Stoic Londoners Shrug at Latest Threat: "Given the stance our government made on the war in Iraq..."

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Stoic Londoners Shrug at Latest Threat
By ALAN COWELL
Published: June 29, 2007

LONDON, June 29 — The headline of London’s Evening Standard newspaper today said 1,700 people could have died at “ladies’ night” in the Tiger Tiger night spot. The police gauged the potential death toll as “significant” if the car had exploded.

But, in the manner of a city that shrugged stoically at the July 7 bombings two years ago, many people in the streets near Piccadilly Circus seemed less than troubled here today after police announced that they had defused an explosive mixture of gasoline, nails and gas canisters in a car abandoned outside the Tiger Tiger on a thoroughfare called Haymarket.

“It’s something you get used to, living in London,” said Andrew Fowler, a 39-year-old lawyer who was sipping coffee at an outdoor café near Piccadilly Circus.

“And given the stance our government made on the war in Iraq and elsewhere, I think we are just getting used to being a target,” he said. “It’s something we have to live with.”

There was no formal indication from the police about the identity of the people who left a silver- green Mercedes outside the club or their intention. But British news organizations referred to the alert as a botched car bomb attack, and it added to a catalogue of summertime security alerts ascribed to jihadists since the July 2005 London bombings and a major airline scare last August....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/world/europe/29cnd-voxpop.html

[spanone]

1. Welcome to the world of 'IF' news.

[kurth]

2. Thank the Poodle

[pacalo]

3. Larry Johnson said on Countdown last night that this incident didn't fit the m.o. of other car bombs

He said that if it had exploded, the damage would have been to the car. It contained no schrapnel elements, the car would have caught on fire, & bystanders would not have been hurt. And one thing we know about the person who left the car is that he could afford a Mercedes.

Larry was much more eloquent & sensible in explaining -- the transcript isn't published yet on Keith's site.

Edited to add FLDem5's video of Larry's appearance: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x37385

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Thanks, 8! nt

[pacalo]

6. YmostW, Mom!

[youngdem]

5. 1700 huh? Bullshit.....The British Government terrorizing its citizens again

With this terror war bullshit, the cure is WAY worse than the disease.

NO fucking way 1700 deaths could have come from this silly little bomb. The Iraqis drive semis full of explosives and chlorine gas through marketplaces and only kill 40 at a time.


This was either a black op from inside the British government to give Gordon Brown the same mandate as the Poodle, or it was a rank amateur anniversary reminder of 7/7, showing that after a major attack, all you need to do is say "BOO" to freak out the public.


I wonder when the public will get tired of being needlessly terrorized by their own government. Seems like never most of the time.

[Toots]

7. But how can that be, America "the home of the Brave" is a land of Cowards

Scared shitless of a bunch of people that live in caves on the other side of the world. Scared shitless....and Europeans don't even ruffle their feathers..How can Americans who are so very very brave be such Cowards while Europeans, especially the "surrender monkey" French just shrug it off? We have Republicans in Power and everything....

[mr blur]

8. We've lived with IRA terrorism for decades,

Sadly, you get used to it. Life goes on.

[LeftishBrit]

9. Exactly

Frankly, the British are more worried about the floods at the moment. Not affecting London, but very serious up North.

[Lisa]

10. .... plus, the expatriates I've talked to grew up with bombs raining down during the Blitz!

One elderly woman matter-of-factly recalled seeing German bombers flying along the Thames, as she was crossing on a footbridge. Got home to find that a "stick" had come down at the end of her street (someone's house damaged but luckily nobody was home at the time).