Controversy continues over the recent Associated Press story which detailed the remarks of a "senior Israeli official" who said that Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in London for an economic conference, was warned by Scotland Yard "minutes" in advance of the bombings.-
According to the AP story, the Israeli minister's prior knowledge resulted in his not showing up at the conference, which took place at a hotel near the Liverpool Underground station one of the bomb sites.
But in a follow-up report by the news service the Israeli government denied knowledge of a prior warning and claimed that Netanyahu received the warning after the blasts had occurred.
It should be noted that the first story detailing Netanyahu's "advance" warning was never retracted.Aljazeera.com 19.Jul.05 The Mossad office in London received advance notice about the attacks, but only six minutes before the first blast, the paper reports, confirming an earlier AP report. As a result, it was impossible to take any action to prevent the blasts.
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"They reached us too late for us to do something about it," a Mossad source is quoted as saying.
Israel Insider/journal 24.Jul.05
Something happened, then it happened again. Sort of. And then a young man was shot five times in the back at close range by a group of police officers at least three of whom were in plain clothes. And then the responsible agency, or the nominally responsible agency, said it had been determined that he was innocent and it was a regrettable mistake. The extenuating circumstance is that he was seen leaving a house that was under surveillance "because of a suspected link to Thursday's attempted bomb attacks" [21.Jul.]. And he was wearing a thick winter coat inappropriate to the day.
No other detail is being offered to explain the killing of an unarmed man by London's previously famous-for-being-unarmed police.
London has a population of over 7 million. There are around 30,000 officers in the MPS.
It's likely that a number of houses were under surveillance the day after the second (attempted) London bombings.
It's also likely that a number of people left those houses, and that at least some of them entered public transportation portals. But this man was chased onto a train, and either fell or was pushed to the floor of the train, and shot five times at close range in the back.
Many people whose complacency had been disturbed by the original London bombings of 7/7, and then disturbed again by the attempted bombings of 21/7, are gratified by the efficiency and clean, nearly invisible violence of this man's death.
That's disturbing.
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In a related but relatively tangential note:
Expecting George Bush and his spiritual compatriots to be concerned about climate change is pretty naive, considering he's proclaimed himself a believer in the End Times. The world is supposed to be destroyed by fire. What's the problem, if you're saved?
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In a completely speculative, but you know, kind of I think likely, note:
Tony Blair looks and acts like someone who's been so thoroughly encircled by threat he's had no choice but to keep smiling and hoping someone gets it. Trying to stay out in front of it, whatever it is.
Like I used to imagine scenarios of intrigue back-stage in the music biz.
Things like Tom Petty's contract disputes, Prince's contract disputes - things that made them whores to themselves unless they pulled out, and the sacrifice that is to an artist - only I was imagining not being able to pull out. Like being owned by really serious thugs would make you have to sing no matter what.
Like real whores are a lot of the time. Owned. In the business of pleasure at the pain of their lives.
Lost in the public eye, and the show must go on.
Both Bush and Blair seem more and more like cathartic figures, handled, placed, and no longer able to withdraw. Though Bush himself seems more Manchurian than Faustian in his affect. I keep getting this sense of Blair not being able to say something that would explain it all.
