London Terror Raid Cop Rewarded By Queen

The demonstration took place on the second anniversary of the killing of Ricky Bishop, a Black man, while in police custody and after a recent inquiry that whitewashed the cops.

A similar protest of 500 people took place November 15 in Birmingham,
England, to condemn the killing of Mikey Powell, another Black man who died while under arrest in the early hours of September 8.

"We are calling for the police officers that were involved to be charged," organizers of the Brixton march said in the flyer publicizing the action. "We are calling for an independent and external inquiry into Black deaths in custody."

Protesters braved a pouring rain and marched through Brixton High Street to the location where Bishop had been stopped and arrested by the police on Nov. 22, 2001. Others joined the protest as campaigners drew bystanders to march towards the Brixton cop station, where Bishop had died four hours after his arrest.

"We are here today to make everyone aware that we can fight for justice," Doreen Bishop, Ricky Bishop's mother, told protesters. "We need to build a movement to stop police brutality. If it takes the rest of my life that's what I'll do."

After a recent inquest into Bishop's death, the coroner concluded that he had died from "misadventure," a verdict which exonerates the cops. According to accounts by witnesses and his family, however, Ricky Bishop was stopped, arrested, and taken to Brixton police station, where he was assaulted and brutalized by police officers.

"Two police officers held Ricky to the ground whilst he was having a heart attack," Rhonda Bishop, Ricky Bishop's sister, told the Militant in an interview. "Only then did they go and call for a paramedic." None of the eight police officers involved in this killing have been suspended or prosecuted. They remain on active duty. Doreen Bishop said Ricky's family and their supporters are now looking into initiating private prosecution against these officers, as criminal prosecution is excluded due to the costs of such a trial.

"Ricky was taken to Brixton police station, assaulted and brutalized, then drugs pushed into his mouth," said the flyer publicizing the November 22 action. "The police officers involved in this crime then colluded together to cover up the violent assault. The inquest (which took place recently) was very misleading as vital evidence was withheld by the Metropolitan Police. The jury was only given a choice of 3 verdicts: death by misadventure, narrative, and an open verdict." The latter two are methods of arriving at a verdict without assigning blame to anyone.

Rupert Sylvester, father of Roger Sylvester, who was also killed in police custody, spoke at the rally. "We're here to support the Bishop family," he said. "We were in Birmingham last week to support the Powell family. Wherever there is some action, be it Brixton or Timbuktu, we will be there."

In October the inquest into the death of Roger Sylvester returned a verdict of unlawful killing. Eight cops involved were suspended as a result. Sylvester had been arrested at his home Jan. 11, 1999. He died seven days later, after being held by force by six to eight police officers for over 20 minutes, causing him to stop breathing.

The Sylvester family joined the Powell family and hundreds of others at the Birmingham protest November 15 around the death in police custody of Mikey Powell. Protesters there also demanded prosecution of the officers involved. The Police Complaints Authority said that Powell was hit by a police vehicle and later collapsed while in police custody and died. An investigation has been launched into Powell's death and an inquest is expected to begin in December.

Family members and other supporters of those who died in police custody, in prison, or while under psychiatric care attended a national demonstration organized by the United Family and Friends Campaign (UFFC) in Trafalgar Square on October 25. They then marched to Downing Street to hand a letter to British prime minister Anthony Blair demanding prosecution of those responsible for these deaths.

Celius Victor, a UFFC organizer, said in an interview at the Brixton march, "Inquests tell us what we already know-we want accountability." Referring to a government campaign to deal with racism in the police force by recruiting more Black police officers, Victor said, "It makes no difference: whether Black or white, police officers are trained to act in a certain way."

The UFFC campaign demands that "custodial institutions be made accountable to the communities that they serve and criminal charges brought against the officers and staff that are responsible."
 

Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com | March 8 2006

The Association of Chief Police Officers in Britain has concluded in its inquiry that the shoot to kill policy which was carried out in the murder of Jean Charles de Menezes is acceptable and should not be altered. Since de Menezes' behavior gave no sign whatsoever that he was a potential suicide bomber, this is a strong statement of intent.

Leaked photographic and police evidence of de Menezes' appearance and actions on the day of July 22 confirm that no police officer with an ounce of common sense would suspect de Menezes to be a suicide bomber.

This means that de Menezes was directly targeted, tracked and gunned down for another reason.

What that reason may be remains subject to speculation. His work as a freelance electrician could be connected to the original explanation that the bombs that ripped through three underground stations were the result of electrical surges. De Menezes could have been the '5th bomber' - set up by British intelligence as a patsy like the other four, but changed his mind and escaped when he realized what was unfolding. That knowledge would have been more than enough to mandate his assassination, as he could have blown the whistle on the entire inside job.

There can be little doubt that the evidence proving that the police knew de Menezes was no suicide bomber was deliberately leaked to send a very clear threat to the British people. The government can order targeted assassinations on the streets of Britain at any time. Stop asking questions, shut up and behave yourselves.

Leaked photos from the police investigation directly contradicted suspicious early eyewitness testimony, which was later connected to the police itself, saying that de Menezes was wearing a heavy jacket with wires trailing from it. De Menezes was wearing a light denim jacket and there were no wires to be seen.

Original reports that de Menezes was running through the station and had vaulted barriers were proven to be fraudulent by CCTV footage which showed de Menezes walking at a casual pace, picking up a free newspaper, and passing through the barriers normally.

This CCTV footage was originally said to be missing due to a fault according to the Metropolitan Police. After the London Underground went public to say that there was no fault and that the footage existed, the police had to change their story and admit that the footage did exist. This was a blatant attempt to hide the fact that de Menezes' behavior aroused no suspicion.

De Menezes was shot at least eight times, seven in the head. The police certainly wanted to make sure that he was dead.

Did they want to make sure he was dead because he was about to detonate a bomb? The officers who shot De Menezes KNEW he wasn't a threat at the time they accosted him.

A police source said: "There is no way those three guys would have been on the train carriage with him [de Menezes] if they believed he was carrying a bomb. Nothing he did gave the surveillance team the impression that he was carrying a device.''

Despite the fact that all the evidence points to a monumental cover-up, I have no doubt that the ongoing Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation of the shooting, just like Lord Stevens' phony Diana inquiry, will absolve the Metropolitan Police and Ian Blair of all blame and re-affirm its support of the shoot to kill policy.

Let's play devil's advocate and say that there was no cover-up, that the shooting was just a botched job as a result of incompetence. Then why has nobody been fired? Why is the Association of Chief Police Officers still backing the shoot to kill policy? They are making a statement.

We are the bosses, we are in control. We can carry out targeted assassinations on British soil and there's not a damn thing you can do about it apart from sit down and shut up. Otherwise you just might become the next target of her Majesty's secret death squad.

See also: Police chiefs back tactics on suicide bomb suspects

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Menezes police officer promoted

Read full story HERE

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Read full story HERE...

Comment: Khan has the perfect record to be employed as a government informant, his past career line was clearly all about empathizing with disaffected groups and being an educational mentor. This is the latest in a long line of evidence of government involvement. The Intelligence services had at least two of the bombers under surveillance months in advance and the so called "mastermind" was working for MI6. Was Khan the perfect patsie?

His raging hatred for the West, in a video justifying the London suicide bombings, has made him seem the most transparent of the four men who detonated bombs in rucksacks and killed 52 others on 7 July.

But Mohammad Sidique Khan's extraordinary and rapid transition from law-abiding citizen to terrorist is revealed in documents showing he used to work for the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), helping promote British firms overseas. He also helped Leeds police deal with confrontations between rival gangs of youths.

Leeds education authority's personnel file on Khan, obtained by The Independent under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act, shows details of his work for the DTI's export arm in Yorkshire in the mid-1990s, when Britain was seeking more trade links with Asia.

But the investigations reveal that Khan lied on his CV about the seniority of his role at the DTI, which escaped the Leeds primary school that hired him on the basis of it. But he did help in the government-led drive to get more trade missions off the ground between 1995 and 1996.

Khan prospered as a primary school learning mentor, and his file provides the first real sense of the charisma and empathy with young people which enabled him ultimately to recruit fellow suicide bombers Shahzad Tanweer and Hasib Hussain. But it also charts his sharp decline from 2003. Prolonged absences from school - when it is now known he was visiting Pakistan - were followed by an unexpected failure to return from extended sick leave in 2004.

He was told his pay was being stopped and he sent an undated typewritten letter to the headteacher, Sarah Balfour. "I'm sorry I've not been in touch for a while," he wrote. "A lot has happened in the last few months. There is no definite timeframe to when I will return. We are returning next week. Unfortunately this is a letter of resignation from my post."

Before Khan took his job with the DTI in August 1995, he had been on a trip to the US. Friends said he came back with cowboy boots and a leather jacket, telling his contemporaries he wanted a career in the US. He became an administration assistant with the Benefits Agency, which he said was dull. The DTI offered better prospects.

John Major's Conservative government had just published its Competitiveness White Paper which committed the DTI to boost overseas trade, in Asia among other places. Khan's role did not include "monitoring security" for visits by exporters to overseas British embassies, as he said on his CV. But his fluency in Urdu and Punjabi may have made him optimistic about his prospects of moving beyond his relatively lowly position.

Khan left to study at Leeds Metropolitan University in September 1996, and took a 2:2 in business management, his file reveals. He clearly believed his vocation lay in steering disenchanted youths away from crime. He took paid youth and community work from Leeds council while finishing his degree and juggled a job at a petrol station in Ilkley, West Yorkshire.

The youth work was for a Saturday club affiliated to Leeds Community School, itself linked to the Iqra bookstore where police later found DVDs glorifying terrorism.

He wrote on his school job application: "As a youth worker I have had extensive experience in managing difficult children. I was approached by a member of the community who told me in confidence [that] his younger brother had been suspended from school and his parents were extremely upset. I began ... a discussion with the child [and] met his parents at their house and the situation was [resolved]."

Khan also detailed a "potentially dangerous" confrontation at a school. "I have an excellent rapport with the youth [community] so ... I targeted the ringleaders and spoke to them, calming them down and offering sympathy as well as empathy.

"We then approached the teachers and as a large group casually walked together up Beeston Hill which [defused] the situation." Associates of Khan have confirmed his role as an interlocutor between police and youths.

Khan also described his interventions in the case of a young heroin addict, his help in getting excluded children back into school and how he arbitrated in a dispute between rival gangs. "I feel patience and understanding comes through experience and maturity," he wrote. "I constantly analyse society and speak to people regarding current issues. I consider my ability to empathise with others and listen to their problems as well as offer viable solutions to be one of my strong assists."

Hillside Primary was obviously impressed, giving Khan several extensions to an initial £200-a-month contract. He also drove the school minibus.

Mrs Balfour, wife of the Labour MP John Trickett, valued him and allowed him paid special leave. "He was great with the children and they all loved him," she has said. "He did so much for them, helping and supporting them and running extra clubs and activities."

Khan's handwritten notes, which seem to be a part of his appraisals, reveal more. "I'm energetic, I [look for a] way of bettering things," he wrote. "Can build up trust and rapport with disillusion, understanding and empathy."

Khan clearly became disenchanted with the modest form of Islam practised by his father, Tika Khan, and stepmother, Mamida Begum. But in 1999 he had started frequenting the mosque. His file shows the process to radical Islam had started by 2002, a year after he joined Hillside. He began taking leave on religious grounds.

He took more than two weeks in January/February 2002 for "Muslim religious obligation, Haj, pilgrimage" and a similar period for "religious observances" the next year. From November 2003, he took 18 months, costing his employer an estimated £6,000.

But the sharp decline came in September 2004 when he was signed off sick, first for three days, then a further 10 days, a further three weeks and another three weeks. He is believed to have cited depression.

On 9 December 2004, after 10 weeks of absence began, Mrs Balfour told her personnel department in an "urgent" memo: "Sidique Khan should have provided the school with a sick note from November 22. Despite several letters reminding him of the school's sickness-reporting procedures he has failed to provide a sick-note. I request you to stop [his] pay."

Three days before, Khan had flown to Pakistan via Istanbul with Shahzad Tanweer. A week later, they took a train to Lahore then Faisalabad, and disappeared, Pakistani security officers said. They surfaced in Britain on 8 February.

MI5 believes they met Muslim extremists during the visit. Khan died, killing seven others, when he detonated his bomb at Edgware Road station on 7 July.

The life of Mohammad Sidique Khan

* October 1974 Born, Leeds

* 1994 Works first for Benefits Agency, then DTI (1995), then learning mentor at Hillside Primary (2001)

* 2001 Upsets father and stepmother by marrying a girl of Indian-Muslim descent, Hasina Patel, whom he met at Leeds Metropolitan University

* 2003 Establishes gyms in Beeston, radicalising young British Muslims. Periods of absence from Hillside

* July 2004 Introduced to government minister Hilary Benn during school tour of Commons. Is also subject of routine MI5 threat assessment after his name crops up in an investigation; check not pursued

* September 2004 Begins long sick leave

* November 2004 Travels to Pakistan with Tanweer to prepare for London attacks

* July 2005 Bombs Edgware Road Tube station