Posted on 07/07/2005 6:25:19 AM PDT by ConservativeMan55
JERUSALEM - British police told the Israeli Embassy in London minutes before Thursday's explosions that they had received warnings of possible terror attacks in the city, a senior Israeli official said.
Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had planned to attend an economic conference in a hotel over the subway stop where one of the blasts occurred, and the warning prompted him to stay in his hotel room instead, government officials said.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said he wasn't aware of any Israeli casualties.
Just before the blasts, Scotland Yard called the security officer at the Israeli Embassy to say they had received warnings of possible attacks, the official said. He did not say whether British police made any link to the economic conference.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the nature of his position.
The Israeli Embassy was in a state of emergency after the explosions in London, with no one allowed to enter or leave, said the Israeli ambassador to London, Zvi Hefet.
All phone lines to the embassy were down, said Danny Biran, an Israeli Foreign Ministry official.
The ministry set up a situation room to deal with hundreds of phone calls from concerned relatives. Thousands of Israelis are living in London or visiting the city at this time, Biran said.
Amir Gilad, a Netanyahu aide, told Israel Radio that Netanyahu's entourage was receiving updates all morning from British security officials, and "we have also asked to change our plans."
Netanyahu had been scheduled to stay in London until Sunday, but that could change, Gilad said.
And Bush just "happened" to be in the U.K. at the time.
The tinfoiler nutcases are going to be all over this one.
He's now reposted the link (AP via Yahoo) to the original Amy Teibel story with this gross accusation from around 7 AM, even though, if you go to Yahoo and do a search on "Netanyahu" you get an update from around 8 AM that provides the real info about Netanyahu being stopped AFTER the initial blast and sent back to his hotel.
Even pro Al Qaeda Teibel is reporting the straight info. What is Drudge's problem?
Of course Teibel did her job. She got this urban legend started. I bet Michael Moore paid her well for planting this little tidbit.
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here. The ARTICLE says the Brits notified the visiting Natanyahu MINUTES before the bombs went off due to the BRITISH police getting terrorist threats. What does not add up? That the British warned a visiting dignitary (and many others were warned, I'm sure) or that Netanyahu properly responded to the police warning? (That was a retorical question BTW.)
The real story is that Yahoo news or AP or whoever wrote this decided to focus on an Israeli being warned. They are trying to paint a conspiracy theory. I really thought long-standing Freepers could see through this kind of tripe.
In case you don't get what I'm saying: No. Isreal did not plan the attacks. No. Isreal did not know in advance that this attack would happen and "stay away."
--Marty
Though a more impressive warning after the first blast could have been given instead of the "power outage" announcement that was apparently going around.
How you distribute the right information without causing stampedes though, I don't know.
As far as how they knew I would suspect they heard something last minute, through some type of surveillance or watch.
Yes, there were groups that could have been dismantled. The left will point that out. However the left would have also been against the dismantling of them e.g. all the people who complained about Ashcroft.
Netanyahu seems a good guy to me, so I would prefer to believe it is the later here. Or is it just a reporter reporting a story? Would think one of the above reasons over the simple reporting of a story though any of these could be the case.
Looks like a possible leftist scheme to stir up sentiment against the War on Terror.
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