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| Britain |
| We are playing cricket and they're playing mass murder. |
| 2005-07-22 |
| For many people this morning's shooting at Stockwell Tube must have sounded like a scene from a Hollywood movie: a man chased down a subway escalator by armed police, cornered in a train and shot five times at close range. For Michael Winner, the film director who sent Charles Bronson out to clean up the streets of New York 30 years ago in Death Wish, it was a sign that Britain is finally coming to terms with the challenge of terrorism. Terrorism experts said that the South London shooting was an unavoidable use of lethal force, the first result of new rules of engagement given to the security forces to deal with the threat of suicide bombers: shoot for the head, not for the body, in case you detonate explosives on the suspect's body. If officers thought the man was carrying explosives, they had no choice. Mr Winner, chairman of the Police Memorial Trust, went further than that. He told Times Online: "I think the police shooting the terrorist was absolutely right. "Our whole approach to terrorism is absurd. We need new laws to detain people without trial - we are at war. We are playing cricket and they're playing mass murder. Police powers should be massively increased, as well as police numbers." Mr Winner's comments will earn him no thanks from the Metropolitan Police, whose Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, was at pains today to say that "any death is deeply regrettable". Since the suicide bombings of July 7, Sir Ian has done all he can to stop the terror attacks dividing London's ethnic and religious communities. And the fact that the suspected suicide bomber was shot so many times also caused some disquiet today - even before the dead man was identified. The Muslim Council of Britain said it had received a number of phone calls from ordinary Muslims worried that the police had adopted a "shoot-to-kill" policy. Inayat Bunglawala, a Council spokesman, said: "There may well be reasons why the police felt it necessary to unload five shots into the man and shoot him dead, but they need to make those reasons clear. We are getting phone calls from quite a lot of Muslims who are distressed about what may be a shoot-to-kill policy." Mr Winner was unrepentant: "The so-called politically correct liberals have on their hands the blood of many of our citizens already. Tragically, the number will vastly increase before anything sensible is done about it." |
| Posted by:Mrs. Davis |
| #11 Flaviger Ominesh1338, what does FO stand for? AD. |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2005-07-22 22:25 |
| #10 90% have no answers, of which 60% will bitch at your (or any) offerings, You need to lead the other 30% with strong steps. A 5-tap on running terrorists will be a good start |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-07-22 22:25 |
| #9 Everyone should be distressed at a shoot to kill policy. As this BBC article shows a youth was mistakenly identified as a suicide bomber and had his picture plaster all over the place. He could have been shot on sight. Only if he was stupid enough to a) run away, b) draw a weapon, c) attack the police. Meawhile there are 53 civilians dead. When you can suggest something besides wringing your hands and pretending it's 1955, let us know. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2005-07-22 22:19 |
| #8 BBC. A sterling source I'll believe. Sort of the CBS of the UK. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-07-22 21:58 |
| #7 yeah, I'm mortified...not |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-07-22 21:55 |
| #6 Everyone should be distressed at a shoot to kill policy. As this BBC article shows a youth was mistakenly identified as a suicide bomber and had his picture plaster all over the place. He could have been shot on sight. http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4704427.stm UK boy wrongly labelled as bomber Evidence showing that all three of the London bombers of Pakistani descent visited Pakistan last year has been thrown into doubt. A photograph of a passport purporting to show bomber Hasib Hussain was in fact that of a 16-year-old British boy with the same name. The photo, together with documentation showing two other bombers visited Pakistan, was published on Monday. Pakistan, meanwhile, says it has made no arrests over the London bombs. 'I was terrified' The passport details supposedly of the bomber Hasib Hussain are actually those of a teenage boy living in High Wycombe, approximately 30 miles (50km) north-west of London. On Monday Pakistan's Federal Immigration Agency (FIA) said that Hasib Hussain, carrying a British passport number, arrived in the port city of Karachi from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia on 15 July 2004. Photographs of the passport were published in Pakistan and then around the world. However, the 16-year-old at the heart of the confusion has now been interviewed at his High Wycombe home by Pakistani TV station ARY. "I first saw my photograph on Channel 4 [news] and I was terrified," the boy told ARY. "I didn't want people looking at me saying, hey, you are supposed to be dead," he told ARY, "or someone saying that there goes the London bomber." His father told ARY that the family had indeed arrived in Karachi from Saudi Arabia. He appealed for British and Pakistani authorities to clear up the confusion. When contacted by the BBC News website the FIA said: "We have nothing to say on the matter at this stage." Reports denied According to the other information released by Pakistan on Monday, the bombers Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer arrived and left Pakistan together and spent three months in the country. The three bombers were among the 56 people killed in the London blasts. Police have confirmed they were the UK's first suicide bombings. The fourth bomber was a Jamaican-born Briton, Germaine Lindsay, 19. More than 200 people in Pakistan have been arrested in recent days in a clampdown called by President Pervez Musharraf. But the authorities are denying reports that a British Muslim al-Qaeda suspect, Haroon Rashid Aswad, is among them. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/south_asia/4704427.stm Published: 2005/07/21 16:01:33 GMT |
| Posted by: Flaviger Ominesh1338 2005-07-22 21:53 |
| #5 We're watching the end of jihadist dreams in the UK. |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2005-07-22 21:23 |
| #4 Mr Winner's comments will earn him no thanks from the Metropolitan Police, whose Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, was at pains today to say that "any death is deeply regrettable". May as well get over it, Sir Ian: you're going to have to pop a lot more of them, just like today, before this war is won. Muslims are not going to change until they figure out that they simply must change-- or be expelled, or die. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2005-07-22 19:41 |
| #3 well, after Bakri, et al, make mysterious disappearances, things may change :-) |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-07-22 18:48 |
| #2 "The so-called politically correct liberals have on their hands the blood of many of our citizens already. Tragically, the number will vastly increase before anything sensible is done about it." Preach it, brother! Good to see the Brit police take care of the problem today with lethal force. Hope it's not a "one off." Excellent article. Thank you, Mrs. D.! |
| Posted by: Jennie Taliaferro 2005-07-22 18:46 |
| #1 "We are getting phone calls from quite a lot of Muslims who are distressed about what may be a shoot-to-kill policy." Perhaps they will be distressed enough to out their terrorists in their midst? Listens? Nope just the chirp of Crickets |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom 2005-07-22 18:42 |