Oceania Explosions in London!

Well I certainly didn't see this coming for London.
Check out the news. A bus explodes just after an accident in the underground.
At the momment the news is saying at least 90 casualties.
Not good.

 

Lights that protected my sleeping babes
Burn clear and steadfast tonight.

 

I'm 'spose to be in London at the momment, which has kind of startled me.
I delayed it a year because of work.

 

My sister lives in London with her husband and 5 sons, so I've got a bit of a wait to find out if they're ok.

My friend has his parents on holiday over there at the moment as well, so I hope we can get some news soon.



EDIT: Well, my sister turned up on MSN to say everything's ok, her husband works as a teacher in inner London, but it wasn't his route.

It's strange that although the phone lines are jammed, the net works just fine...

 

My prayers are with all.

 

It looks pretty nasty ... it's so sad

 

S_M, I hope your friends and family are okay. At least London has a HUGE population, so the odds are on your side.
But I tell you what, if I was the people that planned this attack I'd be PISSED!
They did **** all actual damage and not many people are seriosuly hurt.
Obviously more confirmed dead etc will arise in time, but seriosuly...they should have followed the SAS way of thinking
Proper Planning and Preperation Prevents Piss Poor Perfomance.

Still...as little damage as they did, still a ****** thing to happen.

 

That's what I was telling my friend about his parents aswell, that it's such a huge population that it's unlikely they even saw it.

I disagree about the impact though, the object may have been to cause terror, which it has done, so regardless of the actual number of deaths and injuries, the fact remains it still happened, and could happen again.

By all reports Londoners are largely unfazed however, this is a country that got through the Nazi bombing blitz of WW2 for instance.

Also, just channel surfing during the last few hours to get as much info as possible, it's interesting channel 10 didn't even rate this important enough to stop Big Brother and it's following parade of sit coms.

 

One bomb would have been enough to cause chaos and result in mission accomplished for those responsible - 7 or 8 would just multiply the fear factor. I certainly hope there is no Act 2 to follow up.

To give the Metropolitan Police their due, they have years of experience in dealing with terrorist incidents. Here's hoping the SAS get a hunting licence like they did back in the '80s hunting the Provos.

 

By all reports Londoners are largely unfazed however, this is a country that got through the Nazi bombing blitz of WW2 for instance.

Yeah exactly. The way these people conduct themselves is VERY much a role model behavour to other countries. Besides, the poms have not only been through the blitz bombings but the IRA threat for over 50 years.
Jolly good show by the Londoners.

I disagree about the impact though, the object may have been to cause terror, which it has done, so regardless of the actual number of deaths and injuries, the fact remains it still happened, and could happen again.

Yeah I forgot to mention this. I understand that phsychological effect it'll have, hell even I'm slightly deterred about being in the UK next year, but I meant strictly for physical damage. I'm sure they planned to have many more people killed.

Here's hoping the SAS get a hunting licence like they did back in the '80s hunting the Provos.

Indeed. God bless the SAS.

 

It's so hard not to contact the UK and find out whether the people you care about are safe. I know of three people (one of them a very premature baby) who are there at the moment and I'm worried sick about them.

This is just...well, I can't say what I really want to.

 

One of my cousins is in London at the moment, and from what my aunt told me, it is difficult to get an international line into London at the moment. Lines outbound are apparently an entirely different matter. We managed to an SMS to my cousin, and she phoned home shortly afterwards to confirm she was safe. I got the impression from my aunt that my cousin lives within a block from one of the tube stations hit, or was going there to catch a train.

 

Also, just channel surfing during the last few hours to get as much info as possible, it's interesting channel 10 didn't even rate this important enough to stop Big Brother and it's following parade of sit coms.

What's worse they continued with their encore screening of House. Let everyone note this: a repeat of a crap show is more important to Channel 10 than a terrorist attack on one of our closest allies. Nonetheless, they've got a "special" edition of the news on now to make up for it. As predicted though, they've spent most of their time interviewing any Australians they can find in London (because, y'know, we can't sympathise with non-Australians being killed so we need an Australian face to the tragedy) and asking really insightful questions ("Is everyone there in a state of shock?")

 

Incompetent journalists aside, this really is a tragic event - especially after Live 8 tried to do something really positive. In philosophical ethics we write about ways of condemning terrorism all the time, but this just serves to reinforce how the world should go about this - strongly. My prayers are with the victims and their families.

 

The focus is definitely shifted from G8 and Live 8 to this. It stinks something with a worthwhile cause that so many worked so hard to generate publicity for is now severely overshadowed.

I caught some of the Channel 10 coverage, but when I heard yet another stupid question, "Is there any chance of British Embassies in Ausralia being attacked?" and the question Stinrab mentioned, I turned back to SBS.

It's true, unless there's an Australian on screen, 10 won't talk about an overseas event, unless they can work some silly puns into the patter.

 

Predictably, the media and everyone is throwing the term al-Qaeda around without

a) Understanding how al-Qaeda works, and
b) Researching first.

I posted this int he Senate first:

Firstly; my prediction is that this is a 2nd Generation al-Qaeda group. Loosely affiliated with the ideology of al-Qaeda, they certainly didn't get the training. If they had, then frankly the G8 leaders would have been the targets, or the target(s) would have had a psychological value comparable to an embassy, a warship, or a trade center.

My reason behind this analysis comes mainly from the way this mimicks Madrid and the more classical terrorist acts of the late 1960's till the early 1980's. It lacks the sophistication and sheer psychological devastation of the typically 1st generation al-Qaeda attacks whilst maintaining the carnage and a stab at the west mindset.

A couple of things I want to establish if we've any hope of debating this seriously.

1) Get your al-Qaeda straight. Al-Qaeda isn't a terrorist group in the classical sense. You don't have a SPECTRE-like organisation but rather an umbrella, which at the top - al-Qaeda proper - is a management and training consultancy. You went to their camps to learn how to fight, kill, terrorise and swap ideas.

2) We don't know it's an al-Qaeda affiliate for sure yet, so let's not make definitive statements like "it was teh al-Qaeda!!1!". Whilst it's unlikely, it's not impossible that radical leftists or ultra-nationalist rightists were also responsible for this. Until we know for sure, let's refrain from confusing opinions with fact.

One thing that makes me lean away from the connection between the perpetrators and bin Laden or his top officials is that the attacks were not linked directly to any goal or relevant target. Even Madrid was calculated to influence elections somewhat; yet this is after an election, not obviously in opposition to anything (what, relief of African Debt! Evil infidel imperialist scum!) nor obviously trying to change anything. It just doesn't feel well planned, in the evil way.

On the matter of the Olympics; I can't see the venue being changed. If they terrorism can strike NY or London, it can hit Paris.

I'd also like to add my sympathy with the residents of London.

E_S

 

My older sister and her fiance live in London.

She rang at about midnight last night to say she was ok. She was at some underground station on her way to work. So after the explosions all she could do was go home.

Glad that she is safe

 

1) Get your al-Qaeda straight. Al-Qaeda isn't a terrorist group in the classical sense. You don't have a SPECTRE-like organisation but rather an umbrella, which at the top - al-Qaeda proper - is a management and training consultancy. You went to their camps to learn how to fight, kill, terrorise and swap ideas.

In that sense I suppose it's a bit like the IRA: not one terrorist organisation per se, but rather a collection of similarly themed groups with guns using the same name that are otherwise unrelated.

"Is there any chance of British Embassies in Ausralia being attacked?"

God, I hate Channel 10.

 

I agree with Ender, watching the coverage last night and hearing a reporter use the term "Muslim Extremist" I found myself wondering how they knew so quickly...

The Oklahoma bombing took more lives and caused more damage, and that was by two US citizens, although I'd put Ender's prediction as to likely suspects as being the most probable.

 

Just FYI, SMH reports ' 1 Australian is in a critical condition, 6 others wounded '

 

I was shocked when I heard this but not as shocked as I would have been after 9/11. What kinda world do we live in?

Has Dubya said anything?

 

"The contrast couldn't be clearer between the intentions and the hearts of those of us who care deeply about human rights and human liberty and those who kill, those who have such evil in their heart that they will take the lives of innocent folks," Bush said.

Above from CNN.com. He also stated that the war on terror would continue, yada yada, then ran home. Blair, at least, is already back at G8 after returning to London so business can continue as usual.

 

Must...kill....Bush

BTW, the news is still on, I wanted to watch the Bold and the Beautiful as Nick just proposed to Bridget but it's not on. It's the last day of my holidays

 

I think I saw on Sky news that an al-Qaeda group had claimed responsibility for the attack but a british journo who knows his terrorism does not believe it was them, at least not the group that made the claim.

Last I heard was 33 confirmed dead (last night) Anyone else heard anything else confirmed ?