Menezes shooting inquest *Verdict Given*

[TriWooOx]

Quote:The inquest into the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes by police hunting a suicide bomber is due to begin.

The Brazilian electrician was shot at Stockwell Tube station in south London the day after the botched 21 July 2005 London suicide attacks.

A jury will hear from two officers who fired the fatal shots - the first time their accounts will have been heard.

Former High Court judge Sir Michael Wright has been appointed coroner for the hearing, set to last three months.

Sir Michael, assistant deputy coroner for Inner South London, will swear in the jury and deliver an opening statement.

Mr de Menezes was shot dead on 22 July 2005 by specially trained Metropolitan Police firearms officers.

Teams of undercover officers had trailed the 27-year-old across south London after he left flats being watched for one of the 21/7 bombing suspects.

In 2007, an Old Bailey jury found the Metropolitan Police guilty of breaching health and safety laws, after hearing about the events leading up to Mr de Menezes being shot seven times at close range on a tube carriage.

Key question

The inquest jury will consider whether or not Mr de Menezes was unlawfully killed.

They will hear from some 75 witnesses over three months, including 40 serving police officers who have been granted anonymity, and Tube passengers.

Among those who will be speaking for the first time will be policemen codenamed C2 and C12, the two specialist firearms officers who shot the Brazilian.

Some of the other officers giving evidence appeared at the Old Bailey trial, including surveillance officers accused of failing to establish whether or not the man they were following matched the description of suicide bomber Hussain Osman.

The proceedings are likely to be watched closely to see if they raise questions about the leadership of Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.

The inquest is being held at John Major conference room at the Oval Cricket Ground because of the scale of the proceedings and level of public interest.

Relatives of Mr de Menezes, who have campaigned for police officers to be prosecuted, will hold a protest at the venue.

Mr de Menezes' mother, Maria, and brother Giovani, are expected to fly from Brazil to attend the later stages of the inquest, including evidence given by the two shooters.

There have been five inquiries relating to the death and its aftermath, including the criminal trial.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7628021.stm

[Antivigilante]

Quote:

Quote:The inquest into the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes by police hunting a suicide bomber is due to begin.

The Brazilian electrician was shot at Stockwell Tube station in south London the day after the botched 21 July 2005 London suicide attacks.

A jury will hear from two officers who fired the fatal shots - the first time their accounts will have been heard.

Former High Court judge Sir Michael Wright has been appointed coroner for the hearing, set to last three months.

Sir Michael, assistant deputy coroner for Inner South London, will swear in the jury and deliver an opening statement.

Mr de Menezes was shot dead on 22 July 2005 by specially trained Metropolitan Police firearms officers.

Teams of undercover officers had trailed the 27-year-old across south London after he left flats being watched for one of the 21/7 bombing suspects.

In 2007, an Old Bailey jury found the Metropolitan Police guilty of breaching health and safety laws, after hearing about the events leading up to Mr de Menezes being shot seven times at close range on a tube carriage.

Key question

The inquest jury will consider whether or not Mr de Menezes was unlawfully killed.

They will hear from some 75 witnesses over three months, including 40 serving police officers who have been granted anonymity, and Tube passengers.

Among those who will be speaking for the first time will be policemen codenamed C2 and C12, the two specialist firearms officers who shot the Brazilian.

Some of the other officers giving evidence appeared at the Old Bailey trial, including surveillance officers accused of failing to establish whether or not the man they were following matched the description of suicide bomber Hussain Osman.

The proceedings are likely to be watched closely to see if they raise questions about the leadership of Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.

The inquest is being held at John Major conference room at the Oval Cricket Ground because of the scale of the proceedings and level of public interest.

Relatives of Mr de Menezes, who have campaigned for police officers to be prosecuted, will hold a protest at the venue.

Mr de Menezes' mother, Maria, and brother Giovani, are expected to fly from Brazil to attend the later stages of the inquest, including evidence given by the two shooters.

There have been five inquiries relating to the death and its aftermath, including the criminal trial.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7628021.stm

We'll see if he gets justice. I predict a shower of fuck ups, contrivances, and utter criminality. 99% chance of new info will be gleaned from dodgy excuses.

[TriWooOx]

Police 'sure Menezes was bomber'

Quote:The police officers who shot Jean Charles de Menezes dead were "convinced" at the time that he was a suicide bomber, an inquest has heard.

Coroner Sir Michael Wright said the two officers had thought Mr de Menezes was about to detonate a device on the Tube.

His comments came at the opening of a three-month inquest in London.

The Brazilian, 27, was shot at Stockwell Tube station, south London, in mistake for a bomber on the day after the failed 21 July 2005 attacks.

Taking the inquest jury through events leading up to the electrician's death, Sir Michael listed a number of occasions where officers were unclear whether or not they thought they were pursuing a bomber.

He told them of differences between what was being relayed on radio and logged in the Scotland Yard control room - and how officers were interpreting the information.

Sir Michael said that as Mr de Menezes entered the Tube at Stockwell, no member of the surveillance team had positively identified him as Hussain Osman, one of the four 21/7 bombers they were hunting.

Turning to the decision of the two marksmen to shoot, Sir Michael said they had jointly fired nine rounds, seven of which entered the Brazilian's head at point blank range.

"Both officers state that they were convinced that Mr de Menezes was a suicide bomber, that he was about to detonate a bomb, and that unless they prevented him from doing so, everyone in that carriage was going to die," said Sir Michael.

"Each officer says that he was convinced that an instant killing was the only option open to him.

"Mr de Menezes was killed instantly. He could hardly have had an opportunity to appreciate was happening."

'No terrorism link'

The inquest will continue with the jury visiting key locations on Tuesday including Stockwell Tube station and flats in Scotia Road in Tulse Hill, south London, where Mr de Menezes lived.

The jury will consider whether or not Mr de Menezes was unlawfully killed.

Former High Court judge Sir Michael, assistant deputy coroner for Inner South London, had earlier sworn in the jury of six women and five men.

He told jurors: "The facts of the case are that two firearms officers shot dead Mr de Menezes because they thought he was a suicide bomber, but the facts were that Mr de Menezes was in no way associated with any form of terrorism."

Sir Michael added: "It will be for you to consider what level of identification was made at different stages, what was communicated to the firearms officers, and what those officers believed the position to be."

He said the inquest was a fact-finding exercise and "not a forum to determine culpability or compensation, still less to dispense punishment".

'Pain and injustice'

Three of Mr de Menezes' cousins, Alex and Alessandro Pereira and Patricia da Silva Armani, and members of the Justice 4 Jean campaign were at the inquest.

They and other relatives have campaigned for police officers involved in the shooting to be prosecuted.

Outside the court, Ms da Silva Armani said: "Today is the first day of a process, which we hope will bring my family closer to the truth.

"We are hoping that, at the end of the inquest, we will get the answer we need about how my cousin died.

"Hearing the coroner tell the history again bought back the pain and injustice of Jean's killing. This will be a long and painful three months for us, but we will be here until the end - to get to the truth and to get justice for Jean."

Mr de Menezes was shot dead on 22 July 2005 by specially trained Metropolitan Police firearms officers.

High public interest

Teams of undercover officers had trailed him across south London after he left flats which were under surveillance.

The inquest will hear from 75 witnesses, including 48 serving police officers who have been granted anonymity, and Tube passengers.

The first police officer will appear later in the week.

Among those who will be speaking for the first time will be policemen codenamed C2 and C12, the two specialist firearms officers who shot Mr de Menezes dead.

The inquest is being held at the John Major conference room at the Oval Cricket Ground because of the scale of the proceedings and level of public interest.

There have been five inquiries relating to the death and its aftermath, including a criminal trial.

In 2007, an Old Bailey jury found the Metropolitan Police guilty of breaching health and safety laws, after hearing about the events leading up to Mr de Menezes being shot.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7629961.stm

Quote:The police officers who shot Jean Charles de Menezes dead were "convinced" at the time that he was a suicide bomber

Bullshit, if he was a bomber then why let him get on a bus

[TriWooOx]

Police ruled him out as suspect 20 mins before death

Quote:Jean Charles de Menezes was ruled out as a suspected suicide bomber just 20 minutes before he was shot dead by police, an inquest into his death has heard.

The innocent Brazilian was killed on a Tube train at Stockwell Underground station on July 22, 2005 after being mistaken for one of the four terrorists who had tried to blow themselves up on London's transport system the previous day.

Two firearms officers who shot him in the head a total of seven times at point blank range have said they were "convinced" Mr de Menezes was about to detonate a suicide bomb and that "an instant killing was the only option" otherwise "everyone in the carriage was going to die".

Yet an officer in the Metropolitan Police control room directing the surveillance teams who followed Mr de Menezes made a note which said: "Not identical male as above discounted. Surveillance to withdraw to original positions."

The question of why the tragic case of mistaken identity occurred is central to the inquest, which opened with an outline of the chaos and confusion among police surveillance and firearms officers who were trying to track down July 21 bomber Hussain Osman.

The coroner, Sir Michael Wright QC, told the jury that Mr de Menezes lived in a block of flats in Scotia Road, Tulse Hill, south London, which had been linked to Osman via a gym membership card found with the unexploded bomb he had left on a Tube train at Shepherd's Bush station.

Sir Michael said that in the half an hour between him leaving the flat at 9.33am and the moment he entered Stockwell station, "no member of the surveillance team had positively identified him as Osman".

He highlighted the note made at 9.46am in a log being kept for the tactical adviser to Commander Cressida Dick, the Gold Commander in charge of the operation, which said Mr de Menezes had been "discounted", and told the jury: "It is not clear from whom this information emanated, but it does indicate, you may think, the lack of certainty in any of the identifications."

All of the entries in the police log described Mr de Menezes as "unidentified", he added, but in the control room at Scotland Yard "there does appear to have been a perception that he had been positively identified as Osman".

One firearms officer, codenamed Ralph, had recalled being told "it was definitely our man".

Mr de Menezes was shot dead at 10.06am by the two firearms officers as a surveillance officer held him down in a seat with his arms pinned to his side.

The two officers who fired the fatal shots, known as Charlie 2 and Charlie 12, will give their first public account of their actions when they appear in the witness box later in the 12-week hearing.

They are among 48 witnesses who have been granted the right to anonymity by the coroner because many of them are still actively serving as firearms or surveillance officers.

The jury has the power to decide whether he was lawfully or unlawfully killed and the outcome could decide the future of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, who would be under intense pressure to resign if the jury decides his officers acted beyond the law.

Mr de Menezes's family are convinced the full truth about his death is still to be told, but the coroner told the jury their job was to discover the truth, not to apportion blame to any named individual.

He said: "This is a fact-finding exercise, it is not a forum to determine culpability or compensation, still less to dispense punishment."

The shooting prompted two investigations by the Independent Police Complaints Commission and a criminal trial of the Metropolitan Police on health and safety offences, but no individuals have ever been held responsible.

Mr de Menezes's cousins Alex Pereira, Allesandro Pereira and Patricia da Silva Armani, who have campaigned tirelessly on his behalf since his death, were among those attending the inquest in the Sir John Major room at the Oval cricket ground, less than a mile from Stockwell Underground station.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/305...fore-death.html

[hammer]

I hope justice is done,but i doubt it.

[TriWooOx]

Menezes 'did not fear' UK police

Quote:A cousin of Jean Charles de Menezes has told his inquest that the Brazilian had no reason to fear the police.

Alex Pereira, 31, said his cousin had been stopped by police up to four times but the encounters did not bother him.

He described his cousin as a hard-working, ambitious self-taught electrician, who regularly sent money home to support his family.

Mr de Menezes was shot dead in July 2005 by police in London who mistook him for a would-be suicide bomber.

The 27-year-old was shot after he boarded a train at Stockwell Tube station in south London.

Firearms officers mistook him for missing failed suicide bomber Hussain Osman on 22 July, the day after Osman and three other men failed in suicide bombing attempts.

When Mr de Menezes had dealings with the UK police, he had found them "very polite", his cousin said.

"We came from Brazil and it is very common for police to stop people there and even police carry a gun in Brazil so it does not scare us," Mr Pereira said.

"Why would he be scared of the police?"

Dream of better life

Mr de Menezes' dream had been to travel to America or the UK, in the belief that living abroad "would bring a better life for everybody", his cousin said.

Initially prepared to do whatever work he could get, he learned English quickly and was pleased to get a job as an electrician.

"He was a guy that liked to learn and fought to make life better because he came from a place where everything is very difficult," his cousin said.

"It has become better now but at the time, it was very, very hard and since he was a little boy, he studied to become an electrician," he added.

Mr de Menezes sent money home to his family and girlfriend Adriana, who had a child from a previous relationship. His cousin was so happy in England that Mr Pereira thought he would try to stay there permanently.

Final steps

On Tuesday, jurors retraced his final steps, including where he was shot dead by police.

They also visited the flat where he lived in Tulse Hill, south London.

A shrine to Mr de Menezes, featuring pictures, flowers and newspaper cuttings about the shooting, still stands outside the station.

On Monday - the first day of the 12-week inquest into Mr de Menezes' death - jurors were told firearms officers made a split-second decision to kill him.

Sir Michael said the two officers were "convinced" Mr de Menezes was about to detonate a device on the Tube.

The two firearms officers - identified only as Charlie Two and Charlie 12 - will give evidence in public for the first time later in the inquest.

The jury will consider whether or not Mr de Menezes was unlawfully killed.

Some of Mr de Menezes' relatives have campaigned for police officers involved in the shooting to be prosecuted.

There have been five inquiries relating to the death and its aftermath, including a criminal trial.

In 2007, an Old Bailey jury found the Metropolitan Police guilty of breaching health and safety laws, after hearing about the events leading up to Mr de Menezes being shot.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7633664.stm

[TriWooOx]

Jean Charles De Menezes feared being caught in terror attack

Quote:The Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes told his cousin to pray not to be "in the wrong place at the wrong time" after terrorist attacks in London, an inquest was told.

Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head by armed police who mistakenly believed he was a suicide bomber on July 22, 2005.

Vivian Figueiredo, a cousin of Mr de Menezes, said that the day before his death they had discussed the failed suicide bombings on the transport network after which four terrorists went on the run.

In a statement read to the inquest, she said: "I felt scared, that London was beginning to become a dangerous place. Jean said we needed to pray and hope not to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. That was the last conversation I had with him."

Alex Pereira, 31, said his cousin left rural Brazil, seeking a better life and became an electrician. He sent money home to support his family and girlfriend, Adriana.

Mr Pereira said his cousin had been stopped four times by police. "It is very common for police to stop people in Brazil," he said. "So it does not scare us. Why would he be scared of the police?"

The inquest was earlier told how a surveillance officer failed to take pictures of Mr de Menezes because he was relieving himself when the Brazilian left his flat.

The error set in course a chaotic police operation in which he was mistaken for a suicide bomber and shot dead at Stockwell Tube station.

Teams of undercover officers, looking for the terrorist Hussain Osman, formed two covert cordons around Mr de Menezes's home in Scotia Road, Tulse Hill.

Footage recorded by an officer known as Frank, hidden in a van outside, showed six people leaving the flats.

However, he failed to take an image of Mr de Menezes walking past him at 9.33am because he was urinating in a bottle, jurors were told.

The inquest has heard that the surveillance officer told colleagues on his radio that the subject was a "white male" and that he was "worth somebody else having a look". Seven more surveillance officers followed Mr de Menezes, but few got close to him and opinions differed as to whether it was Osman.

None positively identified him as the suspect, but in the confusion, senior officers at a control room at Scotland Yard believed he was "our man".

The jury saw the final images captured of Mr de Menezes as he made his way to Stockwell Tube station, unaware he was being followed by officers.

But the inquest heard that other cameras – at Stockwell Tube station and on the Tube train – were faulty.

Steve Reynolds, of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, said a workman stepped on a cable disabling the cameras where Mr de Menezes boarded the train.

The hearing, sitting at the Oval cricket ground, south London, continues.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/307...ror-attack.html

[TriWooOx]

Police should have stopped him before station

Quote:Jean Charles de Menezes should have been stopped by firearms officers as he left his home and before he reached a Tube station, a senior officer told the inquest into his death.

Deputy assistant commissioner John McDowall, who was responsible for the overall operation, said he wanted undercover police marksmen in place as quickly as possible but that police were “always trying to play catch up” as they hunted for four suicide bombers on the run.

Mr de Menezes was shot dead at Stockwell station after being mistaken for a terrorist. The failure of firearms officers to head off Mr de Menezes before he entered the underground system is one of the key issues of the 12-week inquest.

They were not in place two hours after Mr McDowall had asked for them to be deployed to Scotia Road flats to stop anyone leaving a flat which was under surveillance because it was linked to suspect Hussain Osman.

Nicholas Hilliard QC, for the inquest, questioned Mr McDowall on the tactical decisions he made as he co-ordinated the police manhunt in the early hours of July 22 2005.

He said: "Two hours or so after you had set the strategy at 7am you would have expected that firearms officers, a team, would have been there or in the vicinity, at least after two hours?

Mr McDowall said: "I would. As I have said I think I had asked for a firearms team, specialist firearms officers, to be deployed as quickly as possible.

"The exact time of when they would get there I was not clear about, but then I was not aware of the decisions that had been made about which teams to use and so on."

Mr McDowall admitted that only four of a possible six firearms teams were available because of annual leave and said officers were also needed at a second suspect address in north London.

He added that in an “ideal world” firearms teams would have been there earlier.

Mr McDowall also admitted that he was not aware, when he decided to send firearms and surveillance teams to the scene, that 21 Scotia Road was a block of flats and not a single residency.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics...re-station.html

[TriWooOx]

police not issued with clear photographs of 'suspect'

Quote:Police who mistook Jean Charles de Menezes for a suicide bomb suspect had not been issued with clear photographs of the terrorist they were hunting for, an inquest has heard.

Instead, surveillance officers were shown a grainy picture taken from the gym pass of Hussain Osman - one of the four men who had attempted to set off explosives on the London transport network on July 21, 2005.

Three clear pictures of Osman, which had been found partially torn up in his rucksack bomb, were not issued to the surveillance officers when they were sent to find him at a London address the following morning.

Mr de Menezes, a Brazilian electrician, was mistaken for Osman from the gym pass photograph and shot dead by firearms officers at Stockwell underground station.

The Scotland Yard officer in overall charge of the operation, deputy assistant commissioner John McDowall, admitted that he did realise the clear pictures of Osman existed until they were presented in court yesterday.

Michael Mansfield, QC, representing the de Menezes family, also revealed that some of the surveillance officers on the operation were not carrying any picture with them and had only been shown the gym photograph at a briefing hours before.

In the first cross examination of a senior police officer during the inquest, Mr Mansfield asked: "That does not help does it, when you know about the difficulties of positive identification, if you do not even have a copy of the photograph with you and you have only seen it back at a briefing? That is not exactly best practice, is it?"

Mr McDowall replied: "No, sir, no."

In a series of tense exchanges, Mr Mansfield asked: "What went wrong, so wrong that a totally innocent man is dead?"

Mr McDowall said: "It is my belief that there was a mistaken identification and then there was doubt about whether that identification was correct or not.

"I think that was instrumental in bringing about the tragic outcome that we know of."

Mr Mansfield went on to outline what he claimed were a series of failings by Mr McDowall and omissions in his planning.

"It is quite a lot that did not occur to you that eventually led to the death of this innocent man, do you follow?

"Has that ever occurred to you that, in fact, there are omissions by you that really, had you followed up - and a large number of things - the whole scenario might have been different?"

Mr McDowall said: "I do not accept that. I think that, with benefit of hindsight, one does look back at what one has or has not done and, clearly, I think, there probably are things that I could have done but for whatever reason at that time I did not think of it."

Mr Mansfield said that Mr McDowall took strategic decisions "in a vacuum" without consulting colleagues; his orders were not "clearly communicated"; and that the operation was planned without knowledge of the area.

Mr McDowall said there are "certain aspects" that could have been done differently in preparing the manhunt strategy.

Asked to give an example, he said that he had expected firearms officers to be in place ready to stop suspects earlier than they were. It emerged that only four of a possible six firearms teams were available in the capital because of annual leave.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/3080382/Je...of-suspect.html

[hammer]

"Police who mistook Jean Charles de Menezes for a suicide bomb suspect had not been issued with clear photographs of the terrorist they were hunting for, an inquest has heard.

Instead, surveillance officers were shown a grainy picture taken from the gym pass of Hussain Osman - one of the four men who had attempted to set off explosives on the London transport network on July 21, 2005"


The excuses are coming out now.

[TriWooOx]

anti-terror chief tells of 'unprecedented' pressure after 7/7

Quote:Peter Clarke says fear of more attacks led to 'lockdown' of potential targets including parliament and Buckingham Palace

The Metropolitan police officer who ordered the surveillance operation that ended with the death of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005 today spoke of the "unprecedented" pressure on the force after the July 7 London bombings and the failed attacks a fortnight later.

Giving evidence at the De Menezes inquest, Peter Clarke said he was away from the capital at the time the Brazilian was shot dead by anti-terror police at Stockwell tube station in south London. He said he had been supporting his wife, who had been deeply affected after their teenage son narrowly escaped the 7/7 explosions.

Clarke, who retired this year after heading the counter-terrorism unit at Scotland Yard, was questioned about the decision to "lock down" potential terrorist landmarks on July 12, one day after the discovery of the terrorists' bomb factory in Leeds and their abandoned car at Luton railway station.

The fear of further attacks was so great that Buckingham Palace, the houses of parliament and New Scotland Yard were all completely locked down at one point, Clarke said. No one was allowed to leave any of the buildings for an hour and a half on July 12.

Richard Horwell QC, for the commissioner of the Met police, said: "That meant that no one could enter New Scotland Yard or parliament and no one could leave."

Clarke replied: "That's absolutely right. In fact it included Buckingham Palace as well. It was completely unprecedented, as was some of the decision-making having to be made at that time about whether to warn the public about the possibility of a suicide bomber being on the loose or not.

"I remember those as being some of the most difficult decisions that one had ever confronted. If we warned the public, we could cause unnecessary panic. If we didn't and something terrible happened, the obvious question is: why didn't you warn the public? That is the sort of pressure we were working under day in, day out. July 12 is but one example."

The former anti-terror chief said there was a "strange atmosphere" during the period after the two sets of attacks.

"Like most of my colleagues, I didn't go home very much in that period after July 7, and one could sense it in the evenings walking around or going out. There was a sense in the air that this has happened, could it happen again, is it likely to happen again?"

He explained that his wife had been very anxious after the first bomb attacks and suffered delayed shock. Clarke's 16-year-old son had been passing through King's Cross station in London bound for Cambridge on the morning of July 7. He arrived moments after Germaine Lindsay blew himself up on a Piccadilly Line train that had just left King's Cross. The teenager telephoned his father to say he could not get into the station and had seen smoke and people running around.

Clarke said: "I hadn't heard by that stage - it was just before 9am - that this was a terrorist attack but from what he was telling me, I had my suspicions about what it could be. So I gave him the instructions to get away from there as quickly as possible. And in fact we, my wife and I, then told him to get on a bus to get away."

Less than an hour later, Hasib Hussain set off a bomb on a number 30 bus in Tavistock Square, near King's Cross. Clarke said he and his wife were unable to contact their son for some time after this.

"For me, I was in the centre of things so perhaps it wasn't so difficult. But for my wife it was extraordinarily difficult. Our holiday had been due to begin a day or two after that. I told my family to go on holiday and obviously I wouldn't be able to join them."

Clarke eventually joined his family on the morning of July 21 2005, ahead of the second, failed series of attacks. He flew back to London the next day after learning of De Menezes's death.

De Menezes, 27, was shot dead on July 22 2005 by firearms police when he was mistaken for the failed suicide bomber Hussain Osman.

Michael Mansfield QC, for the De Menezes family, responded to Clarke's description of the strained atmosphere in London by pointing out that the capital experienced simultaneous multiple bombings during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Clarke said there was the danger of "comparing chalk and cheese". "That Irish terrorist campaign was of an entirely different nature to the campaign that we have been facing in this country for the past six or seven years," he said. "There are some fundamental differences, which demand different responses, different structures and a different mindset to the prevention and detection of the attacks.

"The threat that we have seen from the Islamist groupings is global in its origins and every investigation seems to take us across the world. We have seen the use of suicide as a regular feature both here and overseas. There have been no warnings given and there has been no determination or will to restrict casualties.

"On the contrary, in investigation after investigation we have seen that the ambition of the terrorists is simply to kill as many people as possible."

Clarke described the tactics adopted by the Met to tackle on-the-run suicide bombers after Spanish police officers were killed while trying to arrest those responsible for the 2004 Madrid bombings. Patrolling police were warned to look out for people sweating, mumbling or praying and wearing bulky clothes not suitable for the weather.

"Recent experience, not only with Madrid but also with the Netherlands in October 2003, shows us that the current groupings of terrorists when cornered tend to either fight back or to kill themselves and try to kill others in the process," Clarke told the inquest.

A senior Scotland Yard firearms adviser, named only as Andrew, told the sixth day of the 12-week inquest that the two officers who fired the fatal shots at De Menezes were not "gung-ho". He said there was a "considerable culture of constraint" among the teams of highly trained marksmen. He had never fired at anyone in his long career as a firearms specialist.

Ian Stern QC, representing the police who shot De Menezes, told the inquest CO19 specialist firearms officers were deployed between 600 and 1,000 times a year. Between 2001 and 2005, there were only five operations in which shots were fired, causing a total of four deaths, he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/sep/29/london

[TriWooOx]

Army on alert after 21/7 attacks

Quote:Army units were put on standby in the wake of the botched 21 July London suicide attacks, an inquest has heard.

The senior detective running the manhunt said "military assets" were part of plans to protect other cities.

Counter-terrorism chiefs believed Birmingham and Manchester could be targeted by other suicide bombers.

Details of the military response came at the inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian mistakenly killed by armed police.

Giving evidence at the inquest, Detective Superintendent Jon Boutcher told the jury that he was the senior officer responsible for identifying the two groups of bombers who attacked London on 7 and 21 July 2005.

In the hours after the failed attacks on 21 July, the detective said terror chiefs met at Scotland Yard to decide how best to protect the rest of the country.

London had been flooded with police in the wake of the 7 July attacks, but officers now feared other cities could now face attacks.

"My assessment was London was going through a unique period and we were trying to make contingencies to prevent further attacks elsewhere," he told the inquest at Oval Cricket Ground in London.

"I did seek to put measures, police measures, in place for firearms capabilities outside London, including military assets."

Teams on standby

The Metropolitan Police set up special two-man "fly-teams" to go immediately to anywhere in the UK, should other constabularies need help.

Mr Boutcher said that back in London he had ordered two teams to be ready to move should they get any intelligence on the location of the four failed attackers.

The first team would be armed surveillance officers, trained to secretly watch a suspect. The second would be officers from CO19, the force's specialist firearms unit.

"Was it going to be the case that they had simply fled or were they, which was my main concern, reorganising somewhere to come back and attack London?

"I was especially conscious of what we had learned from 7 July and that a bomb factory existed that had sufficient materials, component parts and mixture to make additional devices."

The inquest heard that Mr Boutcher left Scotland Yard in the early hours of the morning to get a few hours asleep.

When he retuned to the office at 0710 BST, an operation had already begun to stake out a block of flats linked to one of the bombers. The block also included Mr de Menezes' home.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7646398.stm

[TriWooOx]

De Menezes to be stopped 'at all costs', inquest told

Quote:The senior policewoman in charge of the operation that led to Jean Charles de Menezes's death told officers to stop him "at all costs", an inquest was told today.

Mark Lewindon, who was a detective chief inspector in Special Branch at the time in July 2005, overheard the order from Commander Cressida Dick, he said.

Lewindon told the inquest into De Menezes's death that he heard Dick speaking in the operations room at New Scotland Yard on the morning of July 22, the day the Brazilian electrician was shot dead by anti-terrorism officers at Stockwell tube station.

"It was said he shouldn't be allowed to get on the train and I think the words she used were 'at all costs'," the now retired detective told jurors at The Oval cricket ground in south London, where the inquest is being held.

When asked by Dick's QC, David Perry, whether he was certain about the words used, Lewindon replied: "I'm not sure if you are asking the question, 'What you are saying, you may be wrong about that?' and I could be wrong, yes."

Perry said: "I'm going to suggest Cressida Dick didn't say 'at all costs'. She did say, so it's clear, that he was to be stopped, but she didn't use the words 'at all costs'."

Lewindon told the inquest that Detective Chief Superintendent Jon Boutcher attempted to establish whether De Menezes, who was being followed by surveillance officers, was a suspect.

He said: "There were questions around the identity of the person being followed and I remember Mr Boutcher asking for a percentage, to which the people following, the surveillance teams, were confident that the person being followed was a suspect."

Lewindon said he did not remember whether there had been any response from the surveillance team to that question.

De Menezes was shot seven times in the head, at point-blank range, on board a train at Stockwell station by police marksmen, who thought he was a terrorist. The incident happened a day after four would-be suicide bombers attempted to blow themselves up on London's transport system.

Detective Inspector Andrew Whiddett, who was managing the surveillance teams at the time of the failed attack, also gave evidence.

He told the inquest he was present at the briefing of the surveillance teams, who were sent to cover the address at Scotia Road in nearby Streatham, where De Menezes lived.

Surveillance officers were shown a photograph of a named suspect, Hussain Osman, one of the July 21 bombers, but did not take a copy of the photograph with them to the address.

He said photographs were not taken on operations because, if lost, they could prove a security breach. "Obviously, [police officers] get out of vehicles and move. Things get dropped," Whiddett explained.

The inquest is expected to last 12 weeks. Dick, who has since been promoted to deputy assistant commissioner, will give evidence next week.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/oc.../police.ukcrime

[TriWooOx]

Jean Charles de Menezes death a tragedy, says Cressida Dick

Quote:The police officer in charge of the operation that led to the death of Jean Charles de Menezes told an inquest that his death was a "awful tragedy" but no-one was to blame.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick said the death resulted from a set of "extraordinary circumstances" and she did not believe any of her officers had done anything wrong.

Mr De Menezes, 27, a Brazilian electrician, was shot dead at Stockwell underground station in south London on July 22, 2005.

He had been mistaken by police for Hussain Osman, one of four would-be suicide bombers who had tried and failed to blow themselves up on the capital's transport network the previous day.

Giving evidence at the inquest into the death of Mr de Menezes, Ms Dick was asked "What went wrong?"

She said: "I think Mr de Menezes was the victim of terrible and extraordinary circumstances.

"He was extremely unfortunate to live in the same block as Hussain Osman. He was desperately unfortunate to look like Hussain Osman."

She said when he came out of the building a surveillance officer had been "indisposed" meaning he was only able to get a short glance at the suspect.

Mr de Menezes did not wait long at a bus stop which meant another surveillance officer could also not get a good look.

Ms Dick added: "Some of the things that Mr de Menezes did in all innocence, the way he behaved coming on and off the bus, contributed to our assessment, my assessment, of him as a bomber from the day before and somebody who might be intent on causing another explosion today.

"He had the tragic misfortune to enter the same Tube station that three of the bombers had entered the day before.

"So lots of things happened, any one of those you might describe as went wrong.

"If you ask me whether I think anybody did anything wrong or unreasonable in the operation, I don't think they did."

"It's a tragedy, an awful tragedy."

Mr de Menezes' mother, Maria Otone de Menezes, 63, flew in from Brazil and attended the inquest for the first time today to hear Ms Dick give evidence.

The inquest has heard that Ms Dick was the "decision-maker" in the control room as the fast-moving operation unfolded.

She was praised last week for her "outstanding" handling of the situation by the officer in charge of the manhunt for the men who attacked London the previous day.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics...ssida-Dick.html

[TriWooOx]

Cressida Dick admits an innocent man could be killed again

Quote:The commander in charge of the operation that led to the death of Jean Charles de Menezes has admitted another innocent man could be killed by police because of the terrorist threat in Britain.

Facing cross-examination about the shooting for the first time, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick admitted: "I am afraid that I do believe that this or something like this could happen again".

She added: "The nature of these operations is that they are immediately high risk to all concerned and that is because of the nature of the threat we face from suicide terrorists.

"Our job is to reduce the risk to everybody as best as possible. But I do fear that, in the future, a bomber might not be prevented from setting off a bomb. And equally, I pray it doesn't happen, but it is possible an innocent member of the public might die like this."

Mr de Menezes, 27, a Brazilian electrician, was shot dead at Stockwell underground station in south London on July 22, 2005. He had been mistaken by police for Hussain Osman, one of four would-be suicide bombers who had tried and failed to blow themselves up on the capital's transport network the previous day.

Michael Mansfield, QC, representing the de Menezes family at the inquest into his death, said Ms Dick "dismally failed" to minimise the risk to the Brazilian.

She replied: "I follow you sir, I don't accept it."

Ms Dick ran the operation from a control room at Scotland Yard and said yesterday that she believed Mr de Menezes death was the result of "extraordinary circumstances" but that no one was to blame. Asked if she was unable to take responsibility for her actions, she replied: "I regard myself as somebody who will always take full responsibility for what I have done."

Mr Mansfield said that events spiralled out of control because from the very beginning police were "sprinting to catch up with something that had not been properly organised".

Ms Dick admitted that the first hour of the day was "appalling" because there was "no structure" but added that it was common for police operations to be chaotic in their early stages as commanders attempted to pull together thousands of officers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/majornews/...lled-again.html