Sigh.

[Taxloss]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1674992

Comprehension so limited it's hardly worth arguing. I hammered the alert button like a pinata.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

1. It annoys me when people don't bother to read the article

[beam me up scottie]

10. Not only that, look at what I collected in less than 5 minutes

when I googled The Special Reconnaissance Regiment:

http://www.news.mod.uk/news_headline_story.asp?newsItem_id=3210
from the Ministry of DEFENCE

New Special Forces Regiment for the British Army
Published Tuesday 5th April 2005

On 5 April 2005 the Secretary of State for Defence, Geoff Hoon MP, announced the creation of a new "Special Reconnaissance Regiment", which has been formed to meet a growing worldwide need for special reconnaissance capability.

In a written statement to Parliament, Mr Hoon declared the 'Special Reconnaissance Regiment' (SRR) will be operational from April 6th 2005. Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said:

"The creation of the Special Reconnaissance Regiment demonstrates our commitment to shaping our Armed Forces to meet the ongoing challenge of tackling international terrorism. The new Regiment will help to meet the growing need for special reconnaissance capability."

The new Regiment has been formed to meet a growing worldwide demand for special reconnaissance capability - as announced in the Strategic Defence Review New Chapter in July 2004.
*****
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4412907.stm
Special forces regiment created

The new regiment will provide support for overseas operations
A new special forces regiment is to be operational from Wednesday, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon has announced.

The Special Reconnaissance Regiment, or SRR, will provide specialist support for overseas operations, particularly those against international terrorism.
*****
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1452963,00.html
Hoon creates special forces regiment

Richard Norton-Taylor
Wednesday April 6, 2005
The Guardian

A new special forces regiment has been formed to conduct covert surveillance operations, mainly in pursuit of international terrorists, the defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, announced yesterday.

The Special Reconnaissance Regiment, the SRR, is the first special forces unit to be created since the end of the second world war and will be based in Hereford, home of the SAS.

The regiment, consisting of women as well as men, will be fully operational from today. The Ministry of Defence refused to disclose its size of but it is likely to be less than half the size of the SAS, which consists of some 450 elite troopers.

Of course using the term "Death Squad" is much more exciting and gets way more attention.

People who want the truth go out in search of it.

Armchair detectives just want stimulation.

[Frederik]

2. You're talking about your own comprehension

I gather?

[Taxloss]

3. Why not come for a visit, Frederik?

You seem to have some very odd ideas about the UK. You should come and see it. It's really not the scary place you seem to think.

[Frederik]

5. I'm very well acquainted

with the United Kingdom, thank you. :-)

London is my second favourite city, after Paris.

[Taxloss]

7. I'm pleased you like my city.

I know that America is having a terrible time under Bush, but things really aren't that degraded under Blair. He's a poor leader, but the reason we take exception to terms like "death squad" is because it simply isn't true. Certainly, we may be dealing with a rogue police unit or something like that, but we really don't know, and it is certainly not the policy of the Met to gun down innocents because "they look a bit brown" - nor the policy of special forces, for that matter. London is one of the most diverse cities on the planet, possibly the most diverse, and a policy like that would lead to the city being on fire before you can say "April 1981".

[T_i_B]

4. Just the usual kneejerk reaction you get on DU I'm afraid.

:-(

[tenshi816]

6. Taxloss, you might be able to answer this

question for me.

I've been on holiday in Florida for a couple of weeks, arriving back in the UK yesterday, and have been out of the loop on UK news due to not watching television and having no internet access while I was in the States. On the flight back home, the only newspaper available to passengers was the Daily Mail and there was a mention in the letters section yesterday that the Brazilian man who was killed was an illegal alien in the UK. Do you know if this is true?

If it is, it would explain why he seemed "suspicious" (fear of being deported), and it seems to me that since he was pinned down anyway, why the hell didn't they just arrest him instead of killing him? Dead men don't really respond well to interrogation.

Like I said, I have no idea if it's true that he was illegal, and I take everything in the Mail with a grain of salt until I see it confirmed elsewhere.

Thanks in advance if you can enlighten me (and I apologise if this has been discussed to death already on DU).

[Taxloss]

8. Apparently his visa had expired.

Technically, he was illegal, but it wasn't as if he had crept into the country or anything - he was welcomed in to study and work.

But what exactly happened in the Tube station - between De Menezes debarking his bus and his death - is a grey area. No thorough account has yet emerged. What is known is that he used his travelcard to enter the station, contrary to early accounts that stated he had jumped the barriers. Did he "look suspicious"? I haven't a clue. I look fairly suspicious, but that's because I haven't shaved today.

[tenshi816]

9. No, I have no idea if he "looked suspicious" either.

It's just what my neighbour said yesterday when I asked her about it, but she didn't know about the expired visa/illegal aspect either.

There was a period of about six months when I too lived in the UK on an expired visa before I was granted permanent residency. I was in perpetual fear of being found out and deported, so reading that De Menezes was in the same situation explained a lot to me. If someone who appeared to be in a position of authority had started pursuing me after my visa expired, I'd have run too. In fact, I probably still would and I've been a legal UK resident for nearly 20 years (and will hopefully be a naturalised citizen within a few more months).

What a horrible and undeserved thing to happen to that poor man. I will never understand why he was killed instead of simply detained for questioning. It would have been discovered very quickly that they had arrested the wrong person, and De Menezes would still be alive.

Thanks for the info.