Promoted by Steven D.
In the London theater district just off from Piccadilly Circus a huge car bomb was found at 02:00 AM local time. A clear attempt by a terror organization to hit the civilian London population. The British intelligence community was caught off-guard. A BBC breaking news story …
Police have made safe a explosive device in London. Officers were called to reports of a suspicious vehicle parked in The Haymarket shortly before 0200 BST.
The immediate area was cordoned off while police examined what they described as a “potentially viable explosive device”.
The Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command has launched an investigation and The Haymarket is likely to remain closed for some time.
more details to follow …
Piccadilly Circus Tube station is closed and trains are not stopping, while local bus services are being diverted.
It is not clear if police were given a warning or if they were informed by a passer-by. [update] Witnesses relate driver of silver mercedes made awkward stop, hit some trash bins and ran off. Passers-by saw gas cylinders on backseat and warned the London authorities. Officers carried out a controlled explosion to defuse the device.
A British police forensics officer stands near the area
where police the bomb in a parked car in London's theatre
district and launched a counter-terrorism investigation.
The bomb was found hours after new Prime Minister Gordon
Brown named his cabinet succeeding Tony Blair.
Mr Brown’s first Cabinet includes Britain’s first female home secretary, Jacqui Smith, Alistair Darling as chancellor and David Miliband as foreign secretary.
Every Cabinet post except Des Browne at defence has changed hands, with seven ministers reaching the top tier of government for the first time.
There are dozens of middle-ranking and junior ministerial posts still to fill.
The government is due to announce plans for constitutional reform
● Jack Straw reinstated as cabinet minister under Gordon Brown
● Tony Blair named Middle-East envoy by Quartet
.
Possible target was the Tiger Tiger nightclub with 1700 guests.
LONDON – Police thwarted an apparent terror attack, discovering a parked silver Mercedes that was packed with (petrol), gas containers and a large number of nails. The attack would have caused “significant injury or loss of life.”
“Forensic staff are still examining the device, but once we know more about it, we’ll know more about what type of individuals are behind this,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the security details.
The official said Britain’s domestic spy agency MI5 also would examine possible connections between Friday’s incident and at least two similar foiled plots — including a planned attack on a West End nightclub in 2004 and a thwarted attempt to use limousines packed with gas canisters to attack targets in London and New York.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Hi Oui. I heard on television that an ambulance driver went to the club because somebody at the club was sick and then spotted smoke coming out and alerted the police.
Off topic – I noticed that one of the new cabinet ministers is named Darling. I can’t help but think of the Black Adder when I hear that name. That show was hilarious. Do you get the BBC? I did when I lived in Leiden. It was great but I heard that the BBC has gone downhill since the late 90’s.
As usual with terrorism, first responders prove to be the first line of defence*.
* I included the British spelling just to be a snooty Yank!
Excellent point. It’s not the armies, or WMDs that protect us…it’s good old fashioned police/bobby work.
Our Police are better trained and armed than most of all our armies of the past. Let them do their job.
I hear the whistles of the Constables in a Sherlock Holmes movie, and I feel safe. I hear the whistles of bombs dropping, and I know I’m not.
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GLASGOW (NYT) July 4 — In some ways, he was the unexceptional product of a privileged upbringing in an educated Baghdad family: an intelligent, pious young man who enjoyed swimming, hiking and socializing at the Iraqi capital’s exclusive Hunting Club. But associates of Bilal Abdulla, a doctor who is accused of riding a flaming Jeep into Glasgow’s international airport on Saturday, say he was a religious zealot and a lone wolf whose anger about political developments in Iraq may have driven him to an act of terrorism.
Dr. Abdulla was born in Britain but grew up in Baghdad, the son of a well-known and respected doctor, and went on to study at the College of Medicine of Baghdad University, according to associates’ accounts.
(The Scotsman) July 8 – The terror attacks at Glasgow Airport and London were a calculated act of revenge intended to bring the carnage of Baghdad to Britain’s streets, investigators have revealed.
Security sources have briefed senior politicians that the failed assaults of last weekend were most likely part of a “profoundly political campaign” to punish the UK for its part in the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."