Hm, who'da thunk that Blair would benefit from the London bombings?
I mean gosh, given that Blair is the man who lied through his teeth in order to take them into an illegal war, and now the blowback from that is hitting them at home, and he obviously has failed to protect the capitol city from terrorist attacks ......
Blair must feel really terrible about all that's happened.
At any rate, don your tinfoil hats, folks. For tonight, this thread will take you into a listing of news accounts that show just how Blair benefitted from the London bombings. And Bush, a little bit as well ......You'll see below the fold. But DO NOT ENTER without your TINFOIL HAT!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/11/AR2005071100534.html
British Politicians Unite Behind Blair
Friend and Foe Praise Prime Minister for Response to London Attacks
By Glenn Frankel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, July 12, 2005; Page A14
LONDON, July 11 -- One by one, leading members of Britain's House of Commons from a wide range of political parties rose on Monday afternoon to pledge their solidarity with the people of London over last week's bomb attacks and to shower praise on one man: Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The tributes were led by Michael Howard, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, who over the weekend had called for an inquiry into security services' preparation for terror attacks. Howard solemnly extolled the "the calm resolute and statesmanlike way in which the government has responded" to the attacks on London's subway and bus system that killed at least 52 people. "We are all in this together," he concluded.
Charles Kennedy, leader of the Liberal Democrats, a party that has vociferously opposed the war in Iraq, pledged his "wholehearted support." Tony Wright, a Labor Party member of Parliament and vocal antiwar critic, said it was "dangerous nonsense" to even suggest that the attacks were in any way connected to Britain's participation in the war.
Not one legislator criticized Blair....
(snip)
The wall-to-wall solidarity reflects a traditional British instinct to rally around their leaders during a time of crisis. But analysts said it also reflects Blair's extraordinary gift for articulating the public mood at such moments and demonstrates one of his greatest strengths as a political leader....
(snip)
Howard's Conservatives had originally floated a trial balloon over the weekend calling for an inquiry into whether there was an intelligence failure before the attacks. But by Monday afternoon's session, he had backed away from the proposal, gently suggesting only that further study should be done after the bombers were identified and caught. Blair readily agreed....
(more at link)
* * * * * * * *
Apparently, Blair is so popular because of the bombing that apparently he can simply rule out any inquiry into the bombings. This sounds familiar for some reason ......... wait, didn't our president resist having any kind of inquiry regarding 9/11? Didn't he refuse to testify until he absolutely had to, and only then in his office, with no notes, all notebooks removed, no tape recorders, nada? Oh yeah .... Silly coincidence, I know.
Blair rules out bomb inquiry
By Jamie Lyons in London
11jul05
BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair today will dismiss calls for an inquiry into the London terror attacks.
The Conservatives have called for a probe to see if anything could have been done to prevent the bombings.
But the Prime Minister will use a Commons statement to underline his confidence in the intelligence services and reject demands for an inquiry.
Mr Blair said at the weekend that "all the surveillance in the world" would not stop terrorists determined to attack Britain.
Last night a Downing Street spokeswoman said: "The Prime Minister has confidence in the intelligence services and he won't be holding an inquiry".
(snip)
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,15889534%255E1702,00.html
At the same time, it turns out that there was a simulation running at the exact time the attacks occurred. The simulation involved bombings in the exact places at the exact times. Those involved were quite surprised when they realized a bombing was actually taking place.
Oddly, this parallels what was happening in NYC and Washington on 9/11. I know, silly, isn't it?!
http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/#night
Here's a transcribed clip from the interview with the man conducting the simulation, Peter Power:
Solomon: "We've heard something quite extraordinary - could be a coincidence or not - that your firm, on the very day that the bombs went off in London, were running an exercise simulating three bombs going off, in the very same tube stations that they went off. How did this happen? Coincidence, or were you acting on information that you knew?
Power: I don't think you could say that we had some special insight into the terrorist network, otherwise I would be under arrest myself. The truth of it is..
Solomon: But it is a coincidence..
Power: It's a coincidence, and it's a spooky coincidence. Our scenario was very similar - it wasn't totally identical, but it was based on bombs going off, to the time, the locations, all this sort of stuff. But it wasn't an accident, in the sense that London has a history of bombs, and the reason why our emergency services did so well, and prepared probably better than any other city in the world, sadly they have to be. So it wasn't exactly rocket science or totally out of the pale to come up with that scenario unusual though it be to stop the exercise and go into real time, and it worked very well, although there was a few seconds when the audience didn't realize whether it was real or not.
Which can be accessed here:
http://p097.ezboard.com/frigorousintuitionfrm7.showMessage?topicID=591.topic
Here's a little info on Peter Power:
"Peter Power is Managing Director of a London-based consulting firm that specializes in crisis management, Visor Consultants - which on the morning of July 7 was co-incidentally running a security exercise for a private firm, simulating multiple bomb explosions in the London Underground, at the same stations that were subsequently attacked in real life."
And it looks like now Blair can pass his own Patriot Act, as :
"a Times poll conducted in the aftermath of the bombings indicates that an overwhelming majority of the British public favours a tough approach to terrorist suspects. Almost 90 per cent of people want the police to be given new powers to arrest people suspected of planning terrorist acts, tighter immigration controls and strict baggage inspections."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1690391,00.html
What a lucky guy that Tony Blair is! His countrymen are now willing to give him draconian police powers.
But what about good ol' George W. Bush? How has the bombing helped him? Looks like he got a little bit of a bump:
From this site:
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=249
President Bush's approval ratings are somewhat higher than in the past few months. Overall, 47% approve of Bush's job performance while 46% disapprove. In May and June, more people disapproved of Bush's job performance than approved.
Bush's favorable rating stands at 53%, largely unchanged in recent months.
(more at link)
However, there was a 15 percent jump in those who believed that the Iraq war has NOT made us safer .... which you might think is good news ....except for the fact that it's just in time for this:
Permanent Patriot Act Proposed
The Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee introduced a bill yesterday that would make the controversial USA Patriot Act permanent ....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/11/AR2005071101359.html
Oh, one more little thing I almost forgot!
The terrorists used high-grade military explosives:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1690391,00.html
Wonder where they could have gotten that from? (scratching my head)
I know, I know, I'm sooooo paranoid! I guess I just can't get over how lucky Bush and Blair are with these terrorists! I mean, don't the terrorists realize they're just helping their enemies?
Gosh, those terrorists must be really really dumb. They keep forgetting they're dealing with two of the luckiest bastards in the world!
I'll bet my tinfoil hat that the "terrorists" go down in a hail of bullets. Any takers?