March 21, 2004

Probe ordered over Big Ben protest

A BRITISH government minister demanded Sunday an investigation into how two anti-war protestors managed to dodge security to scale London's Big Ben clock tower, admitting it was a "huge embarrassment".

Leader of the House of Commons Peter Hain said Saturday's incident raised questions about security at the Houses of Parliament at a time when Britain is on alert for possible terrorist attacks in the wake of the Madrid bombings.

"It is a huge embarrassment, both to the House authorities and the policing arrangements," he told BBC television.

"Twenty or 30 years ago an audacious protest like that by Greenpeace would have been seen for exactly that. But what if these had been suicide bombers?

"So I am very disturbed about it and I want an urgent report as Leader of the Commons about how it happened."

I could not agree more!
Not only would a world (not to mention a national British) historical treasure be destroyed, but if IslamoFascist terrorists could get a dirty bomb and set it off from up there, it could disperse radiation all over central London!
Big Ben would be a juicy target for the Islamists, too, as they loathe time-pieces and clocks, according to Islam expert Bernard Lewis in his excellent book What Went Wrong.
Lewis relates that part of the reason that Islamic culture is able to remain in the 7th Century and not join the world of the 21st Century is that they set little store by keeping time.