Aftermath of the London train bombings

July 9 - The Met revealed in a press conference that the bombs in the Underground went off within 50 seconds of one another at 8:50 a.m. and that the bus bombing occurred an hour after. High explosives were used. There is a lot of speculation about the Tavistock Square bombing - including that the bomber may have been trying to defuse the bomb - but the London police are patiently and methodically investigating the attack and refuse to be rushed into hasty and possibly erroneous conclusions.

25 people are believed to be missing. Excavation efforts in the Tube are proceeding very slowly. What can I or anyone say? We went through it ... the sleepless nights which were preferable to the nightmares when we could sleep.

Meanwhile, the fun has begun. Robert says

. . . so let's be "clear" here. The following "discourse" from him [Tariq Ali of the Guardian] will be rooted in the recent emergence of a sublime, overarching, yet forcefully engaged, clashing yet hyper-interactive essentialism, which holds determinedly to elements of the truist self, and is based on both a transnational and intranational psycho-socio-sensibility, that is movingly neo-culturalist in its embrace of what might be termed an anti-modernistic model of pro-reactive anti-deferentialism. (Translation: Jihadists don't like us, and respond by crashing planes suicidally into buildings, or placing bombs on underground railway systems.)

Go Robert! Read Enjoy the whole thing.

Although I remain wrapped in cold fury, my sense of resolve has evolved; the defiance has not diminished but I find an ever growing iron enveloping my will. At first I was concerned that I felt apart from the pain and grief of those people who have endured much these past 3 days, but after a good night sleep I was able to take better stock of recent events and understand that the changes this war has wrought within me have come about because I have so deeply internalized the fact that we are in fact at war.

I feel it necessary to stare our attackers down. That's the long and short of it.

The British are tasting the bitter pill we had to swallow after Sept. 11: people who lived amongst us were planning to kill us. Some of these attackers may even have been born in the U.K. yet chose in some respects to defy their parents' intentions to build new lives for themselves and their children by returning to what they perceived as their "roots" and pursuing jihad.

It's that last part that needs examination most: why people who weren't even born in the mid-east (or any of the former Baltic states) feel a closer affinity to a home they never knew than for the home they have.

I think it's reasonable to continue to take steps to deport those clerics who preach hate in mosques be it in London, Paris, New York and Toronto, but I also believe that it is too late: the message has been delivered, the faithful perverted and the training camps have prepared the footsoldiers.

There have been a lot of news stories warning that Canada is next as well as revisiting the cascade of warnings from the Fraser Institutute, the Auditor-General and the appointed Senate but I'm staying outside of that because this is recylced stuff from after the March 11 Madrid train bombings and you know what? nothing changed here. Nothing will change here. The Air India bombing - which originated in Canada - didn't shake the complacency of this nation and I am persuaded that an actual terror attack here would result in arguments as to how much George W. Bush can be blamed because despite the growing lack of courtesy here, Canadians are convinced that they are nice and nice people don't get bombed.

There is a part of me that would almost be relieved if Canada put a growing distance between herself and the U.S.A. as a result of an attack here because then I wouldn't have this nagging sense that having Canada as a neighbour means leaving one's back exposed to a treacherous ally. [Keep your sputtering indignation to yourself; did you really think we didn't notice that the sudden announcement about BMD was conveniently made while President Bush was meeting with Russia's Putin?]

Canadian response the days of and after the blast is telling. If the TTC was on a state of vigilance they forgot to inform most of the drivers of that fact (although the drivers themselves hardly needed the suits to tell them to be especially wary) and as for Via Rail, on Friday a CBC reporter was able to easily bypass security precautions on Via Rail boarding a train without a ticket and gaining access to the baggage area without being challenged:

The reporter said it was easy to walk into Toronto's Union Station with a backpack and board a train to Windsor without buying a ticket or being requested to produce one. He was also able to enter the baggage hold without being asked for identification.

[...]

Security expert Brian Hay of Crisis Management Specialists said that even though technology exists for bomb-sniffing and even X-raying groups of passengers, it would be next to impossible at major hubs like Union Station.

"If you start to try to put the kind of security like in the airport, you're going to have thousands and thousands of people lined up waiting to get through, " said Hay.

So locking the door of the baggage area would be a major problem and would cause disruption and delays in services?

Via Rail on Friday called the breach "disturbing" and said it should never have happened. An investigation has been launched, and a spokesperson said the company had taken immediate steps to ensure every passenger boarding their trains is at least asked for a ticket. (Emphasis added)

It's comforting to know they have their priorities right.

Posted by: Debbye at 02:55 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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