Replies

From UK - thanks for the post and the kind words.

You're quite welcome, but I feel that it's very easy to express sentiments of solidarity and gratitude toward one of the very few nations that has, at great personal risk, taken the initiative to stand alongside us in this war on terror. During these dark and difficult times we are finding out who our true friends are, and none are truer than our British Friends. One day we will be able to look back upon the trials that we have experienced together and our great successes....a Middle East transformed into a functional, sane region and millions of people freed from Islamofascist tyranny.....and know that we can do anything at all when we stand together, because we stand for what is good and right. Generations of the future will look back and marvel at the great accomplishments of these times, which would not have been possible for the United States to do alone.

Thank God the plan was foiled. How much good our (and your) security services do often goes unnoticed (sometimes it has to for security reasons).

Yes, I am also very thankful that a degree of secrecy exists, despite our active Left who masquerade as 'media watchdogs' but in reality do their utmost to work for our defeat in this war. Fortunately, the adults are still in charge of the police services :-)

Strange but true, Ian Blair is under fierce attack here and has gone public saying that he might have to resign - over the inquiry into the shooting of the Brazilian chap on the tube. Heck it was a tragedy - an my heart goes out to his family - but in war (and this is) these things happen. Learn the lesson, dust yourself down and get on with it.

It's a shame that he is experiencing so much pressure over this incident....it's completely wrong and unjustified for him to be under fire. Some extremely basic and obvious rules were broken by the man who was killed. Among them:

When you have Middle-Eastern appearing features or could be thought of as having such features, you don't

1. Wear heavy and bulky overcoats on a warm day with wires hanging out of the pockets

2. Fail to stop when law enforcement officers order you to.

3. Run into a popular terror target when you've been ordered to stop.

Of course there could have been misunderstandings and it was certainly a tragedy, but my great hope is that the police will not be cowed into inaction as a result of this. He could have just as easily been a terrorist, and the safety of the public is paramount. My hope is that Ian Blair will be able to overcome these difficulties and press on with the job at hand.

After the 7/7 here the spotlight is on our police! It makes you want to weep....

You have my sympathies. Things are very bad in that regard here, with our police having their hands tied and prevented from doing their jobs in so many ways. The criminals truly have the upper hand and it's a very difficult fight to maintain order. The police have my respect for being able to go to work every day and face this sort of thing.

When all is said and done there is much more support for USA here than you would believe from the media - the chattering classes make all the headlines.

That's wonderful to hear! Thank GOD for the internet, and the free flow of information that it provides without the filter of the Leftist-dominated media.

Warm regards,

And to you as well :-)

"Some extremely basic and obvious rules were broken by the man who was killed. Among them: When you have Middle-Eastern appearing features or could be thought of as having such features, you don't 1. Wear heavy and bulky overcoats on a warm day with wires hanging out of the pockets 2. Fail to stop when law enforcement officers order you to. 3. Run into a popular terror target when you've been ordered to stop."

My own views on Ian Blair are somewhat less charitable than vimto's and here you have inadvertantly highlighted the reason why his position is currently in some doubt.

The facts of the case are that Jean Charles De Menezes was not wearing a bulky overcoat on the day in question, he was wearing a denim jacket, similar in fact to what I was wearing on the same day. There were no wires hanging out of his jacket. He was not ordered to stop by police officers outside the station and did not 'run into a popular terrorist target', he entered the station normally, used his pass to proceed through the ticket barriers, made his way onto a train and took a seat.

It is the very fact that it was Ian Blair who put most of these incorrect 'facts' into the public domain, at a time when his officers working on the case already knew them to be wrong, and then failed to correct the misleading story for some days afterwards that he is being criticised for.

"1. Wear heavy and bulky overcoats on a warm day with wires hanging out of the pockets

2. Fail to stop when law enforcement officers order you to.

3. Run into a popular terror target when you've been ordered to stop."

Not one of these is true.

1. He wasn't wearing a bulky overcoat, and it wasn't a warm day. Nor were wires hanging out of his pockets.

2. He wasn't ordered to stop by law enforcement officers.

3. He didn't run into the station: he walked in. He didn't jump the barrier: he used his railcard. He even stopped and picked up a Metro newspaper on his way to the platform.

Look, we have to understand and admit when we mess up, and this was a SNAFU of ridiculous proportions. We blew the head off of the wrong guy, and he did nothing to provoke it. The circumstances weren't of his making, and muddying the waters with falsehoods about what he did that day serves no good purpose.

When you have Middle-Eastern appearing features or could be thought of as having such features,

At the time of the shooting a lot of people were saying this, but I find this argument strange considering that Jean Charles de Menezes looked very different to Hussain Osman, (the man the Police thought he was, even when they were just a few feet away from him, shooting him).

Jean Charles de Menezes

Hussain Osman

1. Wear heavy and bulky overcoats on a warm day with wires hanging out of the pockets.

2. Fail to stop when law enforcement officers order you to.

3. Run into a popular terror target when you've been ordered to stop.

None of this is actually true.

The undercover soldier who made the initial putative ID of Jean Charles as Hussain Osman was actually taking a piss in the park when he should have been watching the entrance to the flat which Jean Charles came out of and he only saw the back of him as he was leaving. He then radioed the HQ and said that the man who just left needs checking out, or words to that effect. But the senior police officer then radioed the heavy squad and told them: "whatever you do, don't let him get on a train."

The initial reports that said the things you mention were from information given by civilians who actually saw the undercover police team running after Jean Charles as he went to his train after nonchalantly getting a newspaper in the Station foyer and using his swipe card to go through the turnstile. The police did not shout to him to halt, they kept their presence secret until they eliminated him.

The first Jean Charles new about being followed by the police is when an undercover officer grabbed him and forced him to the floor of his train and he was shot at 11 times and hit 8 times in the head and shoulders by three other undercover officers.