with all Londoners today.
Please stay true to your principles and don’t let any extremists from anywhere deter you from following your own consciences.
Blessed Be,
Heiuan in South Florida
July 7th, 2005 at 4:32 pm
“Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, tot he end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”
Mike does poor justice to American sentiment at the moment, but it makes little sense to argue with a fool. Our hearts and thoughts are with you.
July 7th, 2005 at 4:38 pm
Seems London is doing a really admirable job of dealing with this. Best of luck.
July 7th, 2005 at 4:39 pm
Certainly, my first and strongest response is empathy. But my heart and my thoughts are also with my brother who fights for our freedoms in Iraq against cowardly terrorists. I just hope that some people gain some perspective from this…we are fighting for our very lives.
July 7th, 2005 at 4:44 pm
Right don’t want to be grim, but I’ve been looking at this picture:
http://static.sky.com/images/pictures/1312849.jpg
It looks like the from the rear wheel backwards is gone.
A whole bus here:
http://www.londonbusroutes.net/photos/JPEGs/002-vla040.jpg
I would speculate that 20 seats are missing.
:(
July 7th, 2005 at 4:45 pm
Fighting in *IRAQ* ??!!
Bollocks to that. As Steve Gilliard says : -
“So Porter Goss knows where Bin Laden is? He might well fucking decide to go get him now….”
“Every Delta Force member, every CIA paramilitary and officer in Iraq, is one which is not hunting the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Central and South Asia. “
July 7th, 2005 at 4:47 pm
A tragic day for a great nation.
All of America mourns your loss.
Tom from Michigan
July 7th, 2005 at 4:48 pm
Brian
“a creed of hatred and violence” indeed. However, issues such as inequality and poverty, although not the direct causes of terrorism, in their own way provide a suitable environment for terrorism.
In Northern Ireland the vast majority of those involved in paramilitary organisations, loyalist and republican, are from deprived areas. People with not much to lose are, more often than not, the pawns of a brutal ideology.
I hope you’re safe…
Steve V
July 7th, 2005 at 4:53 pm
It was not part of their blood,
It came to them very late
With long arrears to make good,
When the English began to hate.
They were not easily moved,
They were icy-willing to wait
Till every count should be proved,
Ere the English began to hate.
Their voices were even and low,
Their eyes were level and straight.
There was neither sign nor show,
When the English began to hate.
It was not preached to the crowd,
It was not taught by the state.
No man spoke it aloud,
When the English began to hate.
It was not suddenly bred,
It will not switftly abate,
Through the chill years ahead,
When Time shall count from the date
That the English began to hate.
- Kipling 1914
God Bless
July 7th, 2005 at 4:54 pm
“Way to ignore the entire New Testament, Anon.”
Way to ignore all that came before whatveryourname was.
“Let’s not have a religious debate today, this is hardly the time for pettiness.”
Were you shaking uncontrolably with mirth as you typed that? Petiness? Are you MAD? YOur Government are off Crusading around the world in YOUR NAME
July 7th, 2005 at 5:08 pm
Thoughts and prayers for all the Britons from here in Chicago.
I stand in awe at the calm yet determined resolve you’ve shown in the face of this hideous disaster. Be proud, stand tall, and don’t let these psychos get you down.
Ignore NY Mike, he’s a dope and a jagoff and in no way represents 300 million plus Americans, least of all us midwesterners.
R. Morrow
Chicago, Illinois
July 7th, 2005 at 5:15 pm
All the complaints about trampling on other’s rights and customs ignores the fact that the people with these rights and customs are almost invariably downtrodden and persecuted by the same people supported by the blogger doing the complaining.
The US and its allies are far from perfect. But look at what the US and Great Britain have done in the 20th Century. Great sacrifice with only the gain of a better world for all.
July 7th, 2005 at 5:15 pm
Hearthfelt condolences from New York. Our thoughts are with the people of London and the UK. We hope for the recovery of those hurt. Shame on the assassins behind this monstruosity.
July 7th, 2005 at 5:19 pm
bjbarron – Us English don’t hate anyone, ever. We hold a fair few in contempt, but it’s hard to hate people when you know that you’re better than everyone else… ;)
July 7th, 2005 at 5:37 pm
You’ve done an excellent job of blogging this today. We’ve been so worried about y’all – thanks for bringing the news to a regular American family.
We (meaning almost every American I know) love you Brits, and respect the essential goodness and steel-reinforced backbone of the British people. I am so sorry that these terrible things happened to you guys today. You have our prayers, and our complete support.
July 7th, 2005 at 5:37 pm
well I hope that everyone is alright and that nothing else has happened since.. condolences and tears for those hurt, killed, or bereaved in the UK, and just a short note to urge you guys to stay strong.. whatever you do, don’t let them use this sort of tragedy to force you into ID cards or privacy compromises. That would just be disgusting.
love from canada,
c/o Julia S.
July 7th, 2005 at 5:41 pm
“Whither thou goest I will go, and whither thou lodgest I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Even to the end.”
From a US country boy to all y’all over there.
July 7th, 2005 at 5:46 pm
Knowing exactly who has died and what happened is a debt we all have to the victims. But the next conversation has to be about what you’ll do next, and that’s all wrapped up in the argument about why London got hit today. You either think this attack would never have happened but for British support of America’s war, or you think Britain was a target anyway, later if not today. I think this was an Islamist attack. And the only reason they wouldn’t throw the punch at Britain is because they could put their boot on your throat through politics and immigration. Are you so tolerant that you’d tolerate people who’d see you dead for having a pint or holding hands with your girl in public?
July 7th, 2005 at 5:51 pm
Willboyd – yes, yes I am indeed that tolerant. I’ll refer you to this post from last year. I stand by it. This is just another terrorist attack I’ve experienced, it changes nothing about my opinions of how to respond:
We change ANYTHING about the way we run our lives, we’re giving in to the bastards. I refuse to give them that satisfaction, even if that means I may get blown to fuck one day. It’s a matter of principle.
July 7th, 2005 at 5:54 pm
I was impressed by how calm and collected the coverage/security services have been to this event. Of course London has been attacked before by cowardly terrorists. I live in Central London and spent the day making sure my mates were alright and telling them who was accounted for. I liveblogged it the entire day to provide for my readers from other parts of the Anglosphere who knew people in London.
My thoughts are with those who are injured or lost loved ones.
No retreat, No Surrender.
July 7th, 2005 at 5:55 pm
From Canada -
There are no words to properly convey “I’m so sorry.”
Great blog, by the way. I love your attitude, and how you refuse to be cowed by this. I love that you went to the pub :-)
July 7th, 2005 at 5:59 pm
Condolences to all. Too much of ANYTHING is not good.
July 7th, 2005 at 6:02 pm
Jess – what else are we going to do? We’re British, damn it!
July 7th, 2005 at 6:06 pm
Please ignore the misguided Americans… They do not make it easy for the rest of us at home or abroad. The majority of us are with you in thought and prayer and like-mindedness. Be safe.
July 7th, 2005 at 6:12 pm
Dude, it’s been about two hours since your last report. Are you all right? Or is your phone and therefore your computer offline? Check in when you can and be safe.
July 7th, 2005 at 6:13 pm
Nosemonkey,
Thats a pretty impressive post. I’ll have to wait until later so I can do it justice. That said… Threats to civil liberties don’t just come from our governments. Sometimes your government is defending you from the threat to your rights. Maybe you assume that Britain will ALWAYS be able to weather splinter sect terrorism without collapsing as a society. But even if you’re willing to tolerate the risk of being blown up, isn’t it a little arrogant to assume the risk on behalf of all your fellow citizens? Respecting principle to the limit of national suicide would be a greater tragedy.
July 7th, 2005 at 6:18 pm
kudos on the day Nosemonkey, sterling stuff and 100% agreed on your statements re: why us Brits are such splendid chaps.
Hopefully the world can learn something from us today.
July 7th, 2005 at 6:23 pm
Thank the Lord that the Brits are not Spaniards. We shall fight together now as we have in the past.
Sympathy, Respect, Love.
Seattle, WA
July 7th, 2005 at 6:31 pm
Yes, a mate of mine and I are going to dinner tonight. Sod the damn Islamists I will go eat pork and drink win!
July 7th, 2005 at 6:36 pm
Thank the Lord that the Brits are not Spaniards.
That was totally callous and uncalled for, not to mention ignorant. The Spainairds don’t like being lied to–that’s why Aznar lost, among other things. A lesson you can learn. And you can bet the Brits would respond the same way if Blair claimed that the Al Quaeda bombed them if it had the hallmarks of the IRA. (NOT trying to bash the Irish, just making a quick point.)
Educate yourself. And if you and the “Mikes” of the world can’t add something to the conversation, kindly shut your trap. The information provided here has been first rate and I’d like to continue to learn more, not suffer the idiotic.
July 7th, 2005 at 6:41 pm
bjbarron –
That’s a bad choice of poetry.
Kipling waved the flag in 1914. Four years later, minus a son, his views had turned 180.
For today’s England – secular, fatalistic, phlegmatic – Larkin’s much more like it. Try this:
Half life is over now,
And I meet full face on dark mornings
The bestial visor, bent in
By the blows of what happened to happen.
What does it prove? Sod all.
In this way I spent youth,
Tracing the trite untransferable
Truss-advertisement, truth.
July 7th, 2005 at 6:42 pm
I’m a 20 year old Spanish girl from Madrid and want to express my condolences to you English people and especially to Londoners. Spain and especially my city understands your feelings right now and stands with you all… my heart and the heart of ALL Spanish people is really with the injured people, the families of the lost loved ones and everybody there suffering.
Seattle, WA I didn’t understand what you meant, I guess you are not very informed about Spanish people. We are all united against terrorism and for peace. Please don’t think things that are not true… ignorance makes racism.
Gracias.
July 7th, 2005 at 6:45 pm
Nosemonkey-Please ignore with dignity some of the rash and over the top comments of my countrymen. Now is not the time for ill considered acts but for an implacable resolve…your spirit cannot be overcome by the heinous acts of a few nihilistic madmen. Your attitude reminds me of one of my favorite speeches-the “We shall never surrender” speech by WC, 06/06/40
We salute you and, rest assured, will stand by you.
Kirby G.
Phoenix AZ
July 7th, 2005 at 7:21 pm
obviously Spanish girl did not see on TV hordes of poeple shouting “Aznar murderer” and “the bonbs you drop in irak fall on us in Madrid” in front of the Spanish Conservative party headquarters the night before the election.
from Madrid, Thank God the British are not the Spanish!
July 7th, 2005 at 7:26 pm
Some more Kipling
FOR all we have and are,
For all our children�s fate,
Stand up and meet the war.
The Hun is at the gate!
Our world has passed away
In wantonness o�erthrown.
There is nothing left to-day
But steel and fire and stone.
Though all we knew depart,
The old commandments stand:
�In courage keep your heart,
In strength lift up your hand.�
Once more we hear the word
That sickened earth of old:
�No law except the sword
Unsheathed and uncontrolled,�
Once more it knits mankind,
Once more the nations go
To meet and break and bind
A crazed and driven foe.
Comfort, content, delight�
The ages� slow-bought gain�
They shrivelled in a night,
Only ourselves remain
To face the naked days
In silent fortitude,
Through perils and dismays
Renewed and re-renewed.
Though all we made depart,
The old commandments stand:
�In patience keep your heart,
In strength lift up your hand.�
No easy hopes or lies
Shall bring us to our goal,
But iron sacrifice
Of body, will, and soul
There is but one task for all�
For each one life to give.
Who stands if freedom fall?
Who dies if England live?
July 7th, 2005 at 7:30 pm
NOTE TO VISITORS FROM LITTLE GREEN FOOTBALLS:
We’re going to disagree on the reactions we should have to these attacks.
We can, however, agree that the people who did it were scum.
People are dead. Let’s leave the petty political spats and “analysis” for another day, OK? Cheers.
July 7th, 2005 at 7:38 pm
obviously Spanish girl did not see on TV hordes of poeple shouting “Aznar murderer” and “the bonbs you drop in irak fall on us in Madrid” in front of the Spanish Conservative party headquarters the night before the election.
Obviously, Anonymous LGFer didn’t see the huge marches throughout Spain against the terrorist outrages in Madrid just before the elections. I was in Spain on that weekend, and anyone who says the Spanish don’t care is ignorant of the facts.
BTW I’d advise you not to continue to score political points over dead bodies whilst lecturing entire nations about whether about they care about terrorism. It looks callous and unfeeling to say the least.
July 7th, 2005 at 7:39 pm
I’m an American from California who has no love for George Bush; think he’s a twit, basically. I think we went to Iraq based on lies, am hating what is being done to that country in our name.
THAT BEING SAID however, I am beginning to change my mind that all need be done is to allow the Fundamental extremists to keep Western Culture from overwhelming their countries and they would all be satisfied and play nice.
I am beginning to feel that they are terrorists to anyone, Western or Eastern who does not see the world through their religious colored lenses. They are completely Retro in their thinking, much like the Christian fundamentalists in our country, But as I said to my daughter, with the exception of Abortion clinic bombers, a few individuals….they don’t seem to be attempting to convert others at gunpoint, or “bombpoint’. The Islamic extremists appear to not even give a shit about conversion ultimately, it is about obliteration of any dissent whatsoever.
In this case, I have to disagree with Nosemonkey. While I support tolerance and I do…..to tolerate persons who are OUT TO KILL you and yours is folly. These guys are no better than Hitler was, just not as saavy at molding public opinion little by little.
The world HAS to say NO to these fascist, mysogynist fanatics. Why should we roll over and die for these guys? I DO think we have to reconsider the entire Iraq situation and deal with reasonable people on both sides…..and I DO think we are creating more terrorists by our presence there; that doesn’t mean that we need to bend over for them, we DO need to seriously get after them, perhaps not on that soil or in that circumstance but we really MUST stand up to them, wherever.
This goes for the fundamentalist extremists of all the religions who purport to follow edicts of some Bronze Age prophets to anhilate “infidels” or “idol worshippers” etc. That thinking is so Retro and so out of step with 2005 human relations. We cannot succumb to it.
July 7th, 2005 at 7:45 pm
We are so very sorry that this has happened. Please accept our sympathies for your losses.
July 7th, 2005 at 7:47 pm
Please disregard stupid comments from “Mike” & other angry-but-clueless posters. Please accept my condolences for those who have perished, the wounded & their families.
Now please, please wake up to the fact that islamofascists really do want us all dead, & act accordingly. Support your government & your troops.
July 7th, 2005 at 7:48 pm
My condlensces to all the UK, and to the other dozens of countries who now have their citizens killed and maimed by this cowardly act. It just makes one so furious that in such a great country as yours, people can be amongst you who intend to tear it all down in the name of a stupid religion.
On another note, don’t believe any anyone when they sign their posts “Mike from NY”, or “X from Y”.
A friend who blogs was getting alot of “Frank from TX”, and this person was making lots of jingoistic, arrogant remarks. After an IP check, the perpetrator was actually from a university in the UK.
So, don’t believe anyone who posts such tripe as Mike did, he is probably not from the US, and his name is most likely not “Mike”.
Rick M.
Tampa, Florida.
July 7th, 2005 at 7:49 pm
can someone post the link to the user submitted images on the beeb, i got the link from bloggerheads.com…..can’t copy and paste on my phone.
over head shot of the bus, looks like more than half of the seats on top are gone.
July 7th, 2005 at 7:59 pm
Great blog….I work in the City and was also moved by the phlegmatic way people walked home (to Zone 4)…without making a fuss.
Ken Livingstone might be a disgrace to a great city but for once I think he’s absolutely bang on…
“I want to say one thing, specifically to the world today – this was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful, it was not aimed at presidents or prime ministers, it was aimed at ordinary, working-class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian … young and old … that isn’t an ideology, it isn’t even a perverted fate, it is an indiscriminate attempt at mass murder.”
“They seek to divide London, they seek Londoners to turn against each other … this city of London is the greatest in the world because everybody lives side by side in harmony. Londoners will not be divided by this cowardly attack.”
Livingstone also had words specifically for the terrorists: “I know that you personally do not fear to give your own life in exchange to taking others [that is why you are so dangerous] … but I know you do fear you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society … in the days that follow, look at our airports, look at our seaports and look at our railway stations … you will see that people from the rest of Britain, people from around the world, will arrive in London to become Londoners, to fulfill their dream and achieve their potential … whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail.”
July 7th, 2005 at 8:08 pm
As often, many take any opportunity available to express their political opinions. It is unfortunate that people are unable to control themselves, during such a time as this, as if their hatred of their political opposition stains all aspects of their lives. It seems that they cannot, even when expressing a desire to keep things non-political, keep from typing “even though” or “but”, ready to express blame or distaste with “so and so” or “those people”.
Now is a time to reflect on the good and kind people who were simply making their way about their errands on another day in London, their lives tragically cut short or drastically altered by those who do not value life itself.
May those who suffer the most find some sense in the senseless. Blessings to the British people in their time of confusion and need.
July 7th, 2005 at 8:10 pm
I can’t impress enough how much this horrible event you have endured today affects us as well.
Our hearts cry out for some resolution to this insanity.
Shit, this whole thing is/has been getting WAY out of hand.
You (England) are all on our hearts and minds.
July 7th, 2005 at 8:11 pm
My appologies for my countryman, known as “Mike from NY”. He is of the racist/ignorant variety that enjoys blaming entire racial or ethnic groups for the problems committed by a few. Please don’t take his opinions to reflect the general opinion of Americans – we all think people like him need to take a hike off a short pier. Anyway, you Brits do rule.
July 7th, 2005 at 8:17 pm
Todays killers must be punished. Let’s not start flapping flags though people. That attitude allowed our countries to be led by the nose into Iraq. For those who died, and continue to die out there, yet more Kipling:
“If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied”
Be careful who you quote.
July 7th, 2005 at 8:18 pm
Stuck as I am in Indiana, a Londoner-in-exile, I’ll be doing my bit to support the British export industry at this time … if only I can find a decent pint of beer.
Seriously, I have been in touch with friends and as far as I can tell no-one close to me has copped it so far. I hope it stays that way.
Whoever did this … NOW let’s see if they REALLY like it up ‘em!
July 7th, 2005 at 8:19 pm
Stiiv – we all support our troops. I’ve got two very close friends in the army out in Iraq at the moment. But I flatly refuse to support the government. The two don’t go hand-in-hand over here.
July 7th, 2005 at 8:25 pm
God bless the UK. I’d fly the Union Jack is I had one.
BTW-some site claims a UK Gitmo released prisionor was involved. Might be BS but if true, I imagine the terrorist appologists are going to have hell to pay.
http://www.homelandsecurityus.c
om
Grendal the Yank.
July 7th, 2005 at 8:27 pm
Just waking up to this story (in Japan).
To Londoners and the UK: America will stand with you in your grief and your resolve to ensure the safety of your fellow countrymen who love peace.
July 7th, 2005 at 8:28 pm
The war is against western civilization, the battle fields are around the world. To deny this is to be defeated. Frankly, I am tired of the Iraq nonsense you hear coming from the left. If you recall, while al-Qaida was building strength during the 1990’s, there was virtually nothing done by anyone to combat the growing threat.
My question is what will we do with Iran? A nuke, even a small one, would be far far worse than what has happened today. Iran has pledged to nuke Isreal, do we just sit and wait, then watch it happen?
July 7th, 2005 at 8:30 pm
Words cannot express how sad I feel for you guys. My heart sank when I heard about this on the radio this morning.
S from California
July 7th, 2005 at 8:33 pm
Grendal – the Metropolitan Police don’t know who did this, so I’d treat that as bullshit until any actual evidence turns up. Today has been full of rumours – that’s all we know.
July 7th, 2005 at 8:33 pm
Rick M from Tampa -
Let me see if I got this right. When Mike from NY was pretending to be a jihadist, he was actually someone else entirely pretending to be Mike from NY pretending to be a jihadist?
Wow, you really have to be on your toes these days.
July 7th, 2005 at 8:34 pm
While Mike from NY’s racial insults betray his ignorance, don’t let your own responses to him betray your own:
The Religion of Peace at work since September 11, 2001.
July 7th, 2005 at 8:37 pm
Corrected Link:
While Mike from NY’s racial insults betray his ignorance, don’t let your own responses to him betray your own:
The Religion of Peace at work since September 11, 2001.
July 7th, 2005 at 8:39 pm
As someone who lost a brother on 9/11, i woke in tears this morning for all the Londoners who were so greatly hurt, scared, or murdered. The response of the British People today will win the admiration of the world. You have mine along with my deepest condolences. I stand with Great Britain as do many fine Americans. Stay strong and proud.
[D]o not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning.This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.
Churchill
July 7th, 2005 at 8:39 pm
on some of the more hyperbolic comments: I do hope they’ve read this. Or this.
July 7th, 2005 at 8:39 pm
If there is any possible silver lining to this tragedy, it’s that the entire world gets a reminder of what Brits are made of.
I drove past the British embassy on the way to work this morning, as I do every day. A statue of Winston Churchill stands in front of the embassy, facing Massachusetts Avenue. After seeing the reactions here and elsewhere, it shows just how futile any attempt to bomb Britain into submission will be. Pubs open, the Fiver blathers on about silly football news, and no one gives the scum who did this a chance to celebrate their ‘victory’.
This gushy, emotional American has learned a great deal from you today, Britain.
July 7th, 2005 at 8:47 pm
Sorrow and grief and rising anger from the heart of N. America. I wonder if the the kaffir-hooded thugs I saw on CNN a few weeks back promising to kill Tony Blair and the USA, etc. etc. are celebrating. The police were busy protecting them at the time. These vipers should be deported from British soil at the very least. Those who will not be assimilated can not be assimilated and will only work for your and our destruction. Give them no advantage.
July 7th, 2005 at 8:59 pm
“The vast majority of the congrgation at Finsbury Park Mosque, and other mosques, are decent, honest and honourable people who will be as horrified by today’s events as we all are.”
I stand with the British people in their time of need, and I am horrified by the loss of innocent lives in the terror attacks today. But the politically correct nonsense I am reading here is exactly the type of garbage that allows the Islamists to continue to operate so freely, planning and carrying out more bombings and killings.
While I certainly do NOT agree with “Mike” and his notions of vigilante revenge, I find many of the comments here, such as that quoted above regarding the Finsbury Park Mosque, to be suicidally naive and almost as sad as the terrorist attacks themselves.
Finsbury Park Mosque is a hotbed of Islamic extremism and jihad recruitment, and no amount of PC make-believe or self-delusion can change that. I wouldn�t be at all surprised to find out that today�s suicide bomber came from that very Mosque.
Please, stop deluding yourselves and pretending Islam is a “religion of peace.” It dishonors those who lost their lives today.
July 7th, 2005 at 9:00 pm
Nosemonkey –
First, congrats on a fine blog.
Look, if you don’t like your government, then vote them out. This is something we take for granted in Western society.
But when it comes to matters of life & death, both on an individual & national scale, “supporting the government” does not mean you must support policies you disagree with; it means you must do the right things to help governmental entites preserve life & liberty. Churchill had many opponents in the political arena, yet they rightly closed ranks when the nation was fighting for its life.
July 7th, 2005 at 9:00 pm
July 19th 1985 Greenpeace’s “Rainbow Warrior” sunk in Auckland Harbour by group of 13 French Secret Agents, killing one person and wounding others.
2 arrested spent 10 months in NZ jail then sent for 3 years to French Polynesian island “jail” and then returned to France to hero’s welcome and wrote a best selling book about their terrorism.
July 7th, 2005 at 9:01 pm
Speaking for myself and my family, I want to say that our thoughts and prayers will be with our fine British friends in the coming days. We visited England just last year and stayed in a B&B just across from King’s Cross station, which makes it all a little more real for me.
You made it through the Blitz, you’ll make it through this. Just don’t give those terrorist bastards the satisfaction of seeing you scared. Show them the same steely resolve that made Goering give up in frustration.
Rule, Britannia!
Sloan
Atlanta, GA
July 7th, 2005 at 9:04 pm
Stiiv – we tried our utmost to vote them out. Only 22% of the electorate voted for Blair and co. Sadly, thanks to the insanity of an early 19th century electoral system, the got back in with another big majority.
This would have happened anyway, of course. Such is life.
July 7th, 2005 at 9:05 pm
Find them. Kill them. Flense them. Grind them to coarse slush and dump it in the dirtiest river you can find.
Hammer them.
July 7th, 2005 at 9:34 pm
-From France
Condolences, and admiration.
I know Londoners will cope,as you did in the past. But those poor people… You’re in our mind (yes, even in France…)
July 7th, 2005 at 9:35 pm
That last post (to an article about previous attacks on London) is “spot on,” you’re right… and seems so small in comparison…not irrelevant, not something to dismiss, but still a run-of-the-mill attack at best…
July 7th, 2005 at 9:46 pm
The Director of the Institute of Islamic Thought in London, Dr Azam al-Tamimi, while condemning the bombings as barbaric, took the opportunity to criticise leader Blair.
Some blamed the British leader’s
policies for the blasts
“If there is some party that should be held accountable for killing the innocent and spreading terror and chaos among the British people, it should be the government of Tony Blair,” al-Tamimi told Aljazeera.
He said it was a combination of what the British prime minister and his government had done that led to this disaster.
Britain’s role in Iraq and Afghanistan, the abuse of Muslim detainees by British soldiers in Belmarsh prison in London and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, and even the latest utterances of Blair on his return from Singapore after winning the bid for 2012 Olympics, against “extremists”, which al-Tamimi said was a veiled reference to Muslim organisations, all contributed to the blasts.
“This blow was expected any time,” al-Tamimi said.
July 7th, 2005 at 9:50 pm
SELF-RIGHTEOUS HAND-WRINGING. JUST SHUT UP.
In the light of all the self-righteous hand-wringing and self-indulgent anger around in blog world today, perhaps people might like to look here. Or here. And ask themselves where was their outrage yesterday? Or the day before? Or the day before? And they think one day of this this is terrible?
July 7th, 2005 at 9:50 pm
Chirac can laugh at British food; I tend to think it gives one backbone. You survived the Nazis and the IRA, you’ll survive this as well, but it’s a pity you have to face this new horror. My prayers, sympathy and admiration to a great nation.
Mpav in NYC
July 7th, 2005 at 10:19 pm
Sincere and heartfelt condolences for the innocents and their families. For each and every one of them this is an unspeakable tragedy. God bless and keep them all.
A superb article by Tim Worstall on Tech Central Station. Has some excellent quotes from Nosemonkey. Link is here:
http://www.techcentralstation.com/070705UK.html
Spells out the consequences for the perpetrators very well… As I’ve stated a few times on this blog, I don’t know a whole lot about the your customs and politics, but I do know you don’t quit or scare very easily. I’ll take bets against that fear and panic thing.
Good luck to you all…
July 7th, 2005 at 10:34 pm
My regards and regrets are for London and the victims. Keep it up and don’t let those bastards change your ways!
July 7th, 2005 at 10:35 pm
My condolences to the British people and Londoners in particular. I have no doubt that this attack will strengthen our collective resolve to deal with these terrorists for what they are: facist murderers who despise the values embraced by Western civilization.
Our prayers are with you today. I only wish there was a local pub around where I could buy a Brit a drink.
July 7th, 2005 at 10:35 pm
My condolences to the British people and Londoners in particular. I have no doubt that this attack will strengthen our collective resolve to deal with these terrorists for what they are: facist murderers who despise the values embraced by Western civilization.
Our prayers are with you today. I only wish there was a local pub around where I could buy a Brit a drink.
July 7th, 2005 at 10:40 pm
Just to say, thanks. You helped keep me sane at work today.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:39 pm
Since Blogger doesn’t support trackbacks, I just wanted to let you know that I’m linking to this story on my site, findingjohngault.blogspot.com. Keep up the good work.
July 7th, 2005 at 11:39 pm
I had never come across this blog before today but I just wanted to thank the person(s) involved in posting all this information, especially when the BBC et al. was getting hammered!
Thanks and keep up the good work :)
July 8th, 2005 at 12:00 am
I am disgusted that Tony Blair has not admitted any responsibility for what has happened today. For it was his response to 9/11 that has led a tragedy for America being turned into a war, one in which we did not expect any casualties except our military personnel. When a Prime Minister declares war he should be fully prepared to take responsibility for the deaths of his public, he must prepare for the possibility that those attacked will strike back – that is the reality of war.
Terrorism is not restricted to the acts of individuals in 9/11, Madrid, or today in London, it also encompasses the Shock and Awe bombing of Iraq, and the attitudes of those in the Western world unable to realise that suffering is not a Western phenonema. It takes place all over the world when innocent people go about their daily routines only to be killed by someone and something out of their control.
I urge everyone who wishes to remember those who died today in London to also remember those who died in Iraq and Afghanistan, for their suffering is no less than ours. War is not a road to peace, extremism is not addressed by extreme violence in return, or quelled by it; but instead grows with each bomb we deploy against it.
July 8th, 2005 at 12:20 am
“War is not a road to peace, extremism is not addressed by extreme violence in return, or quelled by it; but instead grows with each bomb we deploy against it.”
Good job, Kevin. Maybe if we all just hold hands and just like, tune into the love and understanding vibes, the Islamic terrorists will put away their guns and bombs and will accept us as brothers.
After all, doesn’t “jihad” really mean an internal struggle to do good deeds? I am sure I heard that on the BBC.
July 8th, 2005 at 12:36 am
If the Muslim communities do not immediately and decisively comdemn this attack then they are complicit.
The Hobo
July 8th, 2005 at 12:38 am
Thoughts and Prayers from the US!! I wish I could be there today and work with the RedCross as much as I did when my own country was attacked. Remeber not to punish those around you. The world contains fanatics, but is not full of them. Be strong for your families and your country!
Georgia, USA
July 8th, 2005 at 1:14 am
Just wanted to send thoughts and condolences to the British citizens from Canada..
July 8th, 2005 at 1:27 am
America and all free people stand with Britain today, just as Britain did with us in our times of sorrow. there are many nations enduring the war against terrror. every person who dies was a father or a brother, husband, mother, sister, wife someone who was loved and will be missed. that is a universal truth, grief and saddness have no special language or skin tone.
There are people in this world celebrating this tragedy, those are the enemy of all of us. Not just the Americans or the Brits. They live with us while condemening the society we have built. They think it is alright to KILL PEOPLE who don’t believe as they do, sometimes they even kill people who DO believe as they do.
That is wrong in todays world, not that it was ever OK. most people know it, others have to learn it, somethimes by force.
I will drink a pint of Guiness, salute the British, and quietly share your sorrow.
July 8th, 2005 at 2:09 am
What a horrible tragedy for such a great people. In my travels, the people of London always treated me with decency and friendliness. My heart goes out to all of you.
The murderers may have mistaken the civility of the Brits for weakness. Hitler made the same stupid error. The world saw then that Brits have steel backbones, and I’m sure we’ll see it again.
Please ignore the bleatings of my less intelligent countrymen. We have to put up with them for the sake of free speech.
July 8th, 2005 at 2:45 am
God save Britain.
Indiana, USA
July 8th, 2005 at 3:09 am
I just had to say, that you and your fellow countrymen should be proud. These (well, for lack of a better phrase…) lowlives have not kept you from holding your head high!
I’m so sorry that Great Britain has had to suffer this kind of terrorism on your own soil. We in the US are praying for all of you because we know that this kind of tragedy affects an entire country, not just the families of those who are lost. Please just know that we are with you today, and always!
July 8th, 2005 at 3:32 am
Read the link “spot on.” It is.
I’m just another American sending my respects and condolences. Please don’t be angry at us for sounding militaristic. Please don’t be hateful in responses, but would like to hear your thoughts on this. Is this a law enforcement issue or a military issue? Or something we’re still trying to figure out?
We’re not advocating beating Islamic women in the streets…only Islamic men are allowed to do so.
Okay, that’ll catch me some hate remarks.
The folks that run my corner store are Iraqi. Shop there all the time…nice folks. Don’t want to go on too long, just please believe we mean this: An attack on Britain is an attack on ALL OF US! I know you cannot be cowered. We respect you so much (don’t have the words, sorry)
Not anonymous. Brian Walker, San Diego California
July 8th, 2005 at 3:39 am
Our prayers are with all of you.
We called our daughter today. She’s in Paris with her fiance. She was in tears. She had proposed to her fiance in London a few months ago because she thought it was the greatest city “across the pond”, and believe me, she’s seen’em all. She sends her best wishes to all.
Nothing else to say, I guess.
July 8th, 2005 at 5:02 am
Just want to say thanks for your coverage.. I am in Australia but Have friends and family in London. Australians have been very impressed by the way average londonders as well as Blair have reacted. No nationalitic bullshit (take note, America), but calm actions and that fantastic british humour. Well done.
July 8th, 2005 at 6:04 am
No nationalitic bullshit (take note, America)
Exactly.
What the Americans don�t realize is that as soon as you begin to defend your nation after an attack like this, you automatically become nationalistic. You end up putting your own nation’s needs (in this case the selfish desire to not be blown up on your trains and busses) above the needs of the global village.
This is a common mistake the Americans always seem to make, and is a reflection of their intolerance of other cultures. As if they have some god given right to secure public transportation systems, what nerve.
July 8th, 2005 at 6:55 am
Dear anonymous,
No offence to American victims of terrorism was meant in my previous post.
I just found it interesting to compare English and American reactions to such terrible events.
There is nothing wrong with loving your country, but defending it to the point of ignorance about your global role in the world is kind of scary.
July 8th, 2005 at 7:07 am
I’m an American, and I plan on studying in London this fall.
Even though you British are very resilient and tough, it does not give you some right to shit on the United States and make comparisons here. We’re a younger country than you, admittedly in general we are less experienced in the hard knocks of life.
But if you want to shit on someone, go shit on the terrorists. Americans are not the enemy, here. We’re not perfect, we’re dealing with this the best we can and admittedly I find that the way that the U.S. has reacted is at times shameful. But I don’t see how insulting America is going to help any. (Well, on the other hand since I will be living over there, I should just get used to it…)
We should be working together as best we can rather than throwing insults and causing more rifts.
I never supported the war in Iraq. But these monsters have been after the civilized world BEFORE Bush. BEFORE Iraq. BEFORE Clinton.
Personally, I think these kinds of people will not stop attacking until we are praying to Mecca several times a day, and I, as a woman, am in a burqa.
Left or Right, Hawkish or Pacifist: we may or may not agree entirely on how to deal with terrorism, but we need to agree on one thing: who the REAL enemy is: Al Quaeda.
July 8th, 2005 at 7:31 am
For those who think Islam is a ‘peaceful religion’… get real. Read the Koran. If you are not a Muslim, you are not worthy in the eyes of that religion.
Like it or not, it’s a barbaric religion that suppresses women and enslaves its society with medieval thoughts and practices.
Get this: the Koran forbids a Muslim man who owns a business from passing it on to his sons (let alone his daughters!) in his will. And these people think that is a healthy attitude to take in today’s world?
Please, let’s all stop saying how ‘nice’ the Muslim religion is and look at the truth here. Maybe we’ll put a stop to this blowing people up shit a little sooner.
Get fucking real. Look at what’s really happening. What have Muslim nations done to stop the terrorists?
Fucking NOTHING. Nothing. Oh, okay, gee they had a meeting yesterday and ‘denounced’ it. Like that fucking does anything. And the terrorists know it. They are evil as well as smart, and will work any angle they can to get their goals met.
My greatest fear is the unbelievably large numbers of people who continue to think that ‘it’s just the terrorists’ and that Muslims are ‘nice.’ Perhaps some are, but the almost complete ambivalence if not total lack of responsibility by the leaders of the Muslim nations in the face of what is going completely floors me.
You think the Muslims are ‘nice’? Fine, we’ll stay over here on this side of the pond when all hell breaks loose in Eurabia… which is what a lot of us here in the US are beginning to think Europe is becoming.
In the meantime, here in the US many are admiring the strength and composure of the British right now.
I’ll keep that in mind when something rips through my neighborhood… as I’m sure it will at some point.
And finally, to the owner of this blog: don’t post crap about Americans praying a lot or being overly religious. That’s total rubbish and you wouldn’t want to alienate folks who could seriously lend you a hand in the Western-Islamic war that is surely going to explode at some point over there…
Or would you?
– RC in California
July 8th, 2005 at 8:04 am
Yes RC I think muslims are ‘nice’ – my daughter’s best friend is a muslim, the girl I copied my hoemwork off in school was a muslim, half my brother’s sunday soccer team are muslims, the woman who looked after my kids when I was in hospital was a muslim, two of my ex-boyfriends are muslims, the guy who shares an office with my husband is a muslim.
I don’t think you’re nice though, I think you’re a fucking idiot. Go sell that shit somewhere else, London won’t buy it and neither will the most of the rest of the country.
July 8th, 2005 at 8:20 am
New York Yankees players Alex Rodriguez (13), Derek Jeter (2) and Robinson Cano (22) observe a moment of silence for the victims of the terror attack in London
Members of the St. Louis Cardinals observe a moment of silence for those who were killed in the terrorist attacks in London
The electronic sign at the NASDAQ Market Site in New York’s Times Square displays a message and British flag in honor of the victims of Thursday’s bombings in London July 7, 2005.
Police officers raise a British flag in front of the State Department in Washington, D.C., Thursday, July 7, 2005, in remembrance of those killed in the London bombings.
July 8th, 2005 at 9:31 am
I’m a muslim Londoner living close to the places that were hit. Here’s my 2 cents.
Some muslims (or jews, christians, hindus etc) are extremists but it doesnt mean all extremists are muslims (or jews, christians, hindus.)
Some americans are idiots but it doesnt mean all idiots are american.
Royston.
July 8th, 2005 at 10:35 am
My heart goes out to all who lost their lives, and their families. My prayers are with them.
I frankly expected this, it had all the hallmarks of an Al Qaeda operation, down to taking advantage of the security forces being drawn to Gleneagles and the co-ordinated and timed attacks, staged in the morning to take advantage of the News Cycles. Doubtless with the arrest of Finsbury Park Imam Abu Hamza the usefulness of London as a staging point for jihad was at an end.
However, I think some posters here are delusional. Terrorism nearly always works. Including in Britain. Why else is Gerry Adams leading a political party in Parliament instead of rotting in jail? Kenya, Algeria, the PLO (the Munich 1976 massacre of Israeli athletes garnered huge sympathy … for the PLO), Beirut, Achille Lauro, Buenos Aires, Beslan, Madrid, 9/11 and Thailand are all successes in part for the political people behind the killing.
Look at Beslan. That was a huge success for Basayev. Putin couldn’t even save toddlers and Basayev looked totally ruthless in striking terror into the hearts of the kufr among his followers. Sadly, this is likely a huge success for Al Qaeda and bin Laden just as 9/11 was. I’m certain the millions of people who hate people living their own lives in freedom are celebrating this murderous attack. Bin Laden looks strong while Bush and Blair look weak. (Terror always has two audiences, the target and your followers and potential followers).
Terrorism succeeds when the cost of eradicating it ala Hulugu Khan or Josef Stalin is not sustainable. In modern democracies it’s just easier to give the terrorists what they want. Sadly that’s inevitable. The blitz gave Londoners no real choice. Red Ken and George Galloway have already implied an attack on rich and powerful people would be OK with them (shades of Ward Churchill’s “little Eichmans”) and drew a moral equivalence to US and UK troops and the terrorist bombings in London. Don’t forget Arafat was greeted with applause at the UN when he strode on stage with his pistol. Gerry Adams rides around in a Limo instead of rotting in jail. Mau Mau won didn’t they?
Since WWII, terrorism is almost always guaranteed to work, when the target is a democracy. That’s just the way democracies are, because no one wants a long struggle and it’s easier to pay them to go away or just surrender. I saw a placard at Live 8 on CNN “9/11 — Inside job/frameup” … that’s just the way it is. In a year or two your politicians will call it a “train accident” just like ours now call it a “plane accident.” The dead will be forgotten and the surviving killers unpunished for the “peace process,” just ask the Omagh survivors.
I’ll note that during WWII, the Nisei community was treated horribly and illegally. Forcibly removed from their homes and sent to concentration camps in horrible places like Manzanar (the ugliest part of California) or Wyoming under horrible Winter conditions. Their property seized illegally and they were plunged into poverty. All because they were wrongly suspected of sympathies or being in the pay of Japan.
Yet … they volunteered in astonishing numbers to fight for the country that wrongfully imprisoned them (they were US citizens who had committed no crime and done no wrong). The Nisei battalions were among the most highly decorated and sustained the highest casualties of any American units during the war. These guys volunteered right out of their concentration camps into pure hellish combat. The reaction to 9/11 in this country by Muslims has been … silence followed by carping over discrimination and profiling at airports. The LA Times reports Pakistani immigrants in Lodi CA drove around town during 9/11 honking horns and waving the Palestinian flag in celebration. (This in an aside about the recent arrests by the FBI of jihadis plotting to kill Americans there). Three weeks ago an American Muslim group organized a demonstration against terrorism (with CAIR and other large American Muslim organizations pointedly not participating) in Washington DC. The rally drew 50 people and was outnumbered by onlookers and Capitol Police.
From this side of the pond the silence from London’s Islamic community is deafening, echoing the silence in the NY Islamic community after the 1993 WTC bombings, and various foiled attacks in NYC up to and including 9/11. No blood drives, raising money for the victims and their families, no public calls by Imams and other community leaders to assist the police in finding the bombers. No community effort to aid the exhausted rescue workers. No public and visible demonstrations of condemnation of the bombing and terrorism. Nothing.
Perhaps a UK resident can enlighten me about what’s going on in London and some things haven’t been reported on BBC and CNN. However to this California observer it seems that when it came time to stand up and be counted the Islamic Community in London stayed home. Just as they stayed home in NYC.
London: NYC, Jerusalem, Beslan, Bali, Pennsylvania (Shanks Field flight 93), Alexandria Virginia (Pentagon), Tel Aviv, Buenos Aires, Baghdad, Rome, Madrid, Thailand and the Philippines all know how you feel. I’m sure their prayers are with you as are mine.
July 8th, 2005 at 10:45 am
RC in California – I bow to your evidently superior knowledge.
Tit.
July 8th, 2005 at 10:58 am
Oh – last anonymous – what “deafening silence” from London’s Muslim community? There were condemnations of the attacks from the Muslim Council and every mosque in the country almost as soon as it became aware what was going on.
And a note to our American chums – we’ve just had a particularly unpleasant law put forward in this country making incitement to religious hatred illegal. I’d therefore be grateful if you could keep your theories about the nature of Islam to yourselves, if only to prevent me from getting arrested for letting them be published on my blog. Ta.
July 8th, 2005 at 1:19 pm
Nosemonkey,
great blog.
To everyone currently making a large number of suppositions and mouthing off accordingly – fuck right off. This was horrible but so are your proto-fascist comments. You are reacting to speculation, a course of action as irrational as the mindset required to carry out this type of horror. I live and work in the affected area of zone 1; but I won’t let this change my life because I won’t be cowed. Tonight will be an echo of last night – back down the pub, wine glass hoisted and fag firmly grasped between fingers!
Last point to the people currently stuck on quoting the texts of various religions – look at when those were written and the social codes applicable at the time. Now, can we all please begin to act like grown ups?
July 8th, 2005 at 1:19 pm
“Left or Right, Hawkish or Pacifist: we may or may not agree entirely on how to deal with terrorism, but we need to agree on one thing: who the REAL enemy is: Al Quaeda.”
You’d think that’d be obvious. Apparently not.
July 8th, 2005 at 1:23 pm
Ah yes, the Muslim Council of Britain – how could one forget the moment when its secretary-general Iqbal Sacranie refused to attend the commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz unless the organisers kowtowed to his demands that they include the ‘holocaust’ of the Palestinian intifada? Or his repeated attempts to suggest that even linking the words ‘Islamic’ and ‘terrorism’ is ‘Islamophopic’ and therefore open to prosecution by the law. As for the MCB’s carefully worded denunciations of yesterdays atrocity – the MCB may be racists, Jew-haters and supporters of terrorism – but they’re not stupid.
And before the usual liberals go off on one let me say that I know perfectly well that most Muslims are law abiding, decent people. Nontheless, as last years Home Office report noted ‘…there may be between 10,000 and 15,000 British Muslims who �actively support� Al-Qaeda or related terrorist groups.’
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1127740,00.html
10 – 15, 000 individuals in our own country that support a murdeous war of religious hatred against our own people, our own values. That is a helluva worry and if the ‘good’ Muslim community wanted to do something positive they could start by demanding the wholesale resignation of Iqbal Sacranie and his creepy outfit and its replacement by Muslims who share a recognisable sense of morality.
RC in California and Anon – very good points. Keep making ‘em. Oh, and Nosemonkey? Fuck you.
July 8th, 2005 at 2:09 pm
Treb – get to fuck and stop trying to score political points over the bodies of the innocent dead, there’s a good lad. You’re almost as bad as the fucking terrorists.
July 8th, 2005 at 2:11 pm
What percentage of the British population is now blaming Blair for this current attack instead of blaming the enemy? Aside from George Galloway, how many infidel Brits are running to the mosques begging for forgiveness for not believing that Islam will one day rule the world and all infidels will be exterminated?
Ironic that up until 6 million Jews were exterminated few believed the Germans were capable of such attrocious barbarism. Will it take the elimination of indigenious Europeans to recognize such barbarism is aimed directly at them.
A quarter of a century of Islamic Jihad War waged against the West yet people act as if this war is something new and is caused by poverty imposed, not by Islam’s own totalitarian rule, but by poverty imposed upon by Democratic societies.
Unbelievable.
By the way, Muslim is not a race it is a religion so calling someone a racist for questioning Islam’s motives is useless ignorance. Of course, no one is allowed to critize radical Islam, not even Muslims themselves, for if you do you will be murdered openly in the streets all in the name of Allah.
July 8th, 2005 at 2:13 pm
treb,
using your logic means that because most prisoners in the UK prison system are white (and therefore most likely from a judeo-christian background) all judeo-christian residents of the UK should be targeted as an anti-crime measure.
oh and imams don’t hold a position they can ‘resign’ from, you fool.
July 8th, 2005 at 3:58 pm
there may be between 10,000 and 15,000 British Muslims who �actively support� Al-Qaeda or related terrorist groups.’
*scratches head* And?
There is always a bunch of supporters for an extremist or terrorist group, regardless of religion, race, nationality and la la la. In other words, there are supporters for the IRA; supporters for the National Front; supporters for the Nation of Islam; supporters for Hollyoaks … ah, sod this.
In case anyone didn’t already say it, cheers to Americans, Spaniards and everyone else around the world for your well wishes. If only there was a global pub! :D
July 8th, 2005 at 4:17 pm
There is nothing wrong with loving your country, but defending it to the point of ignorance about your global role in the world is kind of scary.
Amber, I think that the point is that the US is so powerful that its “global role” is precisely what the US wants it to be.
Let’s not beat about the bush�or Bush�here. The Koran says some very unpleasant things about unbelievers. So does the Bible. But then the Bible had a section about “love thy neighbour” added: it had a non-violent revision, if you like.
The Koran has had no such non-violent revision. Some interpretations of this tract allow for the killing of oneself and others and, in some circumstances, encourages the practice: a good example being this silly girl, who was caught in an attempt to blow herself up in an Israeli hospital where she was receiving (free) treatment. She said that her “dream was to be a martyr”. As someone pointed out, this is aspiration not desperation.
The fact is that, if we are to engage with these people, even if it is the same way in which we engaged with the IRA, we have to understand their motivations.
We should not fly off the handle (which I’m afraid I was guilty of at some points yesterday), but we must accept that people do want to kill us. If we are to stop them, then we must understand why.
There has been a certain amount of breast-beating, especially from Gorgeous George and the Socialist Worker, about it being our�or, rather, our government’s�fault because of Britain’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. This may be an issue, but we must also remember why we went into those countries in the first place.
We have to face the fact that some fundamentalist Muslims do wish to kill us because we are not fundamentalist Muslims. These people will happily kill other Muslims as well (they are doing it every day in Iraq). We either need to find a compromise (which I, personally, do not believe exists), or we have to track them down and wipe them out. These are not the kind of people to whom we can say “live and let live”, simply because the fact that we do live is�at least in part�their motivation.
The fact that they are willing to use our “decadent” Western technology to kill us simply makes their hypocrisy additionally irritating.
Iraq was (probably) a mistake. Perhaps we should withdraw from Iraq, and leave her people to the tender mercies of the fanatics bombing them and us. It’s not the path that I would choose though. If you want to know why not, simply look at Iran; then go and put “free iran” into Google and read about what being a hardline Muslim state means for those living under its rule.
Anyway, I digress: you can read more about all sorts at my blog. I would like to thank Nosemonkey for keeping me informed yesterday, and say a “well done” to the people of London; you showed true British stoicism. Now, we have to attempt to make sure that this does not happen again.
July 8th, 2005 at 4:31 pm
Can anyone figure out how London copes so much better with fanatical terrorists armed with high explosives than it does with a little snow?
July 8th, 2005 at 4:58 pm
>> Treb – get to fuck and stop trying to score political points over the bodies of the innocent dead, there’s a good lad. You’re almost as bad as the fucking terrorists.
For what? For suggesting that
15, 000 Muslims who ‘actively support’ murderous religious fanatics pose a threat to our way of life? And let’s bear in mind that as an official home office figure that 15, 000 estimate will, of course, err or the conservative side. After yesterday’s atrocity one rather suspects that the dead – could they speak – might wish rather more people woke up to that disturbing fact and did something about it instead of accusing anyone who dares mention it as a political point scorer. But, hey, if I’m as bad as a terrorist for mentioning that then what does that make you, Nosemonkey? Why, I guess it makes you a gutless little coward doesn’t it? One of those wankers running terrified of linking the words ‘terrorist’ and ‘Islamic’, even when dozens of bodies lie on the streeets. See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil, eh, Nosemonkey? Sonny, when you decide to pull your head out of your arse, you let us know.
>>there may be between 10,000 and 15,000 British Muslims who �actively support� Al-Qaeda or related terrorist groups.’
>>*scratches head* And?
And yesterday at least 50 innocent people were murdered by individuals who likely drew support, shelter and encouragment from some of those 15, 000 British Muslims. Think about that – you fucking moron.
July 8th, 2005 at 5:10 pm
*sigh*
Yes, Treb. Well done.
July 8th, 2005 at 5:25 pm
Hey, Nosemonkey, Treb does have a point. S/he might be getting a little beligerant about it (it’s not a new idea) and this may possibly be not the best time to raise it, but nevertheless, Treb has a point.
It is a point that is raised in the Guardian article that you linked to here.
“London was not only a potent symbol with the national media, on hand to record any devastation, but it housed a large Irish community in which IRA active service units were able to move easily… The parallels with groups like al-Qaida, which can move within London’s large Muslim communities, are obvious…”
July 8th, 2005 at 5:31 pm
Four young British Muslims in their twenties – a social worker, an IT specialist, a security guard and a financial adviser – occupy a table at a fast-food chicken restaurant in Luton. Perched on their plastic chairs, wolfing down their dinner, they seem just ordinary young men. Yet out of their mouths pour heated words of revolution.
“As far as I’m concerned, when they bomb London, the bigger the better,” says Abdul Haq, the social worker. “I know it’s going to happen because Sheikh bin Laden said so. Like Bali, like Turkey, like Madrid – I pray for it, I look forward to the day.”
“Pass the brown sauce, brother,” says Abu Malaahim, the IT specialist, devouring his chicken and chips.
“I agree with you, brother,” says Abu Yusuf, the earnest-looking financial adviser sitting opposite. “I would like to see the Mujahideen coming into London and killing thousands, whether with nuclear weapons or germ warfare. And if they need a safehouse, they can stay in mine – and if they need some fertiliser [for a bomb], I’ll tell them where to get it.”
His friend, Abu Musa, the security guard, smiles radiantly. “It will be a day of joy for me,” he adds, speaking with a slight lisp
This Is London
July 8th, 2005 at 5:38 pm
Yes RC I think muslims are ‘nice,’ you idiot.
I happen to know several Muslims: a social worker, an IT specialist, a security guard and a financial adviser, and they are all just ordinary British citizens, like you and me.
July 8th, 2005 at 5:46 pm
Devil’s Kitchen – Treb makes his point exceptionally badly. You make it slightly better. Yes, terrorists are able to hide amongst Muslim populations. Yes, doubtless some Muslims in this country sympathise with/support the bastards – law of averages. But it is a tiny percentage of the Muslim population as a whole – even if those figures Treb gives are accurate (and how would the Home Office know, exactly? Do a survey? “Hello, I’m from the government – do you want to destroy us and our way of life? Yes or no?”)
Anonymous person quoting made-up and already debunked rumous from This Is London – that website is the online home of the Evening Standard and Daily Mail, both owned by Associated Newspapers. The Daily Mail is famous for, in the 1930s, running a headline stating “Hurrah for the Blackshirts!” – the Blackshirts being the British Union of Fascists. Associated Newspapers’ erstwhile head was a friend of Hitler. The papers that group publishes have continued to be fearmongering racist hate-rags ever since. It’s bollocks.
July 8th, 2005 at 5:49 pm
There is nothing wrong with loving your country, but defending it to the point of ignorance about your global role in the world is kind of scary.
Yes, those damned ignorant Yanks.
And arrogant too! What with their stupid Imperialist ambitions, having colonized half the planet, and drawing borders willy-nilly in the Middle East last century, they are the cause of all the problems we are facing now!
July 8th, 2005 at 5:56 pm
Our most heartfelt condolences, sympathies, and prayers for you. My heart breaks for you. This was a senseless tragedy. I apologize for some of my countrymen’s comments. Terrorist hate is fueled by politics and religion, why do some of us let it create hate in us, Mike?
Badmonkey in LA, USA
July 8th, 2005 at 5:59 pm
http://www.michaelyon.blogspot.com/
” Attacking our Family
The American soldiers here in Iraq who have seen the news about the attack on London, are angry. When the United Kingdom is attacked, our family is attacked. We are seeing news here in Iraq that civilians and children were killed in London. This is very distressing, as when we see the savages killing children here in Iraq.
It is also clear from the messages I am getting from London, that the people in the U.K. are reacting with great strength and calm. They always have been resolute people, and no doubt our family in the U.K. will react in a way unexpected by the barbarians who have attacked us yet again.
Sincerely,
Michael
Balad, Iraq”
July 8th, 2005 at 6:03 pm
Don’t read that “This Is London” trash. Islam is a religion of peace and no Muslim would want to bomb London.
Read the BBC instead:
In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world. Now they promise to protect us from nightmares.
The most frightening of these is the threat of an international terror network. But just as the dreams were not true, neither are these nightmares.
In a new series, the Power of Nightmares explores how the idea that we are threatened by a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion.
It is a myth that has spread unquestioned through politics, the security services and the international media.
At the heart of the story are two groups: the American neo-conservatives and the radical Islamists.
The Power of Nightmares: Baby It’s Cold Outside
You see, the BBC knows the truth: there is no terrorism – it is all an illusion. Those 50 people that allegedly “died” yesterday in a so-called “terror-attack?” They are really being held in a secret neo-con detention center under the American embassy.
July 8th, 2005 at 6:19 pm
Devil’s Kitchen – Treb makes his point exceptionally badly. You make it slightly better.
Why, thank you; I’ll take that as a compliment [no sarcasm intended]. Just smugness.
Yes, doubtless some Muslims in this country sympathise with/support the bastards – law of averages. But it is a tiny percentage of the Muslim population as a whole – even if those figures Treb gives are accurate
Most people, including myself, are aware of that. However, all I said was that he had a point. I am not suggesting that we drive all Muslims into the sea; I merely wanted to flag up a relevant idea that might possibly have become lost amongst the all the bellicose language (particularly the “you’re almost as bad as the terrorists” line. I think that may have been overstepping the mark somewhat: there is a considerable difference between lacking courtesy and moderation, and blowing up innocent people).
And for what it’s worth, I rather think that Treb’s implication that those stats are rather low is incorrect; I imagine that they are rather higher than the truth (or, as you pointed out, whatever truth the Home Office may have collated. Probably arrived at through the judicious use of a Bingo Card and a pin). But it is a good lever for our good ol’ Safety Elephant to justify his rotten ID cards with…
July 8th, 2005 at 10:39 pm
London mosque link to Beslan
A member of the group responsible for the Beslan school massacre last month is a British citizen who attended the infamous Finsbury Park mosque in north London, The Observer can reveal.
Two other members of the group, loyal to Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, are also believed to have been active in the UK until less than three years ago. They are suspected of taking part in the raid on the school in which 300 people, half of them children, died.
July 8th, 2005 at 10:47 pm
Whoop de doo. And Lenin studied in the British Library.
Your point is?
July 8th, 2005 at 11:48 pm
The Religion of Peace at work since September 11, 2001.
The peace-loving Muslims in the world aren’t in the positions of leadership in the Islamic religion. Either their number is too small or they are pushed out to the margins of the faith. Those who blindly and tacitly approve of the Islamic faith as it is professed and expressed in the world now do so to their own peril.
Now, you may feel safe in defending Islam. A day will come that will see you under Islamic rule. “But we defended you during the terrorist actions of the ‘minority’ so many years ago,” you will insist. They will neither reply nor acknowledge your loyalty to them. They will bend you over the butchers block and remove your head without the slightest hesitation or trace of regret.
July 9th, 2005 at 12:37 am
Not all Muslims are terrorists or supporters of terrorism. But we also shouldn’t bury our heads in the sand and pretend that the problem of Islamic terrorism doesn’t exist. One would think the tragic events in London yesterday would make that point rather painfully obvious.
Perhaps it is more than just a bit ridiculous to allow radical immams to continue to preach hatred of “infidels” and promote jihad in London mosques?
It’s not as if we don’t know who the extremists are, or that they are hiding their support for terrorism. They tell you straight out:
Omar Brookes, leader of Al-Muhajiroun in London, pushes aside a policeman as he delivers his speech…
Muslims protest before holding Friday prayers infront of the US Embassy on May 20, 2005 in London.
Islamic demonstrators wear suicide bomber costumes April 13, 2002 in Hyde Park in London.
July 9th, 2005 at 4:14 am
Well, Finsbury Park mosque is in the news again today; looks like the Palestinian leader of Al-Qaeda in Europe, the group that may have been responsible for yesterday’s terror attacks in London, used the mosque to established contacts with other terrorists. But I’m sure since Lenin studied in the British Library, it probably isn’t relevant or anything we should be concerned about.
“Move along people, nothing to see here…”
Islamic leader warned of London attack 15 months ago
LONDON (AFP) – An Islamic leader warned in a Portuguese newspaper interview 15 months ago that a London-based group, Al-Qaeda Europe, was on the verge of a major attack.
“Here in London there is a very well-organized group, which calls itself Al-Qaeda-Europe,” Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, the Syrian head of the London-based group Al-Muhajiroun, told the Portuguese daily Publico in an interview published April 18 last year.
“I know they are on the verge of launching a big operation.”
Bakri, 46, is suspected of having links with Abu Qatada, the alleged Al-Qaeda leader in Europe.
Speaking a month after the March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombings, Bakri said it was “inevitable” that London would be hit by a large attack “because they are being prepared by various groups.”
…Abu Qatada, the alleged Al-Qaeda leader in Europe, is a Palestinian whose real name is Omar Othman.
Sentenced in his absence to life in prison in Jordan for his alleged role in a series of attacks, Qatada is under house arrest after spending two and a half years in the Belmarsh high security prison in London.
The British government said last year that he was a radical preacher and the most important “inspiration” for terrorists in the country, including the men of Mohammed Atta, the leader of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
In his prayers, notably at Finsbury Park mosque, he established links with Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, and Zacharias Moussaoui, who was linked to the 9/11 plot and is being held in the United States awaiting trial.
July 9th, 2005 at 8:27 am
>>Not all Muslims are terrorists
Absolutely, however almost all terrorists are Muslims.
July 9th, 2005 at 12:06 pm
I hear Tony Blair wants UK Muslim community leaders to condemn all forms of terrorism� His friend Tom Friedman just wrote an article in the New York Times suggesting �solutions to this Muslim problem� such as having Arab teenagers wear T-shirts with anti-terrorist statements on them!
�Terrorism� is certainly a despicable activity�but masochistic self-incrimination isn�t much higher on the moral scale.
After 1944, a certain lobby literally harassed the Vatican and the French government (using guilt by association and other Pharisaic scare tactics) for nearly four decades until they finally got what they wanted: sheepish �repentance� for crimes neither the Catholic Church nor the French government ever committed.
Today, the likes of B-LIAR, Friedman, Wolfowitz, Perl, Cheneybusharielsharon & Co. want Arabs and Moslems to �atone� for sins committed by others! That�s�how shall I say? � err�kind of grotesque to use a polite word!
We should all condemn the tragic events that took place in London yesterday, but Arabs and Moslems shouldn�t forget to put things into perspective: in the past 14 years, British and American pilots flew thousands of illegal �sorties� over Mosul, Baghdad, and Tickrit, bombarding methodically Iraq�s civilian and military infrastructure: hundreds of schools, hospitals, factories were burned.
More than 90% of the country�s water treatment plants and sewage trunk lines were destroyed by Tony Blair and his �brave� Tornado top guns: according to official UN figures, more than 500,000 Iraqi children died of malaria and dysentery as a direct consequence of US and British air strikes cum illegal invasion and occupation of a country that posed no threat to the West (whether �imminent� or otherwise): that�s 10,000 times more than the number of commuters who died in London yesterday�yet these innocent Arab boys and girls got 10,000 times less media coverage in the Times, the Telegraph, the BBC, and other �civilized� news outlets.
You see Tony I�d rather wait for the Brits to do a little introspective atonement first. Then, I would expect them to write blood-lettered excuses on their chest: all of the UK�s T-shirt factories will have to work at full capacity for years before Maryam and other murdered Iraqi baby girls can finally rest in peace.
July 9th, 2005 at 4:13 pm
Islamist Alert: Abdel-Khaleq Qahtan a.k.a. AK Blogger (ak47@umma.org), post above.
Stone any women to death lately, Abdel?
July 9th, 2005 at 5:59 pm
Just heard that the underground blasts were all together at the same time the bus blast was almost an hour later. Is this an indication that the the bombers screwed up. Did the team fly in from the continent and forget to reset their clocks? Was the guy on the bus paniking because he got the time right/wrong and knew he was about to be blown to kingdom come.
No matter what – any of these ba*****s that they catch should be smeared in bacon fat, hung up by the testicles and delivered to the general population of Wormwood Scrubs for a little bit of cultural re-education. (So much for the promise of heavenly virgins to tend to their needs).
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not anti Muslim – I spent 5 years working in Bradford and made a lot of friends in the Muslim community. These characters are not Muslims they are thugs and gangsters who are determined that anarchy should rule. The best way to treat them and to show their erstwhile friends that it is not worth it is to send them to hell in the way that they fear most.
July 9th, 2005 at 7:18 pm
It’s my bet that the bomber didn’t intend his device to explode on the bus. Three on the Tube … one on a bus, doesn’t fit the pattern. All four were intended to go off underground. But because the bus was diverted — something that no-one, certainly not the bombers, could have envisaged — that screwed up the bomber on the bus who was heading to a Tube station. It’s more than likely that he died aboard the bus.
Everything was aimed for the Underground. Flight from the scene was to be by bus. But that went awry with the bus explosion, bringing both transit systems to a virtual halt. Which is why it wasn’t intended for the bomb to explode on the bus.
July 9th, 2005 at 7:26 pm
Abdel, get in touch with Polly Toynbee – she’d like to sleep with you!
Incidentally, the formidable Chris Hitchens has a few words on the ‘illegitimate war in Iraq’schtick perpetuated by Abdel and his fellow travellers:
http://www.radioblogger.com/#000816
July 9th, 2005 at 9:49 pm
Your post was quoted in my Weekly BlogScan, this week titled “Live from the London Blasts.” To read your citation and join in the commentary, please join the two lines below to create the full URL.
http://blogcritics.org/
archives/2005/07/09/144353.php
July 10th, 2005 at 4:35 am
Plenty of props from my fellow Canadians here already, but I’ll add one more.
From Canada’s capital to England’s: good show. You guys are doing us all proud. Demonstrating the PROPER way to react to a tragedy (terrorist-related or not) – calm, rational thought, wry humour, restraint, and going about your normal routines. Not overreacting, screaming for vengeance, calling for blood, spewing bigoted intolerance. As the old song goes, “There’ll Always be an England, and England Shall Be Free”. I think good old Sir Winston woulda been proud…
And to Mike from NYC: SHUT THE HELL UP, YOU STUPID F**KING WANKER!!! You don’t know your arse from your elbow, pal. You’re a bloody disgrace to the United States of America, a country I generally respect and admire. Your appalling ignorance is part of the problem – it serves only to promote terrorism, not impede it. You probably still blame us here in the Great White North for “letting all the terrorists across the border”, despite the proven fact that ALL the 9/11 hijackers came in through the States and lived & worked there for months. Months! So, people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones…
Anyway, rock on London! Stay strong and keep downing those pints! Canada sends her love as always!
Blake
Ottawa, Ontario
July 10th, 2005 at 6:15 am
Rumor has it Osama bin Laden is a Jew! and whole holy war thing is nothing but a plot to render Muslims chattel slavery …
July 10th, 2005 at 7:41 pm
“Kill them, torture them — God will support you and will heal the hearts of those faithful to God,” the magazine says in words translated by The Chronicle. “God and the angels are not with the infidels.”
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/07/10/MNGHADLOR01.DTL
Okay, who here wants to read this article and try to justify how great the Muslim religion is? Anyone?
It’s the fucking 21st century, people. Religions that preach and proprogate medieval and downright EVILNESS really don’t have a place on the face of this beautiful (and highly endangered) planet anymore. Can I hear the word ‘evolution’, anyone?
My brother-in-law’s wife (who is French by the way, and said this isn’t the only story she’s heard, another one took place just outside of Paris fairly recently) told me about this story:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/003883.php
The ‘nice’ Muslims out there are fucking STONING women to death in the 21st century. Don’t even get me started on the fucking burka thing…
Can you find passages in the bible that say the equivalent of ‘kill the infidels’… surely. The difference here is: the Christians aren’t taking that literally anymore. Again, this is the 21st century, we’ve managed to eradicate some of our more barbaric practices and our religious leaders stopped their crusades long ago.
I do believe it’s entirely possible that there are many, many nice Muslims out there. But their religion is pathetic. And the extremist branch of their religion is nothing more than a bunch of Nazis. Nazis wanted everyone to be a certain way, think a certain way, act a certain way… gee, that sounds awfully familiar, now doesn’t it?
Do we have to fight another world war to get rid of what is essentially nothing more than another Nazi group?
And rather can calling me all sorts of names, etc., why don’t some of you address the point I’m making: the Muslim nations are allowing this to happen. Do you think if some wacky neo-Nazi group starting killing Jews here and abroad that our nation would allow it for one minute? They be squashed – tried before a jury of their peers and thrown in prison.
Show me one Muslim nation that has done anything more than ‘denounce’ terrorism. Show me some action, leaders of the Muslim world.
July 10th, 2005 at 9:16 pm
As far as I’m concerned, they’re all vermin!!
July 10th, 2005 at 10:25 pm
YOu see, what you’re doing here is you’re mistaking your ignorant misunderstanding of a religion with what that religion actually is. It’s understandable – after all, there are Christians who still buy into the palpable nonsense that all gay people are evil, and that evolution is nonsense, based purely on the Bible.
Yes, some so-called Muslims are evil psychopaths. But so are a lot of so-called Christians. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone and all that.
For the record – I’m leaving these stupid comments up because I believe in freedom of speech. Even when that speech is ignorant and hate-filled. I do not, however, endorse any of this palpable bullshit.
July 11th, 2005 at 12:08 am
>>YOu see, what you’re doing here is you’re mistaking your ignorant misunderstanding of a religion with what that religion actually is. It’s understandable – after all, there are Christians who still buy into the palpable nonsense that all gay people are evil, and that evolution is nonsense, based purely on the Bible.
But Christians don’t go around blowing people up en masse or try to bomb civilisation back into the twelfth century, do they Monkeyboy? And Christian leaders and communities are always quick to unreservedly condemn any such behaviour, quite unlike the mealy-mouthed words of ‘condemnation’ we’ve been hearing from the representatives of the Muslim community these last few days. Where, for example, are the marches by the Muslim community protesting against the recent bombings? Can we expect them soon? Or is that a ‘racist’ question to ask? Oh, and if you insist on equating Christian gay haters with Muslim terrorists then you are one seriously stupid motherfucker.
There’s an excellent, perceptive article by The Telegraph’s Charles Moore, on the trouble with Islam and the distressingly evasive words and deeds of its representatives. Do give it a read:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/07/09/do09.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2005/07/09/ixop.html
>>For the record – I’m leaving these stupid comments up because I believe in freedom of speech. Even when that speech is ignorant and hate-filled. I do not, however, endorse any of this palpable bullshit.
Just as well, since few on here would endorse your particular line of palpable bullshit.
July 11th, 2005 at 12:41 am
Treb – actually yes, there is a Muslim-organised anti-terrorism march being planned – at least, so I hear. I have no idea of the details.
As for Christian leaders’ condemnation – and I hate to bring this up – remember Pius XII?
Now I’d be grateful if you could do everyone a favour and toodle off to find somebody else to bother, there’s a good chap. I’m requesting very politely that you now leave my comments section alone. You aren’t going to convince me, I’m not going to convince you, so stop wasting your time and mine.
July 11th, 2005 at 1:16 am
More than 90% of the country�s water treatment plants and sewage trunk lines were destroyed by Tony Blair and his �brave� Tornado top guns: according to official UN figures, more than 500,000 Iraqi children died of malaria and dysentery as a direct consequence of US and British air strikes cum illegal invasion and occupation of a country that posed no threat to the West… a load of fucking bollocks… By Abdel-Khaleq Qahtan a.k.a. AK Blogger
Right, sonny Jim, how many people did Saddam kill? Let’s leave aside the “we supported him 20 years ago because the Russians were a bigger threat” bullshit. The only people I’ve not heard complaining about our evil invasion is the Iraqis because, despite all your left-wing bullshit, they had to live under the moustachio’d menace. http://www.thereligionofpeace.com has some lovely stats on Saddam’s murderous proclivities.
All of the people complaining about that war all have a vested interest. The Socialists hate it, because it’s against their inward looking agenda: but then again, it’s them who are maintaining the CAP and tariffs against African imports. And the Muslims in the Middle East are complaining because the one thing that scares them shitless is the idea of a democratic state (that’s not Israel) in the area.
Or, I could just simply say “fuck off”. It would be quicker and easier. If you have a problem with what I’ve said, to suggest that you come and discuss it on my blog, rather than taking up Nosemonkey’s bandwidth.
July 11th, 2005 at 6:41 am
Nosemonkey said,
YOu see, what you’re doing here is you’re mistaking your ignorant misunderstanding of a religion with what that religion actually is. It’s understandable – after all, there are Christians who still buy into the palpable nonsense that all gay people are evil, and that evolution is nonsense, based purely on the Bible.
Yes, some so-called Muslims are evil psychopaths. But so are a lot of so-called Christians. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone and all that.
- Yet gay people are not tortured and killed as a matter of religious law in western nations, and our evil psychopaths are shunned by society and thrown in prison, not praised as holy martyrs for flying planes into office buildings, or planting bombs on the London Underground. Are you entirely unable to make that distinction?
July 11th, 2005 at 7:13 am
Silence = Death? Islam vs. Gays
February 03, 2004
The slogan “Silence = Death” has long been used by the gay community to express the idea that speaking out is a necessity for survival. Silence about what happens to gays, whether it be AIDS or discrimination, only serves to allow the problems to continue rather than be solved. So why the silence about how Islamic communities treat gays?
That’s a question discussed Eric at Classical Values:
Other than blogs by gay gun nuts, where are American gays supposed to go to read about such things as Islamic attacks and Islamic attitudes on homosexuality? Do they have to have to read WorldNetDaily? … Well, why isn’t the mainstream “gay movement” giving these things the attention they should? Why is there so much silence about Islamic sodomy Laws and homosexuality?
Eric quotes the Independent Gay Forum on the situation for gays under the Palestinian Authority – a situation that is probably no worse than it is for gays in other Muslim states:
According to Halevi, one young man discovered to be gay was forced by Palestinian Authority police “to stand in sewage water up to his neck, his head covered by a sack filled with feces, and then he was thrown into a dark cell infested with insects.” During one interrogation Palestinian police stripped him and forced him to sit on a Coke bottle.
When he was released he fled to Israel. If he were forced to return to Gaza, he said, “The police would kill me.”
An American who foolishly moved into the West Bank to live with his Palestinian lover said they told everyone they were just friends, but one day they “found a letter under our door from the Islamic court. It listed the five forms of death prescribed by Islam for homosexuality, including stoning and burning. We fled to Israel that same day,” he said.
The head of a Tel Aviv gay organization told Halevi, “The persecution of gays in the Palestinian Authority doesn’t just come from the families or the Islamic groups, but from the P.A. itself.”
Palestinian police have increasingly enforced Islamic religion law, he said: “It’s now impossible to be an open gay in the P.A.” He recalled that one gay man in the Palestinian police went to Israel for a short time. When he returned to the West Bank, Palestinian Authority police confined him to a pit without food or water until he died.
A 17-year-old gay youth recalled that he spent months in a Palestinian Authority prison “where interrogators cut him with glass and poured toilet cleaner into his wounds.”
Why aren’t people talking more about this? It’s a “taboo” subject to even do research on gay bashing among immigrants and Muslims in Germany. Apparently, when one minority suggests that another should be gassed and wiped out, that isn’t worth addressing. Maybe it would be perceived as anti-Muslim to note when Muslims are trying to violently repress gays?
July 11th, 2005 at 3:19 pm
You know, I didn’t even think of the three communities that you mentioned… all I could think of was that the Liverpool Street-Aldgate train was ‘late’, the Kings Cross-Russell Square train was ‘late’, and that the Edgware Road-Paddington train was ‘early’. Why? Because you hit three major nodes to the rest of the country in one go. The Tavistock Square bus was rerouted away from Euston, or it could’ve possibly caused damage there. Which could explain the odd behaviour (nerves? worry of being caught?) by the person seen to fiddle about with a bag before the bus blew up.
Nonetheless, I am glad to be part of a nation that does not go into headless-chicken mode at stuff like this. The Germans didn’t manage, the Irish didn’t manage, and neither will some bunch of cowardly bunch of terrorists.
July 12th, 2005 at 11:23 pm
Nosemonkey – well done for leaving in all the comments, freedom of speech and all that. Helps us to remember that there are always going to people out there with distorted thinking. Yes, some terrorists hide in Muslim communities – but since when did a terrorist walk around with a neon sign on their head stating that they were a terrorist. Religion has long been used as an ‘excuse’ for committing awful acts against other people – and no doubt this will continue for many years to come, in many religions.
Surely God does not want people being killed in His name, whoever / whatever God is to you. ‘Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth’ surely wasn’t God recommending that we kill in revenge for killing? People like Mike (and other inconsiderate gits who have posted comments that I hope victims of 07/07/05 never read) are what the terrorists want – uniformed, naive and impulsive people who stir up further hatred. Keep your insensitive opinions to yourself – try and be more compassionate towards those involved in the horrors.
I’m not a Londoner – but I am proud of the British spirit that shone through on thursday, from people of all religions and cultures. The human spirit and mind can be an awful and destructive thing, but on the other hand it can be a wonderful and inspiring example of how humans should be. How amazing were our emergency services as well, including the way the police acted to information received in Birmingham on saturday. There is a reason we are GREAT Britain!
July 13th, 2005 at 7:41 pm
I was born and raised in London, although I’ve not lived there for some years – I live in the U.S. I knew my fellow Londoners would take this awful bombing event in stride, just as they have historically with earlier diasters, such as WW-2 bombings, IRA bombings, etc. I also knew that, for the most part, there would not be some wholesale knee-jerk backlash against the majority of Muslims in the UK who are not terrorists and who, I am sure, abhore what has happened – after all, people of many nationalities and religions, including Muslims, died or were injured on the tube trains and the London bus. Sadly, here in the U.S. some of the population is only too willing to leap on a bandwagon of generic hatred (whether that is toward Muslims, Arabs, Hispanics…you name it), whilst other Americans keep a clear head and a wise heart. Having read the postings on this website and on other, similar ones, despite the attempts of a few to rile up Londoners to hate their fellow man, I am glad to see that it is falling on deaf ears. Big difference between hating terrorists (of whatever ilk) and just hating people because of their color, creed, nationality of origin or religion.
July 13th, 2005 at 10:41 pm
Way to shove one up thier ass, Lonodon! Thisis the attitude we need to defeat terrorists! London forever!
john
Ottawa, Canada
July 22nd, 2005 at 8:37 am
This is just a response to Mike and his attempts to make us hate the whole Muslim community. What about Shas, Binyamin Kahane and the extremists in the Jewish community? They preach EXACTLY the same things about all non-Jews that Muslim fundamentalists preach about non-Muslims.
July 22nd, 2005 at 11:33 am
” from the comments: ” Someone here at work has just been phoned by a guy he knows in Canary Wharf (I know, it’s a bit removed – but I trust him)
“He says marines have shot a man there who they think to have been a suicide bomber”
I’ve been trawling the net looking for info on the canary wharf shooting, someone I know witnessed it. Does anyone have any further info on this?
March 5th, 2006 at 12:10 am
Excellent coverage, mate. I live in San Franciso and today, Friday, I learned about the bombings not from the news section of my Yahoo-SBC DSL page-which, by the way, seems to be more preoccupied with the Oscars-but from your blog and its contributors.
I’ve always wondered how come we don’t get bombed here in the US. If someone bothers with Madrid and London, I’d think they’d go after the “arcenemy”, the US. Moreover, security here, ineptly run by the present regime, appears to be close to a fiasco; there must be hundreds of “soft” targets throughout the nation. Yet no bombings. Can’t help myself starting to think about secret deals.
On another note, I’m proud of the resiliance and the stoicism of the Brits.
I lived in Scotland for 2 1/2 yrs. and got a good taste of the English as well. There’s a lot to be said about the weather, the diet, and sometimes even the personality, but they’re a hardy folk. And in times of national emergencies they come together as nothing you’ve seen before. I wonder how we in the US would’ve reacted to something like this, or my native Greece.
My condolences. Stand the line with the resolve you have displayed in the past, your nation seems to always arise stronger from the task. May you find righteousness unblemished by blind vengeance. Cheers.