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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: geode00 who wrote (169250)	8/17/2005 5:52:32 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

This situation is so disgusting it makes me sick. I can't imagine what's its doing to the Brazilian's family. ***************************************************** Scotland Yard in dock over London Tube shooting** Leaked documents obtained show a series of errors on the part of the investigating officers in the London blasts. A devastating indictment of Scotland Yard has emerged from a leaked secret report on the point blank shooting of an innocent Brazilian wrongly identified as a suicide bomber. The reputation of the UK’s legendary police force is in tatters following the disclosure that 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes had his arms pinned forcibly to his side by one police officer as two other policemen pumped eight bullets into him at point blank range. Significantly, police told a series of outrageous lies to justify their action that invites comparisons to the 1980 Bhagalpur scandal when Bihar police blinded 23 undertrials. Scotland Yard’s lies start from the very top with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair telling the media last July 22 that the de Menezes shooting was “directly linked” to terrorist operations. However, hours later it turned out that the dead man was in fact innocent. Police also claimed that de Menezes looked like one of the attempted London suicide bombers from the previous day, July 21, and that he was wearing suspicious, bulky winter clothing. It has since been established that he was wearing a denim jacket. To compound their series of errors, police sources claimed de Menezes jumped over a ticket barrier at Stockwell underground station to escape police running after him. They said de Menezes ran down the platform at Stockwell, adding to suspicions that he had something to hide. Actually, he walked to his carriage, paused to pick up a newspaper and only then sat down in his seat where he was shot by police who did not identify themselves, or ask de Menezes to surrender. Flawed tactics The deeply flawed police tactics, which are being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, include embarrassing details about the behaviour of a key surveillance officer who was supposed to be watching the block of flats from where de Menezes made his last journey. It turns out that the officer, who should have been taking video footage to help identify the suspect to colleagues, took a toilet break and could not switch on the camera. The sheer incompetence of the police is also revealed in a witness statement which described de Menezes being pinioned by a police officer before he was shot. As a senior Scotland Yard officer flies out to Brazil to make a compensation offer to de Menezes’ grieving parents, the family’s English lawyer has described the shoot-to-kill police operation as “shocking and terrifying”. Lawyer Harriet Wistrich said, “It looks as though the information put out was deliberately misleading, it must have been, and certainly there was no effort to correct it.” The secret report leaked to British television last Tuesday night describes how a surveillance and firearms team was sent to a block of flats on July 22, one day after the wave of failed London suicide bombings and two weeks after the July 7 attacks which killed 56 and left another 700 wounded. Police believed that at least one suspect lived in the block of flats from which de Menezes left on his way to the underground Tube station. One surveillance officer is quoted as saying of de Menezes in the report, “As he walked out of my line of vision, I checked the photographs and transmitted that it would be worth someone else having a look. I should point out that as I observed this male exiting the block, I was relieving myself. I was not able to transmit my observations and switch on the video camera at the same time. There is therefore no video footage of this male.” The report goes on to state how de Menezes was observed walking to a bus stop before boarding a bus to Stockwell Tube station. “During the course of this, his description and demeanour was assessed and it was believed he matched the identity of one of the suspects wanted for terrorist offences... the information was passed through the operations centre.” The report later quotes one member of the surveillance team grabbing de Menezes inside the carriage before he was shot. “I grabbed him by wrapping both my arms around his torso, pinning his arms to one side,” says the unidentified officer. “I pushed him back on the seat... I then heard a gunshot very close to my left ear and was dragged away on to the floor of the carriage.” The UK’s Independent Police Complaints Commission has refused to comment on the nature of the leaked report, saying, “We do not know from whom the documents have come. Our priority is to disclose any findings direct to the family.” deccanherald.com