From:       snowmail_daily@channel4.com
    Subject:     BREAKING NEWS: Major explosions in London

*Breaking news*

London Underground has suspended all services following reports of explosions near Liverpool St and Edgware Road this morning.
We are also receiving news of explosions on a number of buses including one in Tavistock Square - and further explosions on the Piccadily Line near King's Cross.

Emergency services were called to London's Liverpool Street Station after reports of an explosion shortly before 9am.

British Transport Police said the incident, reported at at 8.49am on the Metropolitan Line between Liverpool Street and Aldgate.

London Underground said: "The network has been suspended until further notice and all stations are being evacuated.

"This follows major incidents at Liverpool Street and Edgware Road (Hammersmith & City) stations. Emergency services are on site and are working closely with London Underground."

A spokesman for the City of London Police said there were "quite a large number of casualties" at Aldgate Station.

Mainline train company First Great Western said its services into London's Paddington station were terminating at Reading in Berkshire because of the Underground crisis.

More to follow and at Noon on Channel 4.

There is at least one confirmed fatality at this point and suggestions that there may well be a further two. There is no information regarding the "central" incident on the tube - that I am inferring from the information that has been given - there has now been a suggestion on Sky news of numerous fatalities - this has yet to be confirmed.

At any rate - all the news channels and politicians are explicity taling about a terrorist attack now.

An explosion has "ripped a bus apart" just minutes after a number of blasts on London's Underground.Scotland Yard has confirmed there has been an explosion on a bus in Tavistock Place. Union sources claim there have been reports of blasts on three different buses.

Witness Belinda Seabrook said she saw an explosion rip though a bus as it approached Russell Square.

FYI, I'm sitting in London watching the BBC News24 feed.

My humble blog - featuring Friday Basset Blogging

....it's my intention to lead the G8 and get a report face-to-face....and then return later this evening....the meeting will continue in my absence....each of the countries at the table have experienced the effects of terrorism....share our complete resolution to defeat terrorism....barbaric that this has happened today....clear that it has been designed to coincide with the opening of the G8....it is our determination that they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear in this country and other civilized nations....  (best I could do)

My humble blog - featuring Friday Basset Blogging

BBC announces 7 explosions, although no news as to where the seventh one took place.

Charles Clarke's up next.

I am not sure what the public reaction will be. I hope for a Spain-style backlash against Blair, there is still a lot of anger against him over Iraq, and this is one reason I didn't want London to win the Olympics, I didn't think we deserved it, and we won't be able to hold it safely.

We're staying the course, got them on the run.
BTW What was the link Iraq - Saddam Hussein and 9-11 attack?
George just last week motivated the brilliant counterattack of pre-emption to occupy Iraq in order to fight the terrorists on their soil.

The 45 minute time frame of Tony Blair was in fact 841 days 7 hours 16 min 30 sec.

       

DEFENSE SECRETARY DONALD RUMSFELD: I think we're probably watching something that is somewhat historic.

TERENCE SMITH: Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged the importance of the embedding process, but cautioned that the close-up view is not always complete.

DONALD RUMSFELD: And what we are seeing is not the war in Iraq; what we're seeing are slices of the war in Iraq.

We're seeing that particularized perspective that that reporter or that commentator or that television camera happens to be able to see at that moment, and it is not what's taking place. What you see is taking place, to be sure, but it is one slice, and it is the totality of that that is what this war is about.

UK and Great Britain civilians just got served another slice of the totality of what war is all about, when you invade a sovereign nation after all deceit and lies.

USA WELCOME: Make Yourself Known @BooMan Tribune and add some cheers!

Charles Clarke to speak at 1250 (750 EDT).

I wonder whether, as usual, the terrorists strenghten the worst forces in Britain (and do much more damage thereby than with the bombs themselves), or if Britons will react like Spaniards and will be finally fed up with a lying government.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

For the Record: 7 July 2005, Thursday.

12:00 p.m.: British Prime Minister Tony Blair says the "barbaric" London blasts are terrorist attacks and were designed to coincide with the G8 summit in Scotland. He will return to London.

11:35 a.m.: London police chief said there are "indications of explosives" at one of the blast sites.

11:15 Police say there were at least six explosions in London.

11:15 European Union commissioner for justice and security affairs Franco Frattini tells reporters in Rome that the blasts in London are terrorist attacks.

11:10 Police say they have reports of two deaths and nine injuries at Aldgate East subway station.

11:07 All bus services have been suspended in London, news agencies report.

10.57 British Prime Minister Tony Blair will stay at the G8 summit in Scotland but says he will speak at midday.

10:47 Home Secretary Charles Clarke says multiple London blasts cause "terrible injuries."

10:46 Police report serious casualties in London explosions, but no deaths confirmed.

10:46 Witness to Britain's Sky News says second blast heard in Russell Square.

10:45 Police sources say a bomb is suspected in London bus explosion.

10:33 Police confirm at least three explosions on buses in central London.

10:25 Police confirm explosion on bus in central London in the area around Russell Square.

10:24 Scotland Yard says "multiple explosions" rock London.

10:14 News agencies report a bus has exploded in central London.

10:02 Scotland Yard says it is dealing with a "major incident."

09:53 Metronet says the entire London subway network has been shut down.

Police says incidents are reported at the Aldgate station near the Liverpool Street railway terminal, Edgware Road and King's Cross in north London, Old Street in the financial district and Russell Square in central London, near the British Museum.

09:41 London Underground reports a second explosion at a subway station in northwest London.

09:33 Witnesses say London Underground says services are suspended after "power surge."

09:27 Metronet, the subway maintenance company, says power surge has caused explosion in London tube station.

09:25 Police say "there are walking wounded" in London's financial district.

09:15 British Transport Police say a explosion is reported in London's financial district in the area near Liverpool railway station.

It looks like the Aldsgate bus explosion was a suicide bomber.

Pax

Night and day you can find me Flogging the Simian

Pax

Night and day you can find me Flogging the Simian

Looks like the Kings Cross and Aldgate were the two bad ones.

Pax

Night and day you can find me Flogging the Simian

Pax

Night and day you can find me Flogging the Simian

How long must we, the people, pay for the short-sightedness of our elected officials?

My heart goes out to the people of London, a city I absolutely adore.

Oh, and I think Blair might finally be done, though the British public could end up being more forgiving than I'm predicting.

"I must create a system or be enslaved my another man's." -- William Blake

Pax

Night and day you can find me Flogging the Simian

Bus that exploded at Russel Square

Pax

Night and day you can find me Flogging the Simian

Bush on radio now. Little dickhead is talking "about the hearts of people who care about human rights and human liberty". "The war on terror go on ... I was impressed by the leaders .. their resolve as strong as my resolve ... we will not yield ...

Sounds like he couldn't give a shit.

Though not, as far as I can see, on either Poland or Hungary.

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

What I am saying here is based on what I have heard on public radio in Chicago.  There may be additional information I do not know about.  It is being reported that the Secret Group of Al Qaeda in London claims responsibility. The rhetoric and way in which the attack took place seems to point to them as well.  Although, it has been reported that the bombs were not suicide bombs, but time bombs.  One thing to note however, is that Al Qaeda exists in independent cells.  I believe every city needs to step up their security as these other cells learn of the attacks.

From Back to Iraq:

Today's blasts in London have been claimed by Al Qaeda's European chapter, Qaeda't al-Jihad in Europe. A statement has been posted on a site often used by Qaeda agents, www.qal3ata.com. The statement follows (translated by one of my staff here in Baghdad):

Jamaat al-Tandheem Al-Sierri (secret organization group)
Organization of Qaeda't al-Jihad in Europe

In the name of God the most merciful...

Rejoice the nation of Islam, rejoice nation of Arabs, the time of revenge has come for the crusaders' Zionist British government.

As retaliation for the massacres which the British commit in Iraq and Afghanistan, the mujahideen have successfully done it this time in London.

And this is Britain now burning from fear and panic from the north to the south, from the east to the west.

We have warned the brutish governments and British nation many times.

And here we are, we have done what we have promised. We have done a military operation after heavy work and planning, which the mujahideen have done, and it has taken a long time to ensure the success of this operation.

And we still warn the government of Denmark and Italy, all the crusader governments, that they will have the same punishment if they do not pull their forces out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

So beware.

Thursday 7/7/2005
Jamaat al-Tandheem Al-Sierri (secret organization group)
Organization of al Qaeda't al-Jihad in Europe.      

"Schiller sprach zu Goethe, Steck in dem Arsch die Flöte! Goethe sagte zu Schiller, Mein Arsch ist kein Triller!"

Amazingly there seems to be very few dead thank goodness, although hundreds are injured (120 treated and released from hospitals so far).

Pax

Night and day you can find me Flogging the Simian

It is also very interesting how this kind of thing happens when the warmongers need to "justify" whatever they do before the public. Tony Blair is not really popular, not to speak of the G8 meeting in Scotland and the controversy of their privatized "debt reduction" for 18 countries in Africa.

9/11 has so many question marks that politicians everywhere prefer to not even mention it anymore because ugly questions could arise.

Madrid 3/11 turned out to have been perpetrated with American explosives "donated" by a police informant.

London 7/7 will probably turn out to have been perpetrated with explosives "Made in US" or "Made in UK". No arrests will be made, and if, nothing in the way of credible evidence will turn up against whatever poor suckers they decide to put thru the court system.

I fear that we'll soon see mass arrests and expulsions of muslims throughout the UK and Europe. In any case, bad times will descend upon them as the crusade must go on. Radio says that muslims in the UK have fetched their kids in fear of reprisals. What will happen next ? Will we eventually see muslims cleaning sidewalks with toothbrushes ? Will beating up muslims in the streets just for the hell of it become tolerated ? Will Soviet-style "internal passports" be introduced in Europe ? Will checkpoints appear throughout our cities and countries ? Just remember that whatever happens to Muslims will soon after also happen the the rest of us.

I am with the people of London who have to go thru this. I was there in 2002 and remember a beautiful city and lots of very friendly people. I hope you all are able to take it in stride.

This from another site ( I couldn't say this better):

The success of these attacks can only be viewed as yet another blow to American and British credibility. Further they represent a collossal intelligence failure, for both America and Britian. It really is irrelevant who is responsible, or who knew about it before hand, what matters is that some one was able to make the leaders of the "War on Terror" look powerless.

The responsibility for this reprehensible event ultimately will rest with the Blair government for permitting this to occur. Team Bush also bears responsibility as they failed to protect our closest ally Britain. Look for Bush to cravenly try to both shirk responsibility for this failure "Bad things happen", and to use it as an excuse to drive forward whatever pet policies his handlers feel are most urgent, "If only the liberal traitors in America had not helped the insurgents by blocking ".

That this event occured at all puts the lie to the American-British "War on Terror" being about stopping terrorism. Terrorism is the consequence of attempting to run an empire, much as piracy is the consequence of attempting to run monopoly. No matter what is said or done by our current leaders, the net effect of their words and deads will be to convey to the world that this morning's events are the acceptable cost of doing business.

Posted by: patience | July 7, 2005 09:10 AM | #

Report of 40 dead.

Was anyone else struck by the competence of the British police, transit head, etc.?  They were careful not to be drawn into speculation and stuck to the facts, they were sober and knowledgeable.

I was also struck by the care with which the man I believe was the head of the police answered a reporter's question about "Islamic terrorism" by dissociating Islam from the unIslamic practice of terrorism.  The Bushies would be doing the opposite in order to curry favor with the base and to pump up the war on an abstract noun (terror).  The Brits are treating this as a crime, which is how 9/11 should have been handled.

I doubt if even after all this time the US is even close to approaching this kind of coordinated response.  It is all too likely that we will be getting our information on safety and evacuation from the suppositions of news anchors trying to piece together a story while the WH determines the most attractive political angle to use.

(part of this cross-posted on DailyKos.com)

rhetoric at the G8 has suddenly turned London into "the heart of Europe" -- though I thought just days ago the UK was more or less the Awkward Squad when it came to the EU project...  oh well, never expect funeral orations to make much sense I guess.


The difference between theory and practise in practise ...