Saturday, August 27, 2005

bomber at mcdonalds

a couple of days ago i wrote this post about 7/7 busbomber going to mcdonalds and calling his mates - and i mentioned the "plot development" where the story went from the Independent where 'he called his mates' to the Guardian where 'he called them at 9am' to the Times where some anonymous git was quoting the breathless vmails.

i wrote that post in the same way that i write most of my posts where i read an article and then comment on it, and then read another and quote from it and comment on it, and so on (rather than writing an 'article' where you'd do all the research first, before you start writing) .

in that post, after reading the Times piece, i wrote "i would imagine that much of the Times' report is pure fabrication." remarkably, this story didnt echo back through media. neither the Independent nor the Guardian have updated their stories or referred to the Times article - and hardly anyone else touched the story.

as far as i can tell, the bbc only came up with 2 sentences, and didnt mention the cctv footage at mcdonalds, and no mention of the vmails:
"Hasib Hussain, 18, called his three accomplices on his mobile phone before killing 13 people on the No 30 bus.

But Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Germaine Lindsay, 19, and Shehzad Tanweer, 22, had already killed themselves and 39 passengers on three Tube trains."
The Mirror offers just a few sentences - also ignoring both the McDonalds thing and the vmails:
"THE bus bomber who killed 13 people in London made mobile calls to fellow gang members before blowing himself up, police believe.

Hasib Hussain, 18, rang three different numbers just before 9am. All went unanswered...

Police specialists have since uncovered details of a phone Hussain was carrying and checked billing records.

Three trains and a bus were the targets that day. Hussain's calls also cast doubt on the idea that an unknown "mastermind" was in London on July 7.

The source said: "He would have phoned that person instead of the other bombers.""
both the bbc and the Mirror repeat this lie: "The most likely explanation was that he had tried to board the Northern Line, but it was closed" - altho we know that isnt correct - there were no problems with the Northern Line. Even the Times said: " contrary to earlier reports, there were no problems on the north-bound section of the Northern Line."

wouldnt you think that that the media would at least be interested in a few elements of this story? imagine if there were some vmails from atta to some of his associates as they boarded the planes..

or how about the simple fact that there is cctv footage of hussain - isnt that supposed to be 'chilling' or something? or that fact that he stopped for a hamburger (or whatever)?

remember all the previous consternation that they were trying to understand what happened in 'the missing hour' and where he got on the bus and all that? surely part of that story is that he went and hung out at mickey D's answers some of that question? why the silence?

also note the Mirror's odd phrasing "a phone Hussain was carrying" - normally you'd say "Hussain's phone" right? or are they trying to provide cover for the fact that i'd previously called them on their bullshit that they said that they'd found Lindsay's phone number in Hussain's phone? the other interesting thing is that it has taken 6 weeks to find out this information from the phone records. has it taken the police 6 weeks to ask the phone company to get his records? i imagine that would have been one of the first things they did - they are trying to catch the 'mastermind' afterall - im sure they were onto the phone records immediately. are the constructing a story ex-poste?

and amid all the handwringing stories about "how could a brit kill his fellow citizens?" stories, is there not a single journo who comprehends the juxtaposition of an 'islamo-terrorist' going to McDonalds as a refuge? or wondering whether he bought a non-halal hamburger? even for ironic purposes - or clash-of-civilisation purposes - or just to highlight how confused he might be? nope. not only that. many of the reports dont even mention the visit. if he'd been cctv'd at Falafels R Us - itd be all over the news. surely. apparently, if it doesnt fit the narrative, its not news.

but in the media, i havent seen a single report even point to the absurdity/futility of him asking his friends for advice, even though he presumably knew they were dead. and theres no speculation as to why he waited so long to call them. and theres no indication as to what time he was cctv'd at McDonalds - if they were truly trying to understand his final hour, why not announce when he was seen there? he was seen there on cctv, and cctv images are time-stamped - its quite simple.

another interesting thing is the development of the story - the original story appears to have been the Independent which said "Hussain also made a number of telephone calls, at least one of which was to one of his fellow bombers" - from that, the story seemed to quickly morph into "he called all 3" - we also dont know when he called his friends other than "at around 9am" - which is a surprising lack of specificity - we are trying to unravel the last hour - for some reason, specifity isnt relevant in this case, even though phone records are presumably timestamped down to the second. why the secret?

this should be much easier than it is.

lets go back to the original Times article:
"Hussain is believed to have first called Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, the alleged leader of the group, saying: “I can’t get on a train. What should I do ?” Then in quick succession he left the same message for Shehzad Tanweer and Jermaine Lindsay as, clearly agitated about his next move, he hurried away from the station.

A police source who has heard the telephone calls said: “His voice was getting more and more frantic with each call.” Investigators could tell from his breathless voice that Hussain was walking fast as he made these calls."
this anonymous police source wasnt quoted anywhere else - if these stories arent true, then s/he is lying for some other purpose. and given the lack of attention given to this story, we can imagine that the entire media establishment has been sucked into a story that was meant to perpetuate one or other myth. its increasingly looking similar to rollout of the dead brazilian story - altho we now know why the dead brazilian story was rolled out the way it was. we dont yet know why this story is being rolled out in this manner.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're right in what you say - this is potentially the biggest piece of news on what happened on 7/7 for about a month: we have details of the lost/last hour of the bus bomber and information about details about 'button-like' devices (I personally think the button world is divided in a binary manner of those things that are buttons and those things that are not but anyway) and the whole thing gets lost this week in media dicussions about 24hr binge drinking and which football club is going to overpay Michael Owen next season.

lukery said...

thanks mickoh - yeah - its totally odd.

as for the buttons - im not sure about any of that. im not convinced.

as for binge drinking, if the police keep telling lies the way they have been, i think i might have to do some binge drinking meself ;-)