British police defuse suspected bomb in London

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

British police defuse suspected bomb in London

21 minutes ago

LONDON (Reuters) - British police said on Friday they had
defused a bomb in central London.

Explosives officers were called to examine a car parked
in The Haymarket, a busy street in the heart of central
London's theatre district, early on Friday morning, London
police said in a statement.

"They discovered what appeared to be a potentially
viable explosive device. This was made safe," they said,
adding that counter-terrorism officers were investigating.

A police spokesman confirmed the device was a bomb.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070629/wl_nm/britain_bomb_dc

[file83]

1. Wait - I thought the war in Iraq was going to prevent more terrorist attacks

in Britain and the U.S.

I thought the war was supposed to take the fight to them.

Looks like over 3500 of our soldiers have died for no reason what-so-ever. Thanks Bush/Blair.

[LeftishBrit]

20. agreed!

Glad it was discovered in time.

I think it's very unlikely that it was planted by people wanting to emphasize the terror-danger! However, it's of course possible that political considerations might have led to this bomb being extensively covered in the news, when other thwarted bombs/attacks at other times may have received less publicity.

Yes, thanks Tony for dragging us all into this; and thanks both you and Georgie for dragging Iraq and the whole workd into it.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

34. well

it appears that this device would burn, but not explode.

just wait for the official de . . . .

hmmm.

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Posteritatis]

29. Well, that's clearly the case!

The invasion of Iraq caused this car bomb to be found by provoking its placement, thereby preventing the attack it was meant to carry out!

Truly, our glorious leaders are oracles in human form!

[Eugene]

2. Updated at link: Police find bomb in London, launch terrorism probe

Source: Reuters

Police find bomb in London, launch terrorism probe

By Guy Dresser and Avril Ormsby
20 minutes ago

LONDON (Reuters) - British police defused a bomb they
discovered in a parked car in central London on Friday and
launched a counter-terrorism investigation.

Sky News quoted unidentified sources as saying the bomb
was "potentially massive" and that the car contained gas
canisters.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070629/wl_nm/britain_bomb_dc

[Andre II]

3. So strange

How can the police find a bomb in a car?
I mean if you want to make sure your bomb goes off then you hide it in the car, park the car in a the area you want, leave the car and use your cell phone to trigger it.
How could the police have had the suspicion that there is a bomb in the parked car?
What did they see from outside?
Why wasn't the bomb hidden?
Why wasn't it triggered?
Do I smell here that somebody wants to assure Gordon Brown stays on course in the war on terror?

[Eugene]

4. According the updated story at the OP link...

People reported a suspicious car parked in the theatre district at 2 A.M.
London is at high alert as the anniversary of the 7/7 bombings approaches.
Police examined the car (broke in?) and found a large bomb. Reports by
The Telegraph and Sky News say that police removed gas canisters from
the car.

Related: Car bomb found in London's West End - The Telegraph

[dipsydoodle]

5. Observed hanging from the driver' mirror

[mediawatch]

19. ya I heard the nails were made of rubber

[CJCRANE]

6. "Bouncers from a nearby nightclub said

they saw the car being driven erratically before it crashed into a bin. They said the driver then got out and ran off."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6252276.stm

[Andre II]

7. Has anybody ever

heard of a bomb attack that was prepared like this?
Sorry, this sounds so much like:
"Hey please remember me I'm suspicous!"

If the guy would have had the intention to bomb the area certainly he would have parked his car normally, walked away and pulled the trigger.

[CJCRANE]

8. I agree...

as usual let's see how the story pans out...

but on instincts alone I'd say there is a 50% chance this is a LIHOP or set-up to create a crisis that makes Gordon Brown's new govt look good and give them a sense of authority with the public.

I hope not, I thought Brown would be better than Blair, but let's wait and see.

On edit: It'll also be interesting to see how the Bush/Brown relationship develops, now that Brown has had his first taste of the "war on terror".

[Stella_Artois]

10. Really ?

A common opinion on DU is that we are doing nothing to reduce the factors that cause people to resort to terrorism and in fact may be creating even more of them.

Yet when something like this happens there is a 50% chance that no terrorists were involved.

So we are creating more terrorists, and these terrorists are then going to do what if not planning and carrying out terrorist attacks ? Holding tupperware parties ?

[CJCRANE]

11. LIHOP means terrorists were involved.

I never said no terrorists were involved.

[Stella_Artois]

12. ??

"set-up to create a crisis that makes Gordon Brown's new govt look good "

???

Terrorists work for Gordon Brown now ?

[CJCRANE]

13. Have you heard of the Miami 7?

Have you looked into 9/11 and who funded the hijackers?

Have you looked into the ISI etc. It's a little bit more complicated than just saying they are are working for Gordon Brown or Bush did it. Of course I don't mean that.

Of course there are genuine terrorists, but there also many infiltrators, financiers, facilitators etc. BY definition it's a very murky field.

[CJCRANE]

14. BTW I hope I'm wrong

and quite likely to be...

but veteran DUers will know that in virtually every arrest or incident in the "war on terror"* there is always more to it than meets they eye (in both the US & UK), whether it's to do with the timing, the intelligence, govt incompetance or complicity etc etc.

Usually the facts take a long time to come out often months or years after the headlines. So far Brown seems to be handling this in a less sensationalist way than the Blair govt would.

*This applies doubly to bombing's of al-Qaeda targets in villages (e.g. in Pakistan, Somalia or Iraq) which usually turn out to be civilians or something unrelated to "al-Qaeda" but of course by then the headlines have moved on.

[ButterflyBlood]

39. The tinfoilers say this all the time

And yes, it it a valid point. Of course one shouldn't believe everything the media or government says at first hand.

But why should we believe the tinfoilers either? Their track record is just as good.

Remember that rocket attack on the US Embassy in Athens a few months ago? Actually, you probably don't. But when it happened, tinfoilers here were saying it was a black op that would later be blamed on Iran as justification for an attack. And yet it was blamed on domestic groups and now no on remembers it. Ouch, tinfoilers.

Also remember that draft that was coming in June of 2005? Don't hear much about that anymore.

Then of course there are the types who predict an attack on Iran every month, and when the month ends and it doesn't happen, they move the goalposts again, just like LaRouche and the collapse of the global economy he's been predicting for decades.

No of course you shouldn't bindly believe the "official story". But why should I trust the tinfoilers any more?

[CJCRANE]

40. I always say let's wait and see...

and a lot of the time I have a point, with a few misses.

I'm thinking about 9/11, Stockwell tube shooting (Menenzez), Forestgate arrests (innocent man shot in London), and I don't say Rove* is behind everything - it depends on the context and the facts that emerge.

But there is a lot of evidence that 9/11 was a LIHOP or MIHOP and 7/7 was LIHOP...and some of that info took years to come out.

on edit: I'm not saying Rove is behind anything actually...but that's the standard accusation.

on edit2: I'm also just an individual, I'm only responsible for my own opinions, there is no Conspiracy Theorist's official line!

[ButterflyBlood]

33. How can it be LIHOP if it didn't happen?

Furthermore, how do you LIHOP a car bomb? It's not hard to build one or get the materials and do it without government catching anything about it. If it wasn't the IRA wouldn't have gotten anything done.

[CJCRANE]

38. It did happen in the sense

that they got the bombs in position - that's pretty scary. And BTW there were plenty of British agents inside the IRA, at least one was an actual bombmaker. In just about every terrorist attack it usually comes out that the intelligence agencies had much more warning than is at first revealed.

As in 9/11 - "no one could have imagined..." Well, yes they could and they did and warned repeatedly.
As in 7/7 - first we were told it was carried out by "clean skins" - which turned out to be a complete lie.

There's a reason there has been no satisfactory independent investigation into 9/11 or 7/11. The 9/11 Commission was chaired by Philip Zelikow, a close associate of Condi Rice and expert on "public myths". The 7/7 report was simply a "narrative" issued by the British govt.

[T_i_B]

35. LIHOP my arse

The government has enough on it's hands with the reshuffle and domestic policy (the floods inparticular) without resorting to "manufacturing" conspiracies.

The government has nothing whatsoever to gain from allowing a bunch of jihadi's to nailbomb West End nightclubs. End of story.

[LeftishBrit]

36. Strongly agree!

[CJCRANE]

37. Not the govt or the police.

It's the intelligence services who keep track of these things and decide if and when to act.

Just read up about 7/7 or 9/11 and the warnings etc.

[muryan]

21. not everyone who makes a bomb is as calm

and collected as you. it stands to reason that someone doing this for the first? time would not be very proficient at it.

[conspirator]

9. Oh no! more TERRA. I bet it's elite scare tactics. nt

[GCP]

15. I am just so cynical nowadays

My immediate reaction was, George Brown gets to show what he can do when some 'terra-ist' attack happens.
Special Branch dirty-tricks dept?

[Vinca]

16. Not as cynical as me. I figured it was Shrub's welcome to 10 Downing St.

gift . . . a reason to align with the King in the war against the brown people.

[Andre II]

17. This thread needs Recommandations!

The defence secretary, Des Browne, told BBC Radio Scotland: "It does appear to be a very serious incident.

"My first reaction to this is, thank God that we have police and explosives experts who can make these devices safe, and that nobody has been injured."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,2114743,00.html

Even the "Guardian" doesn't ask any questions.
How can Browne pretend it was the police who saved the situation?
If the guy would have wanted to trigger the bomb he would have done so. Period.

[Andre II]

18. Smoke

"Mr Clarke said an ambulance crew in the area reported that there was smoke inside the car."
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/itn/20070629/tuk-car-bomb-found-in-london-dba1618_2.html


what caused the smoke?
And why didn't the bomb explode?

[muryan]

22. faulty detonator or they messed up the wiring nt

[Posteritatis]

28. Beeb's saying the 'smoke' was fuel vapors, I think. (nt)

[Eugene]

23. Reuters: Mixed signs on possible Qaeda role in London bomb

Source: Reuters

Mixed signs on possible Qaeda role in London bomb
29 Jun 2007 14:27:28 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Mark Trevelyan, Security Correspondent

LONDON, June 29 (Reuters) - Radical Islamists may be behind
a London car bomb packed with petrol, nails and gas canisters
that police defused on Friday, but it is too early to point the
finger for certain, security sources and analysts said.

Some said the nature of the device and the details to emerge
so far -- including reports that witnesses had seen the car
driven 'erratically' -- were at odds with al Qaeda's usual
mode of operation, which involves disciplined operatives
staging multiple, simultaneous attacks.

"Numerically speaking, al Qaeda is a strong possibility," one
security source said, in a reference to the estimated 1,600
Islamist militants in Britain whom the MI5 intelligence agency
says it is tracking.

"But it just is too early to attribute (responsibility) specifically,"
the source told Reuters. "It would be wrong and short-sighted
to rule out domestic options as well. Obviously there are
various extremist groups out there too."

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L29928587.htm

[Igel]

32. I was just looking at another thread here.

They were debunking the idea, saying that both gasoline and gasoline canisters were found, and that gasoline by itself would probably not make a good explosion; it would burn, and leak burning fuel all over the place, but the explosive force wouldn't be that great. But that strikes me as based on a mis-paraphrase what the BBC and other British reports are saying.

The police found petrol (= gasoline) and gas (not = gasoline) canisters. Which means that there's the same kind of pressured, explosive material that's blown up a few groups as part of car bombs in Iraq, and wiped out a house or two (by accident).

[daleo]

25. They have pretty vague about the bomb

I have read a mention of leaking gasoline, gas containers, and nails. It has been called a "viable device" (strange terminology). I wonder if their was a detonator? The language used so far has been a bit peculiar - a car with a couple of camping style propane canisters, a jerry can, and a bag of nails could fit the bill. We need more details to judge the situation.

[file83]

26. Exactly - it could have been some idiot that keeps a bunch of junk in their car

and drove it while drunk, crashed into a garbage bin (according to reports), and ran away.

So they find some camping stove canisters, a bag of nails, and a gas can and suddenly it's a "viable explosive device".

It's just a PR stunt. I want to see this "device" before I believe it was a bomb.

[spinbaby]

27. CNN now says they found a second car bomb

In their breaking-news banner.

http://www.cnn.com/

[daleo]

30. "Containing possible bomb materials"

"A second car was found on a London street on Friday containing possible bomb materials, sources told CNN."

That could mean a lot of things. It might be someones airport gel package for all we know - after all, those are "bomb making materials" too.

On edit - I hate to sound so distrusting of the British government, but I remember how the story of Menzies, the Brazilian electrician that the British police killed, played out.

[pretty_lies]

31. This Is No Big Deal, London's Dealt With This For Decades

Though if it's an Islamist group, this proves once again that killing a million Iraqis was an effective way to get our own cities bombed in revenge.