And the Number One news story in the UK tonight was...
CCTV images of one of the 21 July bomb suspects apparently fleeing London in a Muslim veil have been shown in court.
The jury at Woolwich Crown Court saw footage of Yassin Omar, 26, wearing a black full-length dress and burka with a handbag over his arm.
He is said to have travelled by bus to Birmingham from Golders Green in north London on 22 July 2005 - the day after an alleged attempt to bomb the Tube.
Not only were the images shown in court, the Metropolitan Police obligingly released a video of Yassin Omar wearing a burka so that everyone else could have a look.
The video is obviously a tremendously crucial piece of evidence, as demonstrated by it being the first item on most news broadcasts, but a few niggling questions remain...
The only thing the video seems to actually prove is that it is possible for a large Black man to flounce around Birmingham wearing a dress without drawing too much attention to himself.
All very disgusting from the point of view of any red-blooded heterosexual but, to the best of my knowledge, Omar is on trial for unsuccessful terrorism in London, not successful transvestism in Birmingham
"I'm a just a Sweet Transvestite from Transexual ... East Africa"The sheer irrelevance of the footage comes across nicely when reading the non sequiturs in articles attempting to report it as news...
The police have released a video of a black man in a dress
Er...
He's on trial for trying to blow up London
However, whilst it is not exactly slam dunk evidence of Omar's role in the 21/7 bombings the footage released today does convey two very important pieces of information to the British public
- The next time you see someone wearing a burka they could be a terrorist
- CCTV is a jolly good thing
With the conspicuous exception of 7/7 and the Stockwell Shooting (where is that pesky CCTV footage?), our security forces have been planting news stories that preach the virtues of high tech surveillance (CCTV/ DNA databases/ Cellphones/ Travel Cards) for years now and we're used to that - though if CCTV really did make our world a better place London should be fucking Nirvana by now
But the banging on about the burka thing is something newer and nastier
And why is no-one in the mainstream questioning what the police are up to releasing this material whilst a trial is still going on?
So what's the deal now? The police release videos shown at every criminal case? Just terrorism cases? All videos? Just selected material? Selected on what criteria? By who?
This is so dodgy, and not a squeak from anyone.
I'd expect our tabloid press and politicians to bump up their circulation figures by stirring up the mob, but our police joining in as well. Our police?
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I haven't seen much blogging about the 21/7 trial to date. I suspect that's because people are waiting to see how the defence pans out. From what has been made public so far, the 21/7 bombers, and their bombs, come across as some kind of incompetent comedy act, coordinated by the Somali equivalent of Coco the Clown and destined for failure from the start. These guys are cast from the same mould as most of the other losers living in bedsits that our police have trawled up in recent years. They are not the same kind of people as those who carried out 7/7. Oh no...
Of course, there is a tiny problem-ette with waiting to hear what the defence case might be. And that problem is our media doesn't report the defence case in terrorism trials. Take the trial of the guys arrested during the amusingly named Operation Crevice for example. Lots and lots of daily coverage of the prosecution case, including lashings of CCTV footage from the police, then as soon as the defence starts, and particularly when one of the accused mentions the ISI - biff - nada - niente.
Ah well, fuck it, not many people want to hear what the defence has to say anyway.
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3 comments:
Quite clearly this shows an extraterrestrial being walking the streets of Britain. Obviously they want to conceil that.
"I'd expect our tabloid press and politicians to bump up their circulation figures by stirring up the mob, but our police joining in as well. Our police?"
Jokes aside, since when is the police *not* part of the system? Did you see that video of that reporter who went undercover in her former job as a police officer in the UK to do an undercover documentary? I forgot the details, like names, but it showed "the material" the lower ranks of the police has. I wouldn't be surprised if the higher ranks have the same moral standards but are a bit more intelligent&ruthless...
Yet more conspiracy theory stuff, this time Diligence gets its Due.
Needless to say if you or I were to carry on in the manner described in the article we'd be doing stir.
Don't forget to look at the comments.
Excellent observations, Stef.
I agree, there is very little blogosphere analysis of the 'July 21st' trial (apart from the Postman).
(There is a collection of pastings of news reports/research/analysis etc. on the J7 forum here.
With regard to the 'Yassin Omar wearing a burka' story; remember this 'escape in a burka' story (associated with the case of WPC Sharon Beshenivsky)? Well, it turns out that the story was totally without foundation.
Your comments on the Crevice trial reporting is spot on - in early 2006 the media was full of the 'planned attacks' on the Bluewater Shopping Centre, the Ministry of Sound nightclub, poisioned Bovril at Premier League Football matches etc etc & there was even the allegation that the group were 'planning to buy a radio-isotope bomb from the Russian mafia in Belgium'.
The pattern continues today with the sensational reporting of the Crevice prosecution case, but very little reporting of the defence case.
Have a look at this Times report, published 2 days after the arrests of the (13) 'Crevice Lot' on March 30th 2004, which alleges that there were Mi5 connections with the Crevice lot. That report managed to slip through the net before the media got on message.
There are also the reports of connections between the Crevice lot with Mohammed Siddique Khan.
But that's another story (which isn't being investigated/reported).
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