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Deja-vu as copycat 'bombers' bring second round of chaos to London

r2r | 21.07.2005 20:19 | Anti-militarism | Globalisation | London

It should have been obvious that the first attack would not be the last but I don't think many people expected it so soon.

Just two short weeks the multiple bombings that killed at least 56 people during rush hour on the 7/7, London was plunged into chaos as a blatent copycat attack took place this afternoon.

Shortly before 1pm, London Underground was placed on 'amber alert' and the Hammersmith & City, Northern and Victoria lines were evacuated. Security cordons were put in place around three stations at the Oval, Warren Street and Shepherd's Bush and also around a number 26 bus on
Hackney Road in Bethnal Green, east London.

It quicly became obvious that a series of four co-ordinated incidents had taken place causing immediate and widespread panic. There was a striking similarity with the attacks of the 7th July, three tubes and one bus spread across London North, South, East and West in the shape of a burning cross.

Hearing what sounded like explosions, two of us grabbed cameras and headed off by bike. Unable to figure out where the noise came from or follow the sirens we headed for the scene of the incident on the number 26 bus where we got to within sight of the bus at a distance of around 20 yards. There was not a great deal going on, a large area had been cordoned off and there were loads of emergency personel and vehicles present but well away from the actual bus. I saw some kind of specalist go into the bus but that's about it. I didn't see any windows blown out as reported elsewhere.

It is obviously to early to guess whether todays four attacks were carried out by the same group that struck last time or the work of unrelated 'copycats'. Fortunately this time the bombs appeared to have either failed to go off or have been 'fakes'. The blasts were tiny only one minor injury reported, probably caused in the panic as people stampeded to get away.

At University College Hospital, armed police officers were deployed apparently to search for a suspect from the Warran Street attack. When I tried to go to Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel I found that people were being stopped and searched entering the premises. I was prevented from entering since I had a camera and their orders were keep out journalists.

The BBC reported that two people were arrested near Downing Street, one with a rucksac but Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair later said that the arrest appeared to be "entirely unconnected" to the copycat bombers.

Ken Livingstone, abandoned an apointment related to families of victims of the previous attacks and Tony Blair cancelled a visit to an East London school and joined an emergency 'Cobra' meeting instead. In a statement PM Tony Blair said those responsible were trying intimidate and frighten people, "We've just got to react calmly and continue with our business" he said. This was echoed by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair (unrelated), saying the London was "back to business". Funny how these people go on about 'business' instead of saying for example 'getting on with our lives' - but perhaps it just goes to show what this crap is all about.

video to follow

r2r

Comments

Hide the following 12 comments

Maybe the bomb's were from the same batch+had gone off since two weeks ago

21.07.2005 21:43

My daddio suspects as much anyway, just a thought!

Matt K


blair said it himself

21.07.2005 21:56

"the people who did this are trying to instill the greatest fear"

and who stands to gain?

too early to say much at the moment, but over the next few days concentrate on the differences AND the similarities to 7/7 and keep asking yourself that question.

rikki


"a burning cross"

21.07.2005 22:38

the shape of a burning cross? that's just a tad over-emotive, isn't it?

cjl


Who stands to gain?

21.07.2005 22:51

Certainly not Blair. It's hardly what he needed at the moment, particularly the return of the Iraq spectre...

artaud


appaling

21.07.2005 23:47

I am quite surprised that after the second incidence still no one has complained about the quality and level of official reporting.
Today, after a first headline at 2pm no one (not BBC, not IM) has updated their headlines or gotten more out of the investigators.
What does this say? Basically, our level of investigative journalism is poor. Everyone depends on the same couple of TV stations and news agencies. Not even the BBC has mad ethe effort to send someone to Bethnal Green before the evening news -- just to be in time for the evening news and do the standard thing.

I was just thinking of a newslock by the police etc but I think it's rather like this: everything is too complacent to deal with this kind of thing.

Anyway, where is the reasoning for the 7/7 bombing? I am still waiting...

ToteKatz
mail e-mail: mimo@restoel.net


who stands to gain...

21.07.2005 23:54

Republicans voting to keep US Patriot Act intact. Of course there is not much to gain from that, though it seems so to those who make it their "business," as said above, to base judgement and decision upon reacting to fear (both the feeling of it, and the wish to instill it, which most likely originates from the same source in a different context) with brute force.

So, both those who profligate fear because there is no other viable or immediately available tool of negotiation as well as those who have spent so long reacting rather than inventing, and who depend upon might rather than perception and a shrewd willingness to be adaptable.

So...in the end, no one, everyone suffers.

jason


Slang

22.07.2005 00:04

Maybe you are not British r2r, but over here when we talk about "getting on with our business", it is just a way of saying getting on with stuff, things, life, whatever. It is no more sinister than that, honest! :)

artaud


no gain for blair - now BBC v CNN

22.07.2005 08:37

In his speech yesterday Blair was cacking it, this definitely ain't good for him and he knows it. Another Thursday like this and the general public will be asking what fool started it. An interesting point is that BBC world has hardly mentioned yesterdays bombings 'compared' to the blood thirsty, heart rending, slow mo' CNN coverage. One station appears determined not to make it an issue, the other determined to show why America is 'defending' the world. Both stations playing their masters tune.

Blair seeks to normalize the bombing hoping people will accept it like they accepted the Northern Ireland bombings. He says making an issue of it is to play into the terrorists hands. But not making it an issue is to play into his.

rebound


Media attendence

22.07.2005 11:52

ToteKatz, the media were definitly in attendence in a big way at Bethnal Green, you can see that from the photos and video. They did loads of interviews and I saw plenty of updates on BBC news website during the day. The media are well on the case, this is after all their bread and butter. Today at the East London Mosque I saw at least six camera crews in attendence for a bomb threat incident. There was nothing to see, all finished by the time they arrived but it shows that they are on the case. There is certainly no media blackout on this stuff, althought during these incidents is slow to be confirmed and they are no doubt trying not to fuck up like they did on 7/7 when romours quickly spread to give an impression of many more incidents than really took place. And certainly police do restrict media access to incident sites but some camera crews are very persistant and often find a way ;-)

n


Language

22.07.2005 12:43

artaud, it is naive to imagine that the 'people at the top' are not using language deliberately in this 'war against everything that isn't watching TV and shopping'. I too have noticed the consistent use of certain lexicons by everyone involved. This is done to make the conepts which lie behind these lexicons become part of the background noise, not consciously perceptible but subconsciously absorbed. This is the insight of respectable academia, linguistics etc, not paranoid 'mind-control' nonsense. The battle of discourses is a background for the battle of ideologies in society. Blair et al (including Howard yesterday) talked about people going about their business because that is exactly what they fear, that people will be scared out of going to work and to shops. (quote from Conrad White, 'ex-government security advisor' (who was also saying it was a good and positive thing that OUR security services are hunting down these men, and that shooting to kill was the only reasonable alternative): "we must go about our normal business, we all have jobs to go to").

To say people should go about their lives would make more sense, but it would not continue the neo-liberal doctrine that human activity IS economic activity.

Note also the immediate reaction to 7/7 was a discursive onslaught: WE are a resilient NATION (unite behind unthinking nationalism), DEFIANT (keep working and shopping) in defence of OUR SHARED VALUES AND WAY OF LIFE". Repeated again ad nauseam by Blair and Howard. What are these values and what is 'OUR' way of life? These are left unstated so that people can attach their own meanings. The only values and way of life that I can see linking most british and australian people are those of passivity in the face of a spectacular society, and consumer capitalism.

Go and read some Norman Fairclough perhaps, discourse analysis with a political edge. He did a good deconstruction of the Blairite third way and the New Labour agenda.

anarchoteapot


Hey Don't Believe the Psyops!

22.07.2005 21:10

"I've posted a repository of relevant information to UK Indy several times over the past two weeks, and each and every time, it disappears, after being there for a short time."

Take the hint.

Boab


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