Independent coverage
And here we go; the media frenzy of the last 3 months, the endless bombardment of emails and calls finally finds fruition in print, on TV, on the radio. Surprising how many people have 'interviewed'' me when I have never spoken to them; usually it is nicked off this blog, or old copy. Sometimes I think the only people who read this blog are journos looking for copy. Will be interesting to see what the traffic does after 7/7. I'll keep writing. But about more than bloody bombs. I hope.
The Independent on Sunday. '7/7 One year on: Why did it happen? The big questions till need answers.''
More Indie 'Our intelligence is lacking'' - Crispin Black.
''When there is a cock-up, such as letting Mohammed Siddique Khan slip through our fingers, we have to try to learn the lessons at a bureaucratic snail's pace through oversight systems designed for the Cold War. Even now we do not seem to have got to the bottom of the Mohammed Siddique Khan story and the energy and ingenuity expended in refusing to acknowledge a blunder could have been better deployed elsewhere.''
And - yay! Leading Indie article calls for an independent inquiry
''Leading article: The lessons of 7/7''
''One year on from the bomb explosions on the London Tube trains and bus that claimed 52 lives, we still know terrifyingly little about how it happened and how likely it is to happen again. The reports that the security services let Mohammed Siddique Khan, the leader of the 7/7 bombers, slip through their fingers do not inspire confidence. The failure to put Khan under surveillance may not have been particularly culpable - it is impossible to assess how important he might have appeared compared to all the other possible threats. But that is the point. Unless there is an independent inquiry into the performance of the intelligence agencies in relation to 7/7, it will be difficult to know to what extent they failed to act on information as they should have.
So far, as we report today, the authorities seem to be unable to answer many of the most basic questions about the 7/7 bombings. The bland official "narrative" says only that "it appears" that the bombs were home-made, yet this is central to the question of whether the plot was the work of a closed cell or a wider network. Equally, it has taken a study by an academic outsider, Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, to assess the extent of the bombers' international terrorist connections. He believes that they had extensive support from al-Qa'ida in Pakistan and suggests that MI5 knew about it.''
The Independent on Sunday. '7/7 One year on: Why did it happen? The big questions till need answers.''
More Indie 'Our intelligence is lacking'' - Crispin Black.
''When there is a cock-up, such as letting Mohammed Siddique Khan slip through our fingers, we have to try to learn the lessons at a bureaucratic snail's pace through oversight systems designed for the Cold War. Even now we do not seem to have got to the bottom of the Mohammed Siddique Khan story and the energy and ingenuity expended in refusing to acknowledge a blunder could have been better deployed elsewhere.''
And - yay! Leading Indie article calls for an independent inquiry
''Leading article: The lessons of 7/7''
''One year on from the bomb explosions on the London Tube trains and bus that claimed 52 lives, we still know terrifyingly little about how it happened and how likely it is to happen again. The reports that the security services let Mohammed Siddique Khan, the leader of the 7/7 bombers, slip through their fingers do not inspire confidence. The failure to put Khan under surveillance may not have been particularly culpable - it is impossible to assess how important he might have appeared compared to all the other possible threats. But that is the point. Unless there is an independent inquiry into the performance of the intelligence agencies in relation to 7/7, it will be difficult to know to what extent they failed to act on information as they should have.
So far, as we report today, the authorities seem to be unable to answer many of the most basic questions about the 7/7 bombings. The bland official "narrative" says only that "it appears" that the bombs were home-made, yet this is central to the question of whether the plot was the work of a closed cell or a wider network. Equally, it has taken a study by an academic outsider, Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, to assess the extent of the bombers' international terrorist connections. He believes that they had extensive support from al-Qa'ida in Pakistan and suggests that MI5 knew about it.''
posted by Rachel at 8:54 am
More from the Independent:
There are some bewildering gaps in the Whitehall account of 7/7; even the nature of the explosives used in the bombing is unclear. The report says only that "it appears" they were home-made, although there is plenty of evidence that the bombs were powered by at least some commercial or military explosive.
"Forensic science ... tends to produce unambiguous answers within a matter of hours and days," Mr Ahmed says. "The idea that continuous examination over many months has failed to finish the job beggars belief."
Furthermore, the substance that the bombers were said to have mixed from household products - TATP - produces neither flame nor heat upon detonation. But eyewitnesses reported both.
Indie
Another thing the independent picked up on a while ago.
The Independent posted this article on 29th June 2006, on many of Blairs anomaly-filled career.
Personally, I think it is a very rare acknowledgement of the Governments faults, and, unusually, by the mainstream media.
Jetstar28
P.S. I hear you had some trouble with a rather unkind woman named FJL. I do know about this person, and I would support you in anything that she uses to get at you, because she really has got a problem.