Tsk, tsk!
But , more than that, our own second lynching of Mr. Menenzes is
what I like to bring out to Netters' attn. here.
cm
Chief Tells of Delay in Learning Facts of London Shooting
By ALAN COWELL
Published: August 22, 2005
LONDON, Aug. 21 - Sir Ian Blair, commissioner of the London
Metropolitan Police, said Sunday that he had not known until 24 hours
after the killing of a Brazilian man by police officers that the man
had been an innocent bystander and not, as first suggested, a
potential suicide bomber.
The man, Jean Charles de Menezes, was shot in the head by
plainclothes officers under a contentious shoot-to-kill policy one
day after bombers tried to attack London's transportation system on
July 21.
On the day Mr. Menezes died, Sir Ian told reporters that the fatal
shooting was "directly linked to the ongoing and expanding
antiterrorist operation." At the time, the police did nothing to
contradict suggestions that the officers had believed Mr. Menezes had
been acting suspiciously.
Those initial accounts have been directly contradicted by leaked
documents from an independent inquiry suggesting that Mr. Menezes
behaved casually and was shot to death even after the police had
restrained him.
"At that time - and for the next 24 hours - I and everybody who
advised me believed the person who was shot was a suicide bomber,"
Sir Ian said Sunday in an interview with the mass-circulation News of
the World.
Sir Ian said that one day later: "Somebody came in at 10:30 and said
the equivalent of 'Houston, we have a problem.' He didn't use those
words, but he said, 'We have some difficulty here; there is a lack of
connection.' I thought: 'That's dreadful. What are we going to do
about that?' "
Sir Ian has said he will not resign, as Mr. Menezes' family has
demanded, and has denied suggestions of a police cover-up. Two senior
government officials, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and Home
Secretary Charles Clarke, said Sunday that they still supported the
police chief.
Sir Ian said Sunday that he wanted to ensure that the public debate
did not distract counterterrorism investigators from forestalling
further attacks. "We have to concentrate on how we find the people
who are helping or thinking about planning further atrocities," he
said.
"I am not going to be distracted from the main job, which is finding
the terrorists," he said.
Separately, Britain was reported to have reduced its threat
assessment level to "severe general," the third-highest level, from
"critical," the highest. But the government declined to confirm that.
Mr. Prescott, the deputy prime minister, told the BBC that there was
"a serious threat all the time."
"We are in a state of high alert, which we need to be," he said. The
British authorities also lowered their threat assessment level
shortly before the July 7 bombings, which killed 56 people, including
four bombers.
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