Man whose fatal shooting by police sparked riots across England is being buried near home in north London Crowds gathered in north London on Friday for the funeral of Mark Duggan, the man whose fatal shooting by police sparked riots that spread around England. The body of the 29-year-old father of four, who died on 4 August , was taken from his parents’ house in Tottenham through the Broadwater Farm estate, where he grew up, to a church in Wood Green. A private service is to be followed by his burial at Wood Green. A reception will be held at Broadwater Farm. Duggan’s family remain highly critical of police, both over the events which left him with a gunshot wound to the chest and what they say was subsequent misinformation and lack of communication from Scotland Yard and the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which is investigating the incident. The Tottenham MP, David Lammy, has criticised the IPCC for leaving Duggan’s family “floundering” and failing to make it clear to local people that it was independent from the police. Dozens of relatives and friends gathered outside the Duggan family home before the funeral vehicle, a white carriage drawn by four plumed horses, arrived shortly after 10am. Bishop Kwaku Frimpong-Manson, who was to lead the funeral at the New Testament Church of God, called mourners to the carriage. “We are going to stretch our hands towards the casket to thank God for Mark’s life as he begins his heavenly journey,” he said. About 100 people stood on the pavement, the silence broken only by the bishop’s short prayer and quiet sobs from Duggan’s mother. Other people gathered outside Tangmere House, on Broadwater Farm, where Duggan grew up. One local man, wearing a black suit with matching trilby, who did not want to be named, explained that there was a strong sense of community on the estate but also the heavy weight of stigma. “Unless you have grown up here you cannot understand,” he said. “You think if people see this address on a job application you are going to get a job? Even if you have done no wrong you have no hope. The only way you can have hope is to move away.” Large numbers of police remain on duty in the wake of the riots, but the presence at the funeral will be low key and involve local officers. “We have met with Mr Duggan’s parents,” a police spokesman said. “In line with the family’s wishes, the policing will reflect the family’s desire for a local, peaceful and dignified funeral.” Clasford Sterling, a veteran youth worker at the Broadwater Farm Community centre said that, while there was still anger in the area, he did not think there would be any trouble. “Today is all about showing respect for his last journey,” he said. “There is always going to be anger – if people are antagonised and pushed, then we have seen what can happen.” The Duggan family has requested that the media stay outside the church and leave them in peace. Duggan was a passenger in a minicab stopped by police near Tottenham Hale tube station when he was shot. The IPCC initially suggested he had fired at an officer before he was shot, but ballistic tests showed the two bullets fired – one of which killed Duggan while the other lodged in an officer’s radio – were both police issue. Another weapon, a blank-firing pistol which had been converted to use live rounds, was recovered near the scene of the shooting. A march to protest at the death escalated into outbreaks of trouble in Tottenham and Wood Green, which spread into four days of serious riots in many locations around England. An inquest into Duggan’s death at north London coroners’ court heard that he died from a single gunshot wound to the chest. Mark Duggan Police UK riots Peter Walker Hugh Muir Alexandra Topping guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Man whose fatal shooting by police sparked riots across England is being buried near home in north London Crowds gathered in north London on Friday for the funeral of Mark Duggan, the man whose fatal shooting by police sparked riots that spread around England. The body of the 29-year-old father of four, who died on 4 August , was taken from his parents’ house in Tottenham through the Broadwater Farm estate, where he grew up, to a church in Wood Green. A private service is to be followed by his burial at Wood Green. A reception will be held at Broadwater Farm. Duggan’s family remain highly critical of police, both over the events which left him with a gunshot wound to the chest and what they say was subsequent misinformation and lack of communication from Scotland Yard and the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which is investigating the incident. The Tottenham MP, David Lammy, has criticised the IPCC for leaving Duggan’s family “floundering” and failing to make it clear to local people that it was independent from the police. Dozens of relatives and friends gathered outside the Duggan family home before the funeral vehicle, a white carriage drawn by four plumed horses, arrived shortly after 10am. Bishop Kwaku Frimpong-Manson, who was to lead the funeral at the New Testament Church of God, called mourners to the carriage. “We are going to stretch our hands towards the casket to thank God for Mark’s life as he begins his heavenly journey,” he said. About 100 people stood on the pavement, the silence broken only by the bishop’s short prayer and quiet sobs from Duggan’s mother. Other people gathered outside Tangmere House, on Broadwater Farm, where Duggan grew up. One local man, wearing a black suit with matching trilby, who did not want to be named, explained that there was a strong sense of community on the estate but also the heavy weight of stigma. “Unless you have grown up here you cannot understand,” he said. “You think if people see this address on a job application you are going to get a job? Even if you have done no wrong you have no hope. The only way you can have hope is to move away.” Large numbers of police remain on duty in the wake of the riots, but the presence at the funeral will be low key and involve local officers. “We have met with Mr Duggan’s parents,” a police spokesman said. “In line with the family’s wishes, the policing will reflect the family’s desire for a local, peaceful and dignified funeral.” Clasford Sterling, a veteran youth worker at the Broadwater Farm Community centre said that, while there was still anger in the area, he did not think there would be any trouble. “Today is all about showing respect for his last journey,” he said. “There is always going to be anger – if people are antagonised and pushed, then we have seen what can happen.” The Duggan family has requested that the media stay outside the church and leave them in peace. Duggan was a passenger in a minicab stopped by police near Tottenham Hale tube station when he was shot. The IPCC initially suggested he had fired at an officer before he was shot, but ballistic tests showed the two bullets fired – one of which killed Duggan while the other lodged in an officer’s radio – were both police issue. Another weapon, a blank-firing pistol which had been converted to use live rounds, was recovered near the scene of the shooting. A march to protest at the death escalated into outbreaks of trouble in Tottenham and Wood Green, which spread into four days of serious riots in many locations around England. An inquest into Duggan’s death at north London coroners’ court heard that he died from a single gunshot wound to the chest. Mark Duggan Police UK riots Peter Walker Hugh Muir Alexandra Topping guardian.co.uk
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The government says honest motorists are seeing car insurance premiums rise as insurers seek to cover the costs of increased compensation claims The government hopes to stem rising insurance costs by banning referral fees in personal injury claim cases. The fees, highlighted by former Labour MP Jack Straw in June , are paid to claims management companies, garages and insurance companies who provide details of accidents – often car accidents – to personal injury lawyers. The business is estimated to be worth £3bn a year, and successful claims are paid in most cases by insurance policies. Insurers have covered the cost by passing it on to policyholders in the form of higher premiums. Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly said: “Honest motorists are seeing their premiums hiked up as insurance companies cover the increasing costs of more and more compensation claims. Many of the claims are spurious and only happen because the current system allows too many people to profit from minor accidents and incidents. “Referral fees are one symptom of the compensation culture problem and too much money sloshing through the system.” Djanogly said people were being encouraged to sue at no risk to themselves, “leaving schools, business and individuals living in fear of being dragged to the courts for simply going about daily life”. He added: “We will ban referral fees and we will go further. We have proposals before parliament to end the bizarre situation in which people have no stake in the legal costs their cases bring. This will make claimants think harder about whether to sue and give insurance companies and business generally an incentive to pass the savings on to customers through lower prices.” A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice denied that the announcement was in response to an announcement by the Office of Fair Trading yesterday that it will investigate soaring car insurance premiums to determine whether drivers are being overcharged. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) said the industry was committed to keeping costs down for consumers, but reform of the compensation system was necessary if premiums were to come down. Director general Otto Thoresen said: “Rising claims costs from personal injury claims, excessive legal costs, insurance fraud and uninsured driving, coupled with lower investment returns in recent years, have unfortunately led to rising motor insurance bills for many customers. “In fact, the motor insurance sector has not been profitable for the last 16 years because the amount paid out in claims and expenses has been greater than that received in premiums.” Thoresen said moves to reform the compensation system in Ireland had led to a 16% reduction in motor insurance premiums. The news was welcomed by consumer group Which?. Chief executive Richard Lloyd said: “This is great news for motorists. Referral fees feed the growing compensation culture that has been pushing up insurance premiums at a time when many families are already feeling the pinch. It’s absolutely right to ban them, and quickly.” There is no timetable for when the ban will be introduced, but the plan is that it will be a regulatory offence for firms to pay and receive referral fees. The government’s proposals currently before parliament focus on stopping losing defendants having to pay a “success fee”. The government is changing the law so that in future the person making the claim will have to pay the success fee, rather than the defendant, and the fee will be capped. The intended result is a fairer split of costs between parties and lower legal costs overall, which means lower costs to pass on to customers or taxpayers. The proposals follow a Ministry of Justice consultation published in November 2010. Car insurance Insurance Motoring Consumer affairs Insurance industry Jill Insley guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …George Osborne defends deficit reduction plan as UK’s ‘rock of stability’
September 9, 2011 No Comment
• Chancellor again refuses to change direction • IMF boss Christine Lagarde says UK must remain ‘nimble’ • Osborne hints at more quantitiative easing George Osborne mounted a strong defence of his deficit reduction plan on Friday, hailing it as the “rock of stability” that will prevent Britain being wrecked by the global financial crisis. The chancellor again refused to change direction in the face of poor economic news at home and abroad, in a speech in which he reiterated that Britain’s deficit must be vigorously tackled. Otherwise, Osborne warned, Britain’s homeowners and businesses would suffer. “Britain will stick to the deficit plan we’ve set out. It’s the rock of stability on which our recovery is built,” he said. “It’s delivered record low interest rates. Abandoning it would put that at risk. For nothing would be more damaging for Britain at this fragile moment for the world’s economy than an increase in mortgage rates for families and an increase in the cost of borrowing for businesses.” Osborne was speaking at Chatham House in London alongside Christine Lagarde, the new managing director of the International Monetary Fund. She said that the IMF continued to support Osborne’s fiscal consolidation plan, but warned that the deteriorating global economy means the chancellor must remain “nimble”. “Since the summer the outlook has become more subdued, including in the rest of Europe and the United States, the UK’s major trading partners. So risk levels are rising. The policy stance remains appropriate, but this heightened risk means a heightened readiness to respond, particularly if it looks like the economy is headed for a prolonged period of weak growth and high unemployment,” Lagarde said. Osborne acknowledged this point, and said that monetary policy – implemented by the Bank of England – could become more “accommodative” if needed. On Thursday the Bank decided not to increase its quantitative easing programme , but some economists believe this asset-purchasing scheme could soon be enlarged. The meeting came just a day after the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) predicted that the UK economy will barely grow in the second half of 2011 . The OECD also predicted that the eurozone economy will shrink in the final three months of the year. Earlier this week, data showed that UK retail sales fell in August while the dominant services sector suffered its steepest slowdown in a decade . Football, not a tug of war Osborne and Lagarde are heading for Marseille later on Friday for a meeting of G7 finance ministers. This gathering will focus on efforts to revive global growth, but will be dominated by the ongoing European debt crisis. Lagarde said it was crucial for eurozone leaders to rapidly agree the details of the deal hammered out in July, which included a second bailout for Greece. She also warned that some European banks need fresh capital injections to cover losses on sovereign debt and reassure the financial community that they are safe. “We must not underestimate the risks of a further spread of economic weakness, or even a debilitating liquidity crisis,” Lagarde said, harking back to the dark days of 2008. Osborne argued that the current crisis requires a more sophisticated response than three years ago. “In 2008 the world had to act like a tug of war team, all pulling in the same direction. Today, we need to be like a football team – with everyone’s role suited to their positions and abilities if the team is to be successful,” the chancellor said. The global economic slowdown means world leaders must make growth a top priority, although they may lack the tools and the political agreement to be successful, warned US treasury secretary Tim Geithner. “The shocks behind the slowdown – oil prices, Japan’s disaster, the crisis in Europe – are severe enough to have been dangerous even if they had happened during a global boom. They are more dangerous now because they hit a world still healing from financial crisis and because of the general fear that political constraints will prevent governments and central banks from acting sensibly with the tools available,” Geithner wrote in Friday’s Financial Times . America’s President Barack Obama also put growth and employment at the top of the US agenda on Thursday night with a $447bn package aimed at cutting joblessness and stimulating the economy. Economics Global economy Economic policy George Osborne IMF Christine Lagarde Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
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• Press F5 for the latest or our auto-refresh button below • Email your thoughts to barry.glendenning@guardian.co.uk • Click here for our Rugby World Cup interactive guide • And click here for all the live scores and fixtures 2 min: Tonga have possession on the halfway line but despite repeated attempts, can’t make any progress. There have been some big hits early on and the latest, from Sonny Bill Williams, wins the turnover ball for New Zealand. Dan Carter swings his boot and sets up a line-out just inside the Tongan 22. 1 min: Tonga kick off, playing towards the Eastern End of Eden Park. Kurt Morath takes the first kick of the tournament, Ali Williams the first catch, 9.28am: Tonga move slowly to the centre of the field to perform their version of the Haka, to which New Zealand duly respond. There was a bit of a palaver over who would go first and whether each team would respect the other’s, but it’s all passed off rather peacefully. Not long now: The teams emerge from the tunnel in a packed Eden Park, New Zealand led by Richie McCaw and Tonga led by Finau Maka, who was an injury doubt for this game but has been passed fit to play. They line up for their national anthems, which were recorded by the New Zealand National Symphony Orchestra and are being played over the Tannoy. New Zealand’s players are dressed in their customary All Black strip, while Tonga’s wear All Red. 9.15am: “As safe a pair of hands as Steve Rider is, I already have the same impending feel of doom about this Rugby World Cup coverage on ITV in terms of production and lifeless commentary,” writes Daniel Chirwa. “Not promising at all. At least it gets Adrian Chiles mug off early morning TV.” “ITV are crap, what happened to the opening ceremony coverage (not that I am that keen) and is it going to be non-stop updates from the England camp for the entire tournament?” asks Hoppolocos. “Could England be any more relaxed? Pity that Scotland, Wales and Ireland aren’t there so we could updates from their camps … oh hang on.” Crikey! It could be a long tournament. At the moment on ITV, Lawrence Dallaglio and Sean Fitzpatrick are talking tactics Gary Neville-on-Sky Sports-style with the help of a big screen they’re clearly not expecting to work very well. Their technology doesn’t betray them and despite the best attempts of Steve Rider to talk up the chances of Tonga, both former World Cup winners agree that New Zealand will win this game easily by playing better rugby than Tonga. Today’s officials: Irish referee George Clancy will be assisted by touch-judges Craig Joubert from South Africa and Stuart Terheege from England. The TV match official is Giul’o De Santis from Italy. Well, that didn’t take long: At just 9.05am, ITV broadcast their first package about New Zealand being Rugby World Cup chokers. It features a lot of angry Kiwi men swearing into the camera, shouting things like “[BLEEP!]ing disgrace”. I don’t think we’ve read what knock-out rugby is,” says Grant Fox, a winner of the first World Cup with the All Blacks in 1987. New Zealand : Dagg, Kahui, Nonu, S. Williams, Toeava, Carter, Cowan, Woodcock, Hore, O. Franks, Thorn, A. Williams, Kaino, McCaw, Vito. Replacements: Flynn, B. Franks, Boric, Whitelock, Weepu, Slade, Jane. Tonga : Lilo, Iongi, Hufanga, Ma’ilei, Piutau, Morath, Moa, Tonga’uiha, Lutui, Filise, Hehea, Tuineau, Kalamafoni, Maka, Ma’afu. Replacements: Taukafa, Taumalolo, Pulu, Timani, Vahafolau, Fisilau, Fatafehi. Referee: George Clancy (IRFU) The opening ceremony: Sadly, I didn’t get to see this because I don’t think ITV broadcast it, but can confirm that ITV presenter Steve Rider described it as “vibrant”. Meanwhile in my email in-box, Craig Gamble asks “are you as confused by everyone down here by the opening ceremony.” Good morning everybody . After all the talk, the glossy supplements, the warm-up matches and the moaning about Kiwis staging rugby matches at breakfast time in the UK, it’s kick-off time for Rugby World Cup 2011 and the tournament’s opening match features the hosts New Zealand against Tonga at Eden Park in Auckland. Anyone looking for the skinny on the tournament could do worse than peruse our Rugby World Cup special report , which features such myriad delights as our Rugby World Cup preview podcast hosted by Eddie Butler, our stats centre and interactive guide to the tournament , not to mention all the news and comment from the Guardian’s crack team of rugby writers in New Zealand. Rugby World Cup 2011 New Zealand rugby union team Tonga rugby union team Rugby union Barry Glendenning guardian.co.uk
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Former Cuban president appears frail, but well, in photographs published on government website Photographs of a frail but apparently well Fidel Castro were posted on a Cuban government website on Thursday, following recent rumours that the 85-year-old former president was gravely ill or had died. Castro, who had been out of sight for two months, was shown in what looked to be his Havana home chatting with Venezuelan state television commentator Mario Silva, who said he had come to Cuba to put to rest false reports about Castro’s health. “Those who are at this moment enjoying and believing that Comandante Fidel had a stroke, I’m sorry to inform you that he is alive and kicking,” Silva said in a video of his La Hojilla TV programme posted on the Cubadebate website along with the Castro pictures. The programme supports the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and regularly vilifies his critics. Silva said the photographs of Castro were taken during an interview conducted by him in Havana on Tuesday, a video of which would be screened by the programme later on Thursday. They showed a grey-haired Castro, wearing a white windbreaker and green trousers, sitting, standing, smiling and gesticulating during the interview. A few pictures showed him wearing a floppy, wide-brimmed green camouflage hat. They were the first glimpse of Castro since he had appeared in early July in videos with his friend Chávez, when the latter received treatment for cancer in Cuba. Castro, the leader of Cuba’s 1959 revolution, ruled the Caribbean island for nearly half a century before handing over the Cuban presidency in 2008 to his younger brother Raúl, because of ill health. Fidel Castro had last appeared in public at a Communist party congress in mid-April and has not written any of his once-plentiful Reflexiones , or opinion columns, published by state media, since 3 July. On Thursday, the president of the Cuban parliament, Ricardo Alarcón, told reporters Castro was doing well. “It’s my understanding that he is in perfect conditions of health. Mariela recently said he is alive and kicking, which is very good,” Alarcón said, referring to Mariela Castro, niece of Fidel Castro and daughter of Raúl Castro. Fidel Castro’s absence had provoked a flood of unconfirmed speculation in the past few weeks on social media site Twitter, where repeated reports said he had died or was near death. The frenzy of rumours increased after an anti-Chávez political columnist in the Venezuelan daily El Universal wrote on 30 August that the veteran Cuban revolutionary’s shaky health had become “complicated” and that he was being given intensive care treatment at his home in Havana. Over the last two decades, rumours of Castro’s death have often surfaced, only to be disproved time and again by the appearance of the enduring comandante. “Fidel said long ago that the day he dies nobody is going to believe it, because they have killed him so many times, to no avail,” Alarcón said. Fidel Castro Cuba guardian.co.uk
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A major power outage knocked out electricity to up to 5 million people in California, Arizona and Mexico, bringing San Diego and Tijuana to a standstill A major power outage knocked out electricity to up to 5 million people in California, Arizona and Mexico on Thursday, bringing San Diego and Tijuana to a standstill and leaving people sweltering in the late-summer heat in the surrounding desert. Two nuclear reactors were offline after losing electricity, but officials said there was no danger to the public or workers. San Diego bore the brunt of the blackout that started shortly before 4pm, most of the eighth-largest US city was darkened. All outgoing flights from San Diego’s Lindbergh Field were grounded and police stations were using generators to accept emergency calls across the area. Parts of Orange County regained power on Thursday evening, but officials said most people would remain in the dark through the night. The outage was likely caused by an employee removing a piece of monitoring equipment that was causing problems at a power substation in southwest Arizona, officials said. The power loss should have been limited to the Yuma, Arizona, area. The power company, Arizona Public Service, was investigating why the outage wasn’t contained. “This was not a deliberate act. The employee was just switching out a piece of equipment that was problematic,” said Dan Froetscher, a vice president at APS. Homes and businesses were darkened from southern parts of Orange County to San Diego to Yuma. It also affected cities south of the border across much of the state of northern Baja. Border officials said crossings into California are open. “It feels like you’re in an oven and you can’t escape,” said Rosa Maria Gonzales, a spokeswoman with the Imperial Irrigation District in California’s sizzling eastern desert. She said it was about 115 degrees when the power went out for about 150,000 of its customers. In Tijuana, people wandered out of their hot homes into the street to cool off while restaurants scrambled for ice to save perishable food. In San Diego, the trolley system that shuttles thousands of commuters every day was shut down and freeways were clogged at rush hour. Trains were stopped in Los Angeles, an Amtrak spokesman said, because there was no power to run the lights, gates, bells and traffic control signals. Police directed traffic at intersections where signals stopped working. When a transmitter line between Arizona and California was disrupted, it cut the flow of imported power into the most southern portion of California, power officials said. The extreme heat in some areas also may have caused some problems with the lines, said Mike Niggli, chief operating officer of San Diego Gas & Electric Co. “Essentially we have two connections from the rest of the world: One of from the north and one is to the east. Both connections are severed,” Niggli said. Niggli said relief was on its way, slowly. He said his 1.4 million customers may be without power until Friday. Two reactors at the San Onofre nuclear power plant went offline at 3:38 p.m. as they are programmed to do when there is a disturbance in the power grid, said Charles Coleman, a spokesman from Southern California Edison. He said there was no danger to the public or to workers there. The outage came more than eight years after a more severe black out in 2003 darkened a large swath of the Northeast and Midwest. More than 50 million people were affected in that outage. In 2001, California’s failed experiment with energy deregulation was widely blamed for six days of rolling blackouts that cut power to more than 3 million customers and shut down refrigerators, ATMs and traffic signals. In Arizona, about half of Yuma County had power again Thursday evening after losing it earlier. Yuma County has about 200,000 residents and a little under half live in the city of Yuma. “It’s 113 degrees right now outside,” said Yuma city spokesman Greg Hyland, who was sitting in the dark, answering calls. United States California Arizona Mexico guardian.co.uk
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FBI says it has received ‘specific but unconfirmed’ intelligence on a possible attack. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has emphasised that the intelligence is uncorroborated New York is to be put into a state of heightened alert over the 9/11 anniversary weekend, with extra bomb sweeps, dog patrols, surveillance of tunnels and bridges and even vehicle check points, following what is being described as “credible but unconfirmed” information that a terrorist attack is being planned on the city or on Washington. Only sketchy details have been given of the nature of the threat and Michael Bloomberg, New York’s mayor, emphasised in a late-night press conference held at city hall that the intelligence of the threat was uncorroborated. But with the world’s eyes on New York ahead of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, nobody is taking any chances. “We know the terrorists regard the anniversary as an opportunity to strike again. We do live in a world where we must take these threats seriously,” Bloomberg said. Warnings of a plot to launch a vehicle bomb attack on New York or Washington, believed to be in the form of a single piece of intelligence, were first received on Wednesday night. President Obama and key intelligence personnel were briefed from Thursday morning. ABC news said intelligence agencies received information that three people had entered the US with the intention of launching a “vehicle-borne” attack on the anniversary of September 11. In a report on its website, ABC said officials believed the suspected attackers began their journey in Afghanistan, and may have passed through Iran. Janice Fedarcyk, assistant director of the FBI in New York, said that intelligence obtained during the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden at Abbottabad in Pakistan in May had shown that al-Qaida had an interest in important dates and anniversaries such as 9/11. She said she expected more intelligence to come in over the next few days but stressed that “sometimes this reporting is credible and warrants intense focus, other times it lacks credibility and is highly unlikely to relate to real plots that are under way.” Despite the lack of certainty on the nature or the seriousness of the latest threat, New Yorkers are likely to notice a dramatic beefing up of security at least until Monday. Ray Kelly, the city’s police chief, said he has ordered increased bag checks on the subway, a 30% increase in police patrols and rapid response teams, added deployment of officers specialising in detecting nuclear radiation and extra sweeps at religious and government buildings. There will also be exercises involving several security agencies at Grand Central, Penn station and Times Square on Friday. The city is well used to the inconveniences and stresses that frequent scares of this sort have brought over the past 10 years. Bloomberg said that the NYPD was also well prepared, having helped to thwart at least 12 possible terror attacks since 9/11. He urged people to be vigilant but defiant. “The best thing we can do to fight terror is to refuse to be intimidated by it. For the past 10 years we have not allowed terrorists to intimidate us, we have lived our lives without fear and we will continue to do so.” The homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, told reporters last Thursday there was “a lot of chatter” around the anniversary of the attacks but there was no information about a specific threat. Security measures around the US, including in New York and Washington, have been enhanced in the weeks leading to the anniversary on Sunday. United States New York Global terrorism Washington DC September 11 2001 Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk
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Three people have entered US intending to launch attack on New York or Washington on anniversary of 9/11, according to reports US officials have received “credible but unconfirmed” intelligence that a terrorist attack is being planned for New York or Washington on the anniversary of 9/11. Associated Press reported a counter-terrorism official as saying the intelligence had been under investigation since it was received late on Wednesday night. ABC news said intelligence agencies received information that three people had entered the US with the intention of launching a “vehicle-borne” attack on the anniversary of September 11. The mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, announced a press conference for 9.30pm ET (2.30am BST) with the city’s police commissioner, Ray Kelly, and a senior FBI official. In a report on its website, ABC said officials believed the suspected attackers began their journey in Afghanistan, and may have passed through Iran. AP said officials would not say specifically what is being targeted in New York or Washington, nor the timing of a potential attack. A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the terror alert had not been raised because of the threat. AP said that, according to its source, the threat came in a single piece of information. A White House official said President Barack Obama was briefed on Thursday morning. Matt Chandler, a spokesman for the homeland security department, said in a statement: “As we know from the intelligence gathered from the Osama bin Laden raid, al-Qaida has shown an interest in important dates and anniversaries, such as 9/11. In this instance, it’s accurate that there is specific, credible but unconfirmed threat information. “As we always do before important dates like the anniversary of 9/11, we will undoubtedly get more reporting in the coming days. “Sometimes this reporting is credible and warrants intense focus, other times it lacks credibility and is highly unlikely to be reflective of real plots under way. Regardless, we take all threat reporting seriously, and we have taken, and will continue to take all steps necessary to mitigate any threats that arise. ‘We continue to ask the American people to remain vigilant as we head into the weekend.” The homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, told reporters last Thursday there was “a lot of chatter” around the anniversary of the attacks but there was no information about a specific threat. Security measures around the US, including in New York and Washington, have been enhanced in the weeks leading to the anniversary on Sunday. Global terrorism United States New York Washington DC CIA September 11 2001 guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Andrea Mitchell Falsely Accuses Boehner of Being ‘Disrespectful’ to Obama
September 8, 2011 No Comment
Apparently the media civility police have become so sensitive to any slight of President Obama that MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell actually invented one such controversy out of thin air during her 1 p.m. ET hour show on Thursday. [ Audio available here ] Speaking to Obama advisor Melody Barnes, Mitchell declared: “John Boehner today just slammed the President and said, you know, that the American people shouldn't be forced to watch some politician they don't want to listen to and frankly, most of them would rather watch a football game. Is that disrespectful?”
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