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Well, they got their execution rights.

The Funeral of Jean Charles de Menezes ◊ by suskind

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Hasbara is a dead language

I'm quoting British blog Lenin's Tomb in full, emphasis mine:

Well, I'm having a hard time believing some of this. Let me give you a run-down on what's on the ITN News Channel:

1. On the day, a senior firearms officer had said that if they had the opportunity to challenge anyone emerging from the block of flats, and there was non-compliance, it would be appropriate to intervene with a fatal shot.

2. No subject coming out of the address should be allowed to run. (Incidentally, the only reason the address was identified was because one of the would-be bombers of 21/7 had the address of a gymnasium there in his bag).

3. De Menezes was observed, after the intelligence officer had finished taking his piss, walking to the bus station in his blue denim jacket, carrying no bags. His description and demeanour were noted, and it was agreed that he matched the profile of an alleged suicide bomber. How? ("Mongolian eyes", I suppose).

(This is a reference to an interview with a participating police officer about why Menezes looked suspicious. Seriously!)

4) Gold Command, on the basis of this, gave the okay to shoot-to-kill.

5. Having taken the bus from Tulse Hill to Stockwell, he walked to the tube station, entered at "walking pace", picked up a Metro, and walked through the ticket gates with his Oyster card. He walked across the concourse and began "slowly descending" the escalator steps.

6. He only ran to catch the tube as it arrived, entered the carriage, looked right and left, then took a seat facing the platform.

7. Here is where it gets strange. He is supposed to have been shot after having been chased and wrestled to the floor. But an intelligence officer's statement says he followed Menezes down the stairs and onto the tube. He was apparently beckoned by police, who did at that point identify themselves. "He stood, and walked towards me", the intelligence officer said. He grabbed Menezes, pulled his arms behind his back and pushed him back into the seat. "I heard a shot in my left ear". The intelligence officer said he was pushed to the floor at that point. A number of officers shot him in the head, seven times. Three bullets missed. One went into his shoulder.

Split-second decision? That is murder in cold blood, following the procedures laid out in the shoot-to-kill policy.

What was also disgusting was the performance of a former Metropolitan Police officer, some kind of bigwig named Peter Powers. That fucking animal of a man did everything he could to justify the killing, saying how terrible it was for the police, a decision made in the space of a few minutes etc. Then he said "I don't know for sure whether we can say that Mr Menezes was totally innocent". Probed about this by a bemused news anchor who noted that the police had already admitted that he was totally innocent, Powers said, "I just find it difficult to believe that he would be shot for ad hoc or whimsical reasons. And I, er, don't want to prejudice the enquiry that is ongoing."

It isn't enough that the police have consistently and persistently lied about Menezes with the effect of smearing him - first as a suicide bomber, then as someone whose behaviour made him a likely one. This prat has to add to it by implying, baselessly, that he might be guilty of some suicide-bombing-related-activity after all.

If there was any justice, the shoot-to-kill policy would have died with Mr Menezes on that tube. But no. You have to "destroy the brain instantly, utterly". They did that alright.

This is a fair price for getting the real terrorists next time. For it can't happen to you. No, it can't happen to you. Repeat...

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

Thanks for this diary, Oui.
I posted this comment over at BT:
Now, the de Menezes' family solicitor is weighing in, see this story from the Guardian:

In the wake of a leak from the independent report last night, which revealed eyewitnesses seeing Jean Charles de Menezes held by police in his seat before being shot in the head, attention has now turned to the initial accounts of his death - which claimed he ran from police, vaulted a ticket barrier and was shot on the floor of the carriage.

Today, his family's solicitor, Harriet Wistrich, claimed the police must be "partly responsible" for the accounts.

Asked on the BBC about the Metropolitican police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair's position over the initial version of events, she said: "There are certainly questions arising about how this false and misleading information was released in the first place.

"The police must have been partly responsible for that because it was the information that was given to the pathologist who performed the postmortem examination."

If this information is confirmed, then the Metropolitan Police will have a major credibility problem in the future.

The family's lawyer is a incredibly cool about this...

Asked on the BBC about the Metropolitican police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair's position over the initial version of events, she said: "There are certainly questions arising about how this false and misleading information was released in the first place.

Questions? How about cover-up? This is the situation that we have allowed government to get to...when a problem presents itself, just lie about it...or if not lie, then just cloud the issue with so much extra and unimportant information that the issue gets lost in the fog.

Ian Blair is a THUG not a SIr. He's the lowest form of human life on the planet. He's typical of "police professionals" I am not talking about the cop on the beat. I am talking about dectectives, and super secret police groups...these are the dumbest fools you could ever run into who are so full of their own self importance they feel free to shoot a man seven times or how ever many times in the head and then lie about it. I thought stuff like this only happened in America. But then Britain and Tony the THUG Blair seem to be following in lock step with the idiot Americans. I hope England isn't getting dummied down like we are and you people are getting lazy in your thinking.

Great diary.

It's saddening how much spin they put on this event straight away and scary how various establishment types don't see why it is of concern.