Thursday, July 21, 2005
Don't panic: redux. posted by Richard Seymour
Well, this is fucking weird. Three 'dummy' explosions. One bus with its windows blown out on the top deck where no one was sitting. One reported injury at Warren Street but no fatalities as yet. Waterloo Station was temporarily closed, but it's opened up again. A bunch of offices in the City have evacuated, and UCH has been stormed by armed police after some bloke allegedly left a bag near Warren Street and ran off. And :Police in London say they are not treating the incidents as "a major incident yet".
One report says the guy with the rucksack was 'English' (or, to put it another way, white) - so possibly not an Al Qaeda operative, although you never know what with the 'apologists amongsts us' and all that.
The Guardian says that the bus which allegedly had its windows blown out appeared to be intact on film. In fact, the picture shown on Sky appears to confirm this .
Some interesting updates on The Guardian's newsblog .
Looks like a collection of incidents deliberately intended to cause panic, which would be congruent with the following possibilities: a) some guys 'inspired' by Al Qaeda are trying to stir some more shit up, b) far right racists are trying to create panic and a backlash against Muslims. There are other possibilities, of course, some of which would be poor taste to mention, but my naturally suspicious mind tends me toward the latter at the moment.