Jean Charles de Menezes was shot seven times by in the face at point blank range by London police after he boarded a subway train. Initially, witnesses (with implied corrobaration by police) reported the man was wearing a heavy winter coat, had a backpack and in some reports a "bomb belt" with wires coming out, and jumped over subway barriers while being pursued by more than twenty police officers.

However, absolutely NONE of that is true. Leaked documents and even photographs obtained by ITV show that Menezes was wearing a denim jacket, had no backpack, did not jump any barriers, his behavior was described as "normal," and before getting on the subway he even stopped to pick up a newspaper.

ITV News: Mistakes led to tube shooting

The Times: Met chief's defence of shooting open to question

The CCTV pic of what was said was four bombers carried in newspapers turns out to look very much like a composite of people taken at different times.

The most glaring is the man in the white hat in the back, whose arm looks like it is apparently behind the railing.

He also looks like he has no legs, apparently leaning over somewhat. The man on the far right also looks like his face has been blurred.

Chalk that up to coincidence and bad quality if you want (though it's difficult for me to do that), but what will likely intrigue graphic artists more, is what looks just like tell-tale brush strokes along the back of the person on the left.

Already there are a whole lot of similarities between 9/11 and 7/7.

• Blair says there is no need for inquiry into how attacks could have been prevented
  
• Consulting Firm Running Drill of Exact Same Attack
  
• Police looking for possible terrorist 'mercenaries'
  
• CCTV camera on bus was not working
• AP says British police knew about the attacks minutes beforehand.

Feel free to discuss the stories as they stand on their own, but a tin-foil hat is still recommended.

N.B: If you want to discuss the stories without conspiracy theorists (which I can definitely understand), try to find another diary with the article you want to discuss--it's likely been submitted already--or if there isn't one up yet just make your own.Update [2005-7-11 17:6:52 by rush22]:The title has been changed from "Conspiracy nuts rejoice" to the current one and I've included a link to the story about the Israeli Embassay being informed minutes before the attack.

I can't seem to find it. Please someone let me know where it is.

Is this it here:

"it was, KR said, wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd [weapons of mass destruction] issues who authorized the trip."

Because that isn't much. If she was already out, say, Novak knew already, that bit is not "outing" and Rove didn't do anything illegal.

Here's the Newsweek article. What am I missing? Why do I hear so many people say "Newsweek says Rove outed Plame?"

An RNC financed voter registration drive, run by Sproul & Associates, was shown to have manipulated registrations in swing states back in 2004, including shredding the registration forms of Democrats. Nathan Sproul was former head of the Arizona Christian Coalition and the Arizona Republican Party and is currently under investigation by the Oregon Attorney General's office for manipulating voter registration forms.

At the time, the RNC claimed it had paid Sproul & Associates $488,957 for its work on the registration drive.

Now it comes out that the RNC has been hiding how much it really paid Sproul: a whopping $8.3 million. Plus the RNC was still paying Sproul after the election.

The Baltimore Chronicle has the story.

I found this on DU. Can someone confirm it?

Apparently MTV News added applause to the beginning of Bush's speech. Here is one version of the speech. It has no applause at the beginning.

MTV's version can be found here. Scroll to the bottom and click on MTV News Afternoon Edition and it is in the story titled Diener Motivated by Soldier.

It doesn't work with my browser (it needs the latest Microsoft software--I also think it installs digital rights management software).

Al Franken catches Bill O'Reilly doing a little funny editing [CrooksandLiars.com] (Video)

I think O'Reilly has just stuck his entire foot in his mouth. Can you say "duplicitous?"

O'Reilly smears Senator Biden using an ABC interview edited way out of context, and then goes on to say exactly what Biden said in the parts that were cut out as if it was his idea.

Check out check this other blogger's take on this for more info.