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MORE POLICE LIES EMERGING OVER MURDER OF JEAN CHARLES DE MENEZES

. | 28.07.2005 10:29 | Anti-militarism | Anti-racism | Repression | Birmingham | London | World

THE family of the Brazilian man shot dead by marksmen who mistook him for a suicide bomber revealed last night how police have changed their account of the incident. Yet again.

Many of us have followed closely the lies, disinformation and propaganda that have been vomited by Metropolitan Police and the British government following the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes.

These have ranged from:

1) publicly stating in a press conference that the man they had shot was directly linked to terrorism, even though they didn’t actually possess any credible evidence to support that statement whatsoever. The only link Mr Menezes had to alleged terrorists was entirely indirect, tenuous and purely speculative, presumptuous and circumstantial, i.e. he was living in a very large council block, where several dozen people apparently lived. One of the flats (through documents retrieved from the rucksacks) had a possible link to one or more of the unexploded rucksacks from the 21st July. Hardly grounds for authorising a shoot to kill policy of anyone, let alone neighbours of the flat, innocent bystanders, without not just a trial, but the most rudimentary questioning or investigation.

2) maintaining that pretence, even going as far as to tell his family when they came to view the body that they had shot him because he had been a terrorist. It seems from the moment he was pursued for nearly an hour as he travelled to Stockwell tube station, to the moment he was shot and in the immediate aftermath, Mr Menezes was “guilty until proven innocent”. Not that they needed to, even when his family had proven him innocent, statements were still being released by the Met, insisting the man was a terrorist.

3) claiming repeatedly that the police shouted warnings to stop, even though not a single, independent eye-witness out of dozens of people at the tube station recall hearing any of the armed men identify themselves as police officers. One witness who was even standing nearby as Mr Menezes was pursued by the armed officers on the train platform, has clearly and unequivocally stated that he didn’t hear any of the men identify themselves, those being the closing seconds of Mr Menezes life.

4) lying and claiming that Mr Menezes was wearing a bulky coat and releasing statements and other imbecilic briefings to the press that it was felt that the victim was wearing suspiciously heavy and unseasonably warm clothing, that may have hidden a suicide bomb, and made him look threatening. Now his family have had the chance to view and examine his body and he is now in the process of being flown home, the police are now retracting this statement (although they’re not going out of their way to release press briefings about that!), informing a cousin of Mr Menezes that he was only wearing “a lightweight denim jacket”. (The Times, July 28, 2005).

5) lying and imbecilically claiming that Mr Menezes “vaulted the ticket barriers at Stockwell Tube station” again, even as if that could possibly justify murdering the man in cold-blood. But again, police now say that “he used his travelcard to gain access to the station“ (The Times, July 28, 2005). Again, they’re not going out of their way to release press briefings about that.

In a kind of related matter, BBC News are today reporting the outrageous demands of a Birmingham MP (one of Blair’s cronies and henchmen) who has called for the chairman of the city's Central Mosque to resign after he said the government could not be trusted.

The Chairman of the Mosque has made a perfectly valid point. It is Kahlid Mahmood (MP for Perry Bar) superannuated fat-cat and betrayer of the Muslim community who should resign.

Tony Blair HAS lied [and continues to lie] over Iraq.

Indeed, it is more than clear that the police, in doing the governments bidding, are not to be trusted either.

Countless millions of ordinary men and woman, many organisations (including Britain’s own intelligence service, MI5) warned that launching this illegal war of aggression against Iraq in defiance of the international community and the United Nations would make Britain a target for terrorism. MI5 continue to remind us of that and have admitted that the London bombings and Iraq are linked.

When will that get through Blair’s pig-headed skin?


MI5 analysts admit link between Iraq war and bombings

 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1711093,00.html

Brazilian's family claim police altered their story

 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1711303,00.html

Call for mosque chairman to quit

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/4723731.stm

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