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Last updated on August 5th, 2017 at 04:07 am
The Times reports:
Police have defused a “potentially viable explosive device” in a car in Central London overnight raising fears of an attempted terrorist attack at the heart of the capital.
The device was found in the car parked in the Haymarket after a member of the public contacted officers at 2am with concerns about the suspicious vehicle.
Bomb disposal officers attended the scene to make the device safe, but the street remains closed along with the nearby Piccadilly Circus Tube station. The vehicle is expected to be taken away to the Forensic Explosives Laboratory in Kent for further tests.
It’s those pesky Presbyterians again, most likely. The usual strategy is for multiple blasts; other areas of London may be shut down for searches.
UPDATE. An Irish link not ruled out:
Intelligence sources in London said they were keeping an open mind on who was responsible for a car bomb found this morning in London’s Haymarket district. The device has since been made safe.
“All options, including the Irish, are open at this stage,” said the source.
UPDATE II. The search is on:
Police are now frantically searching landmark sites across the capital to check for further explosive devices. They are not sure whether the bomb was a lone device or more had been deployed across London.
Picture of the scene here.
UPDATE III. The bomb was “made of a lethal mix of gasoline, propane gas, and nails.” Something similar was planned three years ago:
British police … said the incident echoed the “Gas Limos Project”, a major al Qaeda plot foiled in 2004.
Convicted Islamist militant Dhiren Barot, who was jailed last year, admitted he had been planning to explode gas and explosives packed into limousines or other large vehicles in underground car parks in co-ordinated attacks across Britain.
UPDATE IV. Possible evidence of the usual multiple pattern, via Dylan Kissane:
Sky UK has just announced that Fleet Street has now been closed down after another ‘suspect vehicle’ was located. This makes the third …
UPDATE V. Second bomb found.
UPDATE VI. Search begins for the Birmingham Three:
British authorities were seeking three men Friday after police defused two car bombs that they said could have caused “significant injury or loss of life” in London.
The three men are believed to be from the Birmingham area, a center of radical Islamic unrest in Britain, U.S. officials who had been briefed on the developments told NBC News.
UPDATE VII. SMH headline: “London streets closed in panic over bombs”. A German visiting London tells the NYT: “There are millions of people here, people are walking around, nobody looks too frightened, I don’t think anybody is staying at home, or tourists are staying in their hotels. They always say that Londoners just take it as it comes, they don’t get nervous. English people are like that anyway, they just sort of mind their own business, they don’t get in a panic.” (Via Alan R.M. Jones)
What time is does the BBC report on denial/down play/conspiracy air?
Europe is doomed. I as verbally accosted yesterday at lunch by some guy (Turkish, I think) outside of a döner cafe. I can’t say what all he was going on about, but I did hear the word Irak, thrown in several times. I assumed he was conducting a one-man protest demanding that I get out of Irak. In my best German I told him and his Turkish brethren to get out of Germany. Several Germans who were standing around started laughing. I just smiled and stared at this guy (although I had my hand firmly grasped upon my Gerber.)
I can’t say how it is everywhere in Europe, but in my neck of the woods, every 4th or 5th person is middle eastern. And they’re beginning to get pretty vocal about their unhappiness. Europe is going to wake up one day soon and wonder what in the hell happened to their glorious bastion of liberal wussiness.
Presbyterians are in residence at No 10. There’s one at our house, too. Fortunately he’s outnumbered by Catholics. None of us blow things up or shoot guns into the air while screaming madly.
Does this have to do with the fact none of our religions begin with the letter M? Or that we don’t go to friday, saturday or sunday churches?
Hmm, are there any religions that go to worship on Tuesday?
Witnesses report seeing a small redheaded man wearing a green short-panted suit fleeing the area with what appeared to be a small cauldron filled with gold coins. The suspect reportedly was earlier overheard muttering They’re ALWAYS after me lucky charms! while nursing a Kilkenny at a nearby pub. Scotland Yard is currently searching nearby Presbyterian churches and rainbows.
#12: I’m watching channel 9, they gave it a 5 second mention at 6.15.
Strange, indeed. It’s wall to wall on Sky UK, BBC World (perhaps expected) but also most of the morning on France 24.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 06 29 at 04:27 AM • permalink
#17: Commentators are suggesting it is either ‘7/7 Pt II’ or a welcome present for Gordon Browne.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 06 29 at 04:45 AM • permalink
I don’t think it’s Presbyterians this time.
The report says the car was being driven erratically and that it crashed into some garbage bins. To me this indicates a random crazy person, not an organised enemy.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2007 06 29 at 04:54 AM • permalink
I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of Presbyterian action. It just doesn’t look like their style this time. But I’m just a random hothead posting on the Internet—the real investigation is presumably being done by experts and we’ll find out what they’ve learned in due course.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2007 06 29 at 05:03 AM • permalink
Yes, of course, they have to consider all possible parties responsible. Those radical animists are also in the frame. Anyone actually believe this is a not ROPMA?
Posted by Andrew Ian Dodge on 2007 06 29 at 05:05 AM • permalink
Photo release of Person of Interest.
They are also saying it was a Mercedes – let’s not rule out Germany just yet.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 06 29 at 05:11 AM • permalink
This is from listening to the bobble heads and hired talkers but their throwing around terms like “serious and sustained” “massive” and such in conjunction with terror threat.
A talker with Scotland Yard tag under his picture box was saying that there were hundreds of potential terrorists under constant observation in the country.
And now they’re talking about the need of new anti terror laws.
Something about MI5 canceling all leave, just in case.
Who these days would be the likely suspects to set a car bomb in the centre of London? Starting with M.
(wronwright notes with alacrity that mareeS’s name begins with an M. wronwright decides to go the subtle and clever path)
I say there, maree. You wouldn’t happen to be Presbyterian by any chance, would ya?
Posted by wronwright on 2007 06 29 at 05:14 AM • permalink
#32 (wronwright notes with alacrity that mareeS’s name begins with an M. wronwright decides to go the subtle and clever path)
*sigh*
Reads implied task to verify and triple-check religious affiliation of: mythusmage, Mystery Meat, murph, Mr. Bingley, mr creosote, moptop, monkeyfan, monaro, mojo, missred, Mike H, Mike G, Michael Lonie, Merlin, Mental Floss, memomachine, McAnzac, Matt in Denver, MarkL, Margos Maid, Major John, and m.
Well, there goes the weekend…
#32 (wronwright notes with alacrity that mareeS’s name begins with an M. wronwright decides to go the subtle and clever path)
*sigh*
Reads implied task to verify and triple-check religious affiliation of: mythusmage, Mystery Meat, murph, Mr. Bingley, mr creosote, moptop, monkeyfan, monaro, mojo, missred, Mike H, Mike G, Michael Lonie, Merlin, Mental Floss, memomachine, McAnzac, Matt in Denver, MarkL, Margos Maid, Major John, and m.
Well, there goes the weekend…
adds GriMMy to the list…
And to whichever you good folks out there thinking it highly crass of me to make light of such a serious development, it is just my way of saying that events like these shouldn’t be a suprise at all. It’s what most of us here have been frickin saying would happen for quite a long time. The UK let its collective civilian guard down, caters to the muslims, and reacts with horrified disbelief when the muslims attack. Don’t the Brits believe what the muslims have been threatening to do (and successfully accomplished once)? The stupidity is tremendous. And since we mock stupidity at every chance, there ya go.
There’s a bit of a silver lining to this event. Where it happened, various talking heads have stated that it’s an area heavily saturated with CC TV survielance… AND the vehicle is both intact, complete with all the forensics as well as the vehicle was hastily abandoned so no telling what was left behind as a bonus.
NAME: Irish Republican Army (IRA) a.k.a. Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA), the Provos
DATE STARTED/FIRST ACTIVE: 1969.
GOALS: Removing British forces from Northern Ireland and unifying Ireland.
MAIN ANTI-U.S. ACTIVITIES TO DATE: None.
STRENGTH: Several hundred members, plus several thousand sympathizers.
OPERATIONAL LOCATIONS: Northern Ireland, Irish Republic, Great Britain, Europe.
AFFILIATIONS: Has, in the past, received aid from a variety of groups and countries and considerable training and arms from Libya and the PLO. Is suspected of receiving funds, arms, and other terrorist-related materiel from sympathizers in the United States. Similarities in operations suggest links to the ETA.
Jack Straw, who was appointed Justice Secretary yesterday, said ministers had been informed of the incident.
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme it was “very saddening” but “these things happen”.
That has to be the lamest response from a politician. “These things happen”??? Tell that to the relatives of the thousands who have lost their lives in NY, PA, Pentagon, Madrid, London, Bali, et al because of these pigs
The report says the car was being driven erratically and that it crashed into some garbage bins. To me this indicates a random crazy person, not an organised enemy.
Possibly the driver had a change of mind enroute, changed plans in favor of survival and decided to draw attention to himself and his car before decamping.
Posted by walterplinge on 2007 06 29 at 07:30 AM • permalink
I don’t really remember, but were multiple, simultaneous explosions a signature of the Irish?
They were a very popular tactic by the Palestinians on a number of occasions. The first one would explode. People would run away from the area, right into the path of a second bomb (or bomber) which would usually cause even greater casualties (including first-responder, ambos, police etc.)
It doesn’t happen as much now thanks to Israel’s security barrier. Which is of course why some people are so opposed to it.
various talking heads have stated that it’s an area heavily saturated with CC TV survielance…
The whole of London’s CBD is saturated with CCTV. It’s quite unlike any other major city.
No doubt when they show video of the perpetrators, the conspiracy theorists will find it all too convenient that they were captured on a TV. Clearly it’s Blair’s retirement prank…
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme it was “very saddening” but “these things happen”.
I dunno about anyone else, but the phrase “these things happen” sounds to my ears like “we surrender”. Once you accept mass murder as a normal part of life, like bad weather or your favorite team losing, you no longer have a civilization.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2007 06 29 at 08:03 AM • permalink
One of the various recitations of the story about how the splody dope’s car was found says that it was an ambulance crew that had been called out to the night club that saw the car issuing smoke from its innards.
Could be the driver thought the thing was going to go all poofy on him. If his job was just to move the vehicle or pre-stage it somewhere for a lager boomage then he may not have been willing to stick around for the finale.
Since we’re at the 100 mark I’m gonna risk an O/T:
A little bit of stiff upper lip, American style
and…
Not sure if this is the account of how that casualty occured but the dates seem to make it possible, even if some of the injury details differ (which arm got blown off).
Dinner for the cats has been made and served. Feed some other animals on our behalf. Otherwise send me the bill at eggleston@iprimius.com.au
Forgot to add, I got both those links in #100 from Mudville Gazette
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme it was “very saddening” but “these things happen”.
No, Mr. Secretary of Justice, these things don’t “just happen”. They are meticulously planned out for maximum death and destruction, and the instigators sit at a safe distance to enjoy the carnage. For God’s sake, don’t the British ever get angry? Or do they just scurry around like mice?
Their manuals were impurrfect, mareeS. Oh, no! I’ve caught it from El_Cid! Scratch my long weekend, too.
Posted by andycanuck on 2007 06 29 at 09:33 AM • permalink
Let’s not rule out the Methodists just yet.
Posted by andycanuck on 2007 06 29 at 09:42 AM • permalink
Don’t count the British out yet. There will always be an England.
They’re not going through anything now that they haven’t survived before. Lets not forget that prior to WW2, England was rife with nazi sympathizers as well as soviet fanbois and others still simply too horrified by the possibility of a WW1 redux to want to stand up and fight again.
The Brits got over all that and got on with putting up a hella good show.
There will always be an England. Well, for at least as long as the EU doesn’t forbid people expressing any national affiliation or demand that everyone learn french and call their homes france.
And since we mock stupidity at every chance, there ya go.
And Britain is a target rich environment these days. Commence fire!
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 06 29 at 09:48 AM • permalink
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme it was “very saddening” but “these things happen”.
This is British for “Insh’Allah”.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 06 29 at 09:49 AM • permalink
- Posted by surfmaster on 2007 06 29 at 10:10 AM • permalink
There was a sci-fi movie made in England in 1960 called Village of the Damned. In the movie, everybody in an English village goes into a prolonged swoon; subsequently, all the women of child-bearing age find that they’re pregnant. As it turns out, they’ve been impregnated by aliens, and the children turn out to be little monsters who can kill people with death-ray vision. So, the whole town lives in complete fear of the aliens in their midst, and have to tread carefully to avoid trouble. The situation is ultimately resolved to the satisfaction of everyone (except for the children and George Sanders); however, the film puts me in mind of the English, today, and their extraordinarily cautious handling of their real-life “aliens”, not to mention the potential for terrorism with which they are faced.
The Muslim Council of Britain immediately came out and suggested that everyone help find the perpetrators. Strangely, no one had yet suggested the perpetrators were Muslim. Was the Muslim Council of Britain offering such helpful, civic minded advice when the IRA was blowing things up in Great Britain?
What would Sherlock Holmes make of this? Or Paco?
Posted by charles austin on 2007 06 29 at 10:43 AM • permalink
- And the reason not to ban immigration from any country/individuals who are/ Muslim is what??
Seriously, why?? At a purely “whats in it for us” level why do it?Anyone eho mentions food will suffer death by falafel.Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 06 29 at 10:45 AM • permalink
#118: Now hear, hear, what’s that?
*Grumble mumble…* ahem!
Innocent people of unknown appearance who are the misunderstood victims of centuries of illegal and racist attacks against their peaceful beliefs and habits?
Can’t have that, what!
Jolly good, then! We should invite them over for tea… and learn more about their culture.
Say, speaking of prejudices (ok, maybe we weren’t), what the hell is up with anti-red-headedness in England ? Just to mention the heading of this post, don’t folks have enough to worry about over there, these days?
#91 Rob Crawford: Did you ever see the footage of a parliamentary session where Tony Blair was speaking while Straw, seated behind him, nodded and nodded and nodded and nodded and nodded? Hilarious. Straw’s vacuous comment comes as no surprise.
#108 mareeS: “They’re not very good at the job…”. They stuff up more often than they succeed. Thankfully.
#123 greene: Got that right, mate. Specially “the redneck (antipodean subspecies)” part.
Proud to be one, I am.
“anti-red-headedness” or gingerism (pronounced with two hard Gs) is the last socially acceptable form of prejudice in the UK. It stems from an era when the native English population were inundated by an influx Highland Scots and Irish.
Then again, maybe if their political masters didn’t fuck around so much with the Highland Scots and Irish, they might not have had the influx that they did.
Sky UK has just announced that Fleet Street has now been closed down after another ‘suspect vehicle’ was located. This makes the third vehicle (including the one last night being Haymarket and also Park Lane) that has led to a part of London being shut down.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 06 29 at 12:22 PM • permalink
It does raise interesting questions. My 21yo daughter gives her natural ginger hair the blonde treatment. three of my sisters do as well. I am dark auburn so I don’t pay so much attention.
But it’s true that redheads are subject to prejudice of the kind that’s unacceptable for dark-haired people.
#145: “Get those motherfarking bombs off my motherfarking street”…..oh, wait. Samuel Johnson.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 06 29 at 12:33 PM • permalink
#145 yojimbo: I once saw a first edition of Johnson’s Dictionary for sale in a high-end used bookstore in Miami. I never wanted anything so badly in my life, but the price put it quite out of reach. I am fortunate, though, in having the Parfraets Press edition of the great man’s collected works, and recently purchased the Yale Edition of his translation of Father Lobo’s Voyage to Abyssinia.
Sandi: You might want to try brunette; that would seem to remove all danger.
Can I just add to that; once you get the colour right, you might want to cover that hair.
And peek out through a fabric letterbox slot whenever you leave the more peaceful Eurabian countries.
Forget eyeliner and lippy, babe, if you value your life. You do have contact lenses to make your blue eyes look black, of course…
Reuters has the Fleet Street closure, too.
Posted by Villeurbanne on 2007 06 29 at 01:11 PM • permalink
#159: Interestingly, I have heard it said that, according to the Muslim tradition (or one of the Muslim traditions), Jesus had red hair (and freckles, too, I believe). Abd Al-Rahman, the fugitive from the slaughter of the Ummayads in Damascus, who made his way to Spain and became emir in the 8th century, had red hair (his mother was a Berber concubine), but dyed it black (or his beard, at any rate) in order to look more like “one of the boys”.
“164 paco. Yeah, I got that. Apparently “splice” didn’t.
And anyway, how could you possibly think, even for one fleeting moment, that you could EVER incur my wrath?
Oh, and if you could only have seen that half red-half blond hair! Well. There I was, on a Sunday morning, using a “stripper” to remove the red when…
paco? p-a-c-o? Hey! paaaaco!!!
- # 167 splice: “hypothetical imposition …”?
Nothing hypothetical there, if we don’t all do our bit.Greying. Am I greying? How dare you suggest…
Just because my nana wasgreywhite by the time she turned 21 doesn’t mean that… Oh, crap. Yes. Alright then. But not so it matters. OK?Oh, and BTW. You’re forgiven.
Somebody resurrect the Lord Protector!
I bet that guy wouldn’t wuss out in dealing with these folks.
Posted by memomachine on 2007 06 29 at 03:28 PM • permalink
Sounds like they found a second car with explosive material; don’t know London, so don’t know if this is related to any of the places mentioned in Dylan’s update.
Posted by Crispytoast on 2007 06 29 at 03:52 PM • permalink
A kinda-related irony nuke from Bill Roggio’s latest: A house search uncovered a room containing a high-explosive stack nearly three feet high draped in a United Nations flag.
It’s okay. According to Antony Loewenstein it is a “non-incident”
“Judging from the overreaction to this non-incident I think we can safely conclude that Osama Bin Laden will remain holed up in Pakistan and let the fear mongers at CNN, MSNBC, and FOX do the dirty business of scaring the shit out of people.”
Well, if he were the one killed by a car bomb, my reaction would be limited to “oh, well”.
Posted by SwampWoman on 2007 06 30 at 12:21 AM • permalink
- #48,
don’t forget, Texas Bob, carpefraise has a silent M just after the silent hyphen between the dipthong “ai” and the sibilant “s”.Wouldn’t want to sponsor inaccuracy around here, you know.Meanwhile I have renamed the ROP the Religion of Petulance.
Posted by carpefraise on 2007 06 30 at 07:07 AM • permalink
Aahhh, Birmingham. What a surprise.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2007 06 30 at 08:40 AM • permalink
So I wake up in New Jersey this morning…
While other papers are foolishly wasting their readers’ attention by reporting on the nothing-to-worry-about jihadist plot to kill hundreds of Brits, New Jersey’s Star-Ledger is running a hard news item on a looming pizza crisis (“Cheese takes larger slice of a pie”). It covers the entire front page of the print edition. The non-event that occured in London yesterday gets passing mention on page 5.
#191—And Lowenstein (if you are out there).
The thing is, all these terrorists are jokes until they suceed. Terrorists often are complete morons and losers—why else strap on a bomb vest and expect 72 virgins on the other side (speaking of which, who the hell really wants a perpetual virgin, let alone 72 of them).
Suppose the FBI National Office did not worry about CAIR and gave permission for that agent to look at Mousausi’s hard drive and in doing so allowed the FBI to roll up the whole gang. It would have been hysterical. The dumb terrorist going to flight school to learn how to take off and fly but not land. The “last testament” of Ata asking for women not to touch his body after death (lest they touch (or really want to touch) his manliness).
They are always a joke until they succeed.
Will those Presbyterians ever learn, they give all of us Christians such a bad bad name.