Leroy N. Soetoro
2017-03-23 02:09:53 UTC
The fear peddlers are at it again, "terrorism".
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/british-parliament-on-
lockdown-after-shooting-incident-outside/2017/03/22/668105b4-0f11-11e7-
9b0d-d27c98455440_story.html?utm_term=.bdec8cf7cbff
LONDON An assailant fatally stabbed a police officer at the gates to
Britains Parliament compound Wednesday after plowing a vehicle through
terrified pedestrians along a landmark bridge. The attacker was shot and
killed by police, but not before claiming a total of four lives in what
appeared to be Europes latest high-profile terrorist attack.
In a late-night statement, London Metropolitan Police said that they
believed they knew who the attacker was, but declined to give a name.
Speaking outside the Scotland Yard headquarters, Mark Rowley, the acting
deputy police commissioner, said: Our working assumption is he was
inspired by international terrorism.
Police said the man traced a deadly path across the Westminster Bridge,
running down people with an SUV, then ramming the vehicle into the fence
encircling Parliament. At least 40 people were reported injured.
Finally, the attacker charged with a knife at officers stationed at the
iron gates leading to the Parliament grounds, authorities said. The fallen
police officer was identified as Keith Palmer, a 48-year-old husband and
father who was unarmed at the time of the attack.
The dead and injured were left scattered on some of Londons most famous
streets.
Crumpled bodies lay on the Westminster Bridge over the River Thames,
including at least two people killed. Outside Parliament, a Foreign Office
minister covered in the blood of the stabbed police officer tried in
vain to save his life.
The location of this attack was no accident, British Prime Minister
Theresa May said Wednesday evening, after chairing COBRA, the
governments emergency committee. The terrorist chose to strike at the
heart of our capital city, where people of all nationalities, religions
and cultures come together to celebrate the values of liberty, democracy
and freedom of speech.
But she said that any attempt to defeat those values through violence and
terror is doomed to failure. Tomorrow morning, Parliament will meet as
normal, she said.
The scene at Parliament earlier in the day was one of confusion while the
Parliament chambers and offices were put on full lockdown for more than
two hours.
This is a day that we planned for but hoped would never happen. Sadly, it
has now become a reality, Scotland Yards Rowley said during one of his
briefings.
As he spoke, the bells of Big Ben tolled six times to mark the hour.
Even before full details emerged, the attack and its chaos were certain to
raise security levels in London and other Western capitals and bring
further scrutiny of counterterrorism measures.
We are treating this as a terrorist incident until we know otherwise,
said a Twitter message from London Metropolitan Police.
[In Europe, terror fears are now fact of life]
The attack occurred on Parliaments busiest day of the week, when the
prime minister appears for her weekly questions session and the House of
Commons is packed with visitors.
The Palace of Westminster, the ancient seat of the British Parliament, is
surrounded by heavy security, with high walls, armed officers and metal
detectors. But just outside the compound are busy roads packed with cars
and pedestrians.
The attack a low-tech, high-profile assault on the most potent symbol of
British democracy fits the profile of earlier strikes in major European
capitals that have raised threat levels across the continent in recent
years.
It was apparently carried out by a lone assailant who used easily
available weapons to attack and kill people in a busy public setting.
British security officials have taken pride in their record of disrupting
such attacks even as assailants in continental Europe have slipped
through. But they have also acknowledged that their track record would not
stay pristine, and that an attack was inevitable. When it happened, it was
shocking nonetheless. Cellphones captured scenes of carnage amid some of
Londons most renowned landmarks.
The target Westminster was heavily guarded. But the weapons of choice
an SUV and a knife made the attack one of the most difficult kinds to
prevent, requiring the assailant neither to acquire illegal weapons nor to
plot with other conspirators.
Rowley said investigators believe that just one assailant carried out the
attack, but he encouraged the public to remain vigilant.
Britain has been on high alert for terrorist attacks for several years.
But until Wednesday, the country had been spared the sort of mass-casualty
attacks that have afflicted France, Belgium and Germany since 2015.
[Germanys new strategy for homegrown terror suspects? Deportation.]
Among those providing emergency aid was Tobias Ellwood, a senior official
at the Foreign Office and a British military veteran. Photos showed
Ellwoods face streaked with blood after attempting to revive the police
officer who had been stabbed just inside the gates of the compound.
French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that among those wounded in
the vehicle attack were members of a group of French students. News media
in France reported that three of the students, on a school trip from a
high school in Brittany, were in serious condition and that their parents
were being flown to London immediately.
In Washington, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said President
Trump had been briefed on the attack and had spoken by phone with Prime
Minister May.
We condemn todays attack in Westminster, Spicer told reporters. He
pledged the full support of the U.S. government in responding to the
attack and bringing to justice those who are responsible.
Raffaello Pantucci, director of international security studies at the
Royal United Services Institute think tank, said the rapid response
suggested that police were expecting that an attack was highly likely for
some time.
Images from the bridge showed a man dressed in a suit lying on his back,
his legs splayed to either side, as pedestrians huddled around him
administering first aid. The shoe was off his right foot, and blood
stained the sidewalk beneath his left.
In another image, a woman with long blond hair and running shoes lay in a
pool of blood on the bridges sidewalk. Blood stained the corner of her
mouth as another pedestrian cradled her head.
Other photos showed people sitting on the sidewalk looking dazed amid
broken glass and bits of automotive debris, with Big Ben looming beyond.
A spokesman for the Port of London Authority said a woman was pulled alive
from the River Thames, and he confirmed reports that she had serious
injuries.
As police investigated, much of the activity in the area around
Westminster came to a standstill.
A nearby hospital was put on lockdown and the London Eye the enormous
Ferris wheel above the Thames was stopped and visitors were slowly let
off hours later. Those who were locked inside the Eyes capsules at the
time of the attack were kept there, hovering above as emergency responders
swarmed the scene below.
A witness, Kirsten Hurrell, 70, said she first heard the crash of a car
hitting the fence outside Parliament before hearing noises that could have
been gunshots.
There was a lot of steam from the car, Hurrell told the Guardian
newspaper. I thought it might explode.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it was in close contact
with our British counterparts to monitor the tragic events and to support
the ongoing investigation. It noted that U.S. security threat levels
remained unchanged.
[45 years of terrorist attacks in Europe, visualized]
A year ago to the day, attackers carried out three coordinated suicide
bombings in Belgium, killing 32 civilians and injuring more than 300
others in two blasts at Brussels Airport and one at a metro station in the
Belgian capital. The Islamic State asserted responsibility for the
attacks, in which three perpetrators were also killed.
As the aftermath of the London attack unfolded, the Welsh Assembly and the
Scottish Parliament suspended their sessions. Scottish lawmakers had been
due to debate legislation authorizing a new referendum on independence.
Specialists said the attack appeared to be in line with an emerging model
of strikes involving simple, everyday instruments but carried out in
locations sure to draw global attention.
Terrorists rely on a lot of people watching it can be even better than
having a lot of people dead, said Frank Foley, a scholar of terrorism and
counterterrorism at the Department of War Studies at Kings College
London.
Within a few hours of the attack, there were signs that normalcy was
returning to London.
At the London Eye, a large crowd of tourists gathered.
Charles Thompson, a 21-year-old chef from Canada, wondered if there would
be more attacks. Usually its a chain-reaction thing, he said.
His friend, Enrique Cooper, a 32-year-old officer manager originally from
Italy, said he would not let the days violence change his view of London.
Im here all the time, he said. You cant let something like this ruin
your perspective.
--
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party has run out of gas.
Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for ending the disaster of the
Obama presidency.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp.
ObamaCare is a total 100% failure and no lie that can be put forth by its
supporters can dispute that.
Obama jobs, the result of ObamaCare. 12-15 working hours a week at minimum
wage, no benefits and the primary revenue stream for ObamaCare. It can't
be funded with money people don't have, yet liberals lie about how great
it is.
Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/british-parliament-on-
lockdown-after-shooting-incident-outside/2017/03/22/668105b4-0f11-11e7-
9b0d-d27c98455440_story.html?utm_term=.bdec8cf7cbff
LONDON An assailant fatally stabbed a police officer at the gates to
Britains Parliament compound Wednesday after plowing a vehicle through
terrified pedestrians along a landmark bridge. The attacker was shot and
killed by police, but not before claiming a total of four lives in what
appeared to be Europes latest high-profile terrorist attack.
In a late-night statement, London Metropolitan Police said that they
believed they knew who the attacker was, but declined to give a name.
Speaking outside the Scotland Yard headquarters, Mark Rowley, the acting
deputy police commissioner, said: Our working assumption is he was
inspired by international terrorism.
Police said the man traced a deadly path across the Westminster Bridge,
running down people with an SUV, then ramming the vehicle into the fence
encircling Parliament. At least 40 people were reported injured.
Finally, the attacker charged with a knife at officers stationed at the
iron gates leading to the Parliament grounds, authorities said. The fallen
police officer was identified as Keith Palmer, a 48-year-old husband and
father who was unarmed at the time of the attack.
The dead and injured were left scattered on some of Londons most famous
streets.
Crumpled bodies lay on the Westminster Bridge over the River Thames,
including at least two people killed. Outside Parliament, a Foreign Office
minister covered in the blood of the stabbed police officer tried in
vain to save his life.
The location of this attack was no accident, British Prime Minister
Theresa May said Wednesday evening, after chairing COBRA, the
governments emergency committee. The terrorist chose to strike at the
heart of our capital city, where people of all nationalities, religions
and cultures come together to celebrate the values of liberty, democracy
and freedom of speech.
But she said that any attempt to defeat those values through violence and
terror is doomed to failure. Tomorrow morning, Parliament will meet as
normal, she said.
The scene at Parliament earlier in the day was one of confusion while the
Parliament chambers and offices were put on full lockdown for more than
two hours.
This is a day that we planned for but hoped would never happen. Sadly, it
has now become a reality, Scotland Yards Rowley said during one of his
briefings.
As he spoke, the bells of Big Ben tolled six times to mark the hour.
Even before full details emerged, the attack and its chaos were certain to
raise security levels in London and other Western capitals and bring
further scrutiny of counterterrorism measures.
We are treating this as a terrorist incident until we know otherwise,
said a Twitter message from London Metropolitan Police.
[In Europe, terror fears are now fact of life]
The attack occurred on Parliaments busiest day of the week, when the
prime minister appears for her weekly questions session and the House of
Commons is packed with visitors.
The Palace of Westminster, the ancient seat of the British Parliament, is
surrounded by heavy security, with high walls, armed officers and metal
detectors. But just outside the compound are busy roads packed with cars
and pedestrians.
The attack a low-tech, high-profile assault on the most potent symbol of
British democracy fits the profile of earlier strikes in major European
capitals that have raised threat levels across the continent in recent
years.
It was apparently carried out by a lone assailant who used easily
available weapons to attack and kill people in a busy public setting.
British security officials have taken pride in their record of disrupting
such attacks even as assailants in continental Europe have slipped
through. But they have also acknowledged that their track record would not
stay pristine, and that an attack was inevitable. When it happened, it was
shocking nonetheless. Cellphones captured scenes of carnage amid some of
Londons most renowned landmarks.
The target Westminster was heavily guarded. But the weapons of choice
an SUV and a knife made the attack one of the most difficult kinds to
prevent, requiring the assailant neither to acquire illegal weapons nor to
plot with other conspirators.
Rowley said investigators believe that just one assailant carried out the
attack, but he encouraged the public to remain vigilant.
Britain has been on high alert for terrorist attacks for several years.
But until Wednesday, the country had been spared the sort of mass-casualty
attacks that have afflicted France, Belgium and Germany since 2015.
[Germanys new strategy for homegrown terror suspects? Deportation.]
Among those providing emergency aid was Tobias Ellwood, a senior official
at the Foreign Office and a British military veteran. Photos showed
Ellwoods face streaked with blood after attempting to revive the police
officer who had been stabbed just inside the gates of the compound.
French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that among those wounded in
the vehicle attack were members of a group of French students. News media
in France reported that three of the students, on a school trip from a
high school in Brittany, were in serious condition and that their parents
were being flown to London immediately.
In Washington, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said President
Trump had been briefed on the attack and had spoken by phone with Prime
Minister May.
We condemn todays attack in Westminster, Spicer told reporters. He
pledged the full support of the U.S. government in responding to the
attack and bringing to justice those who are responsible.
Raffaello Pantucci, director of international security studies at the
Royal United Services Institute think tank, said the rapid response
suggested that police were expecting that an attack was highly likely for
some time.
Images from the bridge showed a man dressed in a suit lying on his back,
his legs splayed to either side, as pedestrians huddled around him
administering first aid. The shoe was off his right foot, and blood
stained the sidewalk beneath his left.
In another image, a woman with long blond hair and running shoes lay in a
pool of blood on the bridges sidewalk. Blood stained the corner of her
mouth as another pedestrian cradled her head.
Other photos showed people sitting on the sidewalk looking dazed amid
broken glass and bits of automotive debris, with Big Ben looming beyond.
A spokesman for the Port of London Authority said a woman was pulled alive
from the River Thames, and he confirmed reports that she had serious
injuries.
As police investigated, much of the activity in the area around
Westminster came to a standstill.
A nearby hospital was put on lockdown and the London Eye the enormous
Ferris wheel above the Thames was stopped and visitors were slowly let
off hours later. Those who were locked inside the Eyes capsules at the
time of the attack were kept there, hovering above as emergency responders
swarmed the scene below.
A witness, Kirsten Hurrell, 70, said she first heard the crash of a car
hitting the fence outside Parliament before hearing noises that could have
been gunshots.
There was a lot of steam from the car, Hurrell told the Guardian
newspaper. I thought it might explode.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it was in close contact
with our British counterparts to monitor the tragic events and to support
the ongoing investigation. It noted that U.S. security threat levels
remained unchanged.
[45 years of terrorist attacks in Europe, visualized]
A year ago to the day, attackers carried out three coordinated suicide
bombings in Belgium, killing 32 civilians and injuring more than 300
others in two blasts at Brussels Airport and one at a metro station in the
Belgian capital. The Islamic State asserted responsibility for the
attacks, in which three perpetrators were also killed.
As the aftermath of the London attack unfolded, the Welsh Assembly and the
Scottish Parliament suspended their sessions. Scottish lawmakers had been
due to debate legislation authorizing a new referendum on independence.
Specialists said the attack appeared to be in line with an emerging model
of strikes involving simple, everyday instruments but carried out in
locations sure to draw global attention.
Terrorists rely on a lot of people watching it can be even better than
having a lot of people dead, said Frank Foley, a scholar of terrorism and
counterterrorism at the Department of War Studies at Kings College
London.
Within a few hours of the attack, there were signs that normalcy was
returning to London.
At the London Eye, a large crowd of tourists gathered.
Charles Thompson, a 21-year-old chef from Canada, wondered if there would
be more attacks. Usually its a chain-reaction thing, he said.
His friend, Enrique Cooper, a 32-year-old officer manager originally from
Italy, said he would not let the days violence change his view of London.
Im here all the time, he said. You cant let something like this ruin
your perspective.
--
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party has run out of gas.
Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for ending the disaster of the
Obama presidency.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp.
ObamaCare is a total 100% failure and no lie that can be put forth by its
supporters can dispute that.
Obama jobs, the result of ObamaCare. 12-15 working hours a week at minimum
wage, no benefits and the primary revenue stream for ObamaCare. It can't
be funded with money people don't have, yet liberals lie about how great
it is.
Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.