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July 7, 2005
No Terror in London

The bomb attacks in London seem to have not terrorized anyone. The people, the emergency workers and witnesses shown on BBC and CNN were calm, reasonable and not a moment near a panic. The stock market had a drop but recovered.

The only distressed person on TV was Tony Blair in his first speech today. He may even be a bit terrorized. Some will ask if his decisions and behavior have lead to this attack.

At some website a posting claimed the attacks were done by an "Al Qaeda in Europe" group. Christopher Allbritton has put up a translation (emph. mine).

As retaliation for the massacres which the British commit in Iraq and Afghanistan, the mujahideen have successfully done it this time in London.

And this is Britain now burning from fear and panic from the north to the south, from the east to the west.

As Britain is not "burning from fear and panic" has the attack failed to achieve the aim claimed in that posting?

If nobody is terrorized by such incidents should we still talk of "terror attacks" done by "terrorist"?

How will people who may want to see "Britain burning from fear and panic" react to the failure of this concept?

Posted by b on July 7, 2005 at 16:05 UTC | Permalink
Comments

Hmmm, the Brits may not have been in panic circa the initial events, however, there are indications of panic with current scares re further fears of addittional attacks/bombs, i.e. Victoria Station.
It’s not possible to predict what the overral reaction of the average Brit will be once it all sinks in, however, I’ll speculate that they won’t to be too thrilled to realize that they can NOT be protected by the consequences of the Bush/Blair alliance.
The UKs Capital city transport system has been crippled by a completely unknown, unsurveilled, terror cell, that I suspect has already exited the country (less suicidists ?), and will be crippled for at least another business day … no transport home, schools closed tommorrow, advice NOT to enter London tommorrow ?
This could have been much worse if the primary motivation was casualties, this was a political attack, if secondary charges were planted beyond the incident areas, at hospitals, VBIEDs on jammed motorways ?
Hopefully, the Brits will start to question why its a case of when the next attack will occur and why thier government cannot protect them ? Hopefully the Brits unlike us, may then be able to question what has led to this situation, i.e. Foriegn policy …
Look for Bliar to milk this for all its worth to justify the coming redeployment of 2,000-10,000 British troops from Iraq to Afghanistan supposedly to destroy the fictional terror camps still there producing the supposed London attackers.

Posted by: Outraged | Jul 7 2005 17:15 utc | 1

And this is Britain now burning from fear and panic from the north to the south, from the east to the west.
On the assumption its legitamite, may I suggest one not take the rhetoric at its face literal translation, it is after all rhetoric meant for its target audience, which was not us or the Brits.
If nothing else they completely disrupted the G8 meeting, demonstrating contempt for the power of the G8 and observer governments, 14 national leaders including a superpower, pretty impressive for an insignificant bunch of ‘ragheads’ numbering probably only a dozen with trivial resources and funds …

Posted by: Outraged | Jul 7 2005 17:35 utc | 2

People were ‘screaming in the streets’

Posted by: Nugget | Jul 7 2005 18:40 utc | 3

People were ‘screaming in the streets’

Posted by: Nugget | Jul 7 2005 18:42 utc | 4

John Robbs thoughts: THE DISRUPTION OF LONDON

As we know, a single series of attacks on this scale will not harm a city’s economics (see Urban Takedowns for more) in a lasting way. A “terrorism tax” that deflates the economic equilibrium of a major urban environment requires a series of attacks over a period of months that changes basic behavior.
Additional thoughts:
* The conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan will continue to spillover. These conflicts are not firewalls to the spread of terrorism, rather, they are training grounds for a new type of Blitzkrieg.
* Decentralized open source warfare and terrorism entrepreneurship can routinely defeat bureaucratic nation-state intelligence systems.
* Attacks of this type aren’t aimed at the moral defeat of the UK’s population. They are an “insult” meant to prompt more global fragmentation (an increase in military activity, isolation, and instability). Think in terms of “effects based” operations.

So not “terror” but “insult”. It takes a certain type of people to react to “insult”. Bush and Blair are such people.

Posted by: b | Jul 7 2005 18:43 utc | 5

Al Qaeda formally stated Ojectives (short version)
1)Remove US forces from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf
2)Liberate Jerusalem from Israelis
3)Overthrow the “un-Islamic” governments of the region
4)Restore the Caliphate, or pan-Islamic ruler
5)As a result war against America and American interests and allies to achieve the above
Its got absolutely nothing to do with the stated bullshit smokescreen of Bush and Bliar about ;values’ and ‘civilizations’.
Note; At some website a posting claimed the attacks were done by an “Al Qaeda in Europe” group
Arabic analysts and language specialists have heaped scorn on the likely legitamicy of this statement because of Arabic language errors, syntax, lack of reference to operational detail typical of proven former Al-Qaeda claims for credit and this group has falsely claimed credit for events such as Madrid in the past … will try to post a reference …

Posted by: Outraged | Jul 7 2005 19:29 utc | 6

@Nugget – “screaming in the street” is usual at any car accident or major fire outbreak (having done first responder work I know that subject) – it is not “terrorized”.
I really think the London response was significant in its calmness and should be seen as a way to take away the utility of such attacks.

Posted by: b | Jul 7 2005 20:45 utc | 7

Outraged,
Thank you for looking into this. I recall the AQ link was overly rapid at 9/11 as well, including the ludicrous overkill detail of finding Atta’s intact passport on the street below the crash site. No real surprise if this is a frameup as well.

Posted by: citizen | Jul 7 2005 22:08 utc | 8

@citizen
I don’t actually believe it’s an ‘evil’ ‘frameup’, the false post motivation, unknown, many possible explanations, including an unknown/small terror group misdirecting/blaming Al-Qaeda as a diversion … simply injecting some ‘reason’ and indicating it will be some time before anyone, including the current investigators will have a real idea of the perps

Posted by: Outraged | Jul 7 2005 22:20 utc | 9

On some blog recently a poster was arguing that a pandemic in the US would lead to panic which would have to be repressed by military means.
I said that if this were true it was a sad condemnation of the state of American civilization.
This post shows what I meant. This lack of terror is how a civilized people react to terrible situations.

Posted by: ii | Jul 7 2005 22:51 utc | 10

“How will people who may want to see ‘Britain burning from fear and panic’ react to the failure of this concept?”
Very likely they will react much like the people who wanted to see American troops welcomed in Baghdad with flower petals, reacted to the failure of that concept — with the assumption that, given a little more effort, a little more sacrifice, the desire would come true.

Posted by: johne | Jul 8 2005 4:08 utc | 11

The same as Iraq…people will use to death and destruction and fear…they expect it…and days like this one are just average day in Baghdad.
“People are that kind of animals, they can use to ANYTHING” (from one Serbian movie)
Quote:
No matter what is said or done by our current leaders, the net effect of their words and deads will be to convey to the world that this morning’s events are the acceptable cost of doing business.
…
Terrorism is the consequence of attempting to run an empire,
Posted by: patience | July 7, 2005 09:10 AM | #
***
Right so!

Posted by: vbo | Jul 8 2005 5:18 utc | 12

Quote:
This post shows what I meant. This lack of terror is how a civilized people react to terrible situations.
I wouldn’t say so. It’s only NORMAL to react emotionally in events like this. From the aspect of psychology it’s bloody abnormal to suppress emotions facing death and distraction…Panic all tho normal is not good expression …Being civilized have nothing to do with this. Problem is that British culture (and some others) teaches that emotions should be suppressed…I don’t agree. It leads to frustration and subsequently to worse things.
I don’t know about British but I know that most of the Serbs wanting to show how they are NOT scared by NATO bombs lived totally normal life under bombardment. They didn’t want to go to shelters, they went out like everything is normal…even better they did things that they normally didn’t have time to do and are part of totally normal life. It’s called PRIDE (self respect). Maybe that’s the case with Londoners now.

Posted by: vbo | Jul 8 2005 5:42 utc | 13

John of Americablog writes from London:

People were shocked by the attacks, but they really are determined not to let it get them down – I’d say much more so than we were on September 11. Meaning, we were more freaked than they are now.
…
I can imagine it would take me a long time to get back on any public transportion in DC after an attack. Here, they all did right away, and I joined them, and it didn’t phase me. I’m not sure why. All I can say is that their calm in the face of all of this calmed me as well – I can’t imagine I just rode the train in London and didn’t really give a second look to who was on the car with me, or about the threat of any further attacks.
…
I will say that more than one person has expressed a certain amount of sympathy, well, perhaps empathy or understanding is the better word, for why this happened. Again, none of those are the “right” word, they’re not saying “we deserved it,” but more than a few are saying, between the lines, that Blair’s, and Bush’s, actions led to the attack, even caused the attack. Perhaps the most surprising was a cop in front of Buckingham Palace who, when asked by my friend why he thought today happened, the cop responded: “Because some people just want to be free.” Pretty interesting words from a cop guarding Buckingham Palace on the day the flag is at half mast for the second time in history (Lady Di’s death being the first time).

Posted by: b | Jul 8 2005 8:30 utc | 14

BBC has “sanitized” the image at first by giving us just stories of witnesses but now we are seeing more pictures and videos of the horror as they slowly emerge from private mobile phones etc…

Posted by: vbo | Jul 8 2005 11:48 utc | 15

It seems like the public here is let down since they didn’t get their fix of fear and hysteria. The shot petered out. The whole feel of the Brit reaction is one of lack of surprise. They were prepared just knowing how expected this is now.
Maybe everyone is starting to understand the simple law of equal and opposite. They are becoming scientists.

Posted by: jm | Jul 8 2005 12:13 utc | 16

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