London bombings

[mdlbear]

Lists of known-safe filkers on filk, keristor's website. LJ discussion on london_070705. BBC article.

From kyburg comes a link to Reuters' collection of world leaders' reactions. She notes that everyone condemns the attacks in plain language, except for Bush who says that he's "been in contact with the Homeland Security folks". And told them to round up the usual suspects, no doubt.

Why anyone thinks they can accomplish something against the British people by setting off bombs in London is simply incomprehensible. Seems to me that's been tried before.

Comments

[tagryn]

Eh. Bush's statement on the page now looks pretty typical of the rest, was probably just a matter of Reuters catching up their coverage.

The al-Qaeta statement, if legit, made it clear this was punishment for British involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. Like Madrid, this is also probably meant as a message for other Western countries: do as we say, or you will be next. Denmark and Italy were specifically warned in the statement. Given what happened after Madrid, with Spain withdrawing from Iraq, no big wonder they drew the conclusion that this kind of atrocity is effective at getting action.

Fascinating...

[mdlbear]

The complete White House press release can be found at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/07/20050707-2.html and contains the phrase I quoted in its second paragraph:

President Offers Condolences to People of London, Will Not Yield to Terrorists
Gleneagles Hotel
Auchterarder, Scotland

Fact sheeten Español

1:30 P.M. (Local)

PRESIDENT BUSH: I spent some time recently with the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and had an opportunity to express our heartfelt condolences to the people of London, people who lost lives. I appreciate Prime Minister Blair's steadfast determination and his strength. He's on his way now to London here from the G8 to speak directly to the people of London. He'll carry a message of solidarity with him.

President George W. Bush delivers a brief statement to the media outside the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland Thursday, July 7, 2005, regarding the terrorist attacks in London that occured earlier in the day. White House photo by Eric Draper This morning I have been in contact with our Homeland Security folks. I instructed them to be in touch with local and state officials about the facts of what took place here and in London, and to be extra vigilant, as our folks start heading to work.

The contrast between what we've seen on the TV screens here, what's taken place in London and what's taking place here is incredibly vivid to me. On the one hand, we have people here who are working to alleviate poverty, to help rid the world of the pandemic of AIDS, working on ways to have a clean environment. And on the other hand, you've got people killing innocent people. And 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 got such evil in their heart that they will take the lives of innocent folks.

The war on terror goes on. I was most impressed by the resolve of all the leaders in the room. Their resolve is as strong as my resolve. And that is we will not yield to these people, will not yield to the terrorists. We will find them, we will bring them to justice, and at the same time, we will spread an ideology of hope and compassion that will overwhelm their ideology of hate.

Thank you very much.

Re: Fascinating...

[tagryn]

Pretty much confirms that Reuters did a bad job in selectively quoting, that's all. As madfilkentist says, the condemnation is obvious in his statement.

There's lots of legit stuff to bash Bush on, but this one is reaching.

Re: Fascinating...

[mdlbear]

Probably, though it's also possible that what he actually said was cleaned up and added to before the press release. In some other threads, people who heard Bush's statement live said that the "homeland security" quote came at or near the end of it.

[madfilkentist]

GWB: We will find them (the perpetrators). We will bring them to justice.

That counts as condemnation in plain language to me.

[mdlbear]

In the first version of the Reuters page -- the version Kyburg and I were commenting on -- only the following sentence was quoted:

This morning I have been in contact with our Homeland Security folks. I instructed them to be in touch with local and state officials about the facts of what took place here and in London, and to be extra vigilant, as our folks start heading to work.

Apparently Reuters updated the page at some point.