July 27, 2005

Photo of one of the nailbombs found in Luton.

The deadly nailbombs meant for London commuters

Shocking new images have emerged of unexploded bombs, some packed around with nails, which were found in a car left behind by the July 7 London bombers.

In total, 16 bombs were found in the red Nissan car parked at Luton railway station. It is is believed the car was rented in Leeds by Shehzad Tanweer, one of the four bombers who killed themselves and 52 others in a co-ordinated attack on three London Underground trains and a bus earlier this month.

The sheer number of devices has raised fears that the scale of the July 7 bomb plot was much larger than originally imagined.
[If they could have killed 520 or 5,200 rather than 52, they would have.
I suppose in a way, the British were "lucky" they weren't able to use the rest of their cache.
Frightening.--Jen]

The presence of nailbombs graphically illustrates that the bombing cell wanted to inflict the maximum possible pain, injury and risk of death on innocent London commuters, security analysts say.
[...]
"And the nails are put there so that when the bomb goes off, the nails will tear tissue and kill people in the area. Bombs don't kill by concussion. Small bombs, they kill by the blast effects of fragments of glass or metal, and this is designed to kill people."
[Ask the Israelis or anyone who's been following the Intifada about nailbombs;
to their sorrow, they knew only too well how lethal and/or maiming these nailbombs are.]

Meanwhile police were continuing to question Yasin Hassan Omar, named by police as one of the would-be terrorists in the attempted second wave of London bombs on July 21. Omar is believed to have been on the run since a bomb failed to detonate on a tube train at Warren St station last Thursday. Three others, whose devices also failed to go off, are also wanted by police.

Omar was felled with a Taser stun gun after a scuffle with police officers who raided a house at 04.30.
[The British police have now resorted to the stun gun due to the blow back from shooting that "innocent" Brazilian suspect.
I still think we haven't heard the whole story about him.]
[...]
Today his family said in a press conference that the electrician had acted as "training" for the security forces. They said that by shooting dead 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes the police had learned the wrong course of action - and were now using stun guns instead.

Stun guns aren't the answer: if the suspect is wearing an explosive/suicide belt, the electricity could set off the bomb.
(This is why the police shot for his head and not in the stomach.)
The police were right to shoot Menezes, even if he wasn't one of the bombers.
They shouldn't hesistate to shoot anyone who acts similarly suspicious in future.
He ran from the cops when they told him repeatedly to stop--apparently, his English was just fine, although I maintain that a human being would understand the situation in any language other than his own.
Further, Brazilians are used to deferring to police commands to halt, according to people who've lived there.
Menenez's apologists also said that he was running because he was in the UK illegally, but Jack Straw said that wasn't true either.
This man was running from armed police (who announced themselves as such) from the vicinity of a terrorists' nest and wearing a heavy coat on a
very warm day.
He was even thought to have tried to take a woman hostage when he fled onto the Tube train.
British police shouldn't give his "suicide by cop" another thought.