London Bombings - News Updates, Ongoing Developments, etc.

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This thread is basically "Explosion at Liverpool Street - Part 3" and should be used for news updates and subsequent discussion.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 05:48 (twenty years ago)

also the one on the number 30 was reported missing by his family at 10am on the day.
they somehow established that he's missing at 10am??

-- ken c (pykachu10...), July 12th, 2005.

this is still puzzling me -- he wd have been missing for all of 4-5 hours at this point, and at 10am it was a probably a bit premature to be calling the police -- if everyone who was in that london was reported missing then the police lines would have collapsed. why did his family make that call?

― N_RQ, Wednesday, 13 July 2005 07:44 (twenty years ago)

The 10:00 news on ITV had them reporting him missing at ten in the evening.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 07:54 (twenty years ago)

That would make loads more sense.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 07:55 (twenty years ago)

newsnight made a big thing of it being 10am. puzzling.

― N_RQ, Wednesday, 13 July 2005 07:59 (twenty years ago)

ah, guardian says 10pm. looks like newsnight got it wrong, or i was off the ball.

― N_RQ, Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:00 (twenty years ago)

I think 10am must have been a mistake - they said his family rang the Casualty Hotline at 10am - but I don't think the hotline had even been set up by then, had it?

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:02 (twenty years ago)

The bus explosion happened at about ten to ten so I think it must be 10PM.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:07 (twenty years ago)

This is a weird and possibly inappropriate question (maybe on the wrong thread) - but why is so much being made of the "homegrown terrorists!" and "English Suicide Bombers!" aspect?

To me, it's almost a relief that they turned out to be British. That there is now NO WAY that this tragedy can possibly be used as an excuse to bomb the sh*t out of any other countries or to go to war with anyone else.

Sure, the idea that they were suicide bombers makes it a bit scarier - that there's no way to catch or punnish them, and much harder to predict or spot or prevent them. But what difference does it make, where they come from? Is there some kind of crazy idea that English People should be "more civilised" than that or something? I don't really understand.

― MIS Information (kate), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:15 (twenty years ago)

Seems to me like a more casual (or subtle?) echo of the sentiments expressed in that BNP poster, although I can't work out what's more sickening - that poster or the canting response to same by the Tories, all of whom secretly agree with what it's saying.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:18 (twenty years ago)

The whole enemy within angle is all the better for creating a climate of fear "they LIVE, on our STREETS, hanging around our VILLAGE GREENS, maybe even IN OUR SCHOOLS". And having a climate of fear is all the better for selling newspapers / and or morally dubious identity card schemes.

x-post and / or morally indefensible politics, also.

― Matt (Matt), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:20 (twenty years ago)

Probably comments for

'Analysis/readtion to official responses to the Explosions in London. (Also general analysis thread)

I'll reply to it over there when i get the chance.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:21 (twenty years ago)

(Sorry, Ed, but I'm really trying to avoid that thread.)

― MIS Information (kate), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:23 (twenty years ago)

There seems to be a problem with posting to that thread at the moment...invalid filepaths and what have you.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:23 (twenty years ago)

ignore last post, seems to be working ok now.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:25 (twenty years ago)

That there is now NO WAY that this tragedy can possibly be used as an excuse to bomb the sh*t out of any other countries or to go to war with anyone else.

we-ell, maybe. if the bombers were trained in afghanistan, as with 9/11, you'd have some grounds for striking the training camps. i don't see why it's BNP-ish to be struck by the fact that the bombers were english! it poses the question 'why' more sharply.

― N_RQ, Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:26 (twenty years ago)

The bombers could have been trained abroad.

So were IRA operatives.

Does that mean we should have bombed Ireland as well?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:28 (twenty years ago)

It just kind of seems to reinforce the attitude that terrorism is something that happens SOMEWHERE ELSE to SOMEONE ELSE. And that the issues that cause it are something totally foreign and strange and unrelated to anything around us.

(I'm sure that this comment is going to be misunderstood, I am really not phrasing myself very well right now.)

― MIS Information (kate), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:29 (twenty years ago)

It's a generational thing - in the IRA '70s it was "Blitz? What Blitz?" and now it's "IRA? What IRA?"

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:33 (twenty years ago)

i think its twofold, one, people like to think of mysterious people flown in especially, rather than there are people here who think that way. somehow if people are already here, it makes it 'easier' to happen again, in peoples minds

the other thing is, i think, if people had come from places where they had seen their loved ones blown up and attacked, bombed, tanks on their streets, it makes it easier to see why they feel the way they do. if its someone you went to school with, its difficult for people to comprehend how they got radicalized. someone who might smile at you in the street, no visible signs. rightly or wrongly i think people find that unknowable, and frightening

― charltonlido (gareth), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:37 (twenty years ago)

marcello, that's true about the generation gap, but there were obvious tactical reasons for not striking in ireland (although there were snatch-squads operating there i think): it would have been counter-productive. also wasn't the IRA was a different proposition, ie had a level of public support in northern ireland, a local, limited political aim, etc. striking in afghanistan plays differently, and arguably the stakes are higher.

i know what you mean, but it must be established what thse issues that caused this were. i still think it would be 'more understandable' psychologically if the bombers had strong links with, say, iraq. but what local grievances could provoke a suicide bombing attack? it's a question that has to be asked.

― N_RQ, Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:38 (twenty years ago)

controlled explosion in the bank area just now?

― charltonlido (gareth), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:40 (twenty years ago)

Like there have never been racial/religious tensions, riots, etc. in Leeds/other industrial cities in Yorkshire? I'm not excusing it, or anything like that, but although it may be easier to spot in other countries, it's not like it doesn't exist here.

― MIS Information (kate), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:42 (twenty years ago)

(this really does atually belong over on the other thread, I'm just saying)

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:42 (twenty years ago)

Sorry. I am actually going to stop this line of questioning anyway because it is making me uncomfortable.

― MIS Information (kate), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:43 (twenty years ago)

what's the point of this thread if not to follow up on news now tho? if people want news they can just go to news sites directly?

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:44 (twenty years ago)

Kate otm with this. Also it means they are OUR problem which we now have to confront and deal with. (But not in the BNP way obv.)

I think I had kind of assumed they were British all along though.

― The Lex (The Lex), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:44 (twenty years ago)

I'm not going to even look at the other thread, I'm not ready for political dick-waving yet and don't want to read a single word of any debate which contains the word 'Iraq'.

― The Lex (The Lex), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:45 (twenty years ago)

i'd assumed they were british, but as with richard reid, it's possible they had international connections, and more than likely international 'motivation', as it were. i don't think this sprung from the admittedly not great prospects of life for young muslims in leeds.

― N_RQ, Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:47 (twenty years ago)

I'm not going to even look at the other thread, I'm not ready for political dick-waving yet and don't want to read a single word of any debate which contains the word 'Iraq'.

Then you should should close this thread, it's already been contaminated. Anyway, the other thread has stopped that, and started again a bit closer to home.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:49 (twenty years ago)

i don't know why it's 'dick-waving' to talk about iraq on a thread about the london bombings, really.

― N_RQ, Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:55 (twenty years ago)

It's not "dick-waving" to talk about Iraq. But I do sometimes get the feeling that some people on those kinds of threads are ranting as much as to express their anger as their ideology (and vice versa) - and at that point it stops being a dialogue and becomes difficult to read, let alone participate. Especially for someone who is not all that comfortable talking about political issues to start with.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with anything. Different people express their grief and anger in different ways, as I've said constantly this past week (sometimes to explain my own apparently irrational behaviour) - so I'm not going to tell people what they should or shouldn't do. Just say what I feel uncomfortable participating in.

― MIS Information (kate), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 08:58 (twenty years ago)

Beause it doesn't do any fucking good. At least hearing everyone's fixed views about Leeds would add variety.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 09:00 (twenty years ago)

fair play, and you're right, most of the/my posts on those threads are just acting out, part of the coping mechanism. not all of them, though!

xpost

AF -- ye-ah, but how iraq 'played' in leeds might be material.

― N_Rq, Wednesday, 13 July 2005 09:01 (twenty years ago)

It's a big deal because:

We can't stop people coming in through airports, ports, etc if they are "homegrown".

The implication is that we have somehow failed in our efforts towards integration, etc.

It hasn't happened before.

It's easier for them to "network" without being noticed.

And probably lots of other reasons.

I think.

― Peter Stringbender (PJ Miller), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 09:03 (twenty years ago)

It’s not uncommon for there to be religious tensions and conflicts in multi-ethnic societies. They tend to be based on local and specific grievances, especially in those cases where terrorism or mass murder occur, such as those involving muslims and Jews in the Middle-East, muslims and catholics in Indonesia, muslims and Anglicans in Nigeria, muslims and animists in the Sudan, muslims and Coptics in Egypt, muslims and Hindus in India and Kashmir, muslims and Buddhists in Thailand, etc. etc. obviously there is no general pattern to this kind of thing.

― jj1, Wednesday, 13 July 2005 09:11 (twenty years ago)

Last Friday Melanie Philips did a column in the Mail in which she blamed lax immigration control (the fault of the politcally correct liberal elite who run our etc etc....) for the bombings. I know some people say the North and South are like different countries, but surely even her nasty little rag can't be demanding passport control at Scratchwood services?

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 09:54 (twenty years ago)

I think the my mood would be improved by Melanie Phillips an Geroge Galloway Bare knuckle boxing to the death.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 09:55 (twenty years ago)

In a vat full of crocodiles.

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 10:25 (twenty years ago)

Possibly over a vat of crocodiles on the tilting fighting ring from flash gordon.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 10:29 (twenty years ago)

I was thinking more Thunderdome ("Two morons enter, no morons leave!"), but that might just be my obsession with Tina Turner in unsual leather costumes speaking.

Anyway, back to the thread.

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 10:31 (twenty years ago)

London is 'United'
http://uk.news.launch.yahoo.com/dyna/article.html?a=/050713/340/fn8uy.html&e=l_news_dm

A free festival to pay tribute to those killed in the terrorist strikes in London is to take place this weekend

The details of 'London United', which will be held in Burgess Park on Saturday, were announced this morning by Mayor Ken Livingstone..

To appear Jarvis Cocker, Madness and St Etienne.

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 11:23 (twenty years ago)

that's another record i can't listen to at the moment, tales from turnpike house - especially things like "milk bottle symphony" and "side streets" in light of What Has Happened.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 11:26 (twenty years ago)

weird, apparently people had to stay in kirkstall leisure centre overnight but i can see any outward manifestations of anything happening. i did see someone who looked like a journo talking to some people outside the mosque last night. does nayone know which street the burley house was in? i couldnt quite work out from the bbc news clip.

― ambrose (ambrose), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 11:34 (twenty years ago)

Alexandra Grove in Hyde Park. Controlled explosions, bomb factory, 500 families evacuated etc.

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 12:00 (twenty years ago)

does nayone know which street the burley house was in?

colwyn road, i think: number 51. my mate's brother's house backs on to it.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 12:16 (twenty years ago)

colwyn road is the guy in beeston.

its profoundly strange. i used to live 2 mins from there. now i live 10 mins

― ambrose (ambrose), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 12:19 (twenty years ago)

o fuck sorry, so it is. apologies: confused by my areas of leeds. as, it seems, are some of the news sources.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 12:20 (twenty years ago)

Some kind of big armed police raid going on in High Wycombe too - no real details as yet (because it has been kept off the Command & Control network) but I hope to know more later today.

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 13:01 (twenty years ago)

Anything on that, CJ? They are talking about Aylesbury on Newsnight now.

― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 20:37 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 19 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

I was expecting to feel angry, or upset, when it happened, but I didn't really feel either - it was 2 minutes, everyone observed it, don't know what they were thinking, don't want to.

Came back in and 6 Music played Sigur Ros and then Bright Eyes, and then I got annoyed. (That sounds like a one-liner but it's not meant as such).

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 14 July 2005 10:14 (twenty years ago)

I'm at home on my own. Was listening on the radio. Occurred to me to check across the dial. Nothing but silence anywhere, MW or FM. Didn't dare to test LW.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 14 July 2005 10:16 (twenty years ago)

The silence was recommended in Finland too, but apparently my office didn't do it. I generally don't like these worldwide silences, because they're only applied when Westerners die, but not if ten times more people die in some Third World country. This time, however, I decided to remain silent out of respect for you guys. My job doesn't require much talking anyway, so I don't think anyone noticed.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 14 July 2005 10:17 (twenty years ago)

a small few of us managed to observe it here in our little corner of a glasgow office; i'm glad we did.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 14 July 2005 10:18 (twenty years ago)

Don't believe in them

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 14 July 2005 10:20 (twenty years ago)

I don't like silences in general, because it feels like enforced grieving and/or respect, rather than allowing people to make remembrance in their own way.

But it was strangely moving, and it was hard not to cry. But like I said, that's because it's personal, and therefore probably selfish, making a personal issue out of something which belongs to all Londoners.

― MIS Information (kate), Thursday, 14 July 2005 10:21 (twenty years ago)

I don't like silences in general, because it feels like enforced grieving and/or respect, rather than allowing people to make remembrance in their own way

yes, but as well as individual actions, it's good for "society" to remember at large. i don't quite understand people's problem with silences, to be honest.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 14 July 2005 10:26 (twenty years ago)

(although tuomas makes a very valid point above re: the west.)

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 14 July 2005 10:28 (twenty years ago)

It's hard not to cry in general at the moment. All yesterday evening I kept seeing people reading the Evening Standard with the page open at Liz's picture, and each time it made me choke a little.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 14 July 2005 10:29 (twenty years ago)

Only a handful of people from my building went outside, but the silence seems to have been observed.
Also, in the way of news, police have apparently evacuated a couple of hundred people out of another street in Leeds to search another property.

― Craig Gilchrist (Craig Gilchrist), Thursday, 14 July 2005 10:33 (twenty years ago)

I heard a report on the radio this morning about the two minutes of silence. The reporter said that the only sound you could hear in Trafalgar Square was the sound of engines idling. A bit ironic isn't it? That Westerners can't be bothered to turn off their oil-consuming cars for two minutes... I know no one consciously left their car running, but that's kind of the point.

― geyser muffler and a quarter (Dave225), Thursday, 14 July 2005 10:39 (twenty years ago)

Nickleodeon NL did the silence. Islam Channel, PTV Prime and Loveworld didn't.

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 14 July 2005 10:42 (twenty years ago)

Wardour St was actually quiet, probably for the first time ever.

I watched a plane trailing it's jetstream, high above us and tried to transmit good thoughts.

― mzui (mzui), Thursday, 14 July 2005 10:49 (twenty years ago)

made my excuses at about 10 to and went for a walk around the pond. park was a nice mix of people being silent and kids and birds and dogs not being. 8 new ducklings on the pond. life goes on.

― koogs (koogs), Thursday, 14 July 2005 10:51 (twenty years ago)

(I suspect it might use more fuel to start up a car than you'd burn in two minutes while idling; imagine the gridlock if 1% of those vehicles failed to restart! But it might've been a nice gesture to turn off the engines).

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 14 July 2005 10:51 (twenty years ago)

Yes, practicality aside, I just thought it ironic that the only sound you could hear was the humming of Westerner's dependence on oil.

― geyser muffler and a quarter (Dave225), Thursday, 14 July 2005 10:56 (twenty years ago)

Reports of people clapping afterwards: WTF? People are broken.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 14 July 2005 10:59 (twenty years ago)

2 minutes silence fairly well observed here at Westminster. No clapping afterwards. All the taxis stopped and that pretty much forced everybody else to as well. There was one coach right near me whose engine was really loud even in idling mode, but on stroke of noon the driver switched it off thank goodness. I was standing just inside St James Park. What koogs said.

― Jeff W (zebedee), Thursday, 14 July 2005 11:01 (twenty years ago)

Any radio stations who played "Angels" by Robbie Williams at 12:03 pm should be...given a stern reprimand.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 14 July 2005 11:20 (twenty years ago)

In Spain they always clap after silences, so maybe they were Spanish or something. They come over here, clap after silences...

Good ducklingwatch, Koogs. Keep it up.

― Peter Stringbender (PJ Miller), Thursday, 14 July 2005 11:22 (twenty years ago)

In Britain, the only time we clap after silences is at a John Cage concert boom boom.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 14 July 2005 11:23 (twenty years ago)

This has reminded me to synchronise my phone and computer clock times. Gah.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Thursday, 14 July 2005 11:25 (twenty years ago)

yeah, where i was (nr broadcasting house) other people were clapping while we were just finishing off!

― N_RQ, Thursday, 14 July 2005 11:40 (twenty years ago)

News-ish update: Huntingdon station was evacuated last night, between about 7 and 9. I was trying to get home from London, and was stuck at various random suburban stations for a couple of hours
Where abouts do you live FP?

Some of us went outside at work. I must admit, it was all too much for me. I felt ppl were looking at me, but I didn't really care.

― PinXorchiXoR (Pinkpanther), Thursday, 14 July 2005 11:41 (twenty years ago)

The BBC website has quite an impressive video of the silence. It looks very freaky in Picadilly Circus, for example. And even Camilla managed to keep her trap shut from the looks of things.

― Peter Stringbender (PJ Miller), Thursday, 14 July 2005 11:56 (twenty years ago)

I went for a walk along the canal and then spent the silence watching the traffic on the 406, all the workers at the builders yard were out on the road, and yes, 6 ducklings swimming in the canal for me too.

― Porkpie (porkpie), Thursday, 14 July 2005 12:00 (twenty years ago)

and waht I meant to say - whenever there's a minute's silence at the football there's a cheer and clapping (unless there have been people not observing it)afterwards

― Porkpie (porkpie), Thursday, 14 July 2005 12:01 (twenty years ago)

That's a bit different - that's in anticipation of the match to come, isn't it? I never got the feeling people were clapping themselves.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 14 July 2005 12:09 (twenty years ago)

yes, its a different context?

― charltonlido (gareth), Thursday, 14 July 2005 12:12 (twenty years ago)

maybe people watched them do it at football games, and thought it's a custom to clap

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 14 July 2005 12:26 (twenty years ago)

e.g. for a split second, i subconsciously expected someone to blow a whistle at the end of the silence.

but they let the fire alarm off instead

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 14 July 2005 12:28 (twenty years ago)

So anyway, this fifth guy from the CCTV. Has he been caught yet or not?

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/14/international/europe/14bombing.html

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 14 July 2005 12:50 (twenty years ago)

Sorry, I realise ILE is unlikely to provide a definitive answer to this question.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 14 July 2005 12:50 (twenty years ago)

Where abouts do you live FP?

Oh, a long way north of there. I was in London for a few days this week for work, and was just going home last night.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 14 July 2005 12:51 (twenty years ago)

Russell Square was really, really weird. I cried, but then it has been very strange not being in the country and coming back to all of this (and that). Nearly everyone here has a "If I had come in on time, not decided to go that way..." story, which upset me for obvious reasons about those not so lucky. But I found the whole thing slightly theraputic. I stood there, holding my Union's banner and felt support.

― Pete (Pete), Thursday, 14 July 2005 12:54 (twenty years ago)

On newsnight, they were saying the 5th guy form the cctv was no longer important.

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 14 July 2005 13:12 (twenty years ago)

seeing bob geldoff in the crowd at trafalger square pissed me off for some reason

― dahlin (dahlin), Thursday, 14 July 2005 13:14 (twenty years ago)

We were gathered in the foyer of the main building on campus and were just chatting away when the head jannie rang a brass bell, like the one the dinner ladies used to use to signal the end of breaktime. It seemed comic the way everyone stopped talking and bit their lips; it felt almost like a reprimand for being so noisy. I was OK during the two minutes - yesterday I was wobbly and I'm sure I'd have gone to pieces but today I feel better - and at the end my friend Maureen gave me a hug and I came back to my desk with a dry tissue.

― Mädchen (Madchen), Thursday, 14 July 2005 13:15 (twenty years ago)

How can the fifth man not be important?

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 14 July 2005 13:17 (twenty years ago)

if he's not "the" fifth man but merely "a" fifth man.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Thursday, 14 July 2005 13:21 (twenty years ago)

Has the guy who claimed to have seen the bomber on the bus been heard from since pictures of him were published?

― grraham (noodles is a cunt), Thursday, 14 July 2005 13:24 (twenty years ago)

My boss put a notice up at work asking everyone who didn't want to observe the two minute silence to go away at ten to and come back at ten past (I work with unemployed and "problem" teenagers, who aren't very tactful at the best of times. They all stayed, and were silent). I stood in his office with him, looked out of the window, noticed a few people coming out of the shops, offices, etc to stand in silence, people in the building across the road from me similarly looking out of the window, and I said a silent prayer for Liz. We had been listening to Classic FM, and the silence led into Barber's Adagio for Strings. My boss went and thanked everyone for their silence. He offered to take me out for a pint. None of my other colleagues even thought to ask how I was.

As it happens, I don't really approve of enforced periods of reflections, but I've always respected them as it seems churlish not to.

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 14 July 2005 18:20 (twenty years ago)

I couldn't bear the idea of being seen by my colleagues weeping in the silence for 2 minutes, maybe I just couldn't bear the idea of crying so much again, so I instead walked to the pub during that time and had a beer, reflected, and only cried a few tears instead. It must have seemed churlish to the few people that I passed on the street, but I just couldn't stand still.

― marianna pm, Thursday, 14 July 2005 18:28 (twenty years ago)

Watching the coverage of the silence on the Ten O'clock news I got quite upset for the first time since last Thursday. The footage of the police control room with ranks of monitors showing absolute stillness on every screen really pushed home the dignity and emotional solidarity behind the silence.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Thursday, 14 July 2005 20:13 (twenty years ago)

Marianna, you've made me feel bad now about my poor explanation. I don't really care what others do in observed silence times or think about their reasons for it, I just mean for me personally I haven't yet found a reason to ignore it, and disapproval never seems the right reason.

Billy OTM, the whole thing in London seemed so dignified and heartfelt.

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 14 July 2005 20:28 (twenty years ago)

I said a prayer for you today Liz. I don't pray.

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Thursday, 14 July 2005 20:31 (twenty years ago)

Wrongish thread, sorry. Copied to other one.

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Thursday, 14 July 2005 20:33 (twenty years ago)

An interesting development

LONDON BOMBS: CHEMIST HELD IN CAIRO
By Nick Allen and Neville Dean, PA

An Egyptian scientist who police want to speak to as part of the London bombing inquiry has been arrested in Cairo.

Magdy Elnashar, who studied for a PhD at Leeds University, is thought to have links to a flat in Leeds being searched by anti-terrorist officers.

He was detained in a suburb of Cairo following a worldwide search involving the FBI, Interpol and other agencies.

Leeds University said Elnashar came to Leeds to study for a PhD in the school of biochemistry in October 2000.

His subject was “Development of a novel matrix for the immobilisation of enzymes for biotechnology” and he was sponsored by the National Research Centre in Cairo.

He was awarded his PhD on May 6 this year.

“We understand he was seeking a post-doctoral position in the UK, and that his visa was updated by the Home Office early this year. He has not been seen on the campus since the beginning of July,” the university said.

He was working on a project backed by a regional development agency Yorkshire Forward which gave him access to £30,000 but that was not taken up.

A man who knew the scientist told the Yorkshire Post: “He was extremely charming and very intelligent, a very typical Egyptian with perfect manners. He was obviously quite a brilliant chemist.”

The man said there was “nothing remotely sinister” about his work.

“It’s like making margarine. It’s straightforward and highly commercial,” he told the paper.”

― Craig Gilchrist (Craig Gilchrist), Friday, 15 July 2005 11:56 (twenty years ago)

There have been a lot of people added to the BBC News page of the dead, not just at the top, and possibly more to come tonight (as our own Liz Daplyn isn't there yet). A lot of people are presumably having a really shit day.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 15 July 2005 19:44 (twenty years ago)

Police and MI5 are probing if the four men were told by their al-Qaeda controller they had time to escape after setting off timers. Instead, the devices exploded immediately.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=15742951%26method=full%26siteid=94762%26headline=was%2dit%2dsuicide%2d%2d-name_page.html

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Saturday, 16 July 2005 00:03 (twenty years ago)

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